Plunder: a reverse harem omegaverse romance, page 12
“Yeah, but no one listens when omegas say no.”
I’m horrified by this. “Bullshit. Everyone listens.”
He doesn’t say anything.
I look away from the steering wheel to see that his face is scrunched up and he looks caught between utter confusion and possibly breaking into tears. I look back at the road, but I take a hand off the steering wheel and I reach over and pat him on the shoulder.
He lets out something that sounds like a sob.
I squeeze his shoulder.
He puts a hand over mine. “Why are all of you like this?”
“Like what?” I say.
“Like, worried about me.” His voice is full of tears. Then he sniffs it away. “Well, except her.” His voice is venomous.
I move my hand away. “Bandit wouldn’t be cool with you being hurt.”
He just laughs.
“I mean it,” I say. “And if she knew that the reason you weren’t letting Cam knot you was this, she would never have done it. If I tell her, she’ll feel horrible, I can guarantee you that.”
“Don’t tell her.”
“No, I won’t tell anyone,” I say. “Don’t worry. It’s safe to tell me things.”
“You, Lloyd, that’s how you feel,” he says, sighing. “Safe.”
“Yeah?” I grin at him and then go back to the road. “I can handle that.”
“I like you,” he says. “Honestly, I like all of you.”
“We like you, too.”
“She hates me.”
“She wants you,” I say. “We all… we all want you.” Fuck, did I just say that out loud?
He lets out another laugh and this one is a little sultry. “Yeah, Lloyd?”
I’m blushing. “Fuck, just forget I—”
He cuts me off by leaning over and pressing his lips into my arm, right below the edge of my sleeve, on my bicep, my bare arm.
I suck in a very loud breath, because the feeling of it goes straight through me and makes my cock hard. I’ve never been hard for a guy before, not like this, not like him.
He leans back in his seat and grins at the windshield.
I don’t know what to do with myself. So, I say, like a dumbass, “I’m not gay.”
He laughs. He throws back his head and laughs and laughs.
This does not make me feel better, so I eventually gruffly cut him off and start to try to say something else, but he interrupts me.
“Lloyd, you have no idea how many times I’ve heard that from someone who wants to fuck me,” he says.
“Oh,” I say.
“It’s my superpower,” he says in a lilting voice. “I turn straight boys, um, crooked.”
I snicker. “Okay, sorry. I didn’t mean to be a cliche.”
His hand’s on my thigh, now, tracing a pattern up and down, dipping down into places I didn’t even realize were quite that sensitive.
My cock jerks inside my pants, and I let out a choked noise.
“Maybe I’m not gay, hmm?” he says in a soft, seductive voice as he cups my groin.
I let out a wheeze.
“Did anyone think to ask me if I prefer pussy?”
“D-don’t,” I manage. “I’m driving.”
He gives me a little squeeze and then his hand retreats.
I throb, struggling to breathe.
Now, it’s quiet again, but it’s a different sort of quietness. It’s not necessarily less awkward, but it’s different awkward.
I’m just trying to… to… I don’t even know. Deal, I guess. To deal.
“You okay, Lloyd?” he says. He sounds fine, fuck him.
“Do you prefer pussy?”
“Nah,” he says. “I’ve always been very equal opportunity in that way, always, even before I presented.”
“Oh,” I say. “Okay.”
He laughs.
“And it’s not… I would never… I’d let you fuck me, you know, I mean. I wouldn’t force you to—”
“Yeah?” He’s touching my thigh again.
I groan. “Stop that.”
He retreats immediately. “Sorry.”
“I didn’t mean…” I let out a breath. “Okay, I mean, I did, but I kinda wish you didn’t stop.”
He touches me again.
“Okay, no, no, really, don’t. Not while I’m driving.” I’m out of breath. “But you… I like it. I like you.”
“That’s what we’ll do at the next hotel. You and me in a room and let Bandit and the alphas sort themselves out.”
“It’s, um, we’re staying at someone’s house tonight, I think. Beds in the basement, all of us.”
“Oh,” he says, laughing. “Well, then. Guess that’ll mean we patch things up or else stay real quiet. But I wouldn’t mind snuggling if you want.”
“You’ll change your mind,” I say. I wouldn’t mind making Bandit jealous for once, I have to say.
“If I don’t? Want to share a pillow?”
I laugh. “Yeah, actually, yeah.”
He rubs his hands together, delighted. “Great. Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” I say.
“About Raider. You know him.”
“I do,” I say. I guess I know him as well as anyone. We’ve been in this band together for years, and we know a lot of things about each other. We’ve toured together and slept in the back of vans together. We’ve both fucked the same girl. What else is there, right?
“You think he means it, what he said to me?”
“Oh, yeah,” I say, glancing at Gable. “That thing he said seemed kind of rude, but you seemed to be lapping it up.”
“I mean, is he really in control of himself?”
“Oh,” I say, and I suddenly realize why Gable would find that swoony. Shit. I feel like ass to think of everything he’s been through. It’s not fair. This guy is so great, so talented, so attractive, such an easy person to be around… I don’t get how people can be like that to him. Well, to any other human being, really. “Yeah, he would definitely never bite you without your permission or anything like that. He’d never do anything with you if he thought you didn’t want it.”
He nods. “Okay.”
“But for fuck’s sake, Gable, that’s just the bare minimum you should expect from a fucking human being.” My voice is rising. “You shouldn’t be like, ‘Oh, this guy won’t rape me, so he’s a good guy.’”
Gable’s face twitches.
Now, it’s quiet again.
And I’m apologizing again. “Sorry. It’s not you I’m angry at. It’s, like… the world.”
“I think it’s because I’m a guy,” he says. “And I think it’s because they’re not gay. I think… it makes them different. Like, they don’t know how to deal with what they’re feeling for me, and they get aggressive.”
“They’re fucking alphas,” I say. “Right?”
“Yeah, pretty much always,” he says.
“So, they should be used to their bisexual tendencies. Doesn’t it tend to come with the designation territory? No excuses for that, Gable, and it’s definitely not your fault.”
“Yeah, I know, but they don’t think of me the way they’d think of a female omega, do you get what I’m saying?”
“No excuses,” I seethe.
“Yeah, but sometimes I let them do things and I like it—”
“You’re a fucking omega,” I say, both hands off the steering wheel. “People are supposed to take care of you.”
“Calm down,” he murmurs.
I put both hands on the steering wheel. “When in the history of the world has anyone ever calmed down when someone told them to calm down?”
“Sorry,” says Gable. “I just meant… you don’t have to do this, you know?”
“I’m not doing anything except getting worked up in the front seat of the car and making you feel bad,” I say. “I’m going to stop being a dick and shut up.”
“You’re not being a dick at all,” he says. “No, it’s nice, really, it is. I could get, uh, really used to it, actually. It’s just… I mean, I can’t…”
“Can’t what?”
“Can’t go there with it,” he says. “If I think of it like you’re saying, then… then… I’ll go to pieces. So, um, let’s change the subject?”
“Yeah, whatever you need,” I say, and I feel like I get it. He’s put up a lot of armor to get through whatever has happened to him, and he needs to keep it up for now. I think maybe someday, he might be ready to take some of it off, and I’d be honored if I was a person he trusted enough to do that in front of. But for now, I’m not going to try to breach his walls. “Uh, let’s change the music. Nothing like a music change to make everything different.”
“Right,” he says.
“You want something else old school?” I say. “What about, uh, Buckcherry? Cage the Elephant?”
“Yeah, you got that?” he says. “Oh, I see it.”
He switches it up, cranks it, and we barrel down the highway, rocking out together.
10
bandit
THE RIDE WITH Raider is endless and quiet.
I try to apologize a couple times, but I have to admit that I get a little sassy in the middle of both of my apologies, saying things like, “Well, I don’t even know why I’m apologizing to you. It’s not as though I owe you anything.”
He grunts in response.
We drive.
Finally, we get to the venue where we’re playing tonight. It’s a brewpub that hosts music in the evenings. We’ll start playing while they’re still doing dinner service, which will be a little weird—at least it usually is. We’ve played here before. We’ll play and people will be eating their burgers and handcut fries and they’ll be out with their kids, who’ll be on their parents’ phones while their parents drink beer and look exhausted. They won’t be paying us any attention.
Meanwhile, all of our fans will be sequestered in the bar area, and they will be crowded in the doorway, trying to get out into the dining room, but the brewpub won’t let them until after dinner service is over, and then they’ll all burst out after our first hour of playing, usually around 10:00. Then things will go absolutely apeshit.
Every time we’re here, people go nuts for us. Maybe it’s because they’re kept back for so long. I don’t know. But it should be a good show.
And then we’re staying at Mitchell Reed’s house, in his very cool basement which is finished and full of cool convertible couch beds. Mitchell is one of our super fans who will routinely do shit like pledge $100 towards the production of one song. Usually people give us a buck or two, right?
We started staying at his place a long time ago, and he’s a good friend now. He’ll probably even come hang out with us later and play his guitar. We’ll all jam out to Bob Dylan or Zeppelin or something.
Cam is already there.
He isn’t speaking to either of us.
Raider corners me while I’m helping to unload amps from the back of the van. He crowds me into the side of the van with his girth and height—he’s not a big guy, but I’m just kind of waifish, I guess. Mostly I like it, but times like these? Uncool. “Why’d he say it?”
I look up at him, blinking, pretending like I don’t know what he’s talking about. “Why’d who say what?”
“About me biting you.”
I fight the flinch that wants to happen. “I have no idea.”
“Did you tell him, because I was under the impression you wanted to pretend—”
“I did not tell him,” I say.
He looks me over. He backs off, running a hand over his jaw. He starts to turn away, but then he turns back. “Hey, uh, you’re done with me? Seriously done?”
“What?” I say. “Why are you—”
“Like, if I ever did want… if he and I…”
“You want to bite him?”
He shrugs. “You know he calls me, ‘Daddy.’”
“You’re disgusting,” I tell him.
He grins at me, a shit-eating alpha grin.
I roll my eyes. “Eew. That’s so, so… eew.” I push past him, not wanting to admit it’s kind of hot, also. I mean, not to me, no, Raider is not my… no. But for the two of them…?
He catches me by the arm. “Hey, Bandit, some part of me heard what you said but thought… I don’t know… some part of me still believes we’re forever or some shit.”
“Raider!” It’s a whine. “You want to do this here?” We are in the parking behind the Bottle Grounds Brewpub.
He lets go of me. “Okay.”
“Okay,” I say.
Now, he’s not grinning. He swallows, really hard. “Damn it, Bandit.”
“Damn it? What did I do?”
“Well, if we were done, you’d have just told me, but since you’re being like this, you think there’s a chance too.”
“I don’t,” I say flatly. “No, we’re done. We’re totally done. Apply for a pair bond with him, since you’ve known him for all of a few weeks. Perfect. I hope you guys are very happy together.” I stalk off and get all the way inside before I realize I’m not carrying anything.
Fuck Raider.
gable
I FIND CAM smoking behind the kitchens, bass slung over his back, staring off into the early twilight of the evening.
We go on in ten minutes. We don’t have time for a big thing with us.
“It wasn’t because of you,” I say as a greeting.
He looks up at me, clearly confused.
“Why I wasn’t letting you knot me,” I say. “I wanted it. I still want it.”
He shakes his head. “Hey, Gable, we don’t have to talk about this right now.”
“I just want you to know that I did the thing with Raider because of her, and it wasn’t ever about you that I wasn’t letting you do it. I just sometimes like to see how far I can push. I want to know where the edges are with alphas. I need to know what to expect.”
“What to expect?”
“Like how frustrated I can get you before you get, you know, cranky about it.”
“You’ve never frustrated me.” He closes the distance between us and puts a hand on my cheek. “I’d never get cranky about that.”
I duck away from him. It’s like I can’t hide from it, suddenly. All of them, the way they are, they’re different. “You’re right,” I say in a choked voice. “We don’t have to talk about this right now.”
He lets his hand slide away.
My heart squeezes. I move in closer. “Cam, I…” My voice goes husky.
He gives me a small, soft smile. “It’s okay. I get this feeling I’d forgive you a lot, and you didn’t do anything wrong, not really. We did have a conversation about how we’re not exclusive, didn’t we? And you haven’t made me any promises to the contrary. No one called dibs on knotting you first, and that’s your decision. It’s your body.”
I nod. “Yeah, but it hurt you.”
“I think I hurt you first, didn’t I? With her?” He laughs softly. “Don’t seem to have a bit of self-control around her.”
“She used you.”
“I was there, Gable. I was part of that.”
No, he’s right, but I haven’t blamed him for a second for it. I just blamed her. I sigh. “What is it about her?”
He laughs softly. “She’s something, isn’t she?”
I laugh too.
He presses close to me and kisses me on the temple. “We’re good. Are we good?”
“We’re good,” I say.
I’m not sure if we are, not really, but I’m glad of the gesture.
He slings his arm around me and we head back inside. “What do you think about Lloyd?” I say as we walk.
“Lloyd?” Cam laughs. “He’s the straightest arrow of us all.”
“I don’t think so,” I say.
“Ah, maybe not when it comes to you.” Cam winks at me.
I grin at this, kind of liking it. It’s hard not to appreciate being appreciated, really.
When we get on stage, Bandit is already there. There was a sound check earlier, but Lloyd and I missed it, probably due to sitting around in the gas station talking to those girls who were our fans. The levels for my guitar and microphone were set without me, so hopefully I’m going to be pleased with it.
Bandit has her guitar strapped on, and she’s staring at the floor, nodding to herself, obviously going through music in her head.
I pick my guitar up and look out over the room. Most of the tables are empty of people but still full of plates and food, and I get the impression that the circulating wait staff is trying to urge people out the door.
Lloyd comes onto the stage and looks out over the area. “That’s weird. Usually, we’re dinner serenades.”
“Yeah,” says Raider, coming up behind him. “But did you see out front? There’s a line out the door.”
Lloyd turns to him, blinking in surprise.
Bandit’s head jerks up. “What?”
“Yeah,” says Raider. “I mean this was never ticketed or something. They just take money at the door. But they’re going to be at capacity, Mitchell said.”
“Oh, you saw Mitchell?” says Lloyd.
“Yeah,” says Raider.
Lloyd turns to me. “That’s the guy’s basement we’re sleeping in.”
I nod at this.
“Mitchell says people have been really excited about the show. He says online, people have been talking about driving long distances to get to see us,” says Raider.
“That’s always happening,” says Lloyd.
“No,” says Raider. “This is next-level.” He nods at me. “It’s because of you.”
Bandit glares at me.
I lift my chin.
She looks away, grim.
Perfect.
When the show starts, about twenty minutes later, she strides up to the microphone and bangs out a chord on her guitar, and I know what she’s going to do before she does it.
“Got a little cover for you,” she croons to the crowd—the tables have all been moved back and the whole place is packed full of bodies. I’ve never played for an audience this big. She immediately launches into “…Baby One More Time.”
I stalk up to the other microphone and start singing with her.
She turns to look at me sidelong and her voice is a whimper, a cry, a plea. How was she supposed to know, she asks me.
