by Tanya Chris
“Are you—” Keesh started, but Owen stopped him with a kiss. He was fine. Horny and fine and new to this kissing thing, but he liked it. It was so absorbing.
He kissed Keesh with the same abandon he’d applied to Fortis a few minutes ago, getting lost in the warmth of his mouth and the texture of his hair that felt like something living under his fingers. This close, the aroma of Keesh’s arousal overwhelmed Fortis’s alpha pheromones, assuring Owen he could have everything he wanted without any consequences at all.
He’d lost track of Fortis while he’d been feasting on Keesh, but when Fortis lifted them both off the ground with a single arm, Owen took note of him again. Fortis dropped him belly up into the center of the mattress, then deposited Keesh next to him.
Owen reached for Keesh’s hand. This was it. He was about to get knotted. He hoped it would be as good as he remembered, that it would be worth whatever heartache came after. Fortis had shed his shorts so that he was nothing but hair and skin—miles of glorious skin and hair. He gave Owen’s capris a hard yank that sent the button pinging off over the edge.
Keesh made a soft sound of protest. “Perfectly good pants,” he muttered, but Owen didn’t care about the pants. He wanted a knot. Fortis’s fangs were all the way out, glistening with saliva in the moonlight, and his claws flexed in and out with his breaths. His cock was a hard, huge column that had Owen drooling.
“See something you want, little one?”
“Cock?” Owen suggested. Prince Devin had taught him to beg for cock, and Fortis seemed to like it too. He ringed his shaft with one hand as he came down onto his knees next to him.
“What do you want me to do with my cock?”
“You know he wants you to fuck him,” Keesh said.
“Hush, you. If you can’t behave, I won’t let you watch.”
“I said I didn’t want to—”
Fortis pounced on Keesh, shoving his snapping jaw right up under Keesh’s chin. “Then I’ll make you listen instead. Do you want that, Keesh? Do you want to hear Owen screaming on my cock without being able to see it?”
Keesh’s eye was wide, his pupil dilated as if he were looking at something that terrified him. But what he was looking at was Fortis. He swallowed hard, then shook his head. “I want to watch.”
“That’s what I thought.” Fortis’s low growl had them both shivering. Owen reached out to pull Fortis back over his own body, but that made Fortis growl in his direction.
Owen went lax in surrender. “Alpha,” he said, enraptured.
“Now you say it,” Fortis ordered Keesh.
“Alpha,” came Keesh’s quieter echo.
“I’m going to fuck Owen, and if you’re both very good boys, I’ll let him suck you off when I’m done.”
“I’ll be good,” Owen promised, even though he couldn’t stop himself from squirming. He’d been waiting forever. “Please fuck me, Alpha. I’ll be good for you. I promise.”
Keesh
“Mm. Pretty omega.”
When Fortis slid away to cover Owen, Keesh took a deep breath, trying to shake off the spell Fortis had cast on him. He wasn’t an omega. He shouldn’t be so susceptible to this show of dominance. But Great Mother help him, he was. Every time Fortis got growly with him, he was ready to kneel down and beg for mercy.
Fortis had been so careful with him all these years, treating him with an assumed equality Keesh had always appreciated. Regardless of anyone’s caste, all wolves had autonomy. They all deserved freedom of movement, equal opportunity, and respect. So why was it so fucking hot that Fortis had suddenly gone alpha on him?
This new pushy personality was thanks to Owen, of course. A hot throb of jealousy made Keesh want to tear Owen out of Fortis’s arms and insert himself in his place. But he couldn’t be mad at Owen. His own feelings toward Owen were too fierce and protective. If anyone hurt Owen, Keesh would have to take them down. So how could he hurt Owen himself?
But how could he stand to watch Fortis fuck him? Was it true that he wanted to watch it? His cock screamed yes. His heart cried help. It beat too fast, even by shifter standards, a scattered pitter-patter of racing emotions. Owen’s slick. Fortis’s cock. The sight of the two of them wrapped around each other, kissing as if they wanted to consume each other. The smell of their combined scents in the low-ceilinged space that trapped it and fed it back to him with every breath he took. All of it worked against him.
He propped himself up on an elbow so he could see better. Fortis had a hand between his body and Owen’s, stroking somebody’s cock. Maybe both their cocks. Whatever he was doing, Owen was eating it up, churning his hips like he was already getting fucked and letting little whimpers drop from his mouth like treats. Fortis snuffled at his neck, teasing at that spot where a claiming bite would go. Would he claim Owen right there in front of him, breaking Owen’s skin and Keesh’s heart in a single bite?
Fortis reared back, hitching his hips over his heels. His eyes were a darker blue than Keesh had ever seen them as he flashed Owen a predatory grin and breached his hole with a single finger. Owen moaned, surging up to ask for more, but Fortis kept him easily pinned with a hand in the center of his chest. Fortis withdrew his slick-coated finger and extended it to Keesh with a taunting smirk.
Keesh wanted to refuse, to find enough self-respect to hold the line at taking slick from the finger of the wolf he wanted to call Alpha, but he crossed the line before he could draw it. It was so good—that coating of Owen’s slick over the deeper taste of Fortis’s skin. Keesh sucked the entire finger into his mouth, going down on it with the enthusiasm he brought to sucking cock. Fortis’s eyes flickered closed until Owen thumped on him, demanding attention.
“I told you to be good.” Fortis flipped Owen onto his stomach and gave his ass a few smart raps. Keesh was about to protest the harsh treatment until he heard the way Owen groaned in response. Not a complaint, but a hunger half-fed.
“Give him your cock,” Keesh urged.
“I will.” Fortis moved lazily, bringing his fingers back to Owen’s hole. He played with Owen’s rim, alternately penetrating him with one finger, then two, toying with him as Owen ramped up his demands until he was keening with a desperation that had Keesh ready to scream too.
“Please,” he begged, needing it as bad as Owen did. He needed to see Fortis’s fat cock buried in Owen’s tight hole, to see Fortis move with aggressive intent, fucking Owen flat. He tugged on Fortis’s arm, and Fortis leaned in his direction, allowing the pull. When he flicked his tongue over Keesh’s lower lip, Keesh closed his mouth, realizing he was gaping like a stunned rabbit, unable to either flee or fight.
“Please,” he repeated, softer. His tongue traced the line of saliva Fortis had left. He didn’t even know what he was asking for, but Fortis flipped Owen onto his back and set his cock to Owen’s hole as if he knew.
Fortis’s cock looked huge as it pried Owen open—a hard peg fitting perfectly into a glistening hole. It slid relentlessly forward, endless inches of it, and Owen moaned louder with every inch. Sweat stood out on his brow, and his hands clutched restlessly at the bedding until Keesh took one of them. Fortis towered over them, as if he were fucking them both.
Keesh swore he could feel slick coating his own thighs as he accepted Fortis into his mind as completely as Owen accepted him into his body. He brought his free hand to Fortis’s bicep—imagining those strong arms holding him still, those wide thighs separating his own. Imagining being pinned by that cock.
Owen’s high-pitched squeaks and Fortis’s low-pitched growls filled his ears, a filthy concert backed by the squelch of slick and the slap of flesh against flesh as Fortis began pounding into Owen with a purpose. Owen chanted Alpha, and Keesh echoed him, whispering the word beneath his breath, afraid to interrupt but desperate to be a part of the bittersweet scene he could never fully join. It was enough to witness it, he told himself. This was a privilege.
“Touch him,” Fortis commanded. “Make him come.”
Keesh tried to free the hand he had wrapped through Owen’s, but Owen was too far gone to release it, clenching unconsciously as he strove for the heights of his pleasure, so Keesh used the other hand, the one he’d had fastened to Fortis, to wrangle between their bodies and find Owen’s cock, wet and straining. He closed his fist around it, and Owen arched immediately, spurting exuberantly, his mouth as much a fountain as his cock as he crooned out his joy.
Keesh glanced up at Fortis to seek his approval and found it. His come-covered hand floated up to touch Fortis’s face, to trace the fierce, exultant expression there. He palmed the rough jawline as Fortis took Owen’s come from him, his fingers swiping over Fortis’s fangs until one pierced him. Fortis’s eyes were serious as he climaxed—deep and nearly pained. He gave a victorious roar of conquest.
And then his eyelids fluttered shut, breaking their eye contact. He dropped his head until it touched Owen’s, and the two of them panted into each other’s mouths. They would be locked together now, tied by Fortis’s knot. Keesh huddled into himself, pulling his arms back to wrap them around his own body. His cock was hard, but his soul was sad.
Fortis hooked an arm around his waist and dragged him into the huddle he and Owen made. “Owen will take care of you. Just give him a moment.”
“He’ll need more than that.”
“Heh, maybe. You still out of it, little one?”
“Mm,” Owen mumbled, but he turned his head in Keesh’s direction.
Fortis levered himself off Owen’s body in a single, impressive move. Keesh blinked at the alpha now sitting cross-legged at the end of the mattress. A bead of come lingered at the tip of his cock, but his cock was softening, and there was no sign of a knot. Before Keesh could fully process that, Owen’s mouth was on him. He jumped, surprised by the sudden wet warmth enveloping him. Fortis grinned at his reaction.
“That’s it, Owen. Suck him good.”
“I don’t know how to do it good,” Owen whined.
Keesh pushed him back down. “It’s good,” he promised. So unexpectedly good. A moment ago he’d been wondering if he would even have the heart for an orgasm, but with Fortis sitting there not knotted to Owen, watching him get his own pleasure, there was no doubt about it. He was close—so close. As close as if it really had been him getting fucked. Or doing the fucking.
He’d gone too many days yearning for it. For all of it. As if all of it were an option, as if he didn’t have to choose. As if he even had a choice. His emotions were close up under his skin, and Owen was licking every one of them, stimulating his heart as well as his cock, working him into a glorious explosion. Keesh shoved his cock deeper down Owen’s throat as he came, watching Fortis the way Fortis had watched him until physical pleasure blotted out even that.
He released his grip on the back of Owen’s head, and Owen rolled over to stare dazedly up at the ceiling.
“Did I hurt you?”
“Omegas are meant to take a little abuse,” Fortis said. “You like being used, don’t you, little one?”
“Sort of.”
“Only sort of?” Fortis thumbed at the corner of Owen’s mouth.
“It hurts—” Owen touched his chest to indicate where it hurt, and Keesh buckled with remorse.
“Owen. Precious. Fortis wasn’t using you. Not like that.” He gave Fortis an angry glare, and Fortis grimaced in apology. “I told you not to fuck him without talking to him about what it means,” Keesh accused, even though he’d been right there when it happened and hadn’t done a thing to stop it.
“You said don’t knot him. I didn’t.”
“Why not?” Owen asked. “Is it because you didn’t think I’d do it right?”
“What? Of course not. How did you even get that into your head?” Fortis looked over at Keesh, and he shrugged in response. As far as he knew, knots were an inherent omega skill. That was the whole reason Fortis would rather be with Owen than him.
“I wasn’t rejecting you,” Fortis explained with an exasperated scowl. “I was respecting you. Shit. I don’t even know what the right answer is anymore.
That made three of them.
Fortis
Last night had been either the greatest night of Fortis’s life or a hideous mistake or both. They’d fallen asleep in a puppy pile, Owen firmly ensconced between him and Keesh because he’d been feeling vulnerable, maybe even regretful. Kisses and cuddles had rocked him into a peaceful state, and Fortis had blown through so much energy with that orgasm he fell asleep soon after. But morning came, the way morning always did, and with it a stiff embarrassment.
Fortis’s inner alpha wanted to bully everyone into happiness, as if that were possible. It didn’t like seeing the wolves he’d begun to claim as his own snuffling around with their heads down, dragging along as if it weren’t a beautiful day in an idyllic stretch of forest after a night of fantastic sex. Fucking Owen had been unbearably hot, so hot Fortis had struggled to hold his knot back almost from the start. And he wasn’t even sure who it’d been growing for—the slick-scented omega laid out beneath him or the wiry beta ogling him with admiring eyes.
Keesh wanted him. Fortis had always known that, but last night—wow. Keesh wanted him, had looked at him like he was fresh-roasted rabbit with youthberry glaze, activating Fortis’s alpha instincts as much as Owen’s wet hole did. He’d preened, flexed, shown himself off as if he were vying for a mate against a field of other alphas, as if Keesh were a prize he was determined to win.
Keesh was a prize. And so was Owen. And Fortis still couldn’t figure out how he could ethically offer himself to either of them because as hot as it’d been to have Keesh watching him, it was Owen’s hole he’d gotten himself off in. So which of those things was he going to give up? Neither, his heart cried. Mine, his alpha said. And no matter how hard Fortis poked at it, he couldn’t clarify which wolf he thought was his.
Up ahead, Keesh stopped moving. Fortis cocked his head, listening for any sound of trouble, but Keesh shifted which meant he only wanted to talk.
“If we’re not in a hurry, there’s a lake about a half mile that way. We could take a swim, have fish for dinner.”
Fortis woofed out a short bark of question.
“There might be some,” Keesh agreed. “It’s too far from a road to be popular, but you’ll get hikers, fishermen—the kind of humans who are likely to keep to themselves.”
Fortis gave another bark, this one of agreement, and Keesh squatted down to talk right into Owen’s snout.
“We’re going off-trail, which means traps. Do you understand traps?”
Owen shook his furry face.
“Big metal clamps with teeth. Step where I step, and keep your eyes out for anything that looks manmade. Got it?”
Owen’s woof said yes, so Keesh shifted back into wolf form and struck out across country. Their pace was slower now so that Keesh could keep watch for traps, but they arrived at the lake without incident. Fishermen dotted the edge of it, and a kayak skimmed along the surface. The humans closest to them bristled at catching sight of them and talked hurriedly amongst themselves, reminding Fortis that while wolves considered humans dangerous, humans felt the same way about wolves. He lifted his paw in what he hoped came across as a friendly wave, and one of the humans lifted a cautious hand in return.
Keesh guided them around the shore until they came to a nice copse of trees tight enough to give them privacy while they shifted and dressed. Owen pulled out his damaged capris with an adorably put-out scowl. Keesh took them with a scowl that was even more adorable, because he was trying harder to be stern.
“Sorry,” Fortis offered, but his apology was spoiled by his complete lack of true remorse. Keesh’s mouth quirked in an attempt to disguise his own laughter, and the strained relations they’d started the day with relaxed. The lake was too peaceful and pretty for them to be anything other than glad to be there.
“I’ll fix these tonight,” Keesh said, giving Owen a more sincere look of apology than Fortis had manag
ed. “Luckily I brought a sewing kit. Because I know how he is.”
“He tears your clothes off too?”
“Oh. No.” Keesh cleared his throat. “He’s never, um…. He’s just rough on clothes. His own clothes, I mean. Anyway,” Keesh stuffed Owen’s capris into his pack. “Let me see what I’ve got that you can wear.”
“I’ve got other stuff,” Owen said. “It’s just all kind of useless.” He put on a floral skirt so short it barely covered his ass cheeks, then turned around and presented his backside to them. “See what I mean?”
“That’s not useless at all,” Fortis disagreed. “In fact, I’ve got a lot of use for that.”
“It’s fine for swimming in,” Keesh said. “We’re not going to get too close to the humans anyway. Just try not to moon them.”
“Moon?” Owen asked. Fortis bent him over to illustrate, then gave the perfect globes he’d bared a warm smack.
“Yes, moon.” Keesh took Owen out of Fortis’s hands and straightened him back up. “I don’t suppose you’ve got underwear?”
Fortis laughed at Owen’s confusion. He was glad Owen didn’t have underwear. Owen’s clothes were decorative, not, as he’d said, useful like the shorts he and Keesh wore, but he was decent enough to be seen by humans, so they emerged from their shelter and made their way to the edge of the lake.
The water was icy—crisp and sweet. Fortis came up from his first dive screaming from the shock, but his metabolism ran fast and soon the water just felt nice, the perfect refreshment after a sticky morning of running. He made sure Owen and Keesh got dunked several times each, and they ganged up on him to tow him under a few times too.
The group of humans closest to them kept peeking over at them, thinking they were being sneaky about it. The fabric of Owen’s skirt billowed around his waist, but Fortis doubted much could be visible from a hundred feet away with the water refracting the bright rays of the sun. Nevertheless, he let a low threat rumble from his throat, and the humans turned away to mind their own business. Fortis might not know what his end goal was with respect to Owen and Keesh, but he knew he didn’t want any humans touching either of them.