Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Hayden
Her scent slams into us as soon as we enter the code for Aury’s door. I glance at Jayce, who hasn’t been able to stop the low growl in the back of his throat. His pupils are blown, nostrils flared, and he holds himself so rigidly I fear he’s going to pull something.
I drove his truck here, only stopping at the corner store to run in and grab a couple boxes of protein bars, a bunch of bananas, and every flavor of electrolyte water they had.
His muscles are coiled, and I’m more than a little worried he might fall into rut.
I kick off my shoes, then bend and force Jayce to pick up one foot at a time so I can wrangle his off, too.
Meowing greets us when we step further inside, and I look up to see a fluffy black cat with glowing yellow eyes sitting on the back of the couch.
It leaps off when it sees me looking, landing lightly on the carpeted floor, then holds its tail high and waltzes down the hallway, looking back once as though to see if I’m following.
As that’s the direction the throaty moans are coming from, I decide to do so, and I tug Jayce along with me.
Her scent strengthens, and my mouth starts watering.
Jayce licks his lips, then tries to shove past me into the room.
I grab the back of his shirt with one hand and grip his biceps with the other, using his momentum to swing him around and slam his back against the wall.
He bares his teeth at me, and I brace my forearm against his throat.
It takes all of my body weight to hold him there, and I lean forward, then bite his jaw—barely not breaking the skin.
He stills, but low snarls still rumble in his chest.
“Jayce.”
He doesn’t respond. His eyes are fixed on what I assume to be the bedroom door. I can’t let him in there like this. I don’t trust him not to try to bond her; he’s clearly not in his right mind.
“Jayce!” I bark, and his eyes snap to mine.
His dominance punches out of him, almost enough to make me stagger backwards, but I let my alpha dominance flare just in time to keep a grip on him. I narrow my eyes, then clamp my free hand on his jaw, fingers pressing into his cheeks enough to hurt.
“Stop,” I demand, ensuring my alpha bark comes out with the words. “Come back to me. Focus, Jayce.”
He shudders, and his pupils shrink, then dilate, then shrink again.
“Good.” I loosen my hold on his jaw and take some of my weight from his neck. “Stay with me. I need to know you won’t hurt her.”
He comes back fully at that, his head jerking back and slamming against the wall.
“Never,” he growls.
I search his eyes, then nod, satisfied that his gaze is clear. He’s still tight, but in a different way now. A more controlled tension than the near-rut he was slipping towards.
“Alphas?” A raspy plea reaches us, and we both turn towards the closed door.
“Get in here,” Aury calls.
With my hand on the knob, I side-eye Jayce. “No bonding.”
He meets my gaze and gives me a decisive nod.
I turn the handle, and her scent is syrupy in the air. Definitely a heat spike, maybe even fully blown heat. We won’t know until one of us knots her and it does—or doesn’t—subside.
“Little witch,” I purr, shucking off my shirt and pants as I stride over to the bed. My cock was hard as soon as Aury called and I heard her riding him through the phone. It’s painful now though, begging to be freed and to sink into her wet heat, but I keep my boxers on for the moment.
Her blue eyes are glazed with lust when she turns her head to look at me, then Jayce. He’s also down to his tight black boxers, his cock already leaking and forming a wet spot on the front. She’s still on top of Aury, but it looks like he’s ready to tap out.
“Took you long enough,” he groans, then rolls them over so her back is on the bed beneath him. “Okay Moonbeam, your alphas are here.” He strokes his hand down the side of her face, carefully swiping her sweaty hair back.
“Water,” Jayce says, thrusting a bottle of pink vitamin-enhanced water towards her.
She wrinkles her nose and instead reaches for his waistband.
She twists and wiggles on the bed, using his boxers to pull herself closer to the edge, then she tugs them down, all the while ignoring Jayce’s attempts to get the bottle into her hands.
She swats it away, spilling water across the sheets, and when he bends over, removing his hips—and cock—from her reach, she lets out the cutest little omega growl I’ve ever heard.
Jayce growls back, but it doesn’t hold any weight, so she ignores it. He gently cups her chin in his hand. She settles for half a second, nuzzling into his hold, but as soon as the bottle touches her lips she jerks away, spilling even more water down the side of the bed.
“Damn it,” he mutters, flicking water off his hand.
Siobhan ignores the water now dripping down her chin and turns to me instead.
She sticks her bottom lip out and looks up at me through her lashes and goddamn I don’t think I can resist her.
I take a step forward, one hand on my boxers, ready to give her whatever the hell she wants, when her tongue meets the bare skin above my waistband.
I groan and my cock twitches in its fabric prison.
“Are you serious?” Aury says. I don’t know who he’s talking to, but it’s enough to have me pausing. “She needs a knot in her pussy. We ate and drank a few hours ago, and I don’t think letting her lick you is going to help anything right now.”
I narrow my eyes at the insolent beta, but he glares back, non-repentant.
He does have a point.
And it’s supposed to be my job to make sure she’s okay and getting what she needs.
That realization—that I wasn’t in control, wasn’t giving her what she actually needed—is a sobering one. I step back and take the water from Jayce.
“Boxers off,” I say to him. “Now. And lay on your back, let her be on top so she can set the pace.”
Aury flops onto the other side of the bed with a relieved, and maybe slightly exasperated, sigh.
Siobhan doesn’t have time to object to my stepping back because Jayce already has his hands around her waist, maneuvering both of them until her legs fall on either side of his hips and his cock is lined up with her dripping center.
“I’m all yours, pretty omega,” he says, the constant rumbling growl distorting his words.
“Mine,” she says, then she sinks down on him. Or at least, she goes as far as she can, then gets stuck about halfway. She omega growls again, then bounces up and down in an attempt to take him further. “Mine, mine!” she chants, only her words are starting to sound angry, frustrated.
“I’ve got you, little witch.” I sink my fingers into the soft flesh of her hip, and my other hand dives between them.
I wet my fingers with her slick and spread it around Jayce’s cock, then massage her opening where they meet.
She loosens, groans as she sinks further.
Then lifts up and I help push her down another inch on the next drop, and the next, until she’s finally seated on him.
Jayce’s eyes are locked on her, his breathing broken and uneven, but he’s gentle.
His hands are reverent, his grip soft where he holds her thighs, fingers stroking up and down in a soothing gesture.
He lets her set the pace, rising and falling, then grinding down on him.
It’s not long until she’s demanding what she needs.
“Knot. Jayce, need your knot, please.”
Our eyes all jerk to her face as every one of us stills.
“Siobhan?” I say, ducking my head to get a better view of her eyes.
“Ugh,” she groans and tips her head back. “What Hayden?”
She’s never sounded so irritated, and I can’t help but grin.
“Glad to see you’re with us, little witch. Can you confirm you want me and Jayce here for your heat?”
“Obviously I want you here,” she huffs, rolling her hips against Jayce again. “I’d have told you to get out if I didn’t.”
I chuckle, relieved to hear both the confirmation and that she’ll tell us if she doesn’t want something. “Good to know.”
“Can I have a knot now?” She glares at me as though I’m to blame for her current unhappiness. Which, I suppose I kind of am. It’s probably our scent-matched pheromones that triggered this.
“You can have whatever you want, pretty omega,” Jayce growls.
He uses his grip on her upper thighs to hold her steady while he thrusts up from the bed, stretching her, and then his knot slips inside.
She throws her head back with a hoarse moan and her eyes flutter closed.
Her entire body convulses, and I quickly reach out to hold her steady, fearing she might topple over.
She leans into my hold, letting me take her weight while her hips roll and she milks Jayce for all he’s worth.
“Fuck,” he roars when she clamps down on his knot.
His jaw is clenched, chin tilted up as he forces himself to keep his teeth away from her.
They’re both holding their breath, hips gyrating together the minuscule amount his knot will allow, and it seems as if all of us are suspended in time.
The moment stretches. Siobhan’s silhouette is outlined by the faint light of the streetlamp outside.
Her breasts are soft curves tipped with pointy nipples.
The most enticing treasure I would die to touch.
The moment breaks when she slumps, and I’m glad I was ready for the let down. I help her and Jayce roll onto their sides, where he promptly wraps his arms around her and she buries her nose into his chest, then I turn to Aury.
“This might be our only chance to get back to her place. I’m assuming she has a nest?”
He nods. “I’ll grab some of my dirty clothes for it. They won’t fit you, but you can scent mark some of my shirts and pillow cases, that should help. You brought food?”
“It’s in the truck.”
We grab what we can and pack it up. All the while, Aury’s cat meows and follows us around, twining between our feet and nudging our hands.
“I’ll need to bring her. My neighbor that normally cat sits is on vacation.”
“Siobhan likes her?” I say, and Aury nods. “Let’s grab what she needs too, then.”
After it’s all loaded into the truck, we come back in to see the cat making biscuits on the blanket at Siobhan’s back, and from their positions, I can tell Jayce’s knot has gone down.
“Time to go,” I say to him.
He slips out of the bed and drags his jeans on. Siobhan reaches for him, faint grumbles indicating her displeasure at being disturbed. I slip Jayce’s oversized t-shirt over her head and pull her arms through, ignoring the unhappy look she gives me.
“Come here, pretty omega,” he says, voice soft. He scoops her into his arms, carrying her like the most precious bride, and turns towards me with a challenge in his eye.
“I’m not going to take her from you,” I say. The last thing we need is his alpha losing it again.
He settles, but as soon as he takes a step, the cat is there, winding around his ankles and clawing at his legs. Jayce growls threateningly at it, and Aury growls back. I look at him in surprise; I didn’t know betas could growl.
Jayce looks even more shocked, but he blinks once, then ignores them both and takes another step while Aury attempts to pick the cat up. She hisses and swipes at him, and Aury jerks back, wide brown eyes looking betrayed. Are we seriously getting held up by a grumpy cat?
I’m about to growl her into submission myself, when she leaps, claws out, and latches onto Jayce’s pant leg.
She climbs his jeans, then scrabbles along his arm to settle on Siobhan’s stomach.
Jayce hisses in surprise, but it all happens so fast none of us can so much as twitch before she’s left claw marks all over his arm and is curled up in a contented ball of fuzzy black fur.
Siobhan’s eyes slit open and she looks down at it, then buries her hand in its fur.
“Pretty Bunny,” she murmurs, and I frown, eyebrows pulling together with concern.
She’s way too out of it if she thinks that cat is a bunny.
I thought she was more coherent, recognizing and talking to me and Jayce, but—
“That’s her name,” Aury says, ushering us all out of the apartment. “My cat. Her name is Bunny.”
Qué carajo. I shake my head and herd them all into Jayce’s truck.
I didn’t expect him to want to let go of her, and he doesn’t.
The low rumble in his chest hasn’t stopped since Aury called and begged us to help.
I stick all three of them in the backseat together, then brace myself to be enclosed with her honeyed scent before I slide into the front, ready to keep it together and ignore anything from the backseat for the next ten minutes.