In Control (In With The Pack), page 24
“Good,” Esra says, and the others agree.
“But,” I say, combing my fingers through Esra’s hair.
“But …” Gabe repeats.
I take a deep breath. I’m not sure they’re going to like this bit, but it’s important to me. We’re starting from the beginning and so I’m laying my stipulations out on the table. “I don’t want to join a pack that isn’t exclusive. I know this pack is open, but that isn’t something I can handle. If you want me to join this pack, then it has to be the five of us, and only the five of us.”
The pack is silent for a moment and Esra sweeps his fingers backwards and forwards over my stomach.
Gabe speaks first. “I don’t have a problem with that, Sophia,” he says simply. “I wouldn’t want to share you with anyone outside this pack.”
“You’re sure?” I ask. The others always made it sound like Gabe was the one pushing for the pack to be open. I thought he’d be reluctant for it to be exclusive.
“I am. I have everything I need right here in this pack.” He smiles at his mates and Liam rests his palm on his omega’s calf.
“And the rest of you?”
“I believe it’s the way it should be,” Roman says and Liam nods.
I peer at Esra.
“If it’s what you want, sweetheart.”
“Is it what you want?”
He kisses my stomach. “It is.”
I let out a puff of air, relieved. “Good, because I’m a jealous, greedy little bitch and the idea of sharing any of you with people outside this pack,” I screw up my nose, “I can’t do that.”
Gabe chuckles. “We’re going to have our hands full taking care of you, pretty little thing.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “I think I’ll have my hands full taking care of you,” I point out. “And I was hoping you’d start taking care of me right now …”
It’s been four very long, very frustrating weeks, and if they don’t lay their hands on me soon I may actually combust.
Esra takes my hint. “But the baby–”
“Babies,” Liam corrects, “will be just fine.”
“We should be gentle with her, though,” Esra insists.
“If she wants. What did you have in mind, sweetheart?”
“First, I want to finish crushing you all in this game of Scrabble, and then–”
Esra knocks me backwards onto the sofa and parts my thighs.
“Enough teasing.”
I pout up at him. “I was winning that game, though.” But he sweeps his tongue through my folds and my head falls back against the cushions, my eyes falling shut, and all thoughts of Scrabble are well and truly abandoned. He makes me come with his tongue easily and I have a strange sense of pride in my chest at how fucking good my future packmates are at pleasuring me. All of them. Each in their own way. It’s what I need. I’d never be satisfied with just one man. I need all four of them to keep me challenged – intellectually, creatively, emotionally and sexually. We all need that. It’s why this relationship between the five of us works.
When Esra rocks back onto his heels, his face a mess with my arousal, I smile up at him, bliss surely written all over my face.
“Oh god, I’ve been dreaming of that,” I murmur. I’ve been dreaming of it ever since that night at the theatre.
“Me too, sweetheart,” he whispers. “I’m going to spend the rest of my life looking after you. I am going to spoil the fuck out of you, woman. You won’t want for anything. Then when the babies come … Babies?” His smile is delirious with happiness, an emotion reflected on Gabe, Liam and Roman’s faces. An emotion reflected in my heart. We’re going to be a family. We’re going to make a family.
Esra leans forward to press his lips to my belly again. “I know I messed up. I know I treated you,” he glances up at his omega, “and Gabe badly. I promise, I’ve learned my lesson. I promise I will love both of you, all of you,” he peers round at Liam and Roman, “with all my heart.”
Gabe kneels down beside him, resting his head on his shoulder. “We all need to get better at talking, at sharing our hopes and our fears, our darkest thoughts and our wildest dreams. Especially when these babies come. Raising kids is no walk in the park.”
“I can’t wait,” Esra says, drawing Gabe in closer to kiss him.
Gabe reaches for me as he kisses our alpha and their attention turns to me, Esra kissing me next as Gabe nibbles my throat. The others draw closer too, but then Gabe whispers in my ear: “You’ve been wanting him, wanting Esra, haven’t you?”
It’s something I can’t deny. Even when we were hating each other, yelling at each other, there was always this pull, this magnetism, between us.
“Hmmm,” I murmur and Gabe pushes us onto the sofa, Esra rolling carefully on top of me. I can feel how hard he is beneath the fabric of his jeans and his scent engulfs me, suddenly powerful in my nose.
“You sure about all this, Sophia?” Esra asks me, trailing a forefinger down my body and making me shudder with desire. “Because once we begin we’re not letting up, not until every single one of us has rutted you. Do you think you can handle that?”
“Rutted and knotted,” I say, desperate for them to have me in all ways.
Esra glances to the others.
“Sophia, we’ve talked about this,” Roman says.
“I’ve been preparing. I want you to knot me.”
“Preparing?” Roman asks, desire shining in his ocean eyes.
“Gabe showed me how.”
Gabe simply shrugs. “The girl deserves the mind-blowing ecstasy of a knot.”
“She does and I’m more than willing to give it to her,” Esra growls, making quick work of his fly.
“Is it safe for the baby?” Roman asks.
Liam rests a hand on his shoulder. “Mate, I’m not going to let any of you arseholes do anything that ever hurts our girl or our children. I promise you that now. If this is what Sophia wants–”
“It is,” I say.
Esra positions himself between my legs and I spread them for him, my heart pounding a beat that reverberates around my body.
“Sophia,” he whispers in what sounds like reverence. “How were we so lucky to find you? So lucky my stupid crap didn’t scare you away? So lucky that man didn’t …” He screws up his eyes, that thought too painful to bear.
“Alpha,” I whisper back and when his eyes flutter open at the sound of my voice, I know his dark eyes will never cease to steal my breath away. “I know I can never share the bond the way you all can. I know you can never claim me like you can an omega, but I do want to be a part of this family. To make it mine. To make it ours. I’ve never wanted that before, but the four of you have changed me, have shown me there are things I could have that I never considered I’d want.”
“Sophia, I don’t need to sink my teeth into your neck to make you mine. I don’t need to do that for you to know that you’re mine. I will make it damn clear to you every day for the rest of my life.”
“All of us will,” Liam adds.
He teases me first, dragging his cock head through my sensitive area, knocking against my clit and I wonder how he has the self control. All I want is for him to plunge deep inside me. To claim my body as his.
But though I beg him, he waits until I’m coming. Then, satisfied I’m wet enough to take him, he grips my thighs and drags me onto his cock.
Finally, he fucks me. After all these long weeks of longing, he fucks me. Fucks me with the whole of his body and the entirety of his soul, wanting to show me with every stroke of his cock how much he wants me, how much he will always love me.
When I come, I’m greeted by the sight of bliss streaming across his face, and he falls straight after me.
“Sophia,” he moans, as he holds me to him, holding me tight. This time he doesn’t pull away. This time he fills me. This time he knots me.
It’s different from the dildo, his flesh warm and hard and growing in size, stretching me at my entrance, stretching me wide to take him as he utters words of encouragement and wraps me in his embrace.
I can’t deny there’s a little pain, my eyes smarting with it, but then a silent ‘ohhh’ issues from my lips and pleasure blooms deep in my core, spreading through my entire body, only this time, more powerful, more potent than before.
It’s better than Gabe described, the ecstasy mind-shattering, and when I float back to Earth, loving the way he’s locked into me, I find four faces staring at me in wonder.
“How do you feel, PLT?” Gabe asks, stroking my cheek softly.
“Pretty damn divine,” I laugh.
And as the other three move in to pepper me with kisses and murmur declarations of love in my ear, I realise just how true those words are.
Divine. There is no better way to describe how I feel when I’m with these men. How I will always feel with them. And I know I want to belong with them for the rest of my days. Belong completely.
“Bite me,” I tell them. “Bite me, please.”
29
Gabriel
I lift my head and peer down at the pretty little beta joined to my alpha, stare down at where she’s taken him. This strong, determined woman. Carrying my child in her belly. I’m overwhelmed with emotion, the force of it leaving me stunned.
Everything has been so messy and wrong for such a long time and now it’s as if it’s all falling into place. Rearranging to make room for this woman in our lives, this woman who was made for us.
“Yes,” I tell the others.
Liam kisses Sophia’s jaw. “We can’t bond you, Sophia, you know that, it doesn’t mean–”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “I want my teeth marks in her neck anyway. A permanent reminder to everyone that she’s mine.”
Esra growls clearly liking the sound of that.
“It will hurt,” Roman says, stroking his fingers along her throat anyway.
“I don’t care,” Sophia says with defiance, her cheeks rosy, her eyes bright and her hair spread about her head on the cushion. She looks like a fucking angel, like something ethereal, too good, too precious, for us mere mortals. “Gabriel,” she says, meeting my eyes with hers and I wonder how it’s possible for one set of eyes to hold so many of the universe’s colours – blues and greys and silvers like the night sky floating in her irises.
I inhale the smell of her, the fragrance of her skin, the traces of her perfume. I drag my nose down her throat and rest my teeth on the sensitive spot where her neck meets her shoulder. I don’t own the sharp teeth of an alpha. But it’s another way Sophia and I are alike. We won’t let our designations stop us from being what we want, from having the people we love.
“Ready?” I breathe.
“Never more so.”
I lick my tongue over her flesh, tasting salt on her skin, and then I sink my teeth through the tissue. Coppery blood fills my mouth and she cries out, my mates shushing and comforting her.
I swallow her blood, my teeth plunging deeper into her neck. I close my eyes. Tasting her, hearing her breath and her heartbeat, feeling her pulse upon my lips. And then more. Deep in my gut. Pushing up against my mates’ bonds. Creating space for itself. Warm and electric.
Sophia gasps and I withdraw my blood-stained mouth, peering down at my stomach, resting my hand there.
“You … you feel it too?” I ask her.
“Yes, is it the baby?” she asks, alarm in her eyes.
“No, sweetheart, no, it’s …” I can hardly believe it. This can’t be. Can it? “It’s a bond.”
The others stare at us.
“That’s impossible,” Esra mutters, forever the scientist.
I laugh. “I have three bonds, Alpha. I think I know what one feels like.”
His gaze shifts to Sophia, her eyes wide with disbelief and then he’s diving in, adding his bite to the base of her neck. She cries out again as his teeth snap through her skin, but then the look of pain morphs to more astonishment. Esra laps at the wound, licking and kissing it.
“You feel it?” I ask him, my fingers tracing the scar of my teeth marks on his neck where I claimed him all those years ago.
“Yes,” he whispers, “I feel it. How is this possible?” He turns to Liam.
“I don’t know. I never heard of it happening before.” He kisses Sophia’s mouth as Esra continues to sweep his tongue over her fresh wound. “Can you take another, Sweetheart?”
“Yes.” She smiles up at him with love in her eyes. “Yes, I want you all to claim me.”
He rests his hand on her belly and Esra reluctantly lifts his head, making room for our packmate.
“I don’t know if this is some kind of biology gone wrong, or a miracle, but, fuck, Sophia, I want to feel your bond in my gut. I want to be linked to you, to feel you there forever.”
“Then bite me, Alpha.”
He does, his teeth sinking into her neck alongside the wounds we’ve already made. The bonds in my body hum, vibrating. I can feel the incredulity Liam experiences as Sophia’s bond nuzzles alongside the rest of the packs’ in his gut.
Then there’s only Roman left to go. I hook my arms around his shoulder and nuzzle his ear. “Do it, Alpha. Claim our girl and make our pack whole.”
Liam backs away, his lips stained scarlet with Sophia’s blood and Roman hovers above her, stroking her face, whispering words to her that only the two of them can hear, words I can feel in Sophia’s bond delight her. There’s one spot left on her neck, room for one more bite and Roman claims it as his own. Sinking his teeth gently, softly, carefully into her skin. He’s always been the most sensitive of us, the one taking care of us all.
My bonds vibrate more violently and the sensation echoes through my body and my bones, lighting up every part of me.
“Wow,” I whisper. It’s as if the bond was never complete, never whole. Because now, with Sophia bonded to us all, I feel just how powerful, how awesome, it truly is, and I know that this was always meant to be our destiny.
I wrap my hands around my mates, drawing us all into one giant hug, and we all collapse together onto the sofa, laughing and crying and happier than it should be possible for five people to possibly be.
A pack.
Finally, the pack we should always have been.
30
Roman
“Are you nervous?” I ask Sophia squirming on the seat beside me. I take her hand in mine and lace our fingers together and on her other side Esra leans down and kisses her shoulder.
“Yes … no … I just really need to pee.” She screws up her eyes. “The letter said I had to drink a pint of water before this scan and now I’m desperate.”
Esra jumps up to his feet. “I’ll go see where Liam went. See if it’s OK for you to pee.” He’s obviously nervous too and in need of a mission to keep himself occupied.
Me, I’m cool as a cucumber. Everything has been perfect since Sophia stepped into our lives permanently and I know deep down in my gut this scan will be too. I let my calmness seep through our bond and her legs stop jiggling.
She keeps fiddling with the pendant around her neck, though, something she always does when she’s tense. “What if there’s something–”
“There won’t be, Soph. It’s going to be just fine.”
I take the pendant from her fingers and twist it over in my own. She wears it most days. The stone is a silvery blue like the colour of her eyes. I’ve never asked her about it before and I realise there’s still so much we have to learn about one another. “Was it a gift?”
“Yes, from my dad on my 18th.” She peers down at it. “I should have given it away. I meant to put it in a pile to take to the charity shop.” She strokes her thumb over the stone. “But I couldn’t do it.”
“You miss him.”
“I wish I didn’t. I wish I could just hate him. He’s going to miss this too, the arrival of his grandchild.”
I let the pendant fall back against her collarbone and stroke her cheek. “I miss my dad too.” He wasn’t the best dad even when he was around, but there are moments like this when I feel his absence most keenly. I want to be the best dad I can for this kid. I want to make my packmates happy. It would be nice to have someone to turn to for advice.
She swallows and chews on her lip again. “What if we’re like them, Ro?” she whispers. “What if we turn out to be the same and screw up this kid?”
“We won’t. We aren’t them. I may not have made this baby, Soph,” I say, laying my hand against the little bump at her stomach, “but it’s mine. I love it already and I always will. I’m going to make sure this child knows that every day of their life.” I pinch her chin and kiss her lips. “I’m going to make sure you know it too. It’s what you deserve.”
She beams back at me and, through our bond, I feel that tension leaving her body. “You always make me feel better,” she mumbles, cosying up to my side.
I smile, pride swelling my chest. I may not have Gabe’s charm, Liam’s wit or Esra’s … whatever the hell you’d call that, but I know how to take care of my packmates. I know how to take care of Sophia especially.
Liam and Esra stroll back to where we’re waiting on the bench.
“Go pee,” Liam tells Sophia, “it’ll be fine.”
“Oh thank god!” She springs to her feet and dashes off towards the bathroom. A minute later, Gabe comes skidding into the corridor, panting and red faced.
“Shit! Did I miss it? Am I too late? Where’s Sophia?”
Liam squeezes his shoulder. “Breathe, Gabe. You didn’t miss it.”
“I’m here,” she says, creeping up behind our omega and wrapping her arms around his middle.
“Phew.” His body sags in relief as a nurse steps into the corridor.
“Miss Valentine?”
“That’s me.” Soph steps towards her, taking a steadying breath.
“We’re going to have to change that,” Esra rumbles. “Don’t want everyone thinking you’re fucking available.”
“I’m not changing my name unless you do too,” she says.
