Page 34 of Deadly Ties

I groan, and not just because of the elbow working the knots out of my lats. “We should have kept the massage for after the torture training session.”

She leans over and waggles those silky brows. “There’s a hot-tub. And then we can take a puppy pile nap in one of the omega suites.”

I’m kind of glad I’m on my stomach as that image springs to life. “All four of us?”

She just shrugs a glossy shoulder. “The nests are big. I’d say there’s room for all.”

That thought gets me through a frustrating shifting session, where I can’t so much as sprout a patch of fur, and an hour in the gym which turns me into a soggy, trembling mess. The upside is the view, since my workout buddies are all in perfect shape, and watching beads of sweat slide over bunching muscles is the closest I’ve got to porn in a very long time. The downside is my how weak and wasted I feel beside them, and despite the pushups I did each day in the basement, I have to accept I’m a long, painful way from peak condition.

“Don’t feel bad about it,” Rory all but growls in my ear as he half-carries me back to the bedroom suite. “You’re an athlete. You know how this goes. Hard work and discipline, and you’ll get your strength back and more.”

“Sure, but I’ve never started with the physique of a pre-teen girl,” I snap back, feeling my self-disgust almost swamp me as he nudges me against the vanity in the bathroom. Arben has disappeared, which spares at least a little of my dignity, but Angel is already filling the tub with hot water and soothing salts. Clearly this is going to be a recuperating bath, and not a fuck-in-the-hot-tub fantasy.

Still, it’s bliss after a year of washing in a cold shower block, which was the weekly treat in the basement – the rest of the time it was a bucket and rag. Once the soothing salts have done their work, I’m so wiped out I inhale the tray of food delivered to the suite without tasting it, and then completely miss the part where all four of us crawl into the omega nest. I have some vague recollection of Angel cuddling close to my chest, her perfume in my nose, and Rory lying at my back. I can feel his breath on the bite mark on my neck, but there’s a gap between us I think is meant to be respectful. I’m scheming up ways to bridge it – and possibly bring Angel along with me - but then I’m lights out. If Doctor Death ever joins us is a mystery, especially when I wake in the morning to a warm but empty bed.

That becomes the pattern for the next few days. Shifting practice. Gym workout. Pamper session. Repeat. It’s a series of frustrations that are only matched by my level of exhaustion. I’m always the first one asleep, no matter how hard I try to stay awake. I’m determined to make something happen between the four of us – even if it’s just an honest conversation about how awkward this all is – but when I wake up alone for the third morning in a row, I start to wonder if they’re sapping my energy on purpose. Maybe they’re just putting up with each other for my sake. And any hope for something more will disappear as soon as I no longer have the stamina of a newborn wolfling.

But maybe I’m just deluding myself, anyway. The longer I watch Rory and Angel inhabit the same space, the more I feel the distance between them. When I’d suggested she help me blow him during my heat, I wasn’t just getting swept up in the moment. The attraction between them is so strong it sometimes feels like I can taste her skin through my bond with Rory. And when Arben starts helping with the shifting sessions, my wolf can scent her need for Rory woven through her pheromones. She loves Arben, shelikesme, but her feelings for Rory are imprinted at the deepest level. Which means her hurt runs as deeply as her desire for my mate.

It's a weird dynamic, but I’m just too damned tired to do much about it. And then on Friday night, Angel tells me Ferrier has invited us to a family dinner. By which he means we have to swap the trays in our room for a meal with him, which I decide is as good a way as any to break the cycle of our nights. Tonight, I’m going to make something happen in the nest. It might not be the steamy foursome of my dreams, but I want defenses down and some honesty between us.

As we dress in the selection of formalwear Ferrier had sent up to the suite, Rory comes up behind me to press a kiss to his mark on my throat. At leasthisbarriers have started to crumble, mainly due to me pressing my dick against him any chance I get. There’s a lot you can do when you’re spotting a guy who’s bench-pressing the weight of a small car.

“You look hot in a suit,” he tells me, his own groin skimming my ass. I’ve gone the whole deal with a suit jacket and skinny navy tie, while he’s in dress pants and a white button-down, his collar open to reveal his tanned throat. I stare at it in the mirror of the ensuite. Angel and Arben went back to their cabin to get ready, so I let myself ogle him shamelessly, and I have to wonder what it would look like with a claiming bite on the smooth golden skin.

“Do you think they’ll be late for dinner?” I muse, fussing with my tie as I watch him study my mouth. There’s a vein pulsing in his forehead, his bright green eyes growing hooded the longer I tug on the fabric. “I mean, they’ve been on a sex drought since we started group nesting, haven’t they? Nothing as bad as my lack of dick, but they’re probably having a cum party in the cabin right now…”

“Fuck, I love the dirty way your pretty mouth works.” Rory turns me around so fast I catch my hip on the edge of the vanity. But that small pain is washed away as his mouth slams down on mine. He tastes like mint and frustration, and my soul sings at the growl that spirals up his throat. Rory is the fun brother, the one who blurts out the first thing on his mind. While he has a thing for messy heartbreak, he’s naturally upbeat, and isn’t happy unless everyone else is. He’s also all about touch, which means he usually tries to fuck the misery out of others. Link used to grouch that he acts like his cum is a miracle cure, but in some ways it is.

And as I feel the threads of my group fantasy start to unravel, I drop to my knees. “I need it,” I grunt, staring up at him. “I want your hot cum on my pretty tongue.”

“Fuck.” He braces his hands on the vanity behind me, breathing in so deep I can see his abs shifting beneath his shirt. “You sure about this, Sunshine?”

I pause with my hands on his belt. “Sunshine?”

“Your hair,” he says, reaching out to stroke a well-conditioned lock. “You’re so bright, Kelly, and I don’t know… Calling you bro or babe doesn’t feel right.”

I shrug; it’s kind of cute. But then I unzip his pants before he can derail us with any more compliments. And when I finally get a hand around his cock, my mouth waters at the way it flexes and jumps in my hand. All shifters are well-hung, but my guys are on another scale. He’s also the same perfect golden color as the rest of him, his skin smooth and hairless. But what I love about Rory’s dick is how eager it always feels, not to mention the happy sounds I can pull out of the man it’s attached to.

As an alpha male, I’d never imagined I’d suck much cock. Omega males are so rare they’re practically unicorns, and as a horny teenager, I’d been all about tits and ass. Even when my designation hit me like a freight train, I still wasn’t interested in dick. In fact, the first guy who tried to feel me up nearly lost his, my anger tipping me into an omega heat. And then I was so pissed off for so long, sex became a kind of trigger: touch my dick and I’ll lose my shit.

It didn’t help that Hila’s son and his friends were scorching hot and thought I was a freak who didn’t know his place. Humiliation was already my daily state of mind; they just made it worse by swaggering around and trying to make me feel small. But the first time Rory kissed me, I discovered that dick had some potential. Link might have been my first alpha fuck, but this cock in front of me was the very first in my mouth. And instead of patting me on the head and walking away, Rory had returned the favor so well, I was walking on air for a week.

“I love this,” I tell him, licking a stripe up his straining shaft. “I love how much you want to be in my mouth. How you look at me like being down on my knees is some kind of gift.”

“It is. And I do. I always want to be inside you, Kelly.”

I grunt, also loving the way he digs his fingers into my chin. He’s been so careful around me I can’t help but feel fragile, but there’s nothing gentle about the need in his eyes as he rocks against my lips. The only thing holding me back is the tinge of sorrow I can feel in our bond. We’re not exactly synced yet, but he’s there, just like Link. Two shadows on my soul that slip away if I try to pin them down too hard. “Are you thinking of me or Angel right now?”

He just shakes his head, his hands sliding to cup my face. “Sunshine…”

“There’s no wrong answer, you know. I don’t feel replaced, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not. In fact, it’s the opposite. You’re the most irreplaceable person in our pack, cos if anyone can unfuck the mess we made, it’s you.” Instead of pushing me back onto his cock, he grabs me under the arms and pulls me to my feet. I shoot him a curious look; Rory is not the kind of guy to turn down a blowjob, so I know this must be serious. But then he pulls me into a tight hug. “I missed you, Sunshine. And everything that happened while you were gone, that’s separate from us. From how I feel about you. I was fucking wrecked when we couldn’t find you. And those girls I screwed, that was just for information so we could get you back...” His mouth presses against my bite mark, but instead of sinking his teeth in again, he gives it the gentlest kiss. “Elvi was different. She wasn’t just part of the mission for me. But don’t ever say I’m thinking about someone else when I’m with you, Kelly.”

I give him a stilted nod, because I’m kind of choked up right now. “Then be with me. Tonight, after dinner.”

He pulls back to look into my eyes. “Really? What about the others…?”

---