“I hate you, have I mentioned that?” said Dmitri, without getting up. He put a pillow over his face.

“I mean, no?” said Corentin. “I don’t think you ever said that out loud. But I hate you, too, so I guess we’re even.”

“I hate you both also,” I sang, smiling. “This is going to be the fucking bestest pack in the history of packs.”

Dmitri chuckled ruefully. “I’m serious, though. How does it work? Sharing? This thing with all of us? Is it even possible for it to work?”

“Let’s go back to how you’re dodging the fact you won’t take it up the butt,” said Corentin. “Because, seriously, you do not know what you are missing, it is fantastic.”

“It’s not like I’ve never done it,” muttered Dmitri. “Let’s just say I didn’t like it and move on from that. Look, the sex with all of us is good. It’s very good. We all enjoyed ourselves, so I think we just do that. Sometimes. And the rest of the time, it’ll just be separate experiences. I’ll have time with her, Corentin will, Johannes will, Nikolai will. If you and Nik want to be with her at the same time, that’ll—”

“Why didn’t you like it?” said Corentin. “I mean, how many times have you tried it? Because I’d be willing to step up and fuck you again. If you only tried it once—”

“No,” said Dmitri in a voice that shook me with its intensity.

Corentin actually whined.

“We aren’t discussing this anymore,” said Dmitri. “Clear?”

“Fuck,” said Corentin. “That’s not cool, man.”

“Your scent says otherwise.”

“You can’t… it’s one thing if it’s sex,” said Corentin. “It’s another thing if you’re ordering me around in real life, or—heaven forbid—ordering her around. Because then, it’s not about a sexy game, it’s about real life, and you’re not letting her be herself, you’re just creating an omega to your own liking. Then, she’s not even a real person, she’s just a doll you made, a person-puppet—”

“Shut up,” said Dmitri. “If I could actually do that to someone, I would have done it to you, wouldn’t I?”

“Well, you didn’t bite me,” said Corentin fiercely. “So help me, if you are forcing her to do anything she doesn’t want to do—”

“You’ll what?” said Dmitri.

“I’ll stop you,” said Corentin.

“How?” said Dmitri. “How will you ever stand up to me?”

Corentin fumed, but he didn’t say anything.

“So,” I said softly, “Dmitri, you get whatever you want, and if we want anything differently than you want, too bad, because we get whatever you want, and that’s the way this pack runs?”

Dmitri sat up. “Johannes, we used to get along fine. What the fuck happened?”

“Is that the way the pack runs?” I said. “Because I can’t live like that, not forever. There will be a damned mutiny, Dmitri, and you need to understand that.”

“We even shared Nikolai with no freaking issues. Why is it different now? Just because of her?”

“You won’t even let me near her,” I said.

“I just let you near her tonight.”

“Yeah, sort of,” I said.

“So, what do you want?” he said. “Tell me what you want, and we’ll negotiate, and we’ll figure something out, we’ll compromise—”

“No,” I said. “I don’t want a relationship with your fucking wife, not a relationship that you control. I want my own damned relationship with her. I want her to be mine, too.”

“She can’t be yours and mine,” said Dmitri.

“Why not?” I said. “Nikolai is.”