Track 13 The Few Things

Once again, Liam begs me to stay the night with his pack, but I refuse. I've never been the type of girl to just jump into bed with a guy immediately. And to me, knowing each other for less than a week is pretty immediate.

They drop me and Gage at my house. His motorcycle is in my driveway, so he can get home from here. Silly really, since his parents' pack lives in town and he's currently staying with them. So he'll come up to the lake and then turn right around and go back.

Liam presses a kiss to my mouth in parting, Rafe brushes his lips over my cheek and Gray pulls me in for a long hug, his nose in my hair.

Gage and I watch them drive away, my hands tucked into the pockets of my shorts, before I turn to my quietly stewing best friend. He has something on his mind. Something that is pissing him off to no end, and he won't feel right until he gets it off his chest. "Wanna come in for a drink?"

His dark blue eyes fix on my aqua ones and he gives a jerky nod. "Yeah."

Silently, I lead the way up my front walk and onto the porch, fishing my keys out of my pocket to unlock the door. Gage flicks on the lights as I kick off my sandals, groaning at how good it feels to no longer be in even the smallest inch high heels.

"I would have paid off the Stillwell pack for you. You know that, right?" He asks, dark eyes blazing. Oh. Okay, we're just diving right in.

I tip my head in acknowledgement. "I know. But now you don't have to. You need that money, Gage. You're home for good and it's time for you to build your life."

My throat gets tight at the idea of him building that life without me, but it's not exactly like I can ask him not to, right? We've been friends for forever and I need to be happy for him when he finds someone to settle down with, when he finds his pack.

He barks out a sharp laugh that holds zero humor. "Funny, that's what I thought I was doing."

I frown at him, but quickly wipe it away, arranging my expression into something placid and calm. "Well, you just got back a week ago. It's not like a new life will just fall into your lap."

Not unless he joins the Cordova pack, which is where I think this is going. Clearly, they've been hanging out without me, joined together against the Stillwell pack. The Cordovas spent all day making him feel included and a part of the group, even if he only grunted and scowled at them in response.

They were trying.

It seems even the Cordova pack cannot resist the charms of Lake Kilrose's golden boy.

He stares at me for an inordinate amount of time, and I get the impression that he wants me to read what he's thinking, but I can't. The sad truth is, while I still think of Gage as one of my best friends, we don't really know each other anymore. Our friendship is rooted in childhood memories, in teenage hijinks… I don't know who he is as the adult in front of me.

And he doesn't know who I am anymore either. I have too many things I'm keeping hidden for that.

"Do you want something to drink?" I ask, unable to bear his scrutiny, turning away from him to head into my little kitchen.

"No, I don't want a fucking drink." I duck my head in the fridge and frown before I grab two seltzers and turn to face him again, that calm mask back in place. "I want you to understand that I can take care of you."

My feet tangle at his words, and I nearly fall. Would have if Gage didn't have the reflexes of a god and was halfway across the room with his hands on my hips, steadying me in the blink of an eye. I flash him a grateful smile as he guides me over to the couch. One that he doesn't return. Apparently, he's really upset by the Cordova pack stepping in to help me. Though I have no clue why.

They have oceans of money compared to his bucket. They're businessmen and acquaintances, despite what I did with Liam on the Ferris Wheel. Beyond that, I've learned long ago to not take out a loan from someone you know.

My parents taught me that.

The loan I have now is with CD Acquisitions not the Cordova pack, which makes me feel much more comfortable.

"You're being ridiculous," I mutter as I drop onto the couch, before offering the can of cold fizzy water to the fuming alpha in front of me. He doesn't take it.

He towers over me, all but glaring at me. I'm sure he doesn't mean to. Nine times out of ten, Gage's expression says, ‘fuck off.' He has a resting fuck off face, if you will, but it's intimidating when he's like this, standing over me while I sit and glaring bloody murder down at me.

I don't glare back. I want to fix this for him, to make him feel better. To show him he doesn't need to worry about me. I'm fine. I'll be fine, whether he was the one who paid off the Stillwell pack or not.

"Gage, please, just calm down, okay? We can talk about this-"

"Talk about it," he snarls, and paces away from me, eating up the distance between the couch and the kitchen in three long strides before he spins around and growls, "I've known you for fucking years, Sorrel, and you'd rather take help from people you've known for a week? Less than a week. How do you think that makes me feel, makes my alpha feel?"

I don't let my expression waver. "I honestly didn't think about how you would feel, Gage. It's got nothing to do with you. It doesn't reflect on you at all. This is a business decision, not a personal one." Nevermind, that I didn't ask the Cordova Pack to do this. They went behind my back and bought out the loan from Stephen and his band of merry assholes. It's not like I approached them about this. In fact, I told them not to do anything.

They didn't listen.

Gage knows all of this. In fact, I suspect he was there when they told the Stillwell pack about this change. If he didn't put his foot down with them, why is he so angry about it with me?

"It feels pretty personal when you're acting like their personal whore, giving blowjobs in public to their omega."

I rear back, hurt slapping me in the face and the heart, just as if he'd reached out and actually struck me with his palm. He pauses in his pacing and whirls toward me, remorse written on his face. "Shit, biscuit, I didn't mean it like that."

I sniff and sit up straighter, pulling that serene expression back on. It feels weird to do it with him, but I need it right now. Need the protection. "You did. You wouldn't have said it if you didn't." He never says anything he doesn't mean. He's always thoughtful with his words. Not in that he only ever says nice things, but he thinks about what he's saying before he says it, makes sure it's something he means. He recognizes that once the words are out there, they're very hard to take back.

So he knew what he was doing when he called me a whore. He's probably been thinking about it since the Ferris wheel ride this afternoon.

I push to my feet, no longer willing to let him tower over me if we're in a proper fight, if he's resorting to name calling.

"I don't understand why you're mad at me, Gage," I say quietly, trying like hell to keep my serene expression in place. It's really freaking hard, because he's pumping enough alpharomones into the air to make me feel a little panicky. "But if you can't calm down and speak to me like a rational human being and my friend, then I need you to leave."

"Your friend?" He growls, bracing his hands on his hips and shaking his head with a humorless laugh. "See, that's the problem right there, biscuit. I don't want to be your friend. I've never wanted to be your friend . Ever."

I'm not ready for the pain that hits me in my chest. Right on the heels of him calling me a whore. It's like falling off the monkey bars at school and having the air knocked out of you. It hurts so fucking bad my knees buckle and I gracelessly fall to the couch. "What?" I rasp out. "What do you mean? Was all of this… was it all a lie? Years of friendship? Why are you even here then, Gage?"

"Shit," he curses and then shoves the coffee table out of the way so he can kneel in front of me, clasping his hands around mine, holding me tight. I wish I was strong enough to push him away, to avoid his touch, but I need it too much, need him too much. "Sorrel, look at me." I give a tiny shake of my head as a tear cascades down my cheek. "Come on, you know I hate it when you cry, biscuit. Look at me."

I lift my gaze slowly until I'm staring at his gorgeous dark blue eyes glinting like galaxies. He lifts my hands and brushes soft kisses over my knuckles, the tips of my fingers, my palms. "I'm doing this all wrong," he murmurs against my skin. "I didn't mean I never wanted to be your friend. That couldn't be further from the truth. I fucking love being your friend, biscuit. It's my favorite. You're my favorite. What I meant was, I've never wanted to be only your friend."

He carefully sets my right arm on my lap and goes about placing tiny kisses all over my left wrist, caressing the skin of my forearm all the way to the soft spot at the bend of my elbow, which is apparently an erogenous zone for me, because as soon as his lips bush it, my toes curl in my sandals and I let out a tiny, horrifying, embarrassing moan.

But Gage just smiles. "See," he keeps talking, mapping my skin with his mouth as he does. "The first moment I saw you when we were kids, Sorrel, I knew you were mine. I didn't know back then how that would work, just that you and I belonged together. So I put the only label on it I could back then. Friends."

"And now?" I ask, my voice far too husky. It's all his fault, too.

He looks up at me through his dark gold lashes. "And now, I know I want your friendship, your laughter, your teasing. I want your heart and body and soul, Sorrel. I want your hands on my skin, and my tongue in your mouth and my cock dripping with your arousal as I pound into you. I want your moans and your whimpers and your sighs. I want every fucking orgasm in your body. I want your tears, both happy and sad. I want fights with you and makeup sex with you. I want to hold you all night, safe against my body. I want fucking everything. Not just a part of you, or half your heart, or a portion of your time. I want it all. Give it to me ."

I'm not sure what to say. It's everything I ever wanted to hear from him. Everything I dreamed about when I was a teenager before he left for seven years. And for years after. He didn't have to do that, and yet he did. He left me alone for seven years. If what he's saying is true…

"Did you feel this way back then? Before you left?"

His eyes fly up to my face, and he pauses in his gentle caresses. "It doesn't matter."

My gaze narrows. "It does matter."

He doesn't say anything else, and I suspect I know the answer. Digging deep, I find the strength to pull away from him, to push to a stand and put space between us. He stays where he is, kneeling on the ground. "It matters, Gage."

I fold my arms around my stomach and work to keep my expression as serene as I can. "If you're only saying this now, because you came back and saw me with the Cordova pack and then decided you wanted me. It matters , Gage. If you want me only because I want them…"

His mouth tightens, and he slowly pushes to his feet. "Is that what you think of me, Sorrel? That I saw you have the possibility of being happy with someone else and I decided I didn't want that for you?"

I shake my head, because I don't really think that. He's always wanted what's best for me, what makes me the happiest. "No. But help me understand. Why are you telling me this now, Gage?"

He stalks toward me and I don't even realize I'm moving until my back hits the wall and he's towering over me, one hand braced over my head, while the other cups my cheek. "You want the truth, biscuit?"

There's an underlying edge of warning in his tone, like he knows if we go here, there's no going back. We won't ever be able to be Sorrel and Gage, best friends forever, again. But we need to take this step, need to get it out there, because if we don't, I think we'll lose each other entirely.

"Always," I murmur, meeting his gaze head on, so he knows I mean it. "I always want the truth from you, Gage."

He lets out a haggard breath, and his forehead drops to mine. His hand slides down until he's gently collaring my neck, holding me in place. "I was fucking obsessed with you, Sor. To where my dads pulled me aside and told me I had to get some space, some perspective. They were worried I was so focused on you that I would be blind when my pack came along, or my omega." I jerk at the mention of him finding his omega, but he doesn't let me go anywhere, his fingers tightening against my throat. "They thought time and distance would make me forget you, make me see that an alpha wanting a beta beyond reason, beyond thought or consequence or instincts, wasn't natural ."

A small noise of hurt passes through my lips. I've known Gage's family for as long as I've known him, and they always treated me like a daughter, like family. But apparently they didn't actually believe it.

Gage hushes me, his nose brushing along the length of mine, even as I blink heavily. "They wanted you to find someone better, didn't they? A beautiful omega, your scent match."

He hums his agreement, brushing his lips against my cheek, smearing the tears I didn't know I cried. He follows the path until he can kiss my eyelid, taste the salt from the source. "They did. But I just wanted you, Sorrel. I've always wanted you. Only you. "

He moves so his mouth is hovering over mine. "And yes, maybe I came back and saw you with them, saw you with Liam Cordova, who you've gushed about for years, and I panicked. I realized I could actually lose you to them. They could take you away from me with a snap of their fingers and a few flirty looks."

Then Gage Wagner does something I've dreamed about a million times, but never thought would actually happen.

He kisses me.

It's not soft or sweet, like I used to imagine when I was a teenager and hadn't kissed anyone yet. Back then, the bare minimum of our lips touching was enough to send my pulse skyrocketing.

It's not a filthy tongue fucking, like I'd imagined later in life with my hand between my thighs and guilt in my heart for thinking of my best friend sexually.

Its… passionate. So fucking passionate and full of… love. Because Gage Wagner loves me. With all his heart. I can feel it in the way his lips caress mine, the way his tongue tastes my mouth, the way his palm against my throat feels like a claiming, a gentle sign of ownership. His thumb brushing back and forth over the pulse point. It's in the groan that rumbles from his chest as he angles his head and kisses me deeper.

My hands fist in his shirt at his sides, pull him closer, tilting my head back farther to give him greater access to my mouth. He moans into me again, one arm looping around my shoulders to press me tighter to his body. Closer than we've ever been before. I let out a whimper when the hard ridge of his cock meets my soft stomach.

"See what you do to me, biscuit," he murmurs against my jaw, trailing kisses over my skin as his hips grind into me. "See how fucking hard you make me? Been aching for you all day. Especially when you swallowed down that omega's cock, his cum." He bites at my pulse point, nips the skin so there's a sting, but not enough to make me bleed. Fuck, I think I want him to, though. Want him to bite me, mark me, claim me as his. I whine, and he chuckles. "You like the idea of that, Sorrel? The idea of driving your alpha crazy while you play with an omega?"

"Yes," I whisper before I can really even comprehend what I'm saying. But it's the truth. I love the idea of Gage watching me go down on Liam, getting hard and achy, needing release. Another low, filthy chuckle from him as he sweeps his hand down my side to palm my ass, fingers digging into the butt cheek exposed by my shorts. I guess they might have been bordering on inappropriate, like he said.

"Of course you do. You like being watched, don't you? Like being a little fucking tease in your short shorts, making every man look at you, want you." He drops his head and licks a stripe up the side of my neck with a groan as he grinds into my soft belly. "I swear to fuck I almost killed about twenty assholes today for looking at what's mine, imagining climbing between these thick as fuck thighs." As he says the words, he lifts me, parts my legs, and wraps them around his hips. I whimper when I settle over the hard length of him, the perfect pressure on my aching core.

My arms wind around his shoulders as my head dips to steal another kiss from him. I'm vaguely aware that we're moving, but don't really understand where until I land on the soft surface of my mattress. How did I not even realize he was bringing me upstairs?

It doesn't matter. My hands reach for him, needing his weight on top of me, and he comes immediately, stretching out over me like I've imagined a hundred, a thousand, a million times before. My knees bend on their own, welcoming him into the cradle of my hips as he grinds into me.

His mouth takes mine in another deep kiss, tongue tasting, teeth scraping over my bottom lip. His hands slide up my torso under my shirt until he meets the barrier of my strapless bra. A grumble from his chest as he yanks it down, freeing my tits to his touch.

I moan as his thumb rolls over the tight bud of my nipple, arching into his touch, urging him to give me more, to take more.

"Fuck, you're beautiful, Sorrel. Just like fucking this. Lips swollen from my kiss, tits pushing into my hand, eager to give me more."

I nod. "Yes. I want to give you more," I murmur against his mouth. "I want to give you everything."

The words should shock me, after all this time of holding so tightly onto them, years of keeping them tucked into my heart, that they fall so easily from my lips. He pulls back to look down at me, brow furrowed, and I brace myself for him to deny me, to tell me this isn't going where I hope it will.

Instead, he gives a sharp laugh and a shake of his head, like he can't believe it. "I'm an asshole." He drags his tongue over my jaw, down my neck. "I know I don't deserve you. I don't deserve you to give me everything, but if you're offering, I'm going to fucking take it."

"Please do," I whisper.

Another growl from his mouth and then he's moving, yanking off my clothes left and right, baring his chest to me as he reaches over his head to yank his t-shirt off. Our mouths meet, frantic, eager to get closer to deepen this connection that we've always had. I hook my fingers into his belt loops. "These too."

A blink later he's naked and stretched out next to me running a reverent hand from my neck down between my breasts, over the soft swell of my stomach and to the spot between my legs where I'm aching for him, cupping my pussy in this hand possessively.

My own hands touch him with a similar possession, running over the dips and valleys of his hard body, stroking over his muscles until I reach the rigid length between his legs.

Gage is fucking huge.

Bigger than anyone I've been with before. My eyes widen when I try to curl my fingers around it, and they don't meet. I shake my head. "That's… You're not gonna fit."

He laughs, kisses my shoulder, then groans when I give a timid stroke over his shaft. His hips jerk toward me. "It'll fit, biscuit. I was made for you and you were made for me. I'll fit." His fingers tighten their grip between my legs. "This is mine, and nothing is going to stop me from claiming it tonight."

I moan as he slides his middle finger through my folds, testing how wet I am. Which, spoiler alert, is very fucking wet. "Oh, baby," he croons. "Is this all for me? See how your body knows what it needs to do to help me claim it, getting all nice and slick for my cock."

His use of the word slick has me tensing slightly. Slick is something omegas produce to ease the taking of an alpha's knot. As a beta, I don't have that ability. But he's right that my body seems to be trying to make up for the lack. I'm dripping, something I can see when Gage pulls his finger from inside me and lifts it to his mouth.

He groans, eyes fluttering closed as he laps at my essence. "Fuck, you taste good. Need another taste."

He moves before I can say anything, kneeling between my spread legs, hands gripping my thighs, spreading me farther as he bends and licks a stripe from ass to clit, making me yelp with pleasure as my hips kick up.

He snarls, one of his arms banding over my hips to hold me still as he licks me again. "So sweet, Sorrel," he groans. "Better than I imagined."

"Gage," I pant, trying and failing to throw off his arm to press myself closer to him, to make him give me what I need. "Please."

"Please what, baby?"

I don't have a real answer to that question, so I say the only thing I can think of. "Please, more ."

He chuckles, the air from his laugh ghosting over my clit, just before his nose nudges it. "You want my tongue here, biscuit?"

"God, yes ."

"You want me to thrust it inside you, make you gush all over my face?"

I nod frantically, my hands sliding to squeeze my breast, my nipples aching at the contact. "Please, Gage."

He hums like he's considering my request, then places a gentle kiss to my clit. "I think I'll wait on that."

An outraged sound leaves me as I lift my head to glare down the length of my body at him. He laughs and nips at my inner thigh. "Don't look at me like that, baby. The taste of you, the smell of you, has me on the edge of blowing already, and if I make you come on my tongue, you'll pull me right over the edge with you."

He pushes up and crawls over my body, slowly, like a big jungle cat stalking his prey. "When I come, I want it to be inside you, buried in your pussy." He grips his cock and strokes it slowly. "I've been saving it up just for you, Sorrel. Fucking years of cum just waiting for this moment."

My head drops back to my pillow as I stare up at him in shock. Surely he doesn't mean that. "Years?"

He nods, releasing his grip on his dick and stroking his fingers through my folds, circling my clit and then plunging two inside me. "And it's all going in here until it spills out of you."

His fingers stroke inside me, working me higher and higher, closer to my peak. But… Just like he wants to come inside me, I want him inside me when I come too.

"Gage." I lean up to kiss his lips, one of my hands cupping his face. "I need you. Please fuck me."

A low shuddering breath falls from his lips, gusts over my face, like he's been waiting for me to say those words.

He pulls back and looks down at me, a moment of uncertainty flitting across his face. "Is this okay? Are you sure this is okay?"

I melt into a pile of goo underneath him. My fingers drift over his forehead, his cheekbones, his lips, reverently. My eyes follow their path before I meet his gaze again. "Yes, Gage. I'm sure. This is… this is what I've always wanted with you."

The admission hurts a little as it leaves me. I've been holding it so tight that it's become a part of me, and now it's out there, raw and vulnerable, ready for him to break it. Ready for him to change his mind and say he doesn't want anything serious. Not with me.

But he doesn't. A look of relief crosses his face, followed by one of pure unadulterated awe, like he can't believe I just said that to him. "Always?"

"Well, not always. " I concede. "I wasn't really thinking about you romantically when we were children. But as soon as I started thinking about boys that way… You were the only one I really wanted, Gage."

He swallows thickly and bends to rub his cheek along mine. One of his hands slides down to grip my thigh and urges it open farther. "Spread your thighs for me, biscuit," he growls against my ear. "Nice and wide. Gonna bury my cock in you. Gonna give us what we've both been craving, needing, for fucking years."

My legs do as he demands without my say so, splaying open on the mattress until my knees are almost in my armpits. He pushes back onto his heels and stares down at me, his hand idly stroking up and down his cock as he just… stares at me.

His head tilts as he runs his gaze from the top of my messy hair, spread out on my pillow, over my face reverently. My nipples pucker even harder as he licks his lips and then continues over my soft belly to my dripping core.

"For fucking years, I've thought of nothing but this, Sorrel. Nothing but you spread out in front of me like a fucking feast." He braces one hand by my head as he leans over me again, eyes latching onto mine as he runs the tip of his hard length through my folds, bumping my clit and making me gasp. He grins wickedly. "Nothing I came up with compares. You're fucking exquisite, baby." The head of his cock notches at my entrance, just the tip pressing inside. He holds there, bending to press a slow kiss to my mouth. "And you're all mine," he murmurs just before he slams into me.

I scream at the sudden stretch, the bite of pain that comes from being so fucking full. Gage doesn't seem to care, though. "You can take it, baby. I know you can. You're made for my cock." He pulls out slowly, letting me feel every thick inch. "Made for me to bury myself inside." Another swift thrust. This one is easier than the last. My body responds in the way it should. In the way it always will to Gage. Opening up, softening around his hard length, letting him deeper. "That's it," he encourages against my mouth. "That's fucking it. Take my cock like the good girl you are. Let me stretch you, fill you, fuck you."

My nails dig into his shoulders, scratch down his spine to his ass as my knees press into his sides. "Gage. Gage. Gage." his name spills from my lips with every thrust of his hips, seeming to drive him even more wild.

"Fuck yeah. Say my name like that, Sorrel, like I own you. Like you own me." He rears up, pulling his mouth away from mine, to glare down at me with intensity. "I'm yours," he tells me, snarls at me. "And you're fucking mine, aren't you?"

I nod and try to pull him back to my mouth, but he resists smirking down at me. "Wanna watch you, baby. Wanna see your face when you come on my cock, when I fill you with cum, when I make you mine once and for all."

Hearing Gage claim me as his yet again acts as the ignition switch for my orgasm. It hits hard and fast, my back arching as I scream out his name. "Eyes on me, baby," he growls, making my eyes snap open to meet his as I squeeze and pulse around him. His knot grinds into me, pressing, pressing, pressing, but not entering. His teeth grit, veins popping with the need to knot and holding himself back.

He reaches between us. "Eyes on me while I fill you." I feel his fist at the base of his cock, and realize he's squeezing his knot, pulsing his fingers around it like my inner muscles would do if I were an omega and could give that to him.

Inadequacy swells in my chest, even as he groans out my name, hips grinding against mine, as his cock jerks and twitches inside me, spilling his seed deep in my womb. He never once looks away from my face, dark blue eyes latched on my expression, my lips, my eyes, like he can't bring himself to look anywhere but at me as he comes.

His hand stays between us, wrapped around his knot as he slumps down, putting most of his weight on me, his forehead dropping to my sternum. His breath pants over my skin, his lips pressing almost rhythmic kisses into it.

I clench when he kisses my nipple, and he groans, his hand flexing around his knot, causing another lash of cum to spill inside me. So much it dribbles out around his still hard cock, soaking into the blanket.

"I've-" My voice is hoarse and shaking. "I've never had an alpha's knot swell like that before." An alpha's knot doesn't swell every time they have sex. Usually, it's when their omega is in heat or if they're with their fated mate, if they're lucky enough to have one. Which I have decidedly not been with in the past.

Gage goes still on top of me before he mouths against my tit. "Me neither." I blink at that revelation, just like him telling me he hasn't had sex in years. "At least not with another person," he says, quietly. "But anytime I fucked my hand to the image of you, I knotted."

My fingers tighten on his shoulders. "What does that mean?"

He pushes up, tilting his head to pin me with a look that says I should know. My heart clenches. The words are there on the tip of my tongue, but I don't say them. I'm still… too unsure about what this all means, really. We've been friends for years and this, having sex , is a big change from what has been the status quo for a long time.

I'm not ready for more revelations.

If that makes me a coward, then so be it.

He must sense that I will not go there, not yet, because his mouth quirks into a small smile as he circles his hips, grinding his still swollen knot against my clit. "It means, biscuit, that I'll be hard for at least another half hour, no matter how many times I come."

I let out a relieved breath that he's not going to force the issue, wrapping my arms around his shoulders and pulling him down to my mouth. "I think we should test that theory."