Done Being Patient
SAINT
Rhys’s words settled over the entryway like a cold weight.
I already knew.
My wolf had been restless for days, prowling beneath my skin, steering me toward Scarlett whenever she was near and bristling whenever she disappeared from sight.
That was why I’d practically become her shadow—tracking every movement, touching her without realizing I’d reached for her. The first stirrings of rut had a way of chewing through whatever control I normally possessed.
Kane dragged a hand down his face.
“Shit.”
Kaiden’s eyes narrowed slightly. “How long do your ruts usually last?”
“Three days for me,” Kane answered. “Sometimes longer when the moon’s nearly full, shorter when it’s fading. The closer it gets to full, the harder my wolf pushes.”
Rhys leaned back against the wall.
“Two days. I can usually manage mine.”
Then they both looked at me.
I shifted my weight, heat creeping up my ears even though I hadn’t shifted.
“…Up to a week.”
Kaiden’s eyebrows shot up. “A week?”
I nodded once.
Mine had always been the worst of the three.
My wolf didn’t simply want to fuck and breed. It wanted possession. Submission. Someone beneath us who wouldn’t fight the instinct demanding that we hold on and never let go.
Even Rhys and Kane had never been enough to satisfy it completely.
They weren’t Omegas.
Rhys would tolerate my dominance only so far before shoving back and reminding my wolf exactly who it was dealing with. Kane could endure a night or two before his own dominant instincts came snapping to the surface.
By the final days, I was usually locked away upstairs, skin too tight, temper shredded, waiting for the fever inside me to finally exhaust itself.
But now we had Scarlett.
An Omega.
Our Omega.
Except she was still healing.
And none of us knew how her heats worked—how long they lasted, how badly they affected her, or whether one had already begun creeping closer.
Something inside my chest strained at the thought.
Rhys’s voice gentled.
“Come here, baby.”
My body obeyed before my mind caught up.
He drew me against him, one arm firm around my back while his other hand settled over my nape. I buried my face in the curve of his throat and breathed him in deeply. Almost immediately, the tension wound through my body began to ease, my wolf settling beneath the familiarity of his scent.
The agitation inside me loosened by degrees.
Kane watched for a moment before coming closer. His palm landed heavily over the back of my neck, fingers squeezing once.
“We’ll handle it,” he said. “Like we always do.”
I nodded against Rhys’s skin.
But my gaze found the staircase.
Scarlett was up there.
And for the first time in years, my wolf wasn’t dreading what was coming.
It was counting down to it.
I stayed against Rhys for another few seconds. His scent steadied me, but beneath that temporary calm, heat had already begun winding through my body, leaving me too aware of everything.
Especially the floor above us.
Kaiden leaned against the wall, arms crossed.
“You three really have no idea when her heat might hit?”
I lifted my head.
“She never talks about it. And the school keeps suppressants available. We’ve never been around her during a full heat.”
Kane’s jaw tightened.
“Great. So we could be heading into a week-long rut with an Omega upstairs who might go into heat without warning.”
My wolf surged at the possibility.
Not alarm.
Something far more troublesome.
I looked at Rhys. His expression barely changed, but I knew him well enough to catch the tension underneath it.
The faint set of his jaw told me enough.
Even Rhys felt it.
None of us were untouched by what was coming.
“What do we do?”
He considered it.
“We prepare the house. Lock the lower rooms if necessary. Once the worst of the rut hits, we put space between ourselves and her.” His attention moved toward the staircase. “And we watch her carefully. If her heat starts while one of us is too far gone…”
His jaw flexed before he finished.
“Walking away from her will take everything we have.”
Kane shoved a hand through his hair.
“That’s putting it mildly.”
The thought of distance made every instinct in me recoil.
My wolf wanted Scarlett tucked into the heart of our den, surrounded by us. It wanted her warmth beneath our hands, her scent soaked into the sheets, our bodies forming a wall between her and everything outside.
But wanting her close didn’t change the fact that she was still healing, and I wasn’t about to risk hurting her.
I leaned into Rhys again, breathing him in until some of the tension left my shoulders.
“I’ll keep myself together.”
His palm traveled once down my spine.
“I know you will, baby.”
Kane’s mouth twisted.
“We all will. But instinct doesn't bargain.”
Silence followed.
There was nothing else to say.
For the first time, rut was coming with an Omega under our roof.
And whatever control we thought we had was about to be tested.
*****
Kaiden disappeared toward the guest room without another word, the click of his door carrying down the hallway.
The three of us headed for the master bedroom.
The instant the door shut, Kane lunged.
My back struck the wall hard enough to rattle the frame. His fist tangled in my hair, his other hand locked around my jaw, and his mouth crashed onto mine. His tongue forced past my lips as the approaching rut turned every touch sharper, every breath hotter.
A groan tore from my throat. I met him with equal force, claws threatening at my fingertips as I hauled him closer.
Kane tore his mouth away only far enough to breathe against my lips.
“You taste so good, baby.”
His teeth dragged across my bottom lip.
Behind him, a drawer slid open. Then came the unmistakable rattle of pills.
Rhys.
Even with rut breathing down our necks, he was still the only one thinking clearly.
He stepped between us and pressed a suppressant tablet onto Kane’s tongue, then mine, before taking one himself. We swallowed.
It wouldn’t stop the rut. Nothing could. But it might leash the worst of it.
Barely.
The bottle had hardly touched the bedside table before Rhys caught Kane by the neck and pulled him in. Their mouths met hard. Kane answered with a broken groan, fingers closing around Rhys’s shirt.
Then Rhys turned to me. His golden eyes were darker than usual.
“Come here.”
He kissed me slower than Kane had, but no less intensely—his tongue stroking against mine, taking exactly what he wanted.
Kane’s hands were already under my shirt. I lifted my arms so he could strip it off. The moment the fabric hit the floor, his mouth was on my throat, biting just hard enough to sting.
Clothes disappeared fast. Kane yanked his shirt over his head; Rhys followed. Every time bare skin met bare skin, another growl rolled through the room.
Kane’s hands were everywhere—my chest, my waist, the growing hardness between my legs. Rhys kept kissing me while his hand wrapped around both of us at once, stroking in one firm grip.
I shuddered hard.
Kane’s teeth sank into my collarbone hard enough to bruise. Rhys’s hand kept that slow, tight rhythm, making my hips jerk forward without permission. The suppressants had taken the worst edge off, but they hadn’t done shit for the heat coiling low in my gut.
“Fuck…” I choked out against Rhys’s mouth.
Kane laughed darkly against my skin. “Listen to him. Already falling apart and we’ve barely touched him.”
Rhys pulled back just enough to look at me. Pupils blown wide, he gave our cocks another firm stroke, thumb swiping over both heads and smearing precome between us.
“Bed,” he ordered quietly. “Now.”
Kane didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed me by the waist and manhandled me toward the massive bed.
The back of my knees hit the mattress and I went down hard.
Kane followed immediately, crawling over me, mouth crashing back onto mine in a filthy, open-mouthed kiss.
His hand shoved my boxers the rest of the way down.
My cock slapped against my stomach, already leaking.
“Shit, look at you,” Kane muttered, staring down between us. He wrapped his fist around my length and gave a slow, rough stroke. “So fucking hard already. You gonna make a mess for us, baby?”
I arched under him, my wolf’s groan vibrating in my chest.
Rhys moved onto the bed on my other side, completely naked, his cock heavy and flushed as he watched Kane work me. He reached out, dragged his fingers through the precum beading at my tip, then brought them to my mouth.
“Open.”
He pushed two fingers past my lips. I sucked hard, eyes locked on his, and his expression darkened with pure hunger.
“Good boy,” he murmured.
Kane shifted lower, mouthing along my stomach, then lower still. The second his tongue dragged up the underside of my cock, my hips snapped up. He pinned them down with one strong arm and took me into his mouth in one deep, wet slide.
“Fuck, Kane…”
He hummed around me, the vibration shooting straight up my spine.
Rhys leaned down and kissed me again, slower this time, swallowing every desperate sound while Kane sucked me like he was starving for it.
The wet heat of his mouth, the tight pull of his throat, the dirty little sounds he made every time he took me deeper—it was too much and not enough at the same time.
My wolf clawed under my skin, restless and greedy. It wanted more. It wanted to flip Kane over and fuck him until he couldn’t walk. It wanted Rhys’s hand in my hair while I did it. It wanted Scarlett’s scent in the room so badly it hurt.
Rhys must have seen it in my eyes.
He pulled his mouth from mine and spoke against my cheek.
“Not yet, baby. Take what we’re giving you first.”
Kane pulled off with a wet pop, lips shiny, eyes wild. He crawled back up my body and kissed me hard, letting me taste myself on his tongue. Then he looked at Rhys.
“You gonna fuck him, or am I?”
Rhys’s mouth curved into something devilish.
“Both.”
He reached for the bottle of oil on the nightstand.
My stomach clenched with heat.
Kane grinned down at me, all teeth, as he hooked his hands under my knees and spread me open.
“Hold on tight, baby,” he said. “We’re just getting started.”
Outside, the house was quiet.
Upstairs, Scarlett still had no idea what was about to break loose in this room.
And my wolf was done being patient.