Vengeful Bonds: Season One

18. Ollie

When Ollie was a kid, he had dreams of being devoured. Dreams of wild animals—wolves, leopards, tigers—crashing through his window and tearing him apart with teeth and claws, eating him a piece at a time as he watched. His parents had found his screams disturbing, his explanations shocking.

The doctors said it was anxiety, like when people had dreams of tornadoes or teeth falling into the sink or showing up at school naked. His father said it was some kind of genetic memory, that his DNA remembered a time when they were half-animal. Ollie had often wondered what kind of animal he’d been to let these creatures take him apart so easily.

Sometimes, Ollie still felt half-animal. Perhaps not as much as alphas or omegas, but deep down, it always felt like he shared his body with another consciousness. When he’d told this to his beta psychiatrist as a child, she’d laughed condescendingly and told him that there was no other person sharing his body, that it was just a different aspect of himself—his personality—and he would feel more comfortable when he officially presented.

As a beta, of course, like his parents.

He’d hated the time he was forced to spend in that woman’s office. Even at the tender age of eleven, it seemed counter-productive to waste a whole precious hour of his week talking to a woman who clearly didn’t understand him. The dreams receded, but that voice, that other consciousness, remained. But it didn’t scare him because he had control.

Even once he’d presented, that voice mostly stayed silent, rarely making itself known. As long as it didn’t try to backseat drive his life, Ollie would let it stay. He would make room within himself for the both of them to fit. He would be grateful for the enhanced senses that voice gave him, for the slightly easier life he lived without all the pains other secondary genders endured.

Mostly, he was grateful they’d evolved past a time when that voice—that other…animal—could rip free of his body and have free rein for days, just because the tides or the planets aligned once a month to make it so. Compared to years ago, the universe had blessed Ollie with the best of all worlds—all the benefits, none of the downsides, and the ability to always think rationally, diplomatically. Never a slave to his instincts.

He’d truly believed that. Until about fifteen minutes ago, or maybe it was fifteen hours. Fifteen days? Ollie didn’t know. He didn’t know anything except this: he took it all back. Every stupid, smug thought he’d ever had about how together he was, how logical and reasonable. It was all bullshit.

All of it.

He’d never had control, not really. He’d just never been tested, never been left alone in bed with a sexy, newly presenting alpha, never been drowning in alpha pheromones so thick it made breathing difficult and made him agonizingly, painfully hard before he’d even fully woken up from a fitful sleep. He’d never had someone assume total ownership of his body.

Until now.

Just like in his childhood dreams, Ollie was being devoured, blunt nails digging into the sensitive skin beneath his knees, pushing them outward, spreading him wide so Deke could settle his shoulders between his thighs, so he could nose at the crease where his hip and thigh met, tongue over his balls, kitten lick along Ollie’s aching shaft, teasing him but never giving him anything he needed.

Ollie was losing it, hands fisting the sheets, writhing beneath Deke as he tried to put his cock as close to Deke’s perfect full lips as he could, but Deke wasn’t interested in sucking Ollie off. He was rubbing his face all over his crotch, growling and sniffing at him in a way Ollie most definitely should have found disturbing and not painfully hot, but there they were.

“It’s okay,” Ollie said, words slurred and head cloudy. He tried to rise up to catch Deke’s eye. “You don’t have?—”

A hand slammed into his chest, forcing him back onto the bed with a warning snarl. “Mine,” Deke muttered against Ollie’s skin, rubbing his face against Ollie’s aching cock once more.

Ollie gave an undignified yelp as sharp teeth sank into his thigh, breaking the skin. Deke gave another sad whine, hips rutting against the mattress as he lapped at the blood. Before Ollie could really even wrap his head around this new biting development, Deke sealed his mouth over the wound and sucked. Ollie winced at the sharp sting, but it did nothing to diminish his erection.

“Deke,” Ollie whispered.

Deke snapped his head up, eyes all pupil in the dim light, lips smeared with Ollie’s blood. “Don’t call me that,” he snarled.

Ollie’s cock twitched at the pitch, his tone slicing through all rational thoughts until he choked out a single word. “Alpha.”

Deke made a pleased rumble, feline eyes blinking at him lazily, like Ollie wasn’t the only one drunk on the atmosphere. If Deke were an animal, he’d be a leopard, maybe, or a fox. Something sleek, powerful, intelligent. “You smell so good,” he said before dipping his head to bite Ollie’s other thigh. “Your scent is so strong here. I can’t get enough of it. I want to drown in it.”

His secondary nature, that latent animal within, was definitely in the driver’s seat now and Deke’s words had them preening. His alpha wanted him. His alpha liked his scent, wanted to drown in it. “Then fuck me. I need you.”

Had Ollie ever uttered those words to a single other person? Never. He would never be so vulnerable. He’d told Deke that he would likely be drawn to say embarrassing stuff back in response to Deke’s alpha, but he hadn’t meant it. He was just trying to make Deke feel more comfortable with his rut, but just looking at Deke, almost naked, golden skin, dark hair, the predatory gleam in his eye when he looked at Ollie…he was ready to roll over and bare his throat to the baby alpha. Without hesitation.

Deke tilted his head, studying him, slow-blinking at him before Ollie’s cock seemed to snag his attention once more. An embarrassing amount of pre-cum drooled from his cock, down his length, just from Deke’s eyes on him. He caught Ollie’s gaze as he ran a finger along his cock, catching the fluid there then putting the finger in his mouth, sucking the taste of Ollie from his skin before pulling it free with a loud pop.

“Please…” Ollie whispered, desperate, not even knowing specifically what he asked for. He just needed…something.

Relief flooded him when Deke closed his lips over the head of Ollie’s neglected dick, hollowing his cheeks, sucking hard enough to drag a near pornographic moan from Ollie’s lips, hips canting of their own volition. Deke kept him steady with just one hand on his hip, the other wrapped around the base of his cock.

Ollie groaned as Deke took more of him into his mouth, sinking down until his lips touched his own fist, then bobbing his head with purpose.

“Oh, holy fuck,” Ollie cried, his hands fisting in Deke’s hair, toes curling at the tight wet heat of Deke’s mouth, his tongue running along the underside of his cock with each upward drag of his mouth until he was shaking his head. “I’m gonna come. I’m gonna come if you keep doing that.”

Deke’s mouth and hand disappeared so quickly the sudden cool air on his spit-slick cock made him shiver. Why had he even said anything? He hated this, hated him. He just wanted to come. He needed to get off. He’d gotten off a few hours ago. It seemed excessive to be this desperate for it again so soon, but he didn’t want to come on Deke’s tongue or by his hand or even by his thigh. He wanted to feel his cock split him open, needed to feel stuffed full, used, bred, fucked stupid.

Deke prowled upwards, sinking his teeth into Ollie’s hip bone, nuzzling the wound when Ollie cried out again. But he didn’t stop. Instead, he seemed to develop a little ritual—bite, lick, suck, move on. His hip, his ribs, just above his right nipple. Each time Ollie would cry or hiss or swear, but his nipples were so hard and his cock was an angry red, desperate for relief.

Deke was perched over him, his weight on his hands when he locked eyes with Ollie, his gaze hot enough to melt tungsten, hot enough to melt Ollie’s pride. He gave a needy whine, hips bucking, but found no release. Deke hovered, no part of him touching Ollie. His frustration had him choking back a sob. “Alpha…”

Deke slowly lowered his head, licking over Ollie’s nipple, then biting, tugging it with his teeth. Ollie moaned, his arms wrapping around Deke’s neck, hoping to get his attention, maybe even beg a little. But Deke seemed to enjoy torturing Ollie’s nipples as much as he did the rest of him. Each time he flicked or licked or bit at one of the aching peaks, Ollie’s whole body jolted like he’d been shocked back to life, his cock leaking and his ass wet and sticky from his earlier prep session.

Ollie couldn’t take it anymore. He wrapped a hand around his cock, making a desperate noise when he squeezed the base, but before he could get more than one stroke in, Deke had his wrists in his hands, holding them up over his head. “You’ll come on my knot or not at all.”

“Why?” he whined, flushing from head to toe, though Ollie didn’t know if it was from horniness or humiliation. Maybe both.

Deke ignored him, seemingly content to keep torturing his nipples, which were now just as oversensitive as his neglected dick. When Deke bit down on his left nipple once more, Ollie caught his fingers in his hair and yanked. “Please, alpha. It hurts.”

Deke nuzzled his nose against Ollie’s cheek like an apology then moved on to dragging his teeth and tongue along his collarbones, the hollow of his throat, his jaw, anywhere his lips happened to land. Ollie just laid there, taking it, helpless to do anything but let Deke do what he wanted and pray he’d get him off eventually.

Ollie whimpered as Deke’s mouth landed squarely over his scent gland, sucking a mark there before moving to his ear. Ollie didn’t even register threading his fingers in Deke’s hair or dragging his mouth back to his scent gland, didn’t think at all about wrapping his legs around his waist, trying to close the distance between them. It was only then Ollie realized the alpha still had his underwear on and he was the only one completely naked.

“Please, alpha,” Ollie tried again, this time grinding his dick against Deke’s very prominent bulge, earning another snarl. Goosebumps erupted at the shock of white hot bliss that shot through him as they collided once, then again. Ollie’s hands dropped to the waistband of Deke’s underwear. “Please, take them off. Please. I need to see you, feel you. I need you inside me. Please, alpha.”

Deke latched onto Ollie’s neck, sucking hard enough to draw a pained sound from him before pulling off with a wet sound. “Not yet.”

“What?” Ollie asked, suddenly on the verge of tears. “Why?” he wailed, so pathetic even to his own ears.

A tiny voice told him he’d be humiliated about this later, but that was future Ollie’s problem. Current Ollie needed this baby alpha balls deep in him in the next ten minutes or he might actually die from sexual frustration. He was so hard that every time anything grazed him it hurt.

But that wasn’t where it ached. Well, it wasn’t the only place. There was this…pit in his stomach, lower even. This sucking black hole, this bottomless well, that desperately ached to be filled up. It was this gnawing, burning pain he’d never felt before, like a hunger pain, but his body was hungry for Deke.

He needed Deke inside, needed it desperately, needed him to knot him, fill him up, breed him. It wasn’t an option; his body was demanding it. And the thought of Deke rejecting him had Ollie—a beta—on the verge of tears. What the fuck?

“I need you to smell like me first,” Deke said, as if that made perfect sense. “I need everyone to know you’re mine.”

This was a territorial thing? For fuck’s sake. Ollie hooked a hand behind Deke’s neck, dragging him close until he could lock eyes with him. “Imagine how much I’ll smell like you with your cum dripping out of me.”

Deke pulled back with a growl. For a moment, Ollie thought he was angry, but then he connected their mouths, his tongue exploring with the same thoroughness he’d used to taste Ollie’s body. He kissed like he was trying to consume him—devour him. Maybe all those childhood dreams were a premonition, and maybe he’d die while Deke took him apart a piece at a time.

Another shot of need raced through his blood. When Deke broke the kiss, Ollie buried his face in the alpha’s throat, inhaling deeply, blunt nails digging into his shoulders.

“Please, I need it. I need you. Please, alpha,” Ollie begged.

Ollie felt like he was just repeating himself, but he didn’t know what magic words would finally unlock Deke’s inner need to breed him.

“So desperate,” Deke said, not cruelly, but almost awed, like he was proud of Ollie for being so needy. “It’s almost like you want me to hurt you or something.”

“Please,” Ollie whispered, not sure what else he could do to entice the baby alpha to give him what he needed. “I don’t care. I just want you. Do you not want me? Is that it?”

Ollie had never been an insecure person. This wasn’t like him at all, but the idea that Deke might have changed his mind now had him in a chokehold, cutting off all thoughts except one. He’d failed.

But then Deke was sitting back on his haunches, and before Ollie knew it, he was manhandled onto his belly like he weighed nothing. Deke settled between his thighs once more.

Large hands spanned Ollie’s calves, the back of his thighs, thumbs pressing painfully into the bite marks on his inner thighs before clapping down hard on his ass cheeks—hard enough for Ollie to feel the fat jiggle. His skin still stung from the slap when Deke spread him apart. “So wet for me,” he murmured as if confused. “You leak just like an omega. Is your hole greedy, too? It must be, the way you keep begging me to fuck you.”

Maybe Ollie had gotten a bit heavy-handed with the flavored lube, but he’d expected Deke to be balls deep in him before he’d even woken up. He hadn’t expected to find a newly presenting alpha who liked to edge his partner until they died.

Ollie just wanted him to fuck him already. “You don’t even have to prep me,” Ollie offered lamely, like he was trying to sell Deke on the idea of knotting him. “I did it earlier…remember?”

Deke glowered at him, pouting. “Do I remember that you stuffed yourself full of your fingers with me sleeping right beside you? Yeah. You didn’t ask me to help or anything. You didn’t even let me watch.”

Was he seriously sulking over Ollie prepping himself alone? “I just wanted to be ready for you.”

“Did it feel good? Did you think of me while you were fucking yourself on your fingers? Did you make yourself come? Did you wish it was my knot?”

“I-I didn’t come. I wanted to wait.”

“For what?” Deke asked, thumb pressing against Deke’s rim.

“For you. I wanted to come with you…” Ollie admitted, grateful that the only light was from the cracked bathroom door.

Deke pushed in to the first knuckle. “Fuck, your hole is just sucking me in. So hot and wet inside. What were you waiting for?”

Ollie buried his face in the pillow before giving a muffled, “You.”

“You want me to fuck you, little beta?” Deke asked, twisting his finger inside him.

“Yes,” Ollie choked out.

“Want me to knot you? Breed your pretty little hole? Stuff you full of my pups?” Deke asked, the almost bored tone somehow only making Ollie hornier. What was wrong with him?

“Yes,” Ollie cried. “Please. Fuck. Just do it. Do me. Touch me. Give me something. Please. I’m so hard it hurts. Please, alpha.”

“So demanding,” Deke said, then sighed. “Fine. If you want me to breed you like an omega, act like one.”

“What?”

“Present for me,” Deke said, tone smug.

“What?” Ollie said again, somehow fuming and humiliated and still desperately turned on.

“Present for your alpha,” Deke taunted slowly, like Ollie was stupid. “Surely, you know how. Don’t you want to be good for me?”

Ollie would have told anyone else in the world to go fuck themselves, he was sure of it. He pushed up onto his knees, spreading his legs and arching his back, lying his cheek on his folded arms. “Is this good, alpha? Am I being a good boy? Now, will you fuck me?”

Ollie could feel the lube leaking down his balls onto the mattress, could feel it coating his thighs. He really had gone a bit overboard. Deke gathered some of the mess leaking from his hole onto his fingers, then there was an obscene slurp that Ollie could only assume was him sucking it off.

Before Ollie could even look, Deke made a sound that was far more animal than human, his hands spreading the beta open, the cold air causing the muscle to clench around nothing. Suddenly, a warm, wet tongue swept over Ollie’s rim.

“Oh, holy fuck,” he cried, fisting the sheets on either side of his head.

“So wet, so fucking wet for me. Good omega,” Deke said, almost to himself, a second before he buried his face between Ollie’s cheeks, eating him out like there was a prize at the center.

The sounds were obscene, wet, sloppy even—so much even Ollie could pretend he was an omega. It was easier to pretend he was an omega, that this desperation, this need to please, this need to be needed by Deke was all just hormones, just nature taking its course. So, he did. He let himself pretend.

Then he let his baby alpha devour him once more, his neglected cock bobbing between his legs, so sensitive Ollie probably could have come in thirty seconds just from rubbing against the sheets, but Deke would never allow that. So, he just…endured.

Deke didn’t contain his meal to just Ollie’s entrance; he tasted all of him, biting his thighs and the meat of his ass, nibbling at the sensitive skin around his rim, licking over his perineum and sucking his balls, before finally—finally—fucking his tongue inside him.

But it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough. He was going crazy. The pleasure was now bordering on pain. His frustration was so palpable, tears soaked the sheets below. He was far beyond embarrassment, beyond pride or reason or anything. “Please, alpha. Please. I can’t take it anymore. Fuck me, breed me, put your pups in me already. Get me fucking pregnant.”

When Deke’s tongue disappeared, Ollie sobbed. Why was he torturing him? But then three fingers pushed roughly inside him and he keened, pushing back against the intrusion, even as more wetness dribbled down his thighs.

“This what you needed?” Deke asked, thrusting his fingers into Ollie hard enough to jar him forward on the mattress.

“N-No,” Ollie said through gritted teeth, hating how he found himself grinding back on Deke’s hand.

“No? Then tell me…what do you want?”

Ollie panted, swiveling his hips as he worked himself on Deke’s fingers, trying to get them where he needed them most. “Want your cock. Want your knot.”

Deke’s fingers curled inside him, dragging along his walls until sparks suddenly exploded behind Ollie’s eyelids and he made a sound so embarrassing he wanted to melt into a puddle on the sheets.

“There?” Deke asked, massaging the spot with such intensity that Ollie’s brain went completely off line, all systems shutting down as every muscle seized, his cock leaking so much he wondered if it was possible to die of dehydration this way.

“Please. Enough teasing. What more do you need? There’s no part of me that you haven’t bitten, licked, or sucked, so just fuck me already. Please. I don”t beg for anyone but I’m begging you, just you. Please, Deke. Please, alpha. Please.” His last plea was a full-blown sob.

Ollie worked himself back on Deke’s clever fingers until a hand stilled him. “Are you that desperate? Need to get fucked so badly you’re gonna just do it yourself? Are you sure you’re not in heat?”

A fire lit somewhere within Ollie, causing him to look over his shoulder and meet the alpha’s eyes. “Are you sure you’re in rut? Because you’re doing a lot of talking and not much else.”

Deke snarled, fingers disappearing, leaving Ollie clutching on nothing. The alpha lurched forward, blanketing himself over the beta and biting into the base of his spine, piercing the skin just below his hairline, wrenching away only to say, “Remember, you asked for this. Begged for it, even.”

Before Ollie could do much more than brace himself, there was a sound of ripping fabric and then Deke’s cock was slamming home in one thrust, wrenching a pained cry from Ollie as his body fought to accommodate the intrusion. Despite his threat, Deke didn’t move right away, his hands running soothingly along Ollie’s back, blunt nails dragging over the skin until goosebumps erupted in their wake.

“I’m good. Please…”

Deke pulled back a few inches before thrusting back in, earning another throaty whine from Ollie.

“Fuck, you feel so good on my cock. It’s like you were made for this,” Deke said, fucking into Ollie, quickly building up to a punishing rhythm. “Are you full yet? Did you just need your alpha to fill your slutty little hole?”

Ollie couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. Deke’s stream of consciousness filth combined with the punishing pace of his thrusts had him too far gone.

Deke mouthed at his neck, his shoulder, pounding him into the mattress, using him like some fuck toy. “You were made for this, made for me. I’m going to fuck you until you can’t think of anybody’s cock but mine, until you know you’re mine.”

“Yours. Just yours,” Ollie answered without thought. It felt good, felt right. He wanted it all. No, he needed it. Needed Deke to take him, claim him, breed him. Needed to be marked and claimed and used so anyone who looked at him knew who he belonged to.

Ollie was so close. Everything seemed amplified, the ragged sound of their panting breaths, the obscene sound of lube squelching and skin slapping, the headboard slamming against the wall in time with the mattress squeaking beneath him… It all just intensified the delicious heat pooling inside him, turning his whole body liquid, until he felt like he could pour through Deke’s hands.

Could the others hear them? Were they out there listening? Wondering if Ollie was being torn apart from the inside out? The answer was yes. Yes. In the best possible way.

Until it wasn’t.

Ollie’s heart tripped in his chest, sweat sliding down his back as reality came crashing down on him. Reality in the form of Deke’s knot battering against his entrance—far too big, too much for a beta to handle. He’d taken a knot before, but Deke’s dick was huge, far bigger than anyone he’d been with before. He already felt stretched beyond his limits, and his knot wasn’t even fully popped.

“I don’t think I can,” he suddenly said, voice panicked.

Deke’s lips were against his ear. “You can. You were made for this, made for me. Made to take my knot.”

“I wasn’t, though,” Ollie reminded him, trying to pull away even as Deke held him steady. “I can’t. I don’t think it’s going to work.”

“You can and you will,” Deke said firmly, not breaking his rhythm at all, just biting at Ollie’s ear, his voice an almost hypnotic purr. “Just relax. Let me in. Your body knows what to do. You said you wanted me to breed you. Fuck you full. Just let me in so I can fill you up. I promise, I’ll make you feel so good.”

Deke’s words were like magic, his body liquifying once more just as Deke gripped Ollie’s hips, pinning him to the mattress with one final thrust, tearing a scream from him as his knot breached that tight ring of muscle, locking them together. Ollie gave a frantic whine as Deke’s knot continued to grow inside him, grinding against Ollie’s prostate with each of the alpha’s aborted thrusts until the beta was thrown right off the edge unexpectedly, his whole body—his release—so intense his vision went fuzzy at the edges.

Deke didn’t stop, though. The alpha rutted against him with short, shallow thrusts, a whine of frustration reverberating between them as he couldn’t seem to get the friction he craved. Ollie bit down on his lip, trying to bear the pins and needles that shot through him with each of Deke’s movements as oversensitivity set in and each thrust became painful.

He needed Deke to come.

Now.

He craned his head back over his shoulder to catch Deke’s eye, fingers threading in his hair. “Come on, alpha. Stop stalling. Put your pups in me. Fill me up. Knock me up.”

Deke came with a snarl, teeth sinking into Ollie’s shoulder as his release filled him, going and going and going until the beta was a little worried it would run out of space and he might burst from it.

Deke rolled them onto their sides, his hand sliding over Ollie’s belly, rubbing it gently. “Mine,” he rumbled, like there was an actual baby in there.

Ollie’s cock twitched like it was trying to rally, but he needed more than a minute. He might need a whole month. He’d never come so hard in his entire life.

They laid there for a long while, Deke nuzzling his scent gland, rubbing his tummy, their legs tangled together.

Ollie was drifting off when Deke said, “Ollie?”

He cracked his eyes open, seeing nothing more than shadows in the darkness. “Mm?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Why?” Ollie asked. “For what?”

He pressed fingers into the wound on his shoulder. “I kind of maimed you.”

Ollie laughed softly. “I know. I was there.”

Another soft kiss, almost like an apology, landed on Ollie’s neck. “I also…kind of liked maiming you. I wanted everyone to know.”

“To know?” Ollie prompted, frowning.

“That you’re mine,” Deke said before quickly adding, “I know you’re not. Not really, but that alpha part of me didn’t care. He thinks you’re mine.”

I am.Ollie was more Deke’s than anyone’s. But he didn’t say that. He couldn’t. Not yet. Ollie craned his neck to look over his shoulder, making sure Deke met his gaze. “I don’t mind. I loved everything we did. Well, it would be nice if alpha Deke wasn’t into delayed orgasms, but that’s my only real complaint.”

Deke grinned at him, that huge genuine smile that always made him look like he was up to something, so obvious even in the pale sliver of light from the bathroom. Ollie was pretty sure his heart stopped.

“Sorry about that, too,” Deke said. “But you have no idea how hot you are when you’re desperate and begging for it, Ollie. Seriously. I was losing my mind, but the more you begged, the more I wanted you to beg. But then you started talking about…”

Ollie grinned back, knowing Deke was blushing even in the shadows. “About…”

“Breeding you. Putting my pups in you. I had to be inside you. I couldn’t wait anymore.”

Before Ollie could say anything, Deke pressed their lips together, giving him a sweet almost lazy kiss. When he pulled back, Ollie closed his eyes, settling his cheek on Deke’s bicep where his arm lay trapped beneath him. Deke went back to rubbing Ollie’s belly. “You really like the idea of knocking me up, huh?” Ollie asked.

Deke’s hand froze. “Shut up,” he said, embarrassed.

“What? It’s cute,” Ollie teased.

“Whatever,” Deke muttered. “You like it, too.”

Ollie grinned in the dark. “I do. Yeah.”

After a beat of silence, Deke asked, “Would you? If you could?”

Ollie’s brows knitted together. “Huh?”

“Have a baby? Would you?”

Ollie frowned. “I-I don’t know. I guess I always thought I’d have kids someday. I didn’t ever imagine myself carrying them for obvious reasons. But I guess if it was possible, yeah. I would.”

“Even mine?” Deke asked softly.

Especially yours.But Ollie didn’t say that either. “Yeah, of course. I’m here with you, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but I’m still not convinced you don’t just feel sorry for me.”

“I’m not Mother Theresa,” Ollie assured him. “I’m not into charity work, especially the kind that might destroy my ass.”

Deke giggled. “Are you saying you like me?” he asked, sounding absurdly hopeful.

“Are you saying you can’t tell?” Ollie countered, somehow both amused and embarrassed.

A pleased rumble reverberated from Deke’s chest through Ollie’s back. “Are you…purring, baby alpha?”

“Shut up,” Deke whined. “I can’t help it. I don’t know how to control any of this yet.”

“I like it,” Ollie promised, threading his fingers through Deke’s where they still rested on his slightly rounded belly. “It’s cute.” When Deke slapped his chest, Ollie gave another laugh. “Fine, it’s…soothing.”

He wasn’t lying. It was soothing. Ollie was warm and full with Deke curled around him, nuzzling his scent gland, the low rumble of his purr and the softness of his breath against his neck lulling Ollie to sleep. “I knew what I was signing up for,” he said when he knew Deke was still stewing over it.

“Are you sure? My alpha’s kind of a douche,” Deke muttered.

Ollie barked out a laugh, then winced at the tug on his rim and another glancing blow to his thoroughly abused prostate. “My beta is kind of a slut with a bit of a breeding kink…and clearly thinks your douchebag alpha is pretty hot.”

In his post-nut clarity, he could admit he liked being the object of Deke’s desire. The one he’d trusted enough to see him through this. He could also acknowledge that Deke’s douchey alpha and Ollie’s slutty beta were both just them, different aspects of them, a more primal, raw side, but still just them. But talking about them as separate entities seemed to soothe Deke’s embarrassment, so that was what Ollie would do.

Ollie hissed as Deke kissed the bite mark on his shoulder. “Another inch and I could have accidentally mated us for life,” Deke said, not sounding terribly upset about that prospect.

“Oh, no. That would have been terrible,” Ollie deadpanned, squeezing Deke’s hand.

“It’s not funny,” Deke said, then gave a jaw-cracking yawn. “I don’t want you to stay because you feel obligated. I want you to stay because you want…because you want to.”

Ollie frowned. Was that what Deke had intended to say before he hesitated? Had he meant to say because you want me? If that were the case, then Deke had already won half the battle. Ollie did want him. More than anything. And lying there, like this, he knew he had a choice to make.

He could trust his instincts like Loch, give up his whole life and throw himself back into danger for the love of this sweet, silly boy and a pack of misfits. Or he could run away again, hide in that hollowed-out shell of an apartment, and pretend he liked his life. Pretend he wasn’t living like a man on the run, always waiting for the next attack.

“Go to sleep, baby alpha. This is only the first wave. We have a long stretch ahead of us, and once your douchey alpha takes over again, you’ll forget about all of this.”

Deke’s voice was almost meek as he asked, “Are you still gonna be here when I wake up? If you want to run, I wouldn’t blame you.”

Ollie twisted just enough to drop a surprise kiss on Deke’s cheek. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

Deke’s whole body seemed to melt around him, blanketing him in this cozy pocket of warmth as Ollie pulled the sheet up over them.

Just before he drifted off, he heard Deke whisper, “Okay, good.”