Page 81 of Heat Clinic

But that doesn’t mean we can’t practice until then. I blow on my pasta to cool it enough so I can eat it, and I grin as I chew.

Lots of practicing.

ChapterTwenty

MARCUS

We’ve settledinto a nice routine that leaves me satisfied on a visceral level. Early morning sex with Tom, sometimes in the shower, before I head to work. Group play with anyone who wants to join in when I get home. Sam is a voyeur who enjoys watching as much as he likes to take part. Now that Tom’s put a camera in his hands, the boy’s incorrigible.

Naughty puppy.

Tom thinks it’s hilarious until he has to teach the eager beta the next stage of being a photographer, post processing. They’ve disappeared into the office and left me and Emily on the couch. It’s a fifty-fifty chance if they’re working right now or fooling around.

I don’t know what I love more, the sound of our turning pages as we both read, the crackling fire that wards off the early autumn chill coming through the open window, or the warm press of her small body against mine underneath our oversized blanket.

I hold my book open with one hand, flipping the page with my thumb by leaning its weight against my knee because I won’t stop carding my fingers through her hair for anything in the world, not even for reading.

“Marcus,” she says, her voice soft.

“Hmm?”

“When will the work upstairs be done?”

“Early next week. Tuesday, I think. And then the housekeeper comes to do a deep clean. The delivery is scheduled for Friday. Why?”

“Did you talk to Sam yet?” she asks.

Ah.

I close my book around my thumb to mark my place and look down at her, brushing her hair from her pretty face so I can see her better. “I did. He wants to be mated in the nest when it’s finished. How do you feel about that?”

The skin between her brow creases as she thinks. “I want to wait for mine until my next heat. Is that okay?”

“Of course it is. But I meant about him using the nest for his mating. Are you sure it’s still okay with you?” I ask.

She frowns and presses her book to her chest as she tips her head back to get a better look at me from her spot on my lap. “Where else would we do it?”

Emily doesn’t know how precious she is. How big her heart and her capacity to love are. Some omegas are so territorial they won’t allow anyone but the children in the nest except during a heat. But she’s already planning movie nights, and she’s talked Tom into mounting a video projector to her ceiling. Not that he needed much convincing. I’m sure he’ll hook it up to porn at his first opportunity. Anything to earn a good spanking.

“You’re right. It’s the perfect place.” This is what’s perfect. Our pack. It’s how it should be, and maybe it took a while to find them all, but they were worth waiting for.

“I’ve been thinking about something else I wanted to ask about,” she says. “Why did you come by the clinic that night?”

“I didn’t tell you that story?”

“You were in Boston for a business meeting,” she says.

I watch the fire flicker and pop while I rub a strand of her hair between my fingers. “I’ve always known I’d have a pack. Some alphas don’t feel it, or don’t care, but it was something I knew about myself. Tom and I found each other early. And it happens like that for some. Sometimes the personal bond or emotion is so strong the pack bond forms over time. Other times, it’s more of an instinctual reaction. A whiff of pheromones that triggers the urge. Tom and I had the first. We bonded in our early twenties, much to his family’s horror. Their ambitions for him were shattered when he announced we were mated and he was moving to America with me. After a few years, most of them learned to live with it.”

“Except for his father.”

I nod. “Except for him. But after he passed away in a car accident, the rest of the family slowly came around one by one. They’d already lost one family member. There wasn’t any sense in willfully losing another who was right there if only they’d pick up the phone. So they did. The betrayal was deep and it took him a long time to forgive them. Over the years, we talked about expanding the pack. We dated a little. We went to clubs and parties and met as many people as we could. And when that failed, we joined matching service after matching service. We did too many pheromone swabs for me to count. And… nothing. We thought maybe our pack was in England. That’s where Tom and I had bonded and where my great-grandfather was born. So for a year we lived there in a tiny flat in London. We went on a lot of first dates. Filled out profiles. Went to clubs. Did even more pheromone swabs. Nothing. We never found anyone else who triggered my nose.

“So that’s when we talked about adopting. We looked at a dozen websites and filled out an application. We thought that maybe if we weren’t finding our pack with lovers, perhaps our pack was supposed to be with our children. And then Tom got his big break. He got a deal for his first show in a tiny gallery in London. We put the adoption application in a drawer. We focused on work. There’d be time later, we thought. What was the rush? We were still young. And then… we never did it. We moved back to New York. I got a promotion. His first show was a hit. He sold eight pieces his first night. The orders for custom photo shoots came pouring in. We both started traveling for work. He was booking sessions all over Europe and North America, even Tokyo once. I was flying out to sign new clients and meet with other firms. So I started going to clubs whenever I was out of town. Rut bars. Speed date rings. Free heat clinics. Omega centers. In whatever new city I went to, I went looking. And then I found you.”

“How did you know?” she asks.

“Meeting you and Sam felt like coming home. Like I was whole now. It only took one sniff.”

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