Page 4 of An Alpha's Commitment

It was funny. And though Talius and I often laughed and joked during sex, this time I think we were mainly just relieved. This first wave of my heat had been frankly a little terrifying, and I was just so glad the usual activities had been able to soothe me as well as they normally did. And there was no denying it had been good. But as happy and sated as I was in this minute, I also didn’t understand what was happening to my heat and I wasn’t looking forward to when the next wave hit. For the first time, I felt as if I were adrift on a shifting sea. At least I had Talius as my anchor.

I had another anchor too, but he wasn’t here right now.

Talius and I caught each other’s gaze again and burst into another ridiculous fit of laughter. One of us snorted, and that was it, we were off again.

In the distance, I heard a door slam, and footsteps come running. The short rapid huffs of someone out of breath reaching the open door… The scent of… I sighed in relief. My other mate. Isca.

Chapter 03

ISCA

IRIAN: Hurry. Bdrm. (Fire emoji)

The cryptic message pinged my phone as Agelius turned the truck onto the road leading to our property.

What was going on? Was there a fire?

“You’d better hurry, Agelius, something’s going on at the house.”

Agelius looked across at me. We’d actually become good friends. Once, in the beginning, he’d shown an interest in me in a non-platonic way, but Talius had been quick to ‘inform’ him he’d already claimed me. There may have been a growl involved. And I might have been quite chuffed to be publicly claimed by the handsome Alpha.

Once Agelius got his head around the fact that his Pack Alpha had two mates, he’d let it go, and he’d been one of the shifters who’d helped me settle back into normal life after my awful trauma. I was generally wary of alphas and I had initially been a little uneasy with him, but that hadn't lasted long. Possibly because of his youth - he couldn't have been any older than me, possibly was younger - and what I knew of the circumstances under which he had joined the pack. He'd had a difficult life - getting kicked out of his pack as a young alpha when another alpha had taken over his birth pack, and then spending months surviving alone until Talius accepted him into our pack - and he wasn't likely to risk getting thrown out of the pack for misbehavior. It was very quickly obvious to me that he wasn't that sort of a guy anyway. Both newcomers to the pack, it kind of made sense that we'd become friends.

“What is it?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the road, but already accelerating over the bumpy ground. My teeth rattled together as the truck bounced over potholes.

“Irian sent me a text saying to hurry. I think there might be a fire.”

“Fuck!” Agelius swore under his breath and then said nothing more as the truck slid on the loose surface and he wrestled with the steering wheel.

We pulled into the long driveway and the truck tore up the length of it. As we lurched to a stop on the gravel, the dust we’d stirred up on the dirt road swirled over us in a choking cloud.

Leaping from the truck, I raced to the house. I was relieved that I couldn’t see any smoke as I rushed up the steps and threw open the front door.

There was no smoke as I entered the house either, thank the Goddess, and I raced up the stairs heading for the bedroom. Perhaps it was only a small candle fire from some mood lighting or something? But then why tell me to rush home?

The bedroom door was open and when I got to the top of the stairs, over the pounding of my heart and my ragged breaths, I was startled to hear chuckling and laughter. It was coming from the bedroom.

“What the…?” I demanded in confusion, finally reaching the doorway and woah… my eyes went wide. I could see exactly what was going on.

Irian’s flushed, sweaty face peered up at me from where he lay flat on his back on the mattress.

“Oh, thank the Goddess, you’re here!” Irian’s eyes shone and he looked both relieved and excited at the same time.

“He’s in heat,” growled Talius from his position on top of Irian, judging from which I guessed he was still inside him. With my panic subsiding, I finally noticed what I should have detected the minute I stepped in the house -the unmistakable scent of an omega heat. The house wasn't on fire, Irian was.

Talius shifted his position slightly. Irian giggled. Talius snorted and they both started laughing again.

A sound on the steps just behind me startled me, reminding me that Agelius was with me. I swung around.

“Ah, it’s fine. You’d better go!” I spluttered, embarrassed, turning him around and pushing him away with both hands before he could see inside the room. “It… it’s under control. I’ll see you out.”

My cheeks were so flaming hot my face must have been beetroot red, and that combined with the noises coming from the bedroom, must have clued Agelius in.

He grinned, wolfishly. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll shut the door on my way out,” he called over his shoulder, as he took off down the stairs, leaving me behind. “I think you’re needed in there.”

I stood frozen for a couple of seconds after hearing the front door close, chest heaving, sucking in deep breaths. I couldn’t calm down, though. Barreling in here burning with adrenaline, and now knowing what was going on inside that room, the scent of Isca’s heat in the air, and the smell of arousal and sex…

My heart pounded as I walked towards the bedroom. The laughter had faded to the soft hum of intimate voices. I stood in the doorway, watching as Talius slipped his hand between their bodies where they lay together. When he withdrew it, he offered a wet and glistening finger to Irian. Irian’s gold-flecked brown eyes flicked to the finger, then back up to Talius. The finger disappeared between his plump lips with a slurping sound.

---