Feral Woods, page 8
“Oh, you poor dear.” Jeremiah brought Cambry’s hand to his lips, kissing the back of his knuckles. The spot tingled, the touch of moisture tickling his nerves. “Let us introduce you to an omega snuggle-pile. Usually we’d be naked, but let’s try with clothes first.”
Throwing his arms around Cambry’s neck, Jeremiah pulled himself close and perched in Cambry’s lap. “Lie back.”
Cambry shuddered as Jeremiah’s breath tickled his ear. Everything in his mind was telling him to shift and flee, but his beast only grumbled slightly before turning its attentions elsewhere. Lowering himself to the ground, he let out a breath as he settled against the grass with Jeremiah’s weight on top of him.
“Come here, sweetness,” said Jeremiah, waving Brandon over as Cambry’s heart pounded. His eyelids were heavy, sleep calling to him as he slowly relaxed in Jeremiah’s arms. Brandon snuggled up to his side, throwing an arm and leg over both of them. His warmth soaked in immediately, leaving only the coolness of the grass beneath them.
“I’m getting naked,” said Jeremiah, his breath huffing over Cambry’s neck. He squirmed and kicked, almost nailing Cambry twice with his knee before he managed to peel his clothes off. Brandon followed suit, his naked skin like a winter jacket on a cold day. Cambry trembled beneath them, his eyes burning as a calm like no other soothed his soul.
He didn’t fight the hands that pulled his shirt over his head, or the ones that went for his pants. He could hardly swallow through the purr that made its way up his throat. Jeremiah responded with his own softer sound, Brandon chiming in with a slightly deeper one.
Cambry fluttered his eyes open as he sensed another presence moving close. Edward had left his alpha’s side. He stripped the clothes from his body before sliding between Jeremiah and Brandon. Cambry opened his arms wider to welcome the new weight, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. When the last omega in the group wiggled his way into the pile, his beast let out a purr that could probably be heard for a mile.
He’d never purred before. Even when his mother had held him as a child, he’d never had the involuntary sound creep up his throat. He couldn’t have stopped it, not that he wanted to try.
If my father could see me now. His father had always looked down on omegas in general, so Cambry could imagine his reaction to a snuggle-pile. Maybe he would describe it as beastly and unrefined, but maybe that was exactly what Cambry was.
What he couldn’t figure out was when the other shoe was going to drop. His father had picked out his therapy. There was no way he would have approved paying for something like this. It just didn’t make any sense.
Edward snuggled closer, snuffling against Cambry’s ear before letting out a contented hum. Cambry clutched him tighter and slid their legs together. Edward was soft against him, just like the rest of the omegas. The contentment was so complete that it was nearly boring.
Something shifted as an alpha approached. Cambry forced his eyes open, letting out a low growl as Bryce came into view. Bryce held up his hands in surrender, taking a small step back, even as Cambry’s beast calmed at the familiar presence.
It was strange. Bryce was still unfamiliar, but his beast seemed to prefer him over his own father.
“I’m not here to stop anything, but may we join you?”
Cambry flushed under Bryce’s stare, looking over his shoulder at the alphas who had started to close in. Jake was there, his dark gaze steady as he licked his lips. The strain of his pants was more than obvious. They’re aroused? Why?
His mouth went dry as Jeremiah grumbled before turning to his husband and locking their lips together. Brandon thrust against Cambry’s hip in response, going from soft to hard in record time.
It was like a chain reaction of touches and groans, omegas writhing against him and near him as the snuggle filled with pure intent. His own cock hardened, his vision narrowing to Bryce and Jake. Without realizing it, he nodded.
Pulling Edward harder to his chest, he let out a sigh of relief when Braxton didn’t try to take him away and instead settled his knees on the grass, licking a strip up Edward’s spine. Edward gasped against Cambry’s chest.
The thick smell of his slick filled the air, and he wasn’t the only one. There were so many scents, sounds and touches that Cambry could hardly keep track. He closed his eyes, holding as much skin close to him as he possibly could. If they left him, he was sure to float away.
A touch of a warm hand landed on Cambry’s hip and he let out a gasp as his cock throbbed. The touch felt like Jake—hot and powerful but yielding at the same time. He opened his legs wide, not sure who had settled between them. Edward gasped in his ear, the sound so filled with pleasure that Cambry had to look.
Braxton was behind his mate, pushing Edward’s cheeks wide as he licked his exposed hole and drank his slick. His eyes were blown wide and nearly black as he bobbed his head over and over.
Jeremiah was on Cambry’s opposite shoulder, Brandon now on top of him and grinding their groins together with gasp-filled moans. The other omega lay across Cambry’s belly, his alpha nuzzling his neck.
Then there was Jake, his dark eyes narrowed as he touched every available part of Cambry. Cambry tried to find Bryce in the pile of limbs and longing, finally spotting him off to the side. Maybe he was observing, with his lip caught between his teeth and his cock poking his pants with an obscene bulge. He was the only thing that was missing.
“Bryce,” Cambry called out, hoping that he could break the last of the alpha’s restraints. Suddenly, Bryce was there, pressed against Jake intimately and slowly easing his clothes from his body. Leaning in, Bryce bit down on an exposed part of Cambry’s leg, his nerves surging to life at the flash of pain.
He’d never been so hard in his life, not even when he’d watched Bryce and Jake together on their bed. But he’d never been so stimulated with every inch of skin belonging to someone else. He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back into the grass.
Someone licked his inner thigh, the sensation bringing a laugh to his lips. He squirmed, his thigh sliding along a rigid hardness that wept against him. Edward gasped in his ear, crying out at whatever his mate was doing.
More. More. More.
Finally, there was a hand on his cock, stroking from tip to base with the perfect amount of pressure. It was slick, and it took him a few moments to realize how much pre-cum he was actually leaking. Slick splashed onto his hip, the taint of arousal like cotton candy on his tongue.
Someone crept between his thighs, stroking between his cheeks with blunt fingers. There, at least, he was dry. It was probably the only spot on him that wasn’t soaked in some sort of fluid.
A flash of terror pushed through his mind as they probed deeper, touching his entrance with steady pressure until he was sure his body would give way. Whimpering, he tried to close his thighs, clenching his cheeks so his hole would lock up tight. His heart beat wildly as he wondered if they would push inside anyway.
They retreated, sliding over his sac and teasing his balls one by one instead. Sighing with full-bodied relief, he bucked as something warm, which had to have been a mouth, descended over his cock, sucking him all the way to the base with the most powerful suction he could have imagined.
Crying out, he threaded a hand through someone’s hair, tugging once before searching for something else. He shuddered when he found it—the long, hard shaft that was almost too thick for his hand. He moved his other hand along the sea of bodies, searching until he found the matching cock that somehow felt even bigger.
They leaked into his palms as he squeezed them tight before moving up and down the shafts one at a time. He moved slowly, mapping out every vein, even as their owners bucked. He moved faster, doing his best to remember what he liked.
“Squeeze the knots for us, baby.” It was Bryce’s voice in his ear, urging him to move his hands down to where cock met groin. He squeezed harder than he would ever dare to on himself, gasping as the hot flesh started to swell. He almost let go out of pure shock, until he felt Bryce’s hand over his, gripping his second knot that was farther up his shaft.
Look, dammit! He pried his eyes open, immediately finding Jake, who was bent at the waist and snarling as he licked someone’s pre-cum from Cambry’s chest. His knot was swelling impossibly in Cambry’s hand as he started to shoot, cum pouring down Cambry’s arm until it dripped from his elbow.
Bryce had bitten Jake’s shoulder, his teeth sinking deep a few times and leaving rosy circles all over the muscle. A few were there from the night before, bruised and dark like a bullseye.
The mouth on Cambry’s cock swallowed and he looked down frantically. He had expected Jake or Bryce to be the ones on him, but blond hair greeted him as he looked down. Jeremiah’s eyes were half-closed as he sank down on Cambry over and over, his purr vibrating along his shaft better than any toy. Brandon was behind him, pumping his hips as he presumably fucked into his husband. Jeremiah’s cock was already covered in cum and starting to soften.
It was too much. As Jeremiah took one last suck, Cambry shattered, his grip going hard on the two alpha’s cocks in his grasp and his balls drawing up as he poured into Jeremiah’s mouth.
A universal groan seemed to go up in the group, and Braxton snarled, sinking his teeth into Edward’s neck as Edward emptied himself on Cambry’s skin. Somehow, some made it into Cambry’s mouth, coating his tongue with ecstasy and sex as his orgasm peaked.
There was a moment where he thought he might shift, his wolf howling so close to his skin that his teeth ached. Then it was gone, receding as fast as his orgasm and leaving him so utterly sated that he never wanted to move again.
The tied alphas hovered over their mates as they snuggled close to the mutual slick and body heat. Brandon pulled out and squirmed his way to the center of the pile on Cambry’s belly. Jake leaned down, licking the slick and cum from Cambry’s skin and getting every speck that he could reach as Bryce ran his hand through Cambry’s hair.
He let his eyes fall shut again and took his first real breath in his life. Sleep called to him, easing the coolness of the grass as someone big, that had to have been Jake, pried him high enough to slip underneath. Bryce never left him, even as he finally let himself slip away.
Chapter Ten
Bryce
He’d been on edge for the last twenty-four hours. He’d skipped his one-on-one sessions with each couple to let them recover after the epic mating pile that Jeremiah had so wonderfully started. He had always hoped to experience one in his lifetime, but it had never come forth in any of his therapy sessions.
They just weren’t accepted anymore except on the fringes of society. People were born and raised to believe that monogamy was the only way and that pack life was a thing for the Neanderthals of the past. Even though the benefits, both mental and sexual, were numerous, they were still frowned upon.
Maybe it was something that he could make mandatory for every one of his week-long therapy sessions?
He glanced at Jake as he stared off into the woods, his jaw set and his mind probably wandering to the same place his own was. Cambry.
The pile had lasted for hours, omegas and alphas seeking their pleasure until there were so many fluids that they all had to go have showers. Cambry had been in the middle of the pile, the true center who every person had navigated to, including Jake and himself.
When he’d set Jake up with Cambry, he had hoped to get the bear out of his comfort zone just long enough that Jake could see how far he’d come. Sometimes, Bryce was certain that Jake still thought of himself as the feral alpha he had been when they had found each other, ready to rip limb from loin.
He hadn’t expected himself to get involved with a client. Cambry was his charge, but he was also his patient, and no matter what kind of silly ideas Mr. Parsons had about Feral Woods, Bryce was going to treat Cambry until he felt like more than just the shoe that everyone trod on.
Glancing back to the house, he let out a deep sigh, hanging another scent trap before he nodded at Jake to move on. They were setting up for the final couples therapy challenge, one that he treated more like a game than anything else. There would be one more one-on-one session after that, then the groups would move back to their daily lives—all except Cambry.
“You keep him until you fix him.” Bryce had barely kept his few choice words to himself when Mr. Parsons had said that to him. Bryce was fine with any client staying as long as they needed, but with Cambry, it was different.
He’d never met someone so damaged, and it didn’t seem like Cambry had even had a choice about coming to Feral Woods. He wasn’t dangerous. Okay, maybe he was a bit dangerous. Feral Woods was the best place for him, and he couldn’t imagine Cambry just leaving.
He just hadn’t figured out if that was because he didn’t want Cambry to go, or if his professional opinion was that it wasn’t safe for Cambry to go. He had Jake as his mate and life partner—something many in society wouldn’t understand or accept. He’d never gotten off with a client in his life, and it was fucking up his point of view.
If it got out that he was mated to an alpha, he wasn’t sure if his practice would be ruined by bigoted assholes or if more hesitant couples would seek him out for advice and counseling.
“He was wearing the same clothes again today,” said Jake, startling Bryce from his thoughts. Jake rubbed his back against a nearby tree, spreading a fresh scent to further confuse the alphas in the final couples’ session.
Five days and Cambry had donned the same shirt and jeans each morning. Even in the afternoon when the temperature climbed and everyone had donned shorts, Cambry still shuffled into the hall for dinner in the same clothes, sweat clinging to him.
“He’s showered, though,” said Bryce, scratching the back of his head. “Do you think it’s a phobia thing? There have been a lot of other things that have come up that I wasn’t expecting.”
Jake gave him a sharp look. Maybe he was thinking the same thing. Bryce hadn’t expected to blow his knot and watch Jake lick his cum from an omega’s skin. He hadn’t expected to be with another man, period. Jake was perfect for him and exactly enough.
“Does he have other clothes?” Jake asked.
“He brought a duffel bag, and his dad’s loaded. It’s not like he can’t afford clothes.” Bryce shrugged, pulling a sprig of lavender from his pack. He struggled not to sneeze as the oils soaked into his skin, slipping straight up his nose.
“Just because your parents have money doesn’t mean they take care of you the way they should.” Jake turned away, his words ringing in Bryce’s ears. Darn. He should never have said something so callous.
Jake’s history was almost as bleak as Cambry’s, only Jake had started cage fighting so he could support himself when he’d struck out on his own. There was no government funding for schooling when a parent pulled in six figures, whether or not they believed in using their money for education.
When Bryce had found him, Jake had owned two shirts and as many pants, with zero boxers to his name. The ragged pair of socks that he’d worn had disintegrated shortly after they’d met.
Hanging the rest of his scent traps as quickly as he could, Bryce rushed back to the house, taking the stairs three at a time before heading into his and Jake’s shared room. The bathroom door was open on both sides and Cambry’s light was on.
He chewed his lip as he slowly approached, listening carefully so he didn’t interrupt whatever Cambry was doing. One thing he was going to have to do was convince Cambry to spend more time outside. It wasn’t healthy to lounge indoors while you tried to get in touch with your beast. It just led to confusion and pent-up emotions.
He rounded the corner slowly, blinking when he found Cambry reading on his bed. He’d spotted the book out of the corner of his eye before, but he’d never actually noticed Cambry reading.
He was lounging against the headboard with every pillow jammed under his back so he was propped upright. The book looked tiny in his large hands, but he held it gently, carefully turning the page. He furrowed his forehead in concentration, his cheeks dusted with a faint flush. The scent of arousal reached Bryce a moment before he noticed Cambry’s hard cock peeking through his open zipper.
He was wearing the same clothes. It really was a shame, because Bryce had seen him naked and it had been a treat. Part of him wished that Cambry were lounging on the bed completely naked—a big part of him.
Bryce took another step, the cover of the book finally readable in the dim indoor light. Forbidden Alphas? Licking his lips, he cleared his throat.
Cambry shot upright, throwing his book to the bed and covering his groin at the same time. His eyes were wide and terrified, his scent thickening and turning with his fear. Bryce sniffed, rubbing the bottom of his nose uncomfortably as he took a step back.
“Hey,” said Bryce. Eloquent, as always. “Just wanted to check on you. I didn’t see you at breakfast.” He sat on the corner of the bed, reaching for the pillow that had fallen to cover the book. Cambry squeaked and threw himself off the bed, darting to the door at a flat run.
Bryce blinked as Cambry disappeared from view, racing down the stairs in a whirl of thumps and bangs. The slap of the front door reached him a moment later. Should I follow? Cambry’s run hadn’t looked like an invitation.
He reached for the book instead, turning the cover right side up as he brought it before him. Oh. His mouth dropped open as he stared at two men, who were obviously alphas, naked and writhing so only their cocks were hidden.
He turned the book over, sliding his fingers along the dulled cover that was marked with thousands of overlapping fingerprints. The pages were frayed and yellow, the scent of omega arousal clinging to them.
“Families at war and two alphas bound by more than just a hatred that is generations old.”
