Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Girl, go,” Aimee says to me as I’m helping Ian watch the omegas as they practice their casting. “We can all smell it on you. Your heat’s approaching, and you should be with your pack, not here with us.”
I shoot her a peevish glare. “I’m going to work until I can’t anymore, and I still have days before my heat.”
“You need what none of us can give you,” the blonde omega singsongs.
She means knots—and lots of them. I’m looking forward to my summer heat, to reconnecting with my pack, breath to breath and skin to skin, our scents melding into one that’s so perfectly pack.
“Unless you pass your heats like one of us,” Aimee says, scratching at the back of her neck. “I’m due for my first in a year, and I’m pretty nervous. I skipped them back in the collar facility because of all the stress, so I’m sure this one’s going to be a doozy.”
Many of the omegas are in a similar position, having heats for the first time since stress put them on pause.
Finally, they have somewhere safe where they can nest and be cared for—a must for a healthy heat.
Mai’s been helping them through the worst of their heat symptoms with sedatives and pain-relieving spells, but the omegas have also been helping each other.
They use their newfound magic to cool cloths to put on the feverish omegas in heat, soothing the fire coursing through them.
Still, others prefer relative privacy, which I understand.
The only people I want around during my heats is my pack, something most of these omegas lack.
I don’t know if any of them were packed up prior to being trafficked into the collar facility or the Omega Rehabilitation Center, but it’s something most of them don’t talk about much.
Their pasts are too painful to relive, the hopes of reconnecting with their packs too much of a long shot in this climate of war.
“Phew, your scent is strong, Junie,” Cora says, hobbling toward me. “What are you even still doing here? Go get laid. You’ve got the pack for it.”
I narrow my eyes at her, though I’m secretly glad to see her around the other omegas.
The only person I’m not glad to see around the other omegas? Ian.
Something about seeing him working with the omegas chafes in a way it hasn’t before. My own work forgotten, I watch him circulate among them, correcting their spellwork and commending them on jobs well done. It shouldn’t bother me. It really shouldn’t, and yet…
And yet I stomp from the great hall into the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea, glaring into it as it steeps. I snap at anyone who comes close, and they all give me grace I don’t deserve.
Most of all, Ian.
“My darling? You’re troubled. What is it?
” Ian asks, peering into the kitchen before coming to sit down across from me.
He takes my hands in his, concern in his bright blue eyes.
Of course, he felt my frustration and agony through the bond.
He drops my hand and presses the back of one of his hands to my brow.
“Ah.”
“That’s all you have to say? ‘Ah?’” I snap.
He doesn’t admonish me for it. If anything, he worries more, scooting his chair around the table so he can be close to me.
“Is it the other omegas?” he asks softly.
“No,” I grumble. “Yes. I hate that this is bothering me. You’re my mate, and just their teacher, but I can’t… I can’t help it. I hate seeing them around you right now.”
He stands and presses a kiss to my forehead, each of my cheeks, the tip of my nose and finally my lips, a light kiss that has me wanting—needing—so much more from him. “I’m suspending lessons until after your heat.”
“You shouldn’t,” I say glumly, aware that I’m pouting and hating it. I’m more than secure in my bond with Ian. I know, without any shadow of a doubt, that he would never, ever stray. Never even look at another omega like he looks at me. But my approaching heat has made me…
“You’re territorial right now,” he murmurs, stroking my hair. “If anything, I like it. I like you possessive like this.”
“You do?”
He leans in and whispers in my ear. “It means you’re mine.”
I let out a low whimper at that, suddenly wanting to be alone with my pack, far away from the castle.
“Finish your tea while I suspend lessons for now, then I’m taking you home, my darling. You need to rest before your heat, because I have such plans for you.”
“Ian,” I protest. “You’re winding me up on purpose.”
“Am I?” he asks innocently. “Winding you up?”
I give him a light shove. “You know you are. All right, suspend the lessons. I suspect the omegas will understand; they’ve been teasing me relentlessly.”
Despite my fever and the cramps in my womb, I don’t want to be intimate with my pack yet. I don’t even know what I want as I fuss with my nest over and over, Simon gamely passing me pillows and blankets. Marcus tends to me as he used to, supplying spells, heating pads and snacks.
“Adorable,” Simon murmurs. “You see how much he cares for you?”
I glare at him, not wanting to touch the subject of Marcus with my heat so close. I’ve already decided that Marcus won’t be part of my summer heat, that whatever we’re forming is too new, too raw.
Simon kisses my cheek. “Back in a minute, kit-kat. I’ve got laundry to steal.”
He disappears before I can chuck the pillow I’m holding at him, so used to my pre-heat orneriness that it doesn’t faze him in the least. I expect him to return with Cassian’s sweatpants, but instead he pulls a henley over my head and helps me into it, rolling the long sleeves up to my wrists.
Wintry pine engulfs me, and something in me settles.
It settles even further when Simon drags me down to my imperfect nest and pulls me into his arms, holding me close.
Marcus isn’t my pack. I shouldn’t feel better in his clothes.
And yet, I always have. How many times has he tugged his fisherman sweater over my head and rolled the cuffs up just like Simon did?
It makes me grumpy, and even grumpier that Simon knew exactly what I needed.
He’s been a step ahead of me about Marcus the entire damn time.
I’m not so lost to my mood that I can’t appreciate it.
My men take the best care of me, from my mates to Simon to Marcus.
I curl tight to Simon as he cards his fingers through my hair, lightly massaging my scalp. I shudder at the sensation and relax into my beta love, content with the scent of winter winds and pine in my nose.
When I still haven’t succumbed to my heat the next day, Luca drags me out of my nest and onto the back of his bike.
This time, Ian and Marcus follow us, Ian in his sleek coupe, Marcus in the SUV.
I let the wind whipping by cool my heated skin while I drag Luca’s wine-and-cherries scent into my nose.
Mingled with the scent of leather, the bike purring beneath us, it feels like coming home.
We pull into a gravel lot, the waves lapping at the beach below us, and I let out a contented sigh. The sea air makes me think of Cassian, as it always will, though the scent of the breeze off the harbor has nothing on his scent.
Luca helps me off his bike just as Ian pulls in, Marcus not far behind. My bad boy alpha helps me out of my helmet and hooks it on one of the handlebars of the bike, the red roses on the sides shining in the sun.
It’s a hot, nearly summer day on Deer Island, and my fever only heats me more. Part of me wants to whine and go back to the air-conditioned pack house, but I take Luca’s hand as we start down the sandy, winding path towards the beach.
The lupines are in bloom on the hills surrounding Northwest Harbor, splashes of blue, purple, and pink painting the hillsides in their summer colors.
Across the harbor, we can see the ferry and other boats coming and going.
Luca kicks off his boots and pulls off his socks the moment we hit the sandy beach, then drops to his knees to help me out of my low tops and socks.
His touch lingers on the insides of my calves, heating my blood.
I groan, tossing my head back, realizing this isn’t a date at all. It’s one long tease.
“Come into the water with us,” Ian says, rolling his pants up to his knees. “It’ll cool you off.”
“You’re joining us?”
Normally Ian would hang back at the beach, sunscreen on his nose and that nose in a book.
He takes my hand to help me over the hot sand. “Of course, I am.”
Luca takes my other hand, pressing against his bite on the thick part of my palm just below my wrist, knowing it’ll make me shiver, knowing it’ll make me want him.
Together, my mates help me wade into the shallows.
I let out a shriek at the cold water lapping at my ankles, nearly jumping back onto the beach, but then the coolness of the water soothes away some of the burgeoning heat inside of me.
We walk the length of the beach in water up to our calves, Luca splashing me and gamely laughing when I kick water back at him. After we’ve made it the length of the beach, we wade in the shallows, letting the water cool my fever.
“Now,” Ian says, a sternness in his voice that nearly makes me perfume. “I think we need to discuss this dress of yours, Juniper, if you can even call it that.”
He’s right. The sundress I’m wearing is barely a dress at all, the ruffle at the bottom covering just the tops of my thighs and my butt.
Luca pulls my close and presses a long, sucking kiss to his bite. “Such a flimsy little dress for our dirty little omega,” he breathes. “Almost like you wanted us to touch you.”
I whine, because that’s exactly what I want. I want to feel their hands on my heated skin.
Ian obliges me, pulling me back against the delicious heat of his body.
Spicy cedar and bright bergamot wrap around me, and I let my head loll back against his shoulder with a low whine.
I can feel his hardness pressing into my ass through the light fabric of my sundress, and I grind back against him.
“I thought this was supposed to be a trip to the beach,” Ian murmurs in my ear, his lips and teeth immediately going for his bite.
I cry out when he nips at it, winding an arm around his neck to hold him close.
He laves his tongue over his bite, and I tilt my head to give him better access. He slides a hand down my waist to my bare thigh, and I moan, needing to feel his hands where I’m most sensitive.
Luca draws closer to me, nipping at the bite on my hand, and between the two of them tending to their bites, I’m ready to combust. Luca glides a hand up my inner thigh, starting at my knee and ending just before where I need him most. I part my legs to give him better access, but he doesn’t take it, instead taking my hips and grinding me back against Ian’s hardness.
Luca steps closer, and I reach for him, feeling the heavy, erect weight of him through his jeans.
He groans at the touch and takes my face in his hands, capturing my lips in a kiss that makes my pussy throb with need.
He slips his tongue into my mouth, his piercing rubbing against my tongue, and I perfume for them, right here in the shallows at Northwest Harbor where we were meant to watch the boats come and go as we waded.
“This tiny little dress is killing me, princess,” Luca says, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
I shiver.
“I could slip my hand into your panties, touch you like you’re dying to be touched.”
“Bend you over, tear your panties to the side and take you,” Ian murmurs in my ear. “Saints, there’s so little to this dress that we could hike it over your hips and both claim you, right here at the beach.”
I grind into Luca, ready to let them do anything to me, ready to get caught if that means they’ll touch me. I’m on fire for my two mates, the heat of my haze starting to slip in and pull me under.
“Please,” I beg. “Please touch me.”
Ian pulls my flimsy panties aside and strokes down the cleft of my pussy before slowly pushing a finger inside me. I lean back against him as he pumps his finger in my cunt. “You’re already so wet for us, my darling. Absolutely soaked from a little teasing.”
Luca slips a finger into my panties and circles my clit, and I whine. He strokes me lightly, too lightly to give me the friction I need.
That’s their game, I realize through the haze of my heat. To build me up until I’m drowning in desire and then take me back to my nest to have their way with me.
“Home,” I moan. “I want to go home. I need you both.”
I feel Luca smile against my lips. “Needy little princess. Let’s go.”
I ride with Ian on the way back and his hand never leaves my leg, tracing dizzying circles on my inner thigh at the hem of my dress. When we make it back to the pack house, I fly up into my nest, the sound of their joyous laughter following me.