CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - COLT
Pleasure shoots through our pack bond, so pure and raw that I flop bonelessly on the bed. As the aftershocks hum through me, I realize Hog has finally let down all his walls. He’s wide open. Completely sated. Happy down to his hairy sasquatch toes.
And all it took was a kickass omega with a killer scowl and a brain-scrambling scent.
I snooze for a bit, but eventually nature calls and I roll to the edge of the bed. I barely get my feet to the floor when the pack bond hums with another emotion.
A big ole lashing of guilt.
It’s something I recognize only too well, but for once, I’m not the source.
Hog is sprawled on the bed behind me, our little bird slumped across his chest and, as far as I can tell, still attached to his giant knot.
But even passed out, there’s a haze of satisfaction around them, like they’re wrapped in a shiny bubble of bliss.
The melancholia that is seeping through our bond is definitely coming from another source.
“He’s never felt like that before,” Axel says quietly.
I push myself to my feet, waiting until my loose muscles are fully engaged before taking a step.
I peer at Axel, and under the haze of his rut, there’s a hint of our pack alpha staring back.
It would be reassuring if his eyes weren’t so clouded with pain.
“I should’ve done more to make him feel like he belonged. ”
I rub the sore patch on my scalp, my stomach twisting with an echo of his regret.
It’s been a low-level ache since I heard Hog in the tub, telling Baggage how Charlie called his knot a weapon in the wrong hands.
Since we often slept together as a pack, the glitch in their sexual chemistry wasn’t exactly a secret, but I never knew how deeply it affected Hog.
Which is shitty in the extreme. What’s the point of having a bond if you can’t peek under the hood of emotionally closed-off packmates?
“He knew that Charlie loved him,” I say softly, because there’s no point in rubbing salt in the wound. “It was just a different kind of love.”
“Yeah, but it’s more than that this time.” His gaze drifts past me to the bed. “She’s never once looked at him in fear. He’s been an obstacle, maybe even a threat to her freedom, but she’s not frightened of him. I think that’s more important to him than anything.”
Unconditional acceptance. It’s something I’ve probably taken for granted a time or two, but I get how powerful it can be. The question is, can we offer it to her in return? Hog is a no-brainer, and I’m all in, but Axel takes a while to warm up to people.
“I don’t think she knows what it feels like to be really safe,” I muse, then bite my tongue, since it’s not exactly the most sensitive observation when your pack alpha is under restraints. “I just mean, I think they’re good for each other.”
“I think she could be good for all of us,” he says softly and I look at him in surprise.
We’ve all been pretty open about how we want to take care of Baggage, but Axel likes his relationships to be clean cut and mystery free.
Charlie was artistic and free-spirited, but at his core, he was an omega who loved to be pampered and admired.
Little bird has had none of that in her life.
She’s as tough as any one of us, loyal and brave, but I think we’ve only caught a glimpse of who she really is.
“You want to try?” I ask him, and I know he can feel my pitter-patting heart through the pack bond. “For real? Not just because of the rut?”
He gets a wistful light in his shadowed eyes. “I want her to look at me the way she looks at Hog. To smile for me, the way she smiles at you.” He frowns, flexing against the ropes. “But so far, I don’t think I’ve given her much reason to do either of those things.”
And now he’s exiled from her heat, the time when a pack bonds in the most intimate, delicious, messy way possible.
Fuck, it sucks to be him.
I glance at the ropes binding his arms, but he shakes his head. “Leave them. I’m thinking straight now, but that’s because she’s asleep.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “I know I gave you shit earlier, but you’d never let yourself hurt her.” I narrow my eyes at him. “Besides, I don’t think there’s a rope in existence that could hold you if you really wanted to get loose.”
He just gives a half-shrug, even though his dominance still hangs in the air like coastal fog over a dawn patrol.
I leave his stubborn ass to his brooding and head into the corridor.
I’m stoked that Axel is on board with courting Baggage, but he’s way too hard on himself.
Yes, he’s fucked up with her a time or two, but so have I.
And based on the taste of her slick on the back of my throat, she’s not holding any grudges.
I grin, stopping in the bathroom to take a leak and brush my teeth before heading to the kitchen for refreshments.
It’s that secret hour just before dawn, when the wind has blown itself out and the ocean finally settles.
One glance through the living room window tells me it’s going to be a glassy morning—perfect for lying on your board and watching the stars melt into the dawn.
In another life, I’d be tempted to slip out for a few sneaky sets.
But right now, I serve at the pleasure of our omega.
I hum happily as I open the refrigerator and rummage for snacks.
The truth is, after Charlie died, I never thought I’d see another heat.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure I’d see my next birthday, but now I’m gonna share the rest of my days with my soulmate.
Warmth blooms in my chest as I remember Hog telling me that I light Baggage up simply by being my annoying self.
I’m adding some granola bars and mini muffins to a platter of fruit salad when Hog comes up behind me, Baggage in his arms.
I spin around, my heart skipping in alarm. “She okay?”
“Perfect.” His smile says it all, not to mention the wave of bliss I can feel through the pack bonds. “She’s just waking up and she was asking for you.”
“Yeah?” I feel my chest puff out, then pause to look at my platter of goodies. “Was she after a snack?”
Hog snorts, but there’s no mockery in it as he gently strokes her hair. “I don’t think she even knows she’s in the kitchen.”
“Ah, then I’m the snack,” I say gleefully, reaching out to take her from his arms. He only hesitates for a fraction, and I think it’s more instinct than a comment on my caretaking skills. I might not be built on his scale, but I’m wiry as hell.
She comes into my arms without complaint, her thighs squeezing my hips and her feet hooking over my ass.
Her skin is feverishly warm, and her heat spike gives her caramel scent an irresistibly warmer, creamier edge.
I swallow back my drool and tuck her hair behind her ear.
“Hey sweetheart, try to have some water.” Hog hands me a chilled bottle and I lift it to her lips.
“We gotta keep all that pretty slick topped up.”
“I don’t need water.” She pushes the bottle away with a cute little scowl, and reaching down, wraps her hand around my cock.
It aches like a bitch when you have a knot with no place to put it, but I’ve managed to ignore it for the most part.
Caring for an omega goes a lot further than just rolling around in a nest, after all.
I shiver as she hums and squeezes the sensitive head. She teases the skin right under my piercing, and I have to take a careful breath before I’m able to nudge the bowl of fruit towards her. “Try a strawberry, little bird.”
She wrinkles her nose, her gaze locked on my other offering. “I want this,” she says, giving my shaft a hungry stroke. “Give it to me, Alpha.”
Well, caring comes in all shapes and flavors.
“She’s sinking again,” Hog says, kissing her shoulder. “Give her whatever she wants.”
Fuck, he’s just a big ole pile of putty in her hands. And who can blame him? I’d happily lie down at her feet if she wasn’t pulling me towards her by my cock. She nuzzles her face against my neck, and I swallow back a moan. “You want my knot, Omega?”
“I want your head between my thighs as the sun comes up.”
I chuckle, because I do owe her, after all.
I carry her out to the sunroom, while Hog follows and lights a hurricane lamp.
It tosses a golden glow against the darkness, and Baggage makes a happy little sound as we sink onto the daybed.
I let her get settled on my lap before I cup her face.
Her cheeks are flushed and her lips are swollen, but her eyes are focused under the heat glaze.
I know that comparisons are ugly, especially in the bedroom, but it’s hard not to compare the only two omegas I’ve ever tended through a heat.
Somehow, Charlie always managed to drag things out, teasing our knots until all three of us were drooling with pent-up frustration.
But true to Birdie’s nature, there’s no artifice in her, and she’s determined to get straight to the point…
Which she does by sliding to her knees and swallowing my cock almost to the root.