Chapter 28

Standing at the door to the nest, I pulled the bag I'd filled with electrolyte drinks, water, protein bars and more snacks higher on my good shoulder and focused on keeping my breathing calm. Shae had left our room about twelve hours before and I couldn't resist the pull to go in any longer.

Not long after they'd left, I was hit with a wave of their arousal, which I'd expected, and I'd done my best to block it out. I used all the tactics I'd employed during Ethan"s last heat to dull our bond, but this was different. Shae was my only bonded mate, and I had some awareness of Jade through them, but could sense next to nothing from Trevor or Theo. When Jade bonded with Ethan, a small part of me hoped it would be different, that I'd feel him more than the others, but I hadn't. Then, as I lain there, trying to not jerk my dick until it was raw from everything I could feel from Shae in the bond, he was just there.

The lust that had been simmering pushed to the background. I knew, without a doubt, that it was Ethan who'd somehow appeared in the web of our bond. Not as clear as Shae but more clearly than the others. I could feel his joy and love; they were this all-encompassing wave that rolled through to me from my connection with Shae. I wanted to know how that had happened. I needed to know. But that desire was overshadowed by the reality that I had accepted—our Omega's nest, during his heat, was a place that I wouldn't be comfortable in. My place would be to care for the pack, make sure they were fed and hydrated and do everything I could from the outside.

Wanting Ethan wasn't a problem anymore. I'd been craving contact with him more frequently. Often thinking of his hugs, holding him, or even kissing him, but we hadn't taken that step yet. I knew the desire for affection wasn't some kind of lead up to sex the way some people treated it. The moment that piece of shit had tried to take him from me, I'd lost all reservations that I'd had about how quickly I'd begun to want him. Whether or not it was really my feelings and desires growing or the product of Alpha and Omega biological demands, I'd become aware of some irrefutable truths. He'd pried my fingers from his ankle, told me he loved me, and walked away to sacrifice himself. With each step he'd taken, my body had rebelled, and my mind had begun to separate from the agony of the wound in my shoulder. Nothing else mattered. Not the pain. Not the consequences, even if it meant my death. Him walking away from me, towards danger, could never happen. He was mine. I hadn't got to talk to him about any of it, really, because he'd gone into heat almost as soon as we'd gotten home, and we needed to have that talk.

Based on everything I knew about Ethan, I hoped he would understand the role I needed to play in his heats. I wanted to believe it wouldn't be something that hurt him, but Shae wasn't the only one with insecurities. I'd fought against the stereotype of what I was supposed to be as an Alpha, ever since I emerged. People could never quite seem to grasp that I didn't crave sex indiscriminately, or that I had never gone into a full rut.

It seemed safe to assume that Ethan's heat had broken since it had been several hours since I'd felt anything from Shae to indicate otherwise. So, I'd begun bracing myself to join them for whatever aftercare he needed.

I shook my head as if I could dislodge those thoughts and rolled my shoulders back, wincing at the pain that shot through me for a moment. Shae had drilled into me the importance of keeping my shoulder stable, not taking off my sling. I was trying to listen but it was frustrating to only have one arm when my pack needed me. Blowing out one final fortifying breath, I opened the door to the nest and my knees nearly buckled at the scents. It was pack but, more than that, my senses zeroed in on Shae's blackberry blossoms and Ethan's cinnamon rolls and the way they blended in a way that screamed sex and mate. They were both mine. Though I'd never felt a rut, the desire to claim Ethan was stronger than it had ever been.

Closing the door behind me, I staggered up the stairs, doing my best to not make any noise in case they were sleeping. When I made it to the top of the stairs, I could see that I'd been right. Three days of fucking with little rest had taken its toll and my pack was passed out in a tangle of limbs, pillows, and blankets. Shae was tucked between Jade and Trevor while Theo was snoring, face down, on Jade's other side. I double-checked but I couldn't see Ethan and my gut clenched. My heart began racing as my mind provided me with all the scenarios that could have happened if he'd somehow slipped past me while I was downstairs, no matter how improbable.

A slight creak came from the bathroom followed by the sound of water droplets landing against the tiled shower. My breath rushed out of me, and I set the bag of necessities on the floor by the dresser as I walked toward the slightly ajar bathroom door. The sight that greeted me tugged at my heart, but I forced myself to move slowly so I wouldn't startle Ethan. He was leaning against the counter, staring into the shower as it warmed and looked close to tears. Dark circles marred the beautifully golden-brown skin around his eyes and his nearly black curls were stuck thickly against his head. Not quite matted but there was no mistaking the toll the days of sex had taken on his body. As I walked into the space, his tired eyes swung to me and began to fill with tears, my name a breathy plea on lips.

"Oh, Sweetheart. How can I help?"

I moved to him and Ethan all but collapsed against me, pressing his head into my right shoulder, being careful of my injured one even in his exhausted state.

"I wanted to shower, feel disgusting, and I was trying to let the others sleep but I can't do it. I'm too tired to even get in."

"If you're this tired, why couldn't you sleep? Was it wanting to clean up that kept you awake?"

He rocked his head back and forth against my chest and made pathetic little sniffling noises that were like claws sinking into my heart. I tipped his chin up, forcing his eyes to mine.

"Tell me."

"It's stupid Omega bullshit. I don't want you to feel bad or anything."

The beginnings of a growl rumbled through my chest as I spoke.

"The only thing that would make me feel bad is not being able to help you. Let me help you, Sweetheart."

He gave me a little smile and some light came back into his tired eyes.

"You've never called me that before. I like it."

I brushed my nose along his then leaned back again and moved my hand to cup his jaw and run my thumb along his cheek.

"Tell me why you can't sleep, Omega."

He squeezed his eyes shut and a little furrow dipped between his brows.

"You weren't here. I knew you needed the space from the craze of the heat, but you'd been hurt, and I couldn't see you. I just wanted to know you were alright and have you close by."

My heart skipped a beat. I kept the rest of my hand on his jaw but put my thumb below his chin to tip his face up to mine. His eyes sprang open at the implication of my hold, then slid shut again as I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. His lips were chapped and likely tender from the days of abuse, but he tasted like sweet cream icing and cinnamon sugar, like sweetness and temptation: like he was mine.

He sighed into my mouth and I took the invitation of his parted lips to slide my tongue in and deepen the kiss. His hands clung to the bare skin at my waist. I hadn't bothered with a shirt since before Shae had gone into the nest, and he moaned sweetly at the touch. The kiss went on for several moments, like nothing else existed but the two of us and where we were connected. I pulled back and he stumbled forward, just a bit, before pressing a hand gently to my chest to steady himself. Brushing my lips across his forehead, I reached to open the shower door and check the temperature of the water.

"Let's get you cleaned up, Omega. Then you can rest, with your whole pack in your nest."

His eyes lined with moisture again before he blinked rapidly to chase the tears away and started to undo the belt of his robe. His mind caught up with the muscle memory of getting undressed for the shower, and he stopped abruptly, his gaze shooting to my face to gauge if he'd made me uncomfortable. Heat seeped into my core and I took a step closer until our chests nearly brushed against each other, then reached out with my good arm and tugged the tie while I held his eyes. I wanted him to see there was no hesitation from me. No discomfort. His perfume exploded in the space around us, and his breath caught telling me he'd received the message.

"Let me take care of you."

His lips were slightly parted in shock as he nodded. I pressed a chaste kiss against them, then let my fingers trail down his neck to catch the collar of the robe and slide it off his shoulders. His neck and collarbones were a mess of love bites and fingerprint sized bruises from the days of fucking. It simultaneously set off my protective instincts and made me want to mark him up myself. Trying to be aware of the fact that he'd been having sex for three days and was completely exhausted, I valiantly kept my eyes above his chest, even as I loosened my pajama pants and let them slide down my legs, so we were both naked. I kept the sling on but stepped back into the spray, tugging him along with me. His eyes caught on the sling for a moment and he froze.

"Wait, can you get that wet? What about your bandages?"

I chuckled and soothed a hand down his bare back as I moved him closer.

"It will dry, and the bandages are water-safe. Shae will change them if we need to when they wake up. Now, I want to wash you if that's alright?" He gave me the most enthusiastic nod I'd ever seen, and my smile broke widely across my face. "Good, but I'll need your help with the bottles."

I handed him the scentless shampoo bottle and he squeezed a quarter sized amount in my hands before putting it back on the shelf. He tipped his head to wet his hair, showing off the line of his throat and the sharp angles of his jaw. Fuck, he was gorgeous. His eyes closed and his lips parted in an exhale as he gripped my waist for balance. A few droplets of water slid down his temple and across his cheek. I wanted to lick them. He brought his head back upright, but kept his eyes closed, and I cleared my throat before I began to massage the shampoo into his hair. Washing someone's hair one handed was a bitch. I tugged gently on Ethan's hair to get him to rinse his hair in the spray.

"We're doing this again when I can use both hands."

The bubbles slid down his chest and along the slight divots of his abs. I watched his dick go from a semi to fully hard as his perfume filled the enclosed space at my words. I couldn't stop staring at his dick, comparing it with the only other dick I'd ever interacted with, mine.

"Just ignore that. It's always overeager; just Omega bullshit."

Ethan's neck and cheeks darkened, and he reached over to grab some scentless body wash to avoid looking at me. I stepped closer so the head of my own hard dick could slide along his shaft. I needed him to understand just how little I wanted to ignore that he wanted me. He dropped the bottle and it clattered loudly against the tiles before his wide-eyed gaze shot down. He groaned as I rocked my hips just enough to tease at friction. His head came up and his eyes bounced back and forth between mine as I took another step.

My useless arm was between us, blocking my view of where our hips were pressing together and trapping our hard, soapy lengths against our stomachs. Ethan was practically vibrating. Either from need or from the force of holding himself back to not push me too fast. I couldn't tell. I tried to reach out to see what I could sense from that faint bond where he had appeared but all I could sense was excitement and raging lust. Suddenly, I felt nervous about my lack of experience. When it came to our packmates, I would absolutely be the last off the bench since I'd only had one partner before Shae, and that had been an awkward fuck when I was trying to figure my shit out.

"I—Ethan, I've never…" I grimaced at my clumsy confession. "With another guy. I?—"

He sucked in a sharp breath and rose up on his toes so quickly he nearly head butted me before he was devouring my mouth. I eagerly returned the kiss and slid my hand around to his lower back to press our hips as close as they could get while he slid his dick against mine. When he pulled away, his pupils were blown and the look on his face was fiercely possessive.

"You're telling me that you've never touched another dick? Mine will be the first?

"The only one, Sweetheart. I'm firmly a top and Shae has never pushed that boundary with me."

"Fucking hell, Miles. That's so hot, I—" the subtle thrust of his hips against mine got more insistent and a small whimper slipped out.

"You like that, Omega? Knowing that I'll never touch anyone else the way I touch you?"

His panting breaths turned into a quiet whine that softly echoed in the space and the rumble of a growl built in my chest.

"Can I… Miles, can I touch you?"

"Yeah."

My voice sounded like I'd growled the word, it was so gravelly, but Ethan just soaked it up. I felt his hand wrap around my dick and stroke it tentatively. Moaning softly, I leaned my forehead into his. Then he moved his other hand from my waist, changing it up so both of our lengths were pressed together in the warm, slippery tunnel he'd created with his hands.

"Fuck, yes."

He released more of those sweet and intoxicating little whimpers as he fisted our dicks and moved his hands faster. I could probably come from this, but I wanted more.

"You're being so good for me, Omega." A shudder rolled through his body and I wondered how far I could take the praise kink I suspected he had. "Want to help me learn how you like that dick sucked? Teach me what you taste like by coming down my throat?"

"Ohhhfuuuck. Yes!"

I hid my grin and pressed against his sternum with my hand until he rested his shoulder blades against the tiled wall for support and then dropped to my knees. The lightly muscled, golden-brown skin on his legs was dusted with coarse dark hair. I wanted to trail my fingernails up them and watch him react to every touch. My focus landed on the apex of his thighs and I swallowed thickly at the purpled head of his dick as it leaked pre-cum. As if he could sense how intimidated I'd become, he reached down and ran his blunt fingernails along my jaw, through my beard.

"You don't have to, Miles. We can take our time."

I shot him a determined glare and reached up to fist his shaft roughly. Once I'd wrapped my hand around him, I forgot to be intimidated because I was fascinated by the differences in how he felt versus when I jerked myself off. The skin was the same soft texture but, where my dick was all hardness, he had almost a pillowy layer of skin, like when I was only half hard. I squeezed a little harder to see what would happen and he moaned loudly as my grip revealed that he was just as rigid as I was beneath that extra cushion. He chuckled and I looked up to see him flushed and staring down at me.

"It's because of the lock. I'm built to take Jade's lock and still allow her to move enough to keep both our orgasms going." He did a silly little jazz hands movement that was about as sexy as me examining his dick like it was a puzzle to solve, and then said, "Biology."

I laughed lightly then he held his gaze as I tipped his dick up and flattened my tongue against the base, slowly licking my way to the tip where I swirled my tongue around the head. The first taste of his precum was like a shock to my system. He tasted like fucking buttery cinnamon sugar and creamy icing. My eyes nearly rolled back in my head and I looked back to his face over his heaving chest. He breathed out one word that was part revelation, part plea.

"Alpha."

Whatever control I'd had snapped at that one word, and I swallowed him down. I had enough presence of mind not to try to deep throat him right away, so I made good use of the one hand I had. Throwing my mind to what I liked when Shae sucked me off, I hollowed my cheeks, bobbing up and down and using my hand to cover the parts of his dick that I'd have to train myself to take.

"Ohh, not going to last, Miles. Still too close to heat, I?—"

I popped off his dick but kept up the strokes and tightened my grip until he was mewling. One hand was flattened against the wall to help brace himself and I could feel his thighs quivering where they pressed against my shoulders.

"Give me what's mine, Omega."

He nodded fast and I took him back into my mouth. The taste of him and the little ah ah ah sounds of his panting breaths urging me on. I felt his dick swell and his hand landed on the back of my head, not pushing me down but digging the tips of his fingers into the short hairs of the fade at the back. He cried out and thrust his hips with the force of his orgasm, but my hand kept him from going far enough to gag me. That brief taste I'd gotten was nothing compared to his release as it exploded across my tongue. Shae had tried to tell me that his taste was some kind of insane biological fuckery, but experiencing it myself was wild. I moaned around his length as it pulsed and I continued to suck him but more gently, just like I would have eased Shae down from their orgasm.

"No more, Miles, please—sensitive."

I sat back on my heels and looked up at him before placing a kiss right to the tip of his dick and dropping my voice into that growling register.

"Such a good Omega."

Ethan's eyes rolled and a shiver ran through him before another little burst of cum landed on my lips. I licked it up and smiled at him before nuzzling my face into the crease of his thigh.

"Mmm, your beard. ‘S nice"

I leaned my cheek into the top of his thigh and he sent me a sheepish look before biting his lip.

"Can I?"

"No need, Sweetheart. We're going to get you cleaned off and back to your nest so you can sleep."

He pouted and I laughed and pressed a kiss to the crease of his thigh where his scent was insanely strong while he scratched lightly on the back of my head.

"Miles?" I looked back up at him, not quite ready to move but also starting to feel it in my knees. "Trevor claimed me and I—there's no rush, but I wanted you to know that whenever you're ready, I am too. I love you, Miles."

There was a vulnerability to his words, like he wasn't sure how I would take them, and that was like a hook under my ribs. I didn't want him to doubt that I was all in, ever again, and there was only one way to guarantee that.

"Omega."

I let just enough bark slide into that one word that I would have his full focus. His breath caught as I slid my hand up his leg then raised myself up from where I'd been sitting back on my heels. Pressing kisses from his thigh up to the curve of his hip, I looked into his eyes, and struck. My teeth sank through the layers of skin until I tasted his hot blood against my tongue. Ethan cried out again and held my head in place with both his hands as I licked and sucked at my bite, solidifying the new bond between us.

That glimpse of him that I'd felt through Shae the day before was as if there had been a veil between us, blurring my sight and dulling the sound. But after I'd claimed him? He was standing in front of me with nothing between us. Beautiful and radiant from the love I could feel surrounding me and the all-encompassing joy he felt at having his pack complete. I closed my eyes as I sank deeper into that new bond. Somehow, I could feel the whole pack now. Before, I'd only felt Shae this clearly. Ethan's place as our Omega, the center of our pack, had bonded us all together in a way I hadn't realized would happen.

When my dads would seem to communicate without words, I'd always assumed it was because they'd been packed up with Mom for so long, they could read each other. After I'd bonded Shae, I'd thought they might also be picking each other up faintly, the way I could sense Jade. I wondered, now, if they had felt this completed pack bond all along. I reached past Ethan in the bond and found the happiness that I had expected from my packmates. Also more than a little smug satisfaction from Shae and Jade.

When I felt like I'd tended it enough, for the moment, I stood and winced at both the way my knees cracked and how I wobbled without my left arm to help balance me. Ethan reached out to steady me and I saw the way tears were mixing on his cheeks with the droplets of water from the shower. I cupped his jaw with my hand and pressed our foreheads together.

"I love you too, Ethan. It happened faster than I could have imagined and that scared me. I've only ever fallen for Shae before, and we'd been friends for some time before that. Thank you for giving me the space to find my way through my feelings… find my way to this."

The tear-soaked little sound that Ethan let out would have worried me before but, thanks to the bond, I could tell that he was just overwhelmed. I remembered how tired he'd been when I found him and cursed myself before turning off the water and reaching outside the shower for the towels on the heated rack. I tried to towel him off but grumbled at how I failed with only one arm.

Ethan's laughter chuffed against my chest before he plucked the towel from me and began patting me down carefully, wrapping it around my waist. Having him care for me felt decadent. I couldn't resist the urge to lean down and run my cheek along his jaw and temple, scent marking him. A swell of satisfaction moved across the bond and I smiled before kissing his cheek and reaching for another towel for him.

Once he was dried off, we snagged some sweats and walked back into the main area of his nest. Ethan yawned loudly as we walked but pulled up short when he saw that the bedding had all been changed and our packmates were all freshly showered and waiting for him.

"When did you?—"

"We all woke up when the bottle dropped in the shower. We'd thought you might have fallen but Shae felt Miles and we realized you weren't alone. Figured we'd clean up quickly too."

Ethan's face darkened slightly with a blush at Jade's explanation and he shuffled his feet in embarrassment before I kissed his temple. Shae bounded up from where they'd been lounging on Jade to give Ethan a kiss and then move to give me one as well before tugging me over to the dresser. I didn't want to move away from Ethan, but when I saw the collection of bandages and a spare sling, I knew they only wanted to change the dressing on my sutures.

Trevor rolled over and beckoned Ethan to lay down in front of him. Jade moved over to allow me enough space to settle on my back next to him. Shae fixed me up quickly and we made our way back to the sleepy Omega. Shae moved to my injured side, careful not to lay too close but threw a leg over mine and spread their hand over my stomach as Jade tucked herself around their back. Theo grinned from where he sat and then crawled so he laid on his front and wedged between Ethan's thighs with his face pillowed on our Omega's stomach, making Ethan laugh. His laugh broke into a yawn, and he sighed, dropping into sleep so quickly both because he was completely exhausted and also because he knew he was safe. He was surrounded by the people who would walk through fire, face down any threat, to keep him from harm.

I closed my eyes and pressed my face into Ethan's hair, breathing him in and letting all of the contentment, affection, and joy rolling through the pack bonds lull me to sleep.