by Kathryn Moon
“Bullet and I met in the army. Not the same unit. He looked me up when he got back and brought me in. I… needed something to focus on,” Tornado said.
I curled onto my side, sliding my left leg over his and reaching out to trace a jagged scar on the right side of his chest.
“It’s not a story that’s much different than most ex-army,” he said quietly, throat bobbing with a deep swallow.
“I’ll still hear it if you’re ever in the mood to tell it,” I said.
He nodded but he was growing tight beneath me, and I wondered if the small size of the room, and the warmth that helped me settle, was making him equally uncomfortable.
“Do you want to touch her?” Mackenzie asked.
Tornado swallowed again, glancing at him and then back at me, and the tight clamp of his arm around my waist loosened slightly, Mackenzie distracting his thoughts from wherever they’d been headed. Tornado nodded, caramel brown eyes meeting mine. I was loose and soft in his hold, smiling faintly, and I certainly didn’t mind the direction the mood was taking.
“Put yourself between his legs, Baby. Facing me so I can watch,” Mackenzie said.
It occurred to me that of all my alphas, Mackenzie was the one who hadn’t given me a pet name yet. I wondered if he was too grounded for it, or if my name was sweet enough already. I slid forward as Tornado made room for me, adjusting himself so his cock was pressed to my back. He twisted my hair into a bundle at the base of my neck and then rested his arms on either ledge, waiting for instructions.
“Spread your legs.”
I did, my breath hitching in my chest at the gentle order and the thrill of exposing myself.
“Can you see her?”
“A bit,” Tornado said, dark beard soft against my temple, nuzzling enough to scent mark me. I shivered and sucked in lungfuls of leather and tart, sweet cherries, the combination strange and dangerous and earthy.
“Kiss everything you can reach,” Mackenzie said, answering my grin with a wink.
Tornado kissed my hair, brought his fingers to my chin to tilt my head so he could kiss my temple again, cheek, jaw. I turned my face as much as I could and his nose nudged against mine, lips on the corner of my mouth, tongue flicking out for a taste. He huffed and laughed. “Still got a bit of Bullet on you, love.”
I craned my neck and Tornado purred, the sound rattling and uneven and making my thighs clench and my nipples tighten. He sucked soft kisses along my throat until I was whimpering and squirming, and then tilted my head in the opposite direction and repeated every touch.
I tried to twist to face him, and Mackenzie was quick. “No, Baby. Stay as you are.”
I whined and settled and Tornado lifted my right arm, torturing me one kiss at a time, finding new places that made me flush and pant. Places that I never would have expected to feel so thrilling. By the time he was pressing kisses to my palm, I was shifting my hips under the water for a silky kind of friction and gripping tight to the ledge.
“Suck her fingers,” Mackenzie said, a soft rasp in his words. I looked at him, eyes full of need, and his hand covered the tented crotch of his jeans, cupping and rubbing himself slightly.
Then Tornado pulled my index and middle finger into his warm mouth and my eyes fell shut, a noisy moan escaping and my toes curling against the porcelain bed of the tub.
“Oh, please. Please,” I hissed as Tornado’s tongue slid between my digits. Who the hell knew the soft skin at the base of your fingers was so fucking sensitive? One more rustle of the water I was in and I was sure I’d be coming. “Please let me come,” I whimpered.
“Other arm,” Mackenzie said.
“Fuck you,” I said without much heat as Tornado kissed my fingertips and laughed behind me. I glared at the alpha giving orders and he grinned in response, reaching into the water and pulling my ankle up and onto his lap, ignoring the water shedding off my skin.
“Other arm,” he repeated to Tornado.
I thought at first Mackenzie was trying to get me so riled up that I’d be begging like wild. His fingers were working magic on my foot, thumbs digging through aches I hadn’t even realized I had. Tornado was moving more slowly down the length of my arm, or at least it felt like it, using his tongue and teeth more than before. He looked up as he reached my elbow, and Mackenzie nodded. Before I could ask why, Mackenzie’s fingers twisted on the sole of my foot and Tornado sucked hard on the inside of my elbow.
I gasped as a sudden wave of pleasure swept through me, my back arching, fully expecting it to subside at any second. Instead, it continued, an orgasm rushing over me as I cried out in surprise and delight, body shaking and trembling in the water. I must’ve kicked or tried to escape because Tornado dragged me back to his chest, my arm abandoned in favor of him growling and nipping at my throat. Mackenzie held my ankle firmly in his lap, and Tornado hooked my other ankle under the water so I was open to them.
“Go on,” Mackenzie said, and before I could catch my breath, Tornado was touching me everywhere, hands caressing and pinching at my breasts and the insides of my thighs until they narrowed their focus on my clit. He held me open, fingers spreading me in a V, and then rubbed roughly over my clit and lips and opening.
I was making animal sounds, rocking frantically in Tornado’s hold, and my arms flew back to grip onto him, hair or neck or shoulders, I didn’t care as long as I could anchor myself.
“No, Baby,” Mackenzie said sharply, still without bark but a clear order.
I almost ignored him, until I remembered that Tornado might react poorly to sudden touches if he had PTSD symptoms from his time in the army. Mackenzie slid forward on the ledge and I took his hands instead, locking eyes with him as Tornado pushed me up another steep climb of arousal without letting me fall from the first.
“Beautiful, the pair of you,” Mackenzie murmured.
I tugged him closer and he resisted, offering us space but holding tight to my hands. Tornado’s beard continuously scraped against my throat, his purr aggressive and steady, vibrating against my back.
“Fuck her a bit with your fingers,” Mackenzie said, and I threw my head back onto Tornado’s shoulder as he filled me up with two fingers, stretching and pumping. Water splashed against the walls of the tub, and the scent of the alphas and my own perfume mingled into a thick cloud. Coffee, leather, cherries, and my own dense and syrupy sweetness.
Tornado was hard against my back, but completely still, his knot an unspoken possibility pressing between us.
“Come, Baby,” Mackenzie said as Tornado brushed my clit with his thumb.
Mackenzie didn’t need the damn alpha bark. I came, strangling my shout in my throat, eyes locked with his while Tornado kissed my neck where my pulse hammered in my veins. Heat flooded through me, loosening the tight coils of forced pleasure until I was too weak, sinking slightly in the water, my hands falling from Mackenzie’s. Tornado rubbed firm but gentle circles over my pussy, his fingers slipping free from me as I stopped clutching.
“Good girl,” Mackenzie said. And then for the first time, he purred, a silky smooth sound.
I sagged, limp as Tornado kissed my cheek. “She’s perfect,” Tornado murmured. “You’re perfect, love.”
“She is. Let’s wash her up and get her tucked in again before the water gets cold.”
I felt like a doll between them, only more cherished. Mackenzie kept the water and shampoo out of my eyes as he washed my hair, those wicked fingers of his leaving me sighing as he massaged my hair. Tornado touched every inch of me as he washed my skin, and I whimpered slightly as I realized I was clean again, and without a scent mark.
“We’ll fix you up for bed, don’t worry,” Tornado said, and Mackenzie rewarded him with a warm smile.
They toweled me off between them, my whole body weak with release and exhaustion. Tornado pulled me to his bare skin, his crackling purr sounding as his cheek pressed to my throat, shoulders, and wrists, leaving lighter marks as he stroked up my back. He passed me to Mack
enzie and then re-dressed. “I’ll be in the living room.”
I watched him leave the bedroom as Mackenzie led me back to the bed. “He won’t stay?” I asked.
“No. Night terrors.”
And I was distracted from his answer as I watched him strip. He was thicker than Tornado, the muscular planes of his stomach slightly softer and more rounded, but still undoubtedly built with strength. Every inch of skin was coated in dense brown freckles, thicker than my own and on slightly tanner skin. His cock was thicker too, although not quite as long. It was also still hard. His knot hadn’t swelled yet, but I knew how to help with that. I wanted to trace those scattered freckles like constellations…with my tongue.
“You’re exhausted,” he said, and I looked up to catch him grinning as he guided me out of the bathroom and back to the bed.
“I can wake up,” I said, although the declaration was undermined with a long yawn. I slid under the sheets of the bed and waited for him to join me.
He snorted and shook his head, pulling his glasses from his nose. “I’ll be honest with you. I’m hoping the first time I come with you, it’s with my knot buried as deep as it can go. Never knotted anyone before and I’m feeling giddy as a virgin about it, Baby.” I licked my lips at the thought. “Settle down. It can wait. I want it to be a nice long first time, and I’m pretty sure if we went for it right now, you’d be out like a light, satisfied or not.”
“Definitely satisfied,” I said. He’d gotten me off by massaging my damn foot and Tornado kissing my arm, for goodness sake. I’m sure he’d already researched how to leave my brain mush with a good knotting. “But alright. You’re still not out of cuddling me.”
He relaxed and joined me, climbing into the bed and scooping me up in his arms, settling me against his side. “The others will be back soon. Want me to stay or give someone else a turn when they get here?”
“I want you to stay,” I said, surprised he would ask.
He purred again, pleased with my decision, and turned his head. His forehead nudged mine and I tilted my head back, lips ready and waiting for his in a soft, slow kiss. Coffee flavored or not, the kiss was lulling, going on and on. We were trading breaths and slow, pulling exchanges, right up until I fell asleep.
17
Baby
“What’s she doing?” a blunt voice growled.
“Burrowing, nesting. The room’s too big for her,” Mackenzie explained.
“The room’s too big?”
I smiled to hear Jonah’s voice, relieved he was back and in the room with me. I was deep in blankets and pillows, surrounded by warm male limbs that I was treating as structural elements to a nest rather than any objects of desire. On the other side of the thin blankets, alphas spoke over my head.
“I’m making her breakfast,” Brody, Mackenzie’s brother, said in a slightly irritated grunt that made me squirm.
“Since when is the room too big? Why didn’t she say anything?” Jonah whispered.
“I noticed it last night,” Mackenzie said. “Closet is too small, and bathroom’s not soft enough as it is.”
“Smells right in here,” I offered from inside my cave. Bodies on my left shuffled and then Seth was slinking down under the covers to find me. “I do kind of want breakfast though.”
“You better,” Brody growled from outside.
“You can have breakfast in bed, precious, but…” Seth trailed off, looking at the white sheets around us. I would make a mess, and I didn’t want to nest with accidental leftovers.
“We could make her a blanket fort.”
Seth must’ve seen my eyes light up at Mackenzie’s suggestion because he was shuffling back out from under the covers. “That’s the plan.”
“A blanket fort?” Jonah murmured.
Brody grunted. “Gonna call in the girls on this one.”
“Do you think that’s smart?” Jonah asked.
“They’re sure as shit gonna know more about making Baby a nice blanket nest shit thing than we are. Tiny’s got like…wish-boards about ‘em.”
The bedroom door closed behind Brody and I snorted. Brody was every bit as handsome as any of my alphas, but I liked Mackenzie’s curiosity and command better than his older brother’s gruff determination.
“Come on, we can make do for her in the meantime,” Seth said, and I felt him shifting at my side, nudging into Jonah.
“I’ll go get more blankets,” Mackenzie said. Before I could whine at his leaving, he ducked down under the covers, hair rumpled and eyes smiling. “Morning, Baby.”
“Morn-mph,” I managed before smiling into a firm pressing kiss, my hands reaching greedily for his skin. Mackenzie caught them before I could drag him down against me, tucking my wrists back against my chest, his fingertips skimming over my breasts once before diving out from under the covers.
“Keep her tucked in between you,” he said to the others.
Jonah and Seth were both in boxers, and they shuffled me between them, Seth sliding over me. It was bright enough in the room for light to bleed through the sheets and I turned to Jonah, examining his chest beneath the covers. He purred as I traced lines of a tattoo on his chest, a cityscape growing over his ribs. For once, the sound only soothed me instead of making me want to jump his divinely arranged bones. I set my head down in the crook of his shoulder, and Seth pulled the sheet up over all of us before draping an arm over my waist.
“What happened last night after you left?” I asked.
Jonah threw his arm back behind his head, propping the blankets up enough that I could see his profile. “Nothing. Looks like it really was just Buzz and Indy dropping in with your friend.”
“But they meant something by it,” I said, and his head turned to me. I wished he wasn’t quite so good at hiding his expressions, there was only the tiniest fold between his eyebrows to tell me how serious he found the situation. I reached up to it, pressing my finger to the spot and watched him relax microscopically. “I know you still think one little thing will send me running back to the Center for a new pack. You’re going to have to learn to trust that I’m here for good and bad.”
Seth's knees tucked against mine and he pulled my hair off the back of my neck, kissing the spot as I watched Jonah struggle over what to say. My alpha’s hand reached up to cover mine over his heart as his eyes scanned my face, no doubt looking for one little chink in my resolve to know and accept every inch of this pack.
“They meant something by it,” Jonah agreed finally. “I dunno what. Maybe your friend wanting to see you was an excuse for them to come and irritate us, ruffle our feathers. Or…”
“I’m worried for Lola. I think they used her as an excuse for them to come see an unclaimed omega,” I said. A growl rolled up from his throat and his hand tightened over mine.
“You did good, not letting them bully the two of you into showing her your nest,” Seth said.
“I love Lola, I wish I could’ve brought her up here,” I admitted, heart sinking. “I’m kinda living out her dream life at the moment. And she’s…living out my nightmare.”
“‘Cept you’ve got the shitty nest,” Jonah muttered, and then grunted as I pinched his nipple.
“It’s not shitty,” I said. “I didn’t even notice the size thing until Mackenzie was trying to figure out why I was being a brat last night.”
Which was a lie, but if it made him feel better then I’d be a damn liar about it.
“It’s not for you to figure out, baby girl. It’s for us to anticipate for you,” Jonah said.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, leaning back into Seth. “Anticipate me a t-shirt that smells like you, please.”
I celebrated the brief smile that flickered over Jonah’s lips before he slid out from under the covers, rifling in the discarded clothes next to the bed. His hand returned, presenting me a threadbare black t-shirt in offering. I shimmied into it under the covers, the fabric cool on my skin and warm with Jonah’s scent. He returned another second later with a clean pai
r of boxers.
“These too if you want ‘em,” he said. “We’re about to have company.”
The front door of the apartment opened, a flood of feminine chatter coming in, and I stifled my whimper, turning into Seth's chest. Maybe I could hide in the bathroom while they built the blanket fort?
I sat inside of a glittering, patterned, warm tent full of pillows, feather duvets, tray tables, and giggling betas. Well, I was starting to wonder if Emmy wasn’t secretly an alpha with the way she and Tiny—a deceptively small and bossy beta with silvery purple hair and possibly permanent black lipstick—took charge of building me a nest. My only regret was not reaching out to them sooner.
Emmy sent Bullet and Mackenzie out on the errand of finding bedding that didn’t feel ‘suited to a hospital setting,’ and my men had brought back a decadent collection in shades of blues and greens, as well as strings of white lights with flower-shaped bulbs. Ryan and Thumb had swung by with a golden cigarette case of hand-rolled joints and a box of infused truffles. Chef and Brody were working in the kitchen of the apartment, an all I could eat buffet of crispy potatoes, bacon, and fried egg sandwiches ferried in and out of the room by Candy and her cotton pink hair.
It had been a busy morning, and I had ended up retreating to the bathroom for a shower with Jonah at one point when the room was busy with people installing a wire line to hang sheets and lights from. Now, with most of the alphas out of the apartment, and with me resting on a throne of colorful pillows that had been hugged and scented by my pack, I was finally relaxing.
“Rosemary, fennel, grapefruit,” Tiny read from the small label of the truffle box. Her nose wrinkled. “Green’s palette is a little ritzy for me.”
“It’s good for me,” I said, holding out a hand as she passed me the chocolate. I took nibbling bites, humming as subtle citrus fought curious fennel on my tongue, letting the chocolate melt on my fingers as I took my time.
“Can I have the raspberry?” Tiny asked.
“Of course you can.”