Page 31 of The Hive

A thick cloud of pheromones rolled over me as the domed enclosure receded. The scent kicked my instincts into high gear. A snarl pulled at my lips as Axion’s pale ass, wrapped up in Saphyra’s long, silky legs, was revealed. The sight of him inside her triggered a fury like nothing I’d ever felt. Every breath consumed me with deepening rage.

This was the plan, but I hadn’t realized what it would do to me. A growl tore from my throat as I yanked off my shirt, making a beeline to the nest.

Axion didn’t defend himself as I ripped him off of my mate and tossed him like a rag doll against the far wall. Valyx’s dark eyes seemed to mock me, sitting in her pod smelling like her dripping cunt. My fist rocketed toward his jaw, knocking him back, away from my omega. Mine.

She was laid out like a sacrifice, glistening with slick and sweat, spread wide and panting for more. My instinct to rut took control, and my rolling growl increased as Axion and Valyx moved in to protect her. How dare they try to get between me and my mate?

The only thing holding me in check was the tiny omega making her way through the blankets.

She nudged my friends aside, kneeling, and looked up at me with those big, honey-colored eyes. “I need you, Lex. Please.”

Her words did little to placate the rage that was boiling inside my veins. “You. Are. Mine.” My hand, fueled by instinct alone, closed around her throat like a collar, and I breathed in the pheromone-saturated air. “Mine.”

“I’m yours,” she said with conviction, never flinching at my hold or breaking eye contact.

Yes, mine. Her acceptance and lack of fear dampened the fury racing through my blood. The anger ebbed, replaced by lust and longing. I’d waited so long to touch her, taste her, be inside her. It was all I could do not to fall on her like the rabid beast I was. My mouth crashed down on hers, and I pushed her into the thick blankets as I devoured her lips. I could taste Valyx and Ax on her skin, and I found myself even more intoxicated.

Unable to hold back any longer, my free hand ripped open the buttons fastening my pants, freeing my throbbing length. I lined up my blunt tip with her slick opening and surged into her swollen channel.

She whimpered, and I slowed, feeling her tightness grip me. She was so small, but she was built for this and soon wriggled against me, begging for more. I held my primal urges by a thread, but with her writhing underneath me, it snapped. I worked my thick shaft deeper and deeper. The further I went, the more she moaned and slick gushed. She arched her hips up to meet every one of my endless strokes.

“Don’t knot her,” Ghost mumbled under his breath. “Don’t let her come.”

I growled at my friend sitting in the corner, palming his cock. He was right, if she was going to be anything but delirious and in pain, I couldn’t push her much further, but it was difficult to hold back. I felt the tingling at the base of my spine and the throb of my knot swelling.

Her control gone, Saphyra panted, “Please! Please, knot me.”

Ghost chuckled. “Do. Not.”

“Yes, yes, give it to me. Give me your knot. Please.” She squirmed and clutched at my hips with her meager strength, trying to bend me to her will.

Ghost full on laughed as a clicking sound echoed through the cell and the canopy of the nest closed again. “Do not knot her. She’s already drunk with lust. Grey looped the camera feed in this room, so we should be good to go now.”

Her pleas were almost too much to resist, but Ax was right. I slowed, curling around her, holding her damp skin against mine and letting my growing knot nudge up against her puffy entrance. With my nose buried against her throat, I breathed her sweet, thick honey scent into my lungs. “I’ve waited so long for this. Not even my dreams could live up to reality.”

She arched her neck as I ran my incisors along the vulnerable flesh. An instinctual urge to mark her hounded me, and the thought of sinking my teeth into her skin made my cock twitch with approval.

Valyx came out of nowhere, flying across the pod, knocking me to the side with an unexpected attack. The movement of the nest and his weight shoved me away from my omega.

His face was inches from mine, snarling. “You can’t be serious! You’re not marking her.”

A growl gathered in my throat. “I am marking her. She’s my mate.”

“You are not marking her. She’s my mate.” Valyx seemed reluctant to admit it, but he wasn’t backing down.

“And mine,” Axion said as if it was the most natural thing in the world as he snuggled Saphyra into his arms where she nuzzled him, exhausted and needy.

“Fuck.” I shoved my fingers through my hair in contemplation. There hadn’t been a new star-blessed mate pairing in decades and now they thought somehow she was destined for all of us. I didn’t think that was even possible. “How do you know?”

“It’s her scent. It calls to my nature,” Axion replied as if it wasn’t a monumental statement, and tucked Saphyra into the blankets as her eyes fluttered closed, worn out by the stress of the day and drunk on hormones.

Valyx growled. “Her scent calls to me, too, but there’s only one way to know for sure and we shouldn’t do it here. She needs more time. She needs to decide with a clear head.”

“We have to get the fuck off this space station,” I said as I fastened my trousers with angry hands. When I pulled on my shirt, the seams strained against my irritated movements.

“That’s the plan, boss.” Ax grinned as he dressed himself from the pile of the clothes beside him, wincing as he buttoned his pants.

Valyx silently brooded. Still watching me like he thought I was going to press the issue while our girl dozed. I should have, just to see what he would do.

---