Page 52 of Rut Bar

“Oh, man, that sucks hard,” Jamie says. “I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t surf.”

I study him, and suddenly everything about him makes sense. His golden tanned white skin. The sun-kissed blond hair with long beachy waves. His cut physique, but calm demeanor. Alphas run hot-blooded and competitive—the bigger they are, the worse they usually get—but that isn’t the vibe I’ve caught from him. He’s mellow for an alpha of his size. I don’t think I’ve ever met an uptight surfer.

“You’d figure it out,” I say, “but I hope you never have to. All right, so it’s my turn now. I choose you, Anthony. Truth or dare?”

Anthony’s icy blue eyes glitter with amusement. “I’m not sure you’re ready for anything but the truth yet, so let’s do that.”

There are a million things I could ask him, but there’s only one question I really need answered. “What is all of this? What’s going on and how do I fit into it?”

“That’s three questions, but I’ll answer them all if you drain your cup. Drink up.”

I glance in my cup and guess that it’s barely more than a double shot’s worth of liquor mixed with juice. Despite its blue coloring, it tastes like lemons and oranges. I drain the cup and hold it out so he can refill it from his frosted pitcher.

“Vee doesn’t think she needs a pack,” he says, “and we’re working diligently to prove her wrong one load of cum at a time. So you could call this a courtship, I guess. As far as how you fit into things… I suppose that’s up to you.”

“You want me to potentially join the pack you’re forming?” I ask as I glance over at Jamie. They already have an alpha. Handsome, fit, and younger than me. Whole. Why would they want me when they could havehim?

But it sounds like this isn’t an either-or thing and that’s what makes it even more confusing. I don’t think I’ve ever known a pack with more than one alpha in it. I’m sure it’s happened before—no two packs are ever the same—but it’s got to be fairly unusual. Most alphas can’t stand the competition of another alpha’s presence when they’re lost in a rut.

Anthony tsks and shakes his head, but smiles. “It’s not your turn right now. All right, I choose you, Brendan. Truth or dare?”

There’s a dark gleam in his eyes I don’t fully trust. I remember his questions earlier and his statement that he won’t make me do anything I don’t want to, but… He’s practically a stranger and I’m not quite sure I trust him that much yet. I’m also drunker than I thought I was because the tip of my nose has gone numb. “Truth.”

“What’s your deepest, darkest kink?” he asks.

Oh, that’s easy.It’s not something I advertise, but I’m not embarrassed by it, either. “I like rope.”

The energy in the room turns tense and I glance around, confused about what I’ve said that’s made them look at each other like that. I can’t imagine these three being shocked by some shibari. They don’t exactly screamvanilla. “What?”

“Rope, as in tying people down?” Vee asks, her voice deceptively neutral. Her words don’t match her body language. Her lips are thinned and her shoulders are square and stiff. I’m not sure what I said wrong, but it was obviously the wrong answer.

I shrug. “Sometimes, but it’s more about the aesthetics. You know it’s probably easier to show you instead of trying to explain it.” I pull my phone out and open the hidden folder that contains my portfolio of work. I hand the phone to Anthony because he’s the closest. He swipes through the album for a bit, then gives it to Veronica.

“Oh. I see what you mean.” She relaxes, and the tension in the room mellows. “The symmetry is pretty. Who’s the model?”

“A fetish model I met in a dungeon once. I ran into her again at a house party in the valley.”

“I never pegged you as a dungeon-going sort of guy,” Veronica teases me.

“You haven’t pegged me at all yet,” I say, and then immediately regret it. The words slipped out before I could stop them. I’m way drunker than I thought. I eye the bright blue liquor in the party cup, then give Anthony an assessing stare. “What the fuck is in this?”

He grins and rests his chin on his forearms where they’re folded along the back of the chair. “I call this onetruth serum. It seemed appropriate for the game.”

I blush and scratch my nails through my hair as I avoid looking at Veronica right now. “The photos of her wearing the dress made of rope are from the party. It took over an hour to tie. I enjoyed working with her because she’s a rope bunny, so we both get into the zone and she lets me do my thing. Some of the more complicated designs take hours of prep, so I hate tying up brats who only want to wiggle out and escape. That’s not my thing.”

“So she’s not your girlfriend?” Veronica asks, looking up from the photos.

I laugh. “No. She’d be more interested in you than me. Steph’s a beta lesbian with a very protective female alpha named Allie. They go to parties to pick up a third when the mood for a threesome strikes them.”

“Oh.” Veronica says as she looks at the photo on the screen again, then passes the phone to Jamie, who flips through them briefly before returning it to me. “Now it’s my turn, I think. Jamie, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” he says with no hesitation.

Veronica bites her lip and uncrosses her legs, then crosses them the other way. “I dare you to give me a foot massage.”

Jamie rises from his seat and sits on the floor. He wedges his plastic cup in his folded legs, then pulls her heels off one after the other and sets them down neatly. He takes one of her stocking covered feet and kneads them.

She melts in her chair. Veronica leans back and props her other foot on his thigh as he digs his thumbs into the balls of her feet until she moans. “Oh, fuck. That’s good. How’d you get so good at this?”

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