Page 142 of Tides of Fate

“Smell so good here,” Gideon murmurs before sucking a bruise into the muscle between Finn’s neck and shoulder, near Nix’s bond-bite.

“Harder, Gid—fuck, your cock is—wish I’d had time to prep.”

He groans as his rhythm falters, the erratic movements pushing Gideon closer to the edge.

When Finn finally lets go, he reaches between his legs so he can add his come to the mess of Gideon’s precome between his cheeks. The wet heat pushes him over, and Gideon’s orgasm burns through him at the speed of light.

Finn pulls him over onto his side at the edge of the nest, where they can see all their mates dozing and sated for the moment.

Gideon thinks he could nap for a few minutes, and his eyes are just slipping closed when he hears Nix’s gravelly voice from underneath yet another unconscious alpha.

“Um…is there any more chicken?”

Chapter Twenty-Five: Finn

The early morning light filters weakly through the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, barely stretching to the corners of the kitchen. It’s quiet when Finn slips in, three days after Nix’s heat and Jay’s rut began, with the ever-loyal Tsuki padding behind him.

“Come on, girl. I need coffee. So much coffee.”

She stays close, nosing at the back of the sweatpants and t-shirt he grabbed from the nest. They smell like Grayson and Leo, respectively, and Finn can’t help but let the comfort of it settle over him, grounding him in the quiet stillness of the moment.

Like the intelligent dog she is, Tsuki heads to the back door so Finn can let her out, carefully navigating the still-fresh holes in the yard from Sentinel’s security team. When she dawdles too long, Finn yells, “Hurry, Tsuk. It’s cold this morning.”

She’d been so well-behaved during their isolation, only scratching at the nest door after waiting as long as she could. Finn can’t blame her for taking her time after being cooped up.

After the first day, Nix finally agreed to let them out of the nest.

Before that, though, Luca had snuck out twice—once under the pretense of getting more chicken and again in the middle of the night to crack the door open for Tsuki, waiting until Nix had fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep.

The following day, Nix’s hormones had returned to their regularwowlevels, but Jay’s rut had persisted like never before. The alpha’s only focus had been knotting his mates in every position imaginable—especiallyRowan and Grayson, who seemed to take the brunt of Jay’s dominant displays.

Finn thinks their leader needed to solidify his Pack Alpha status with those most likely to challenge him. Maybe, after all their pseudo-challenges over the last four weeks, it was time to “pay the piper” and submit to Jay’s wolf—especially when Jay-the-person would never have made them.

It settles the balance in the pack back to rights.

Thankfully, Finn had never felt the urge to pit his wolf against Jay. His whole adult life, post-presentation, had been defined by the decided absence of his wolf. He’d told Nix once that a wolf is just a manifestation of a Were’s instincts, feelings, and emotions, and Finn’s personality leaned so far in the opposite direction—at least, it had until Nix.

There is something special about Nix—the omegaandthe man.

Each of Finn’s mates has had an awakening of sorts, and maybe he is not any different. It’s been such a short and intense period in their lives that Finn wonders what changes Nix will bring about in the next year or decade—like how their bond settled Finn’s anxiety. He can admit that to himself now, and, especially with Luca offering tangible support, it has been so much better.

But the real improvement came when he bonded with Nix in the same place where his trauma had begun.

It’s replaced, in part, the memories of that first time, creating a new, powerful set of emotions to overwrite the old. He’s not sure why, but he can feel Nix in the back of his mind all the time, and sometimes—if Nix wants to—Finn can get images or other sensory input.

He is sure the power isn’t his doing, buttheirs.Together, they can do this incredible thing that defies logic and everything Finn has ever known about science. It’s just one way his mate has changed him.

Closing his eyes, Finn looks into the place where he knows Nix sits in his mind. It’s a bright white light, like the light behind his eyes in that ER med bay, but now it’s tinged with gold. Finn hasn’t a clue why it’s changed. Maybe that’s contentment—he hopes so.

As Finn waits for the coffee machine to bring forthits heavenly bounty, he “caresses” the light, pushing his contentment and love along it. Finn is not imagining it when it flares to life, and there is a responding caress.

A picture of a whole cooked chicken appears next, causing him to laugh.

They’d had to ask Leo’s moms to drop off several cooked chickens and other high-protein items that Nix requested (demanded) on the porch. Fernando had said Nix would want mostly meat during his heat, but he hadn’t said it would worsen afterward.

Finn suspected it was just Nix regaining his energy stores after expending so much during his heat and keeping up with Jay. Their alpha had eaten his share, too, tearing meat off the bones and offering it to each of them with a grunt and a nod—like a Cro-Magnon man, proud of his hunting and providing sustenance for his mates.

Chicken.Grrr. Eat.

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