Alpha 3: Home

by Treva Harte

  “Sick and not ashamed of it,” Grey growled.

  “Maybe Grey would prefer to see…a cucumber.” Mia leaned against the counter and tilted her head back to catch a stray spill of her confection. Rome snorted.

  There wasn’t going to be any deep, meaningful conversation after all?

  “You’re sick and I’m getting hungry. I don’t think I can wait until dinner.” Grey gave in and laughed, taking Rome by the hips to grind against him.

  Mia laughed, too, ignoring the slight twinge in her chest as Rome molded himself against Grey. Of course Grey would pick Rome. Of course ‑‑

  Grey’s hand snaked out so fast she didn’t have time to evade him. He pulled her tightly against the two writhing bodies, turned and frenched her. Hard. Deep. Lingering.

  The twinge in her chest changed into a pounding excitement. The feel of Grey’s tongue and then Rome pulling her even tighter against their hips ‑‑

  Mia said, “I guess we are crude. And freakin’ perverted.”

  “When are you two going to learn I’m always right?” Grey muttered the question against her hair.

  He was horny as hell and still laughing. When had that last happened to him? Grey couldn’t remember when. Not even when he was as young as the pair surrounding him. Jesus, the feel of them pressing against him with their hot bodies made him want to snicker and fuck them both into oblivion.

  Truth was he’d never been this way. When he was their age he’d been healing from the wounds he’d received in a damn fight, hiding himself from others’ pity. And falling in unrequited love with an alpha.

  “I think chocolate sauce would be really tasty,” Mia said. “Mmmm. Right here.” She licked the pulse of his throat and Grey bit back a moan.

  She was soft against him. He hadn’t ever wanted soft. Hadn’t trusted soft. Women were tricky. All gentle on the outside and cruel on the inside. That’s what he’d learned as a kid, hiding from those so-called foster mothers of his. He shouldn’t think this one was any different. Mia’s mother hadn’t even bothered with the gentle on the outside. Her mother had been pure nasty until the day she was put down. God knows Mia’s brother had learned what bad tricks he could from the evil bitch. Luckily he’d been too stupid to become more than a nasty lout.

  He should keep on guard with someone who had that heritage to live up to.

  But Mia…no, he’d never felt like this about any woman. He wasn’t even sure what this was. Except somehow she was part of Rome and him and sex. And the laughter. And Rome, damn him, was probably right about how he’d feel toward this particular female.

  How he felt about her already.

  Rome was tickling the inside of his thigh.

  “Sex on the kitchen table, anyone?” Rome gasped the words. “Jesus, everyone. Sex. Please. Hurry.”

  Damn it, just looking at Rome’s face, all tight with need and lust, made Grey want to come like a teenager.

  Jesus, that was what had happened. He was turning into a kid again. A different kid this time. One that trusted, laughed. Got sex when he wanted it. He didn’t understand why either of them had agreed to this. He couldn’t figure out why it had worked so far. He didn’t care.

  A kid didn’t need to think ahead.

  Grey bit Mia’s shoulder and then grabbed Rome by the hair and dragged him to the table, straddling him. “Fine. Dessert first and dinner after, since you begged so nicely.”

  Mia’s laugh mingled perfectly with Rome’s curse.

  Chapter Four

  “They’re trying to trick us. Lie to us.” Dunne looked over at the slighter man who hunched over the table, smoking. “We played fair with them. Why would they do that?”

  “They’re bastards.” The other man crushed out the cigarette but stayed hunched. “All of them.”

  “But you sent us to them.”

  “They killed my father and mother and messed me up.“ Absently, the man rubbed the rough patch on his face and then his arm. “They have my sister. She’s all I have left. I don’t want her with them.”

  Dunne snorted. “Right. All you have left is your sister and you’d sell her to us.”

  “I didn’t say I cared about Mia.” The visitor laughed, soundlessly. “She stayed, didn’t she? With them. She picked them over me.”

  Dunne mentally crossed Rossi off his list of conversational partners for the next few minutes. Rossi wasn’t important, even when he was on an irrational rant. Rossi’s sister was. There weren’t enough female weres around to be choosy and this one was prime. Good-looking, submissive and the right age for breeding. What more could his Alpha need?

  Maybe cooperation from the girl’s pack. They’d been courteous enough but somehow they never said yes or no. Eventually Dunne realized it didn’t matter what they did say. The girl never materialized. But his weres had been put on the alert. They’d seen her taken to another pack’s den. Apparently their legitimate offer had been rejected without the courtesy of a reply.

  Dunne kept himself from fidgeting with his napkin. He wasn’t nervous or impatient, and even if he was lying to himself, he wasn’t going to show it in front of this low life. He’d get the female. Now they’d have to use other methods, less gentle ones. That could be arranged.

  Maybe she wasn’t as virginal now as his Alpha had first wanted, but she was still ready for breeding. Hunt was a reasonable guy. He wouldn’t be happy but he’d accept that he’d get what he needed, if not everything he had wanted.

  Dunne swallowed. It was his own damn stupid problem that he wanted so badly to please Hunt. To make things perfect for him.

  He cut into Rossi’s droning whine. “Yeah, fine. The two packs are both filled with curs. Now tell me something more useful about them. Every detail. If they aren’t going to help, I need to know their weaknesses. I need to know their strengths. I need to figure out how I’m going to get your sister Mia away from them.”

  * * * * *

  He slipped behind her in the near-darkness of dawn and hunkered down, not quite touching, not quite close. The porch stairs creaked as they accepted his shifting weight.

  “Hello, Grey.” Mia clutched the warm mug, letting the steam pour over her face. The morning air outside was still chilly.

  She’d known he would be the first to check on her after the orgy last evening.

  “Hello. How are you feeling this morning?”

  She’d known, too, his voice would be hesitant, even though he had been quick to see she was all right.

  Was she all right? What had they done yesterday? Something more than uninhibited sex. She didn’t have a name for it. She was afraid to have a name for it.

  “A little sore. A little…confused.” That was as good a word as any for her feelings.

  “Yeah.” With a slow, easy motion he rose and walked away from her.

  Alone. She hadn’t felt alone until he joined her. She’d been the way she’d always been. He and Rome ‑‑ they were changing things.

  Was that good? Bad?

  She didn’t know.

  She wasn’t even sure if she was glad or not when he returned with a mug of coffee for himself and settled next to her once again. They sat together, silently.

  “Do you ‑‑ ” She cleared her throat.

  “I’ve heard ‑‑ ” He began and stopped.

  “Go ahead.” She bit off the nervous laugh. “I didn’t have anything important to say.”

  “I’ve heard some packs let betas have mates. Have children.” His eyes were holding steady on her but she wouldn’t look. “It’s just that out here, there are so few of us. So few women. I’ve only heard it was possible, never actually seen such a pack.”

  “What are you getting at, Grey?” Mia traced the rim of the mug. “I never heard of you wanting a woman. Or children.”

  “I haven’t. I don’t. Exactly.” When his hand touched her side, she jumped. “I’m sorry.”

  Ridiculous. After all the things they’d done to each other in some were lust-induced madness, it was stupid
to be so nervous because his fingers skimmed her hip. Mia forced herself to smile. Relax her muscles.

  “No, I am. I’m being stupid.”

  “Maybe.” He almost smiled. She could see it in his eyes as they warmed. “I just started wondering, probably the same as you, about what happens now. If you are pregnant.”

  “I might be.” Mia looked down at her stomach. “Rome and his family figure he can’t get any were pregnant. So if I was ‑‑ ”

  He knew that. They all knew it. That was why he was here, wasn’t he? Why she was letting him do all those incredible things to her. At least that had been the reason.

  His hand, huge and brown and callused, slipped over her stomach. Rested there.

  “I do want children. I never thought it was possible, so I never let myself imagine it. But ‑‑ ” he stopped.

  They stared at the hand against her jeans.

  “You’ve got big hands.” Mia laughed, no longer nervous. “I didn’t mean that as a comment about your other…parts…though they’re big too. But your hand is almost as long as a new baby.”

  “God.” He breathed the word out, staring hard at his hand.

  “I’m scared about having a baby, Grey. About everything that’s happening.” Mia let herself admit it. This Grey, the Grey she was discovering, would understand.

  “Me, too.” He moved his hand away, the faint warmth still lingering. “Guess we’ll be scared together.”

  Will we? Mia wasn’t so sure they had a together. There was more than the two of them. She’d wanted Rome first and been willing to put up with Grey. But more than she or Grey ‑‑ or Rome or a baby ‑‑ was involved. This had been meant to help two packs.

  “Grey ‑‑ ”

  Rome’s arrival was noisier than Grey’s. The door banged open and he stumbled out, his hair still standing up and stubble on his face. Mia smiled. You couldn’t help but smile at Rome.

  “Coffee?” Rome’s face was innocent as a baby’s and as hopeful.

  Grey handed him his untouched mug. Rome took a large swig and sighed with satisfaction. “Perfect.”

  Mia stood up. “No need for you to go fetch another, Grey. This time I’ll fix one. Like someone else could have done for himself.”

  She moved back into the kitchen. Rome smiled sleepily at Grey. “You trying to spoil me?”

  “Can’t do what’s already been done.” Grey heard the soft sounds of a woman puttering in the kitchen. “The coffee was almost gone. She’s making more.”

  Just for him. When was the last time anyone had done that?

  “You spoiled me and she’s spoiling you.” Rome’s smile broadened. “This is going to work out, isn’t it.”

  There seemed no question in Rome’s mind about the outcome but he was young. Grey wanted to believe, but he’d been around too long to have the same certainty that life would work, that the future was meant to be good.

  Grey shrugged. “It’s a risk. No way to know if we can pull it off.”

  “But now you want it to work. That’s a hell of a lot more than we had going before yesterday.”

  Grey stared down at his boots. “I’m thinking someone is going to get hurt.”

  “Grey.” Rome leaned forward, gripped his shoulders. “You know how bad I want you. You know how good it is with us. Right?”

  “For God’s sake.” Grey shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah. I know. Why the hell do I have to say it?”

  “How much better was it with Mia?”

  “It was great. And none of us wants to hurt the other,” Mia said, coming up behind him.

  “No. We don’t want to.” But in Grey’s experience sex and caring about someone always did hurt eventually. Some things shouldn’t mix.

  He looked over at the woman who had walked into his life. Mia looked so delicate there in the dawn. Fragile. Like whatever it was he felt for her ‑‑ for her and Rome together. Fragile things got broken too easily.

  Mia looked at the two men who had dropped into her life. Rome, still focused on his coffee and Grey who was focused on…her? She ignored the flutter in her stomach at the thought and deliberately spoke briskly. “Then we’ll just try to keep things that way. You don’t scare me so much any more, tough stuff. Underneath all that growl is marshmallow.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the nose. “Here’s your coffee. Drink up and don’t worry, big guy.”

  “Don’t patronize me, little girl.”

  Rome laughed. “She wouldn’t dream of it. But watch out. I’ve always suspected once she got over being a scared little girl, she’d turn into a tigress.”

  “I turn into a wolf, Rome. Much better.” She could feel The Change trembling inside her. “Now. Let’s try it that way.”

  She saw a brief hesitation on Rome’s face before he smiled, slow and hot. “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not?” Mia almost pouted. And why did he get to give the orders anyhow? Her wolf was calling to her.

  Heat rippled through her. Not just sex heat, but The Change. It had been a long time since she’d done this. Omegas weren’t encouraged to try their inner wolf out very often. As she settled down, let herself absorb the difference, she looked over. Grey crouched, his face changing from human to feral. The scars were still there, but covered with fur, they barely showed.

  “No ‑‑ ”

  Rome backed away, half-laughing, half-serious.

  Mia rested her nose in his crotch. She snorted. Things smelled different now. Sharper. He still smelled like Rome. Just more so.

  “Shit! Mia, I mean it ‑‑ ”

  Stiff-legged, Grey danced in front of the only one of them still non-were. Grey crouched. They knew what that meant, but even as Rome braced himself, Grey knocked Rome to the ground. He worried Rome’s hair.

  Rome covered his face and throat. “You guys don’t take no for an answer.”

  The male wolf mounted Mia, dry humping her, his back to Rome. They all knew the depth of the insult.

  “Ah, to hell with it then ‑‑ ” Rome’s words ended with a howl.

  Rome moved in a blur. Mia couldn’t see him clearly. During The Change she couldn’t always control her senses and he was fast. Lightning fast.

  He barreled into her and they rolled on the ground. She offered her neck, submissively. Rome’s teeth closed over her throat, gently, but not so gently that she couldn’t feel the sharp prick of canines.

  The growl above them deafened her sensitized ears. Grey stood over them both, demanding obedience. Rome snapped in the air, not trying to go close to the other male’s jugular but not cowed, either.

  Mia crouched, waiting.

  She didn’t have to wait long. Rome mounted her, keeping his muzzle close to her neck. She thought she could feel the extra weight of Grey as he mounted Rome, but she wasn’t sure.

  Flashes of heat and the dizzying smell of sex surrounded her. She groaned, deep, as Rome moved. Wolves could mate for hours. She wasn’t sure if she could bear it, but she was more than ready to try.

  Hardness inside her, friction, warmth, pleasure. Vaguely she knew the thrusting against her was different. That would be Grey’s doing, as he entered Rome, changing the sensual beat.

  Rough. Fire. Spots danced in front of Mia’s eyes and she trembled, almost bucking her rider off.

  He moved inside her, deeper yet, and she shuddered with the first roll of satisfaction. It moved through her like fire, scattering her. Making her whole. The hard knot of a canine penis swelled inside her.

  More. There would be more and more yet.

  Mia’s mouth dropped open in a wolfish grin.

  * * * * *

  “I don’t understand.” Mia stared at her two alphas. “Why would you take on a job without me? I’m your electronics expert.”

  She was damn good at it, too. The men could provide muscle and intimidation when their security contract called for it. She provided the surveillance hardware to back up the threat.

  “Oscar or Ric can make do for this one.” Lin smiled at her. “We
think you’re too valuable here to send you out on some three week contract.”

  “I’m too valuable to do my job?” Mia fought the next words. Swallowed them down. Alphas didn’t care for contradictions.

  “Mia, what you’re doing right now is more valuable than the rest of what the pack can do combined. We can provide overpriced security for some spoiled heiress with our eyes closed. That’s just our work. But you? We’re counting on you to make a baby.”

  If I’m not pregnant now, I’m never going to be. She didn’t say those words aloud, either. Mia didn’t really want to chat about why. But between Grey and Rome she’d been taken every way there was. Some of those ways had to include getting her pregnant.

  “All right then. I’ll stay.” Mia sighed. “Of course.”

  Chapter Five

  I’m not some mindless breeding machine, to be set aside whenever I’m inconvenient.

  Mia thought about all the things she’d wanted to say to the pack as they got ready for travel. She’d been with them all these years. She’d thought she’d been valued for her contributions.

  Now she was only valuable if she could produce a new crop of babies.

  Of course she hadn’t said anything. Omegas didn’t rail or complain. Omegas did what they were told and then steamed away inside.

  “Hey.” Rome flicked a finger against her cheek.

  Mia jumped. She’d been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t even realized Grey and Rome had arrived. She scowled. Of course they would arrive. They were the stud service.

  And she was being an idiot. What was wrong with her tonight?

  “Maybe I am pregnant.”

  Grey’s chair clattered to the floor as he leaped to his feet. “Are you sure?”

  Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut now after being quiet all day? And was he happy or terrified over the possibility? She couldn’t tell.

  “No, I’m not sure at all. Sorry. It’s just that I’m getting ‑‑ temperamental, I guess. I knew what was going to happen before we had sex, but now it bothers me.”