Chapter 25 #2
She blinks up at me with wide, glassy eyes. “No.”
“No?” I frown as I look over her face then scan her body for injuries. “No, what?”
“I’m not hurt.” Her eyes move from mine and drop to my lips, lingering there briefly before they fall to my chest. “Not really.”
I immediately start backing her up toward their nest and plant her on the bed as soon as the back of her thighs touch the edge.
“Not really?”
“Not really, what?” Nikolai asks as he scoots toward us. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” Olive waves him off but hasn’t taken her eyes off of me.
Maybe she hit her head?
Lifting my hands, I cup her cheeks then slide my fingers up into her hair, gently feeling for a bump or something far worse but I don’t find anything.
“Oh, I see.”
My eyes flick to Nikolai and I feel my frown deepen.
He’s staring at my chest now, too.
Maybe it’s me.
I take a step back and glance down at my body but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Everything looks the same to me, a little damp from my shower and I’m wearing a towel instead of clothes, but the same otherwise.
I look between my omegas again, more confused than before because I have no idea what they’re looking at, so I glance over my shoulder to make sure there isn’t someone lurking behind me, or I haven’t sprouted a tail or some shit.
I could be wrong about them staring at me or my chest, it’s not outside of the realm of possibility, but they are acting very strange all of the sudden.
Olive made a huge mess that I didn’t notice when I ran out here, that much is clear.
She emptied the pantry and cupboards, the fridge is wide open, and the noise I heard had to have been her dumping out my medical bag all over the table.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask as I turn to face them again. “It looks like—”
“I didn’t realize you had chest hair.”
My brows shoot up and my eyes widen before I look down at the offending body part then meet her hooded stare. “I do.”
“And a happy trail,” Nikolai adds. “We haven’t seen you like this before, big guy.”
“Like what?”
Olive reaches for my hands and tugs me into their nest. “This.”
She nods to me as she gets to her feet, turning me around to sit on the bed before she closes the accordion door, locks it, and comes to stand between my knees.
An involuntary growl rumbles through my chest and my eyes flutter closed when she does because I can smell her, smell both of my omegas as they perfume out of nowhere.
Their scents are so strong I can taste them on my tongue, the scent of their slick is slowly replacing all of the oxygen in the enclosed space, filling it, filling me.
I feel a small, warm hand slide over my pec, then delicate fingers tracing the symbols on my skin before a second starts to do the same. Two more hands begin to move over the tattoos on my back and another growl spills from my lips as I simultaneously start to purr.
That’s all I can hear.
Nothing but the sounds I’m making, and the thundering of three heartbeats that are nearly in sync.
It’s almost as if my senses are in overdrive; my skin is tight and hyperaware of every gentle touch and soft caress, the only thing I can taste or smell is eucalyptus and peonies, and lavender. Everything is heightened right now, and my mind isn’t the only thing that’s taken notice.
My cock hardened the second I scented their slick and I swear it’s getting harder with each move they make.
Painfully hard.
To the point of no return and as Olive flattens her palm against my abs and slowly follows my happy trail, I snap back to reality.
“Olive,” I grunt as my eyes pop open and I grab her wrist. “Nikolai.” I reach behind me and still his hand that’s resting on the top of the towel around my waist. “Stop.”
They both do so with a small whine, and I don’t miss the flash of confusion and twinge of hurt I feel from both of them.
“We should have asked,” Olive whispers as she tries to take a step back.
“No.” I shake my head and don’t loosen my grip. “It’s not that.”
“It’s okay if it is, she’s right.” Nikolai rubs his cheek on the back of my shoulder before resting it there. “We should have asked. This is different.”
I frown as I search Olive’s face, trying to get a read on the situation. “I don’t understand, I…”
Oh.
Several things occur to me at that moment.
I’m naked save for a towel secured loosely around my hips.
My scent is almost as strong as theirs.
We were getting ready for bed and that means Olive is wearing only an oversized t-shirt and panties, and Nikolai is in nothing but boxer-briefs.
They are both slicking.
My dick is so goddamn erect it might break off at the knot.
What they were doing, the way my omegas were touching me, it wasn’t like the other times we’ve touched.
It’s not the need to be close to their scent match, the need for comfort and protection from their alpha.
Nikolai and Olive were touching me with a level of reverence I don’t deserve, caresses full of adoration, desire, and love.
This is real intimacy.
My omegas want me, want me in the same way I crave them, and Nikolai saying this was different must mean the conditions were right for them to act on their feelings.
Their instincts.
I blow out a breath and shake my head, about to argue or something else really fucking stupid but before I can, Olive stops me.
“You still don’t think we want you?”
My jaw snaps shut and I look away.
Yes, but that’s not the only reason I keep cock-blocking myself.
“Rune,” she whispers, smiling as she frees herself from my grip and cups my cheeks, her thumbs brushing under my eyes as Nikolai wraps his arms around my waist from behind. “Sweetheart, of course we want you. We love you, and not just because we scent matched.”
“You’re kind of perfect, dobryy velikan,” Nikolai says as he presses a kiss to my shoulder. “You’re our hero.”
I frown but Olive nods. “Our hero, our scent match. Our big, giant teddy bear who gives a fantastic cuddle.” I snort and she smiles.
“Rune, we love you because you’re perfect for us.
You have a beautiful heart, the kindest soul.
I don’t think you even realize how in tune you are with how we feel or what we need, and you’re more than willing to give that to us even when you don’t understand why we feel that way about you.
Don’t roll your eyes, mister, it’s true.
” When I do, in fact, roll my eyes, both of my omegas giggle and I can’t help the way it makes me smile.
“You may have been through some shit, shit that you didn’t deserve to experience, especially since it molded the way you see yourself, but that doesn’t make you unworthy of mates and love.
Falling for you would have happened whether we matched or not because of everything that makes you who you are, but we have the added bonus of being able to threaten you with forever because of that.
We are going to love you for the rest of time, Rune, and I need you to start trying to accept that. ”
I look at Olive for a long few seconds, searching her beautiful green eyes for a shred of doubt or untruth, but there isn’t any. There’s nothing but that love she was talking about staring back at me, and the same way I have from day one, I cave to my omegas because I can’t argue or deny them.
“Plus,” Olive says with a grin as she slides her arms around my neck, putting us chest to chest as Nikolai tightens his hold. “You are hot as fuck and smell incredible. Do you really expect us to love you the way we do, as much as we do, and not want to jump your bones?”
Nikolai nips at my shoulder then rests his chin there. “Running out here in a towel, still wet from your shower, ready to kick some ass because Liv was being… herself… That’s catnip, big guy. You didn’t know it but you were basically asking to get fucked. In the nicest way possible, of course.”
My heart starts slamming against my ribs, beating out an unsteady rhythm as I pry myself away from my mates and get to my feet.
“Rune?” Olive asks as she climbs on the bed next to Nikolai, both of them watching me with worried expressions as I begin to pace. “Sweetheart, what—”
“I can’t.”
“Your body says otherwise.”
I look down at my dick with a huff, still rock hard and standing so far off of my body it’s causing a fucking draft under the towel.
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then explain it, sweetheart,” Olive says as she tries to stay calm. “Because honestly, if you don’t, I’m going to start getting a complex thanks to the mixed signals.”
I scrub my hands over my face as I let out a frustrated growl.
The last thing I want to do is tell my scent matches, to explain to my omegas that I can’t fuck them the way I want to because, even though I’m pushing forty fucking years old, I’d never been hugged until they did it, let alone made love to someone.
Anyone. Hell, for the longest time, I was the only one who saw my dick and after that, it was The Circuit’s quack of a doctor when I got shot in the thigh.
I have no experience with intimacy or anything else like it, but my omegas have.
I don’t count Olive’s history. Where she was when I first scented her and everywhere she lived before, that’s not what I mean.
She’s been living and intimate with Nikolai since living through that hell, and what they shared was beautiful.
And Nikolai? He has a bonded alpha out there.
Dimitri. I know how much he loves his mate, I can feel it.
I didn’t need to see or hear about their love making for me to know it was just as meaningful.
Not only would I fumble through sex like an idiot, I don’t know the first thing about creating those kinds of feelings while performing the act.
I don’t want to have sex with my omegas if it isn’t going to mean something to all of us, and I’d hate for them to see me as weak because I don’t have a fucking clue what to do with the erection from hell that will not go away.