Page 81 of Sweethearts and Savages
She laughed and I kissed her again. I tasted her, sucking the plump pale pink of her bottom lip into my mouth. Then I grabbed her chin and moved her face toward Kell.
They stared at each other for an achingly long amount of time, then fell into each other like two magnets that had been kept apart too long.
It was almost painful to watch. I looked over at Frost, who was eyeing them hungrily. I vacated my place beside Enit on the couch, tilting my head so he’d take my space. First step—break down the barrier between them and Enit.
I looked up at Bohdie, who looked like he was somewhere between wanting to watch them bring his mate pleasure, and ripping their heads straight off their bodies. I moved beside him, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder. In the last two years, I’d come to love Bohdie too. Not in the way I loved Enit, but like we were two arms of the same creature. He was my counterpart, the jokes to my seriousness. The fight to my flight.
“It’ll be okay, Alpha,” I said softly. “If she loves them, it doesn’t mean she loves you less.”
His jaw tensed but he shook his head. “It’s not that. What if they hurt her again?” he asked, his voice pitched so low that I could barely hear.
He was voicing what we all felt, but sometimes, you had to take a leap of faith. Enit had taught me that, in her roundabout way.
“What if they make her whole?” I countered softly. “You’re her mate. Get in there, establish the pecking order and do what you do best. Make her feel safe enough to be herself.”
He strode over to the couch, grabbing up a lust-drunk Enit, and striding away with her. He stopped at the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the two other people in the room. The rest of our Pack, our Pride, our family—potentially at least. “Are you coming?”
Frost
I looked at Kell, my heart racing in my chest. I wanted this so fucking bad. I hadn’t been exaggerating when I told Stacey that I’d missed them all. While I wanted Enit—and if I was honest with myself, Bohdie—like it was a physical ache, I’d missed the hell out of Stace too. She was the friend I’d never been allowed to have, a match for my wit in every way. While Enit was the balm to my soul and Bohdie had tapped into an unknown submissive need I hadn’t realized I’d possessed, Stacey had just been the friend without expectations. She didn’t expect me to be cool or funny or charming. I could just be myself.
Together, they had been perfect. And I’d fucked it all up in one stupid move that had been inspired by the fear of the kid I’d once been.
The first thing we’d done was cut ties. I’d sold out my family, and their so-called Church quicker than you could say “I’m in a cult!”
We’d moved south, then kept moving. When I’d put out a call on the less savory places of the web, for anyone who needed help, people had reached back. Then the bear shifters had tracked us down at a bar, and the rest was history. We’d done what Enit had asked—we’d been better.
I knew Bohdie and Kell would be uneasy in each other's presence for some time. Bohdie was so Alpha, and Kell had been the master of his own destiny for so long, that they were going to struggle with the dynamic.
I implored Kell with my eyes not to fuck this up over something as stupid as his macho pride.
“Are you coming?” Bohdie asked, and I hesitated. As much as I desperately wanted Enit, Kell had been my friend, lover, and companion for the last two years. If he walked, I would have to as well. It would break my heart, but I’d do it.
Kell swallowed hard and nodded, getting to his feet. A relieved breath whooshed out of me and I threw Stacey a grin. She just rolled her eyes at me and something in my chest healed a little. We’d be okay, I just knew it. We just had to get over this initial weirdness. And if the Doc prescribed an orgy with the girl of my dreams and two hot guys, then I wasn’t going to argue. I skipped out of the room and into a bedroom. It smelled musty and unused, but not unpleasant, and the bed was still made up.
I grabbed Kell’s arm, turning him slightly toward me. “I know it seems weird, but this is a huge olive branch. Get out of your head and take it, okay?”
He tensed, but nodded. “This is just not how I thought the reunion with my, uh, mate would go.”
Bohdie snorted. “I’m not sure any of us thought it would go like this. This is a weird, slightly fucked up arrangement, and we’re all navigating in the dark. But at least we all have something in common.” He looked down at Enit. “To think I thought that sharing you with Stace was going to be the weirdest thing that ever happened...”
Enit was looking at us all, wide-eyed and honestly, a little nervous. Maybe she was waiting for a fist fight or for Bohdie to shift, who knew. I guess Bohdie knew her best, because he leaned down and kissed her with a passion so fucking hot that I got hard from just watching. I drifted closer, because how could I not?
He had her in the middle of the bed like she was an offering on an alter, and I crawled toward her. She watched me closely, her eyes filled with heat and something else that I couldn’t define. I kissed her with the reverence she deserved, and then she surprised the hell out of me. She bit my lip hard, then sucked it into her mouth, punishing and forgiving me with one movement.
“I’ve missed you too, Frost.”
I shuddered and kissed her hard, pouring everything I had into it, trying to explain my complicated, messy feelings with my mouth and my tongue. She moaned gently against my mouth, curling against me in a way that made me moan too.
A hand wrapped into my hair that had gotten slightly too long, and Bohdie twisted my head to the side, biting my jugular gently. It made shivers run down my spine, and I knew it was how an Alpha punished someone lesser in the hierarchy. It was retribution, and a little gentle forgiveness.
Also, it was hot as fuck.
My dick went crazy hard, like diamond hard, and I pressed my hard on against the softness of Enit’s belly, making her suck in a breath even as she kissed me again.
“Move over, Frost. Our girl is overdressed for the occasion.”
I shifted to the left, and felt Bohdie’s hands gently brushing between our bodies as he divested Enit of her clothes. I didn’t dare to move away, just in case she never let me come back. As Bohdie peeled off her clothes, I traced the newly revealed skin with my tongue. I’d dreamed of this. Night after night, I’d dreamed of kissing her throat, her collarbone, the soft curve of her breasts.
