Chapter 35 Fox
Fox
Iget up from the bed and pad around the house, hunting. Cordelia has fallen asleep in the lounge again. I close her laptop and pick her up, bringing her into the nest where Sebastian and Katsu, in their sleep, turn towards her, enveloping our omega in hard muscles and long limbs.
The thrum that starts in one is echoed by the other two in moments.
We purr in our sleep. I did not know that. So damn adorable.
For one wildly tempting moment, I almost climb back into the nest and go back to sleep with my pack. Almost.
It’s been four weeks since Light Knot Night, and we have spent every single day together.
Every moment. I know the rhythms of my omega and our alphas, when they get up, when they are a little bit cranky in the morning because they need coffee.
I know that Sebastian gets this surge of creative energy around 9 pm and sits with his tablet drawing while he chews on his bottom lip.
Katsu has always been an early riser, but now he’s sleeping later, as if spending time in the nest with our pack is changing him.
I make coffee and start breakfast, bacon and eggs, because it’s a special day.
But there’s something I need to do first, so I grab my phone and coffee and look out the kitchen window, waiting while the phone rings. I wander out onto the veranda and stare at the beautiful ocean. Winter is almost over; I look forward to the next season of our life. It excites me.
“Son!”
I almost smile as the familiar bark of sound comes through loud and clear.
“When are you coming home?”
It’s not that I’ve been putting this conversation off; it’s just that it hasn’t been important. Somewhere between stepping into Sunshine Cove and this moment, I seemed to have stopped caring what he wants.
“I’m not coming back.” I can’t bear to call the place home. It wasn’t. It was a place with pressure and expectations and this constant demand that I be socially acceptable and that I could never meet the standards.
“You’re not…but the five-year plan!” My father says, outraged. “What about your five-year plan?”
“Father, I don’t really like the five-year plan. It doesn’t work for me. I have a new plan and a new life.”
“Doing what?” he roars.
“Well, I have a pack and an omega and a town full of people I love, and I don’t think it matters what I end up doing, as long as I’m happy.”
He continues ranting, but I just smile, listening to him rage. After letting him go for five minutes, I cut into his tirade.
“Hey, Father? I have to go, the bacon’s burning.”
“No, wait, we’re not through speaking about this.”
“Dad, it will be fine. I’m happy, let me be happy. I’m never going to be the son you wanted. But I can be the alpha I dreamed of.”
I hang up, and before I can turn around, Katsu presses into my back, hugging me hard.
“I’m so proud of you.”
I pat his arms and then struggle free, only to find Sebastian barefoot and shirtless, padding around the kitchen, dishing up my bacon and eggs.
As soon as I turn a corner, she’s there, staring at me.
Her hair is a mess, her eyes are big and wary, and she looks adorable in her pink slippers and an oversized fluffy dressing gown.
“Are you okay?”
Of course, she would ask. “I am. I’m perfect.”
She visibly relaxes, but I know why. Today is the day. Today is bonding day. We’ve chosen it specifically, and nothing is going to go wrong.
“Hungry?” I murmur.
She smiles. “I could have a bite.”
Everything is going wrong.
I want to yank out my hair and scream, but that would be a waste of time. I huff in pure frustration as I watch the Sunshine Omegas, consisting of Asher, Felix, and Sofia, drag Cordelia out of our house and down to some secret, urgent meeting.
“Well, our plans have been thwarted. Any ideas now?” I ask Sebastian and Katsu.
“Don’t worry, I’m on it,” Sebastian says and lifts his phone up close to his face. “Mum, the Sunshine omegas just took Cordelia.”
“And I’m supposed to care why?” she says with a distinct lack of interest.
“Well, today was going to be our bonding day-”
“Don’t you worry, Son, I will have your omega back to you within an hour.”
The phone clicks off, and Sebastian gives Katsu and myself a smug smile
Julia shrieks from her house.
“What the hell?” Katsu hisses.
Sebastian’s smug smile drops and turns to one of horror. “Oh, a miscalculation. Big miscalculation.”
He steps behind Katsu and cringes.
“Cordie’s going to kill me.”
I track the sudden pouring of people from the Sol and Lake house and step back. “What did you do?”
“Hunt them down! Bring them back. No stone unturned. Pull out all the blackmail on Devon, Mack, and Elijah. Grandma, I need you to go cause a massive drama at the gallery. And let everyone know that Asher’s dolphin is here.”
“Oh. My. God. We’re dead. Cordelia is going to kill us,” Sebastian whispers in horror.
“Why? What’s going on?” I ask, puzzled.
“The whole of Sunshine Cove is going to know we’re bonding today within the next thirty minutes. The whole district in an hour.”
I nod my head, suddenly feeling sick. Yep, this is bad.
Sure enough, within thirty minutes, Cordelia is shoved out of a car. Her wrists are tied in front of her with a blue scarf.
“Get in that house and do some biting!” Sofia shouts out the window as the car squeals up the road.
My face flames. Her face flames. I think the collective humiliation level could keep the town in heating for a year.
Cordelia stands in the street, staring after the car, before slowly turning to face us. Her expression says it all.
We’re in so much trouble.
I dart forward and undo the bindings holding her captive.
“Whose bright idea was that?”
Sebastian clears his throat, and then again. “I didn’t think it through.”
“They will be timing us and wanting to see the bites. Everyone will be talking about this from now until eternity,” she says with absolutely no inflection in her voice.
“I’m sorry,” he whimpers.
I open my mouth, but she cuts a glare at me. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
“Well,” Katsu says, “I was wondering why you didn’t tell them no.”
Cordelia’s mouth opens and closes. “I actually did. I was on the way home.”
“Oh.”
Well, now I feel a hundred times worse.
The two of them stare at each other for a long minute.
“My family is important to me, but you are family now, too. As soon as I realised it wasn’t life and death, I came back because this moment, this thing we’re about to share. It’s everything.”
Katsu opens his arms, and she steps into them.
“And now everything is back on track,” I say hopefully.
“Don’t jinx us!” Sebastian growls.
“Hey, Lake, your horse is loose,” Harry calls out as he walks down the street.
“I’ve got it!” Four voices call out, and I blink as Imogen, Franco, Lorelei, and Julia explode from their respective houses and rush down the street.
“Wow, I feel a bit like a performing monkey,” I whisper.
Cordelia snickers. “Shall we go inside? You’re lucky there are no cameras.”
“If he gets performance anxiety, I’m blaming all of you!” Sebastian shouts.
Dad comes out with a cup and sits on the Sol porch swing.
“By all means, Son, give us something else to talk about. We can make a story about it to tell the grandkids.”
“We’re not there yet, Dad, give us a minute,” Sebastian calls back.
“Shh, it’s okay, Son. We’re here if you need pointers.”
Sebastian huffs, his face burgundy.
“Do you think maybe a house on a different street might be a good idea?” I suggest.
“Good luck moving now,” Sebastian mutters. “Last time I moved across the street, there were tears and tantrums for days.”
My skin is crawling as I back towards the front door and slip inside.
“I feel like a goldfish.”
“Oh, no, we are Olympic performers. Aim for gold!” Sebastian snaps bitterly.
Cordelia takes one look at my face and bursts out laughing.
I glare at her. “This is not the most ideal way to get hard.”
She slips out of her coat, then her top, and by the time she’s peeling off her leggings, I’ve forgotten all about everyone but her.
“You don’t seem to be having a problem,” she teases.
“Yeah, no problem,” I murmur and step towards her as she reaches for me.
She unzips my pants and shoves them off while I shrug out of my shirt.
“I want your bond. I want your knot. My Fox, I want you.”
My heart slams in my chest, harder and faster. “I’ve been dreaming about this for weeks,” I murmur against her mouth.
I pick her up and walk until we hit a wall. I’m so distracted by the way she writhes against me, her breasts pressing against my chest, her tongue in my mouth. Her fingers gripping and pulling me closer, as if us being two people is unacceptable.
I feel it, too.
I reach down between us, sliding my hand through her slick folds.
“I love how wet you get for me, Omega.”
“I can’t help it,” she whines.
I shove three fingers into her. She arches her back, her thighs tightening around my hips, and her fingers curling in my hair and pulling hard.
“Oh, you like that, don’t you?”
“Love it,” she purrs.
I reluctantly pull out of her and hold my fingers to her mouth. She opens obediently and sucks at them, whining. I rock against her, grinding my cock and balls into her wet pussy as I watch obsessively as she devours my fingers.
“More,” she sobs and continues suckling.
“You look so good right now, and you feel better. I’m going to fuck you, hard and fast. Knot you and bond you. You’re going to be mine forever.”
She cries out, tossing her head as I pull my fingers free of her mouth and line my cock up, pushing it in in one smooth move. She inhales, her cry choking off, and slams her mouth to mine.
I fuck her hard and fast.
Pinning her against the wall, my mouth at her throat, sucking on the spot I’m going to bite, preparing and teasing it. My scent, the sage, lemon, and browned butter mixes with her azaleas, cold winter air, and rain. The combination is heady, but when I smell my alphas, I go feral.
She screams when I knot her, begging me for more. Words that lost shape and became blended versions of what she means, but I’m beyond words, beyond thought.
I need this. My teeth sink into that spot, she sobs, pulling me closer, her pussy fluttering and clenching around me.
I pull away, blood in my mouth, but when her teeth find my skin and that half-formed bond blooms into life, exploding my world and bringing her into it, I come so hard that I have to lean against her and the wall to keep us upright.
“Love you, I love you, I love you,” I say to her over and over.
She clutches at me, weeping softly. “It’s so beautiful. I can feel you in me. I can feel how you feel about me. Fox, I love you, too.”
I kiss her and then lift her and stagger us to the couch. Half an hour later, I feel the moment she bonds with Sebastian. He holds her in his arms, and Katsu and I give them their space to express their emotions.
Two hours after that, Katsu bonds her, and our pack bonds are complete.
We celebrate by withdrawing to the nest with Timtams and a bottle of white wine that Katsu has been keeping for a rainy day.
We’re a messy tangle of limbs and happiness.
“Are you going to put that in the next Lynn Marino book?” Sebastian asks.
She hesitates.
“I’d love to draw that scene of Fox fucking you against the wall, it was hot.”
I blink and try to imagine it, but I can’t.
“We’ll need to practice,” Katsu says evenly. “Lots of practice.”
I whip my head towards Katsu and watch him with something akin to awe. “I can do that.”
Sebastian growls and rolls on me. “There are lots of scenes we need to practice.”
Cordelia gets up, her cute ass jiggling as she wanders out of the nest.
“Where are you going?” I protest.
“To get a pen and paper, I want to make notes. I’ve been thinking about the title of book five.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Pack Sweet Pack.”
I stroke Sebastian’s back as I watch her. “I think that sounds perfect.”
She smiles, and the world shifts, just like it did the first time I saw her. Our story has yet to be written, but I can’t wait to live every word.