6. Lincoln
Lincoln
She held my gaze. “Yes,” she said. “I choose this. I choose you both. I want you to help me through the heat.”
Hudson moved behind her this time, settling her back against his chest. I knelt between her thighs. We changed places without speaking because this was how we worked. One of us anchored. One of us moved. One watched the details the other might miss.
Mary noticed. “Do you rehearse this?”
“It’s instinct,” I said.
Hudson’s hand wrapped gently around her throat, not squeezing, just holding her where her pulse beat wild under his fingers. “We will pay attention.”
Mary’s breath hitched. “That’s worse because you’ll learn everything I like and you’ll be hard to walk away from.”
“You’re in charge, omega,” I said. “We’re at your mercy.”
I kissed her. She tasted like whiskey, the orange juice she drank, and the other scents she brought to the room. She kissed like she argued, with total commitment and a desperate need not to lose first. I loved it. I loved the fight in her, the softness underneath it.
I held my dick as I guided myself to her and paused.
“Take her slowly,” Hudson said near her ear. “Just—”
“I swear,” Mary said, “if either of you says ‘breathe’ again, I will make this weird.”
I smiled against her mouth. “Then don’t breathe.”
She laughed, and I pushed inside her on that laugh. The sound broke into a moan.
Heat closed around me, slick and tight, and for a moment the room narrowed to the brutal perfection of being inside her while Hudson held her steady against him. I stopped halfway because she was shaking.
“Too much?”
“No.”
“Mary.”
“No, it’s not too much. It’s just…” Her fingers dug into my shoulders. “It’s you.”
I closed my eyes.
Hudson pressed his mouth to her hair. “We’ve got you.”
She nodded once.
I pushed the rest of the way inside her.
Her body took me like it had been waiting. The pain in her scent changed, not gone but different. Violet now wound around us. Hudson groaned low behind her as if he felt every inch of it through our shared air.
“You’ve gone very quiet,” I said.
“I’m concentrating.”
“On what?”
“Not saying anything I’ll have to live with afterward.”
Hudson’s mouth moved against her shoulder. “Too late. You said you chose us.”
“I said nothing of the kind.”
“You said it twice.”
“That was for my heat.”
I listened to her body instead of her impatience, building the rhythm until her complaints broke apart into gasps. Hudson kissed her neck, her jaw, the side of her face. His hands stayed busy and careful, one on her breast, one low on her belly, grounding her as I drove into her.
“Lincoln. Faster.”
I wanted to knot her. God, I wanted it.
The base of my cock thickened, my body pushing toward the lock her heat was begging for. I kept my pace controlled, jaw clenched, waiting for the question that had to come from her.
Mary’s hips rolled up to meet me, trying to force the depth she wanted.
Hudson’s arm banded tighter across her ribs, pinning her so she could only take what I gave.
His other hand slid lower, fingers spreading over the place where we were joined, feeling every slow thrust, every wet drag of me pulling almost free before I sank back in.
“Fuck,” he muttered against her temple. “She’s soaking you.”
“I know.” My voice came out rough. “Feel that, Mary? How tight you get every time I bottom out?”
She made a broken sound that wasn’t quite a word. Her nails scored down my back. Hudson caught one of her wrists and guided it lower, pressing her own fingers to the stretch of her entrance around me so she could feel it too.
“That’s what you do to him,” he said, low and deliberate. “That’s what your heat does to both of us.”
She moaned and I fucked her deeper then, controlled, but harder.
The wet slap of it loud in the quiet room.
Each time I drove in I ground against her, letting the swollen base of my cock kiss her entrance without locking, teasing the knot she was already starting to push back for.
Her scent spiked, sweet and desperate, and Hudson’s answering growl vibrated against her spine.
“Ask me,” I said against her mouth.
She shook her head, stubborn even now, even with her legs trembling around my hips and her body trying to pull me deeper.
Hudson’s fingers found her clit, two of them slick with her, rubbing in tight circles timed to my thrusts. “Ask him, omega. Or I’ll keep you right here on the edge until your heat makes you beg for both of us to take you together.”
Mary’s laugh cracked into a moan. “You’re both bastards.”
“Alphas.” I snapped my hips harder, once, twice, three times. All deep, punishing strokes that forced a cry out of her. “And you’re still not asking.”
Her free hand fisted in Hudson’s hair behind her. Her eyes were glassy, pupils blown. The fight was still there, but it was starting to fray.
“Lincoln—“
“Yes.”
“If you knot me—“
“When.”
She swallowed hard. Hudson’s hand on her throat tightened just enough to make her pulse jump under his palm.
“When you knot me,” she corrected, voice wrecked, “I want to feel it stretching me. Don’t let yourself deflate until I’m finished.”
That was all I needed. My knot pulsed and I drove into her, breaching her until I was at the hilt. Then the knot swelled, thick and relentless, locking us together with a pressure that made her whole body seize.
Mary’s cry went high and sharp, and Hudson held her through it, murmuring filthy praise against her ear while I ground against her, locked deep, pulsing hard enough that she could feel every throb.
Her walls clenched around the knot like she was trying to milk it, and the first thick pulse of my release hit her so hard her eyes rolled.
Hudson’s fingers worked her clit. He kept her right there, trembling and overstimulated, while I stayed buried to the root, filling her in long, heavy spurts that had no end.
Mary’s scent broke open completely. Violet and heat and pure, wrecked satisfaction.
Hudson groaned like he could taste it.
“That’s it,” he said in her ear, voice dark with want. “Take all of it. Every drop. You’re not walking away from this, Mary. Neither of us is.”
I kissed her through the aftershocks, swallowing the broken sounds she made while the knot held us locked and throbbing. Her body kept fluttering around me, greedy even now.
Hudson’s mouth brushed her ear one more time. “When he softens… I’m going to fill you.”
Mary’s answering whimper was pure surrender.
I didn’t give her time to come down.
The knot was still swollen tight, sealing every pulse of cum deep inside her. I rolled my hips in tiny, grinding circles, while Hudson’s fingers stayed ruthless on her clit.
“Lincoln— It’s too much—“
“No such thing,” I said against her mouth. “You’re going to come on this knot again. Then you’re going to come while Hudson fucks it deeper. We’re putting a baby in you tonight, Mary. That’s what a heat is for.”
Her whole body jerked as a fresh, helpless orgasm ripped through her, and her walls clamped so hard around the knot that I hissed and spilled another thick pulse into her.
Hudson laughed low, never easing up on her clit.
“Feel that?” he murmured. “He’s breeding you. Filling that womb until it’s dripping. Is that what you want to hear, omega?”
“I know this isn’t real, but—“ The protest died when I ground deeper, knot tugging at her stretched entrance. Mary’s head fell back against Hudson’s shoulder, mouth open on a silent cry.
“It’s real,” I said. “Your body’s begging for it. Slick and open and so fucking hungry for our knots and cum. We’re going to keep you knotted, stuffed, shaking until your heat settles with our cum locked inside you.”
“Oh my God,” she whimpered.
Hudson’s free hand slid up to cup her breast, pinching the nipple hard enough to make her jolt. “Look at her, Lincoln. Already so full she’s leaking around your knot. Messy little omega.”
I watched the way her stomach fluttered with every aftershock, the way her thighs trembled around my hips. The base of my cock was still locked solid, and every tiny movement forced more of my release against the deepest part of her.
“Again,” I ordered.
“I can’t—“
Hudson’s fingers sped up. “You can. You’re going to. We’re not stopping until you’re sobbing and dripping and so overstimulated you can’t remember how to argue.”
Mary broke on the next orgasm. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. I kissed them away while the knot finally began to soften. It was just enough that I could ease out and a thick rush of cum rippled down her thighs.
Mary made a broken sound at the sudden emptiness but Hudson didn’t give her a second of relief. He lifted her just enough, lined up, and sank into her in one smooth, deep thrust. Mary’s scream was pure overstimulated ecstasy. Her nails dug into my shoulders hard enough to draw blood.
“Alpha—“
“I know, baby.” His voice was wrecked already. “I can feel how wet you are? That’s Lincoln’s cum I’m fucking into you. We’re going to breed you properly.”
I stayed right there, kissing her open mouth, pinching her clit between two fingers, not letting her come down for even a second. Every time she tried to twist away from the intensity, Hudson’s arm locked tighter across her ribs and I held her thighs open wider.
“Too much,” she sobbed, even as her hips rolled to meet every thrust. “It’s too much—I can’t—“
“Are you telling me to stop?” Hudson asked.
Maybe we were already getting carried away. I nodded once to him.
Mary noticed. “Yes… No. I want this.”
“You do,” Hudson whispered against her neck. “You’re going to come again with me inside you. Then you’re going to take my knot too. And then you can rest.”
I rubbed her clit in tight, merciless circles timed to his thrusts. “Come, Mary. Come for us.”
She shattered as an orgasm hit her so hard her whole body locked, then convulsed. Hudson growled and drove in deep, holding her steady as he locked his knot inside her, and then he came with a roar.
Mary cried out, overstimulated past the point of coherence, soft broken whimpers spilling out of her with every throb of his knot.
I kept touching her through it. Kept her clit sensitive and aching.
Kept whispering against her mouth. “That’s our good girl. You can rest now, but we’re not done, Mary. Not until this heat is satisfied and you’re so full of our cum it’s dripping down your thighs for days.”
Hudson’s hand found mine over her belly, pressing down just above where he was locked inside her, as if he could feel the fullness.
“Ours,” he said, voice rough with satisfaction. “This heat. This body. Whatever comes of it.”
Mary’s only answer was a shattered little moan as another aftershock rolled through her. Behind her, Hudson’s breathing changed. I had never once heard that sound out of him.
“Hudson,” I warned him.
“I’m here.”
“Look at me.”
He lifted his head. His eyes had gone black nearly to the rim.
“I’m not going to lose control,” he said.
“You’re close.”
“I’m close. I’m not going under.” His hand spread wide and steady over Mary’s stomach, and his voice came out rough and entirely certain. “She’s the reason I won’t.”
Hudson kissed her temple. “Still with us?”
“Yes.”
For a while, the room held only breath.
“I think my heat is over,” she said, wondering.
I shook my head. “That’s not how it works.”
“I know how it works. I’ve read the pamphlets.” Her hand found my forearm and stayed there. “The pamphlets also said alphas start talking about breeding and babies, but I thought that was a lie.”
Mary sagged between us, cradled against Hudson’s chest. Her scent softened by degrees. The violet remained, but the frantic edge had eased. Blackberry warmed under whiskey. Rain cooled the air.
“We just got a little carried away.”
“Well,” she said eventually, voice hoarse. “That was nice.”
Hudson laughed. “It’s not over. And what do you mean, nice?”
“It was nice, easy. I don’t like to inflate egos during a first performance review.”
I laughed. “Did we pass the test?”
“A little more practice is needed. And perhaps don’t get so alpha-like with your verbal.”
Hudson’s arms tightened around her. “You need sugar.”
She laughed. “I need a priest, and then a shower.”
“Sugar first,” he said.
“You’re very bossy.”
“My apologies.”
“Accepted. Bring juice and a muffin.”
Hudson reached for the orange juice on the bedside table and held the straw to her mouth and watched Mary drink. Only a little, but she drank.
“Are you cold?” I asked.
“I’m a furnace.”
“You’re shivering.”
“That’s the lack of sugar. I need that muffin.” Hudson pulled the duvet up over her body.
“Food next,” I said.
She picked up the duvet and glanced down at where she was still joined with Hudson. “Ambitious.”
Hudson brushed her hair back from her damp forehead. “Are you in any pain?”
She considered the question. I felt the answer in her body before she spoke, the way she relaxed by a fraction. “Less than before.”
“Good.”
She turned her head to him. “Don’t look so pleased. It could come back.”
“It will, and we’ll deal with it.”
She turned from him, and looked at me. The vulnerability in her face came and went fast, but it was there. She smiled. “You keep saying things like that.”
I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to feed her. I wanted to put every blanket in the hotel around her and stand guard at the door until the world learned better. Instead, I lifted my hand and rubbed my thumb over her swollen lip.
“Stay,” I said.
Her mouth curved faintly. “I can’t go anywhere until this knot deflates, genius.”
“After that.” We told her she was ours but she had to be the one who made the decision to stay. She was only twenty-three, and hardly mentioned scents or the future, which wasn’t unusual for us. We never expected to ever find our scented mate. But I would choose her.
Her smile faded. The fear, waiting under all that sass.
Hudson didn’t rush to fill the silence. Neither did I.
Mary looked around at the nest she had insisted she didn’t need. Her fingers found the edge of my sweater and curled into it.
“Just for the heat,” she said.
It wasn’t enough, but it was everything she could give. And we gave our word.
I bent and kissed her shoulder. “Just for the heat,” I agreed.
Hudson’s gaze met mine over her head. We both knew the lie for what it was. Because Mary had walked into our room dragging a blanket and pretending she only needed the pain gone.
But her scent had found ours. Nobody had spoken about it, but her body knew. And so did ours.