Baby + the Late Night Howlers

by Kathryn Moon

  He knelt, and my eyes bugged as I tried to chew through a too-hot bite of food and answer him for fuck’s sake.

  “Please, please don’t give up on me,” he whispered. “I swear, I’m never gonna make you doubt—“

  “Shut up,” I said, as soon as I swallowed.

  Jonah’s words died on his tongue as if I’d cut it out myself, and his expression sank, shoulders sagging.

  “Sorry, no. I just—I liked where you were going with that, but I worked up this whole speech and you were making it kind of pointless,” I said, trying to fight my rising smile.

  Jonah’s gaze softened and he sat on his heels in front of me. “I like your speeches.”

  “Good, because you’re in for a lifetime of them,” I said, grinning. In the background of the bar Candy cooed and one of the others snorted, but I couldn’t tear my stare from my alpha. “I belong with this pack. And not just because I’ve bonded four members.”

  “You do,” Jonah murmured.

  “Hear, hear!” Roger called out, and Jonah’s eyes rolled briefly before landing on me again.

  “I think I belong with you too, Jonah Howler,” I said, voice cracking.

  Jonah’s hands reached for mine, and I scrambled to set the egg roll aside with a soundtrack of more chuckles from the pack. His thumbs stroked my palms in soothing circles. “You do, baby girl.”

  “And I think Seth does too, and he has for a long time,” I said, finding my beta in the pack and nodding him over.

  Seth’s eyes were shining and he walked to my side, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Keep tryin’ to tell him.”

  “I’m listening, I promise,” Jonah urged, trading my hand with Mackenzie’s mark, for one of Seth’s hands. “You’re both mine, you always were, I just—“

  I shook my head, and he fell silent again. “I am not leaving. I am not going to regret choosing you.”

  Jonah sagged and tugged my palm to his lips, kissing the center and then rubbing his cheek over the spot.

  “I regret making you wait,” he said, looking up. “I’m sorry, to both of you. If I hadn’t’ve been so—”

  “Nope, not doin’ that either,” Seth said, tugging Jonah’s hand to pull him up from the floor. “No beatin’ yourself up. No thinkin’ you aren’t good enough. We choose you, and you’re just gonna have to accept that.”

  “Make out, already!” Bullet crowed, hands cupped around his mouth like a megaphone.

  I snorted and shook my head. Right from the egg roll, my plan for this conversation had gone awry. But I couldn’t really complain. Jonah had finally accepted my decision before I’d been forced to spell it out for the third time. And maybe we could’ve said the words in private, but I liked our audience. I liked having our family watch us come together this way.

  “I love you,” I said as Jonah stepped closer, his arms curling around both Seth and me.

  “I love you, love you both too much to keep being such an idiot.”

  “Hey, idiot. What’d I say?” Seth asked, arching an eyebrow.

  Jonah smiled and his head bent to us. Seth and I pressed our lips to either corner of his mouth, and I trembled as Jonah’s purr vibrated against the kiss.

  “Think they’re gonna mate right in front of us?” Brody asked, and I snorted and tucked my face into Jonah’s neck.

  “Pack of fuckin’ crazies you got yourself, baby girl,” Jonah said, faking a whisper.

  “I think I fit in just fine, thank you very much,” I said and grinned, bouncing on the balls of my feet as he purred again.

  “You hungry?” he asked.

  The ‘or’ was left lingering at the end of the question. Was I hungry or did I want to go bond right now? Unfortunately, the answer was both.

  “I think I want to carb up,” I said, stepping back and hunting for my abandoned egg roll. “You know…before…” I added, waggling my eyebrows and winking.

  Dusty hooted and slapped the bar with his palm. Seth laughed, and my big, pretty, apple pie alpha blushed rosy and shook his head.

  Jonah grabbed a plate and started piling food onto it. He passed me, bending to whisper in my ear, “Gonna wear you out till you can’t walk or think of anything but me and our pretty beta.”

  I swallowed and whined, my pussy clenching on nothing. Now that was more like it.

  “Been thinking about Bullet’s place up north. The things about it that were nice for you. With the sweet—the girls and their alpha’s shacking up, there’s gonna be more space in the Plaza and I was thinking we could put together some renovations. Get a nice little home set up for you, and all of us bondmates.”

  “Jonah!” I gasped, arching toward his fingertip as it traced the outline of one nipple and then scratched lightly to the other. I keened and moaned and dug my fingers into Seth’s hair as his tongue delved into my pussy again. “Oh, fuck! Seth. Please. Please, someone make me come!”

  Seth laughed, and I dug my heels into his back.

  “Baby girl, you’re gonna smother our beta,” Jonah purred.

  I was not entirely capable of caring. Jonah laughed, and then that wicked little fingertip ran a squirming path down to my sex and flicked back and forth over my clit. I came with a strangled scream, Seth pulling away with a gasp, two fingers plunging inside of me and pumping roughly to keep me at the edge.

  “Don’t think she cares so much for your renovation foreplay talk, hon,” Seth said.

  I whimpered and tried to roll away, but Jonah pinned me by my shoulders. That was my fourth orgasm without a goddamn knot or even a cock and I was…

  Well, okay, I was having an awesome time. But I was getting a little annoyed too. This wasn’t what I thought Jonah meant when he threatened to drive me out of my wits.

  “If neither one of you puts a dick in me in the next… two minutes, I’m gonna go find someone else,” I said.

  “This is what love feels like, huh?” Jonah asked, head hovering upside down over mine from where he crouched behind me. He was grinning, and if I wasn’t so completely fond of that look on his face I probably would’ve punched him.

  “Two minutes?” Seth asked, fucking his fingers into my soaking core. “Well that doesn’t leave me a lot of time for prep, but I’ll see what I can do, precious. Up on your knees, please.”

  Hands and knees.

  I scrambled up, heart racing, and pushed the ugly memory out of my head, setting my hands on Seth’s shoulder and drawing him to me, replacing burnt marshmallow with clean lemon. Seth indulged me for a moment and then leaned back, smiling.

  “Go on and face Scorch. Let him tell you about all the pretty rooms he wants to build you.” I shuffled on the mattress turning and facing my alpha, face immediately taken into Jonah’s hands as he licked his way into my mouth, tongue copying the pace of Seth’s fingers in my cunt.

  “Spread her for me,” Seth said.

  “Wha—?” My eyes popped open wide as Jonah pulled away grinning. His hands dropped to my ass and slowly, eyes locked with mine, he spread my cheeks apart. Seth’s touch trailed out of my sex and then back to my asshole, spreading slippery arousal along the way. “Omigod.”

  “You still want it, Baby?” Seth asked, circling the hole.

  “Fuck yes. Yes, I want it,” I moaned.

  “While you were eating crab rangoon out of Green’s fingers, Bomber and I here got it all sorted,” Jonah purred.

  I choked on my own breath as Seth wiggled a finger inside of me, and then sighed and moaned as I relaxed and his touch slid deeper. “The sex? Or our home?” I asked, licking my lips and trying to remember to breathe as Seth worked on gently stretching me.

  “Both,” Jonah said, and I laughed. “See down here, we’re gonna join up the apartments. Make you a nice big kitchen where the boys can make you all the breakfast food and curries you want. Have a few rooms for when people are sleepin’ on their own. Cozy reading space for you. Big living room.”

  Seth fumbled in the sheets for the lube he’d grabbed earlier, squirting some
between my cheeks and making me shiver.

  “Breathe, precious,” he said, chest pressing to my back, lips on my ear.

  I released a long breath I’d been holding in and as my body softened, Seth fit a second finger in. I whined but leaned into the pressure, unfamiliar but heavy inside of me. He groaned and Jonah leaned in, sucking on the hammering pulse in my neck.

  “Upstairs,” he said, and I burst out laughing, tightening around Seth’s fingers. “Upstairs, there’ll be another room or two, and then a nice big master bedroom. Get the biggest bed we can find so you can have whoever you want with you. And a real luxe bathroom.”

  “Jacuzzi tub,” I squeezed out as Seth’s fingers scissored and pumped.

  “You got it. Massage jets for when we wear you out.”

  “Adjustable showerhead,” Seth said.

  “Oh, fuck yes,” I hissed, pressing my ass onto Seth’s pumping fingers. I felt full and hollow at the same time, like my body knew exactly what else I could stand to take. “Please, I want you. I want both of you.”

  “Told you she’d be more interested in the sex than the home-reno,” Seth said.

  “Make me a pretty house, move us all to an abandoned amusement park, I don’t care,” I whined. “Just fuck me.”

  “She ready?” Jonah asked, cheeks dimpling behind his beard.

  “She’s ready,” I growled.

  “Relax for me, Baby,” Seth said, an arm circling my waist.

  I was so keyed up it seemed impossible, but then Jonah’s head bent, nuzzling my cheeks and mouthing down my throat. He breathed out over my neck, the side Bullet hadn’t bitten, and then scratched his teeth over my skin. I whined and sagged, and Seth’s fingers slipped free, replaced shortly by the head of his cock. He pressed in slowly, and Jonah nipped and sucked and worked tenderly, keeping me limp through the tight burn of the new intrusion.

  When Seth popped past the initial tight ring of muscle and started to sink and rock more easily, we both groaned. Jonah’s hands left my ass as Seth started to fuck me in slow shallow strokes, his breath panting against my ear.

  “Yes, Seth, honey, yes, that’s it,” I whined. It wasn’t enough, but it was wonderful. I gripped tight to Jonah’s shoulders, fingers digging into tight muscle.

  “Baby girl, you are dripping on me,” Jonah purred, bucking against me and stroking his cock against my pussy, coating it in arousal.

  “Now, Scorch. We need you,” Seth hissed.

  “Need your knot,” I begged.

  “God yes, I wanna feel the two of you locked together,” Seth groaned.

  “Fuck. You two are gonna make me blow before I even get in,” Jonah said, cheeks and chest flushed with arousal.

  His hands wrapped around my thighs, lifting me up with my arms around his shoulders. Seth kept close at my back, teasing and nudging against my ass, nestled close. I reached one hand down, wrapping it around Jonah’s cock and guiding it to my pussy.

  My mouth fell open as he started to push into me, the pressure and stretch deeper than simply in my core. It felt like Jonah and Seth were taking up space in my lungs and heart, filling me from head to toe. I whined, and Seth held me tight to his chest, waiting and panting against my cheek as Jonah rocked slowly in.

  We were all breathless. Weak, restrained sounds slipped past our lips as we tried not to beg each other for more.

  Except, I was never good at restraint.

  When Jonah paused, forehead on my shoulder and knot poised outside my entrance, I moaned and rocked against him. Seth hissed, following the movement, and then in a moment they were organizing a rhythm inside of me, one retreating as the other pushed in. I reached back to hold onto Seth as they started to speed up, staring down between Jonah and me to watch his dark, swollen length filling me and then retreating.

  “Don’t tease, Jonah. Please. Please, I need you,” I whined.

  “And my bite, baby girl?” he growled. “Do you need my bite?”

  “Fuck, I’m so close,” Seth whispered, starting to lose his pace.

  “Yes!” I arched my neck, offering him the unmarked side. “Yes, I want to be yours, Jonah!”

  “Make us yours, alpha,” Seth whined at my back.

  Jonah growled, pushing deep, deeper, until I stiffened with a high cry as his knot fit in and I was as full as I could possibly be, bearing down on their cocks inside of me as I came spiraling down from an impossible height.

  Jonah licked once at the curve of my shoulder. My body was shivering and sagging as the orgasm rushed through me, but I tightened up again as his teeth sank in. The ache and sting was all sweetness now, my lips curling as Jonah snarled and purred, teeth claiming me. Seth whimpered as he came, hugging me tightly, spilling into me.

  Jonah lapped at his mark, jaw loosening, and I shivered as the bond rolled in like a warm fog, wrapping me up in love and awe and bone-deep need. Jonah needed me, needed Seth, with a desperation he was afraid of. I took it into me, answered it with care and love and appreciation, and then my alpha pulled away. He looked into my eyes, an unspoken question echoing between us.

  “Do it,” I whispered. “We need him.”

  Jonah smiled, licked his lips, and then I was squished between alpha and beta as Jonah pulled Seth’s mouth to his, kissing him roughly once before tilting his head. Seth jerked and cried out as Jonah bit him and then softened, whimpering and enveloping us all in an unbroken embrace. With the first lick over the bite, I shivered as Seth lit up in the bond, fainter than my alphas but there with me all the same.

  “Oh god,” Seth whispered. “Finally.”

  “Finally,” Jonah echoed, before going back to tending our marks.

  “Finally,” Bullet cried as I emerged from the bedroom the next morning.

  I snorted and shook my head before rising to my tiptoes to kiss him. He accepted it briefly before bending and sucking at his mark, making me shake and dance away from him.

  “I’m not in heat again,” I said, laughing. “Not gonna lay around in bed with you guys all day long.” I ducked out of Bullet’s reach and went to join Tornado and Mackenzie behind the kitchen counter, stealing a kiss from each of them, and then a slice of bacon too for good measure.

  “And how do you want to spend your days, sweetness?” Ryan asked, sliding me his cup of coffee to share.

  I shrugged. “Isn’t there a job I can do around the Plaza?”

  When silence followed I narrowed my eyes at my alphas. Jonah stepped out of the bedroom, freshly showered and dressed only in his boxers. “Hey alpha,” I purred at Jonah, lips twitching as the others all growled. “Can I have a job?”

  Jonah grimaced, and Bullet snorted. “Baby girl…you can have whatever you want,” Jonah said, and I grinned in triumph before he continued with, “But—“

  “No buts!” I yelled.

  “Police haven’t found Indy yet,” Jonah said, raising his hands.

  “And you don’t need to work, kitten. We’ve got you covered.”

  “Between the diner and the bar, having you out on the floor might stir up some trouble,” Mackenzie reasoned.

  “Don’t know if Dusty wants to train up someone new…” Tornado said, frowning at the bacon.

  My hackles were starting to rise when Ryan stroked his hand down my back. “She can work for me.”

  Silence followed and I grinned. “I can?”

  “Sure. It’s quiet and private, and I’ve got catching up to do on growing,” Ryan said with a shrug. “Kind of monotonous, but if you don’t mind simple work and lettin’ your mind go other places then it’s meditative.”

  “That’s no fair, now he’s getting Baby to himself all day,” Bullet muttered.

  “What were you gonna do with her? You’re not my security team if all you’re doin’ is eatin’ pussy,” Jonah answered him, arms crossing over his chest.

  “Precious.”

  I turned away from the growing bickering of my alphas to see Seth leaning in the doorway, sleep rumpled in a pair of unbuttoned jeans. His bo
nding mark was sharp and rosy on his throat and his frown was twitching, threatening to break into a grin.

  “Did I find you in that bar and oh so brilliantly convince you to join this pack, just so you could cause trouble?” Seth asked, striding up to join me at the counter. He stole the cup from my hands and drained it.

  “That was mine,” Ryan growled at him.

  I grinned at my beta, our humor chasing through the bond, teasing at Jonah’s attempt to hold order in the room. “Pretty sure you did, yeah,” I said.

  Seth’s smile cracked and his head tipped down to mine, lips skimming briefly. “Good girl,” he whispered.

  Epilogue

  Almost Three Months Later

  I sighed and stretched on David’s sectional in the posh Uptown apartment, staring out massive sliding windows into the glittering mirror of the city skyline. “I always liked this view.” I twisted to face Lola.

  She was curled up under a velvet throw blanket, even though it was nearly summer now and the windows were cracked to let a warm breeze cut through the open apartment. She glanced briefly at me, lips curling in a smile, but as soon as her eyes turned back to the window the smile dropped as if she couldn’t keep it pasted on. My friend was looking…not herself, like she’d run out of batteries and hadn’t bothered trying to recharge in months.

  “You’re letting the purple grow out,” I noted, nodding at her blonde roots.

  “Hmm, yeah. I need to find a better job, and I… I think I’m just over, like, trying to get people to notice me,” she said, shrugging.

  “I notice you, Lo,” I said, watching her flinch.

  But she forced that smile back on for me. “I know you do.”

  I took a deep breath and scooted over to where Lola sat on the other side of the couch. She grew tense but waited for me to reach her, and I wondered if it was my scent or my alphas that was spooking her.

  “They’re gone,” I said, holding her gaze.

  “Indy is—“

  “The feds put out a massive hunt for any remaining Hangmen,” I said. “Indy’s probably five states away by now, and even then, they could catch him anytime.”