15

nikolai

JOHANNES AND I were getting ready for bed. I technically had my own bedchamber in this castle, but the truth was that I never slept there. I tended to split my nights between Johannes and Dmitri. Lately, Dmitri had been occupied, so I'd been with Johannes all the time.

In some ways, it had been very nice, the two of us settling into a rhythm together that felt decidedly domestic. We would watch TV together in bed, snuggling, wake up together every day, have conversations over coffee about what we'd be doing that day.

We weren't even commiserating over the omega anymore. We both still wanted her, and we both knew that, but there was something about the way we'd settled into our little routine that seemed sweet and strong in the way that the mad desire for the omega didn't. Johannes and me, what we had… it was more than alpha instinct, more than sexual desire.

There was a knock on our door, and I went to open it, and I scented Dmitri before I got the door open. His scent was a whirlwind, like dead leaves had been whipped up into a frenzy, like an autumnal storm had blown in uncertainty.

"What's wrong?" I said as I let him in.

He pushed past me. "I went to your room, but you weren't there, and I realized that of course you'd be here, and I realized I'd been neglecting you for all this time, barely in touch at all, and I felt really guilty about that, and…"

Johannes came out of the bedroom shirtless, in a pair of plaid pajama pants. "Dmitri."

"Sorry to intrude," said Dmitri.

"No, you're not," said Johannes in a tired voice.

Dmitri stiffened. "What the hell is that?"

Johannes lifted both of his hands. "No, I don't know why I said that. Forget I did."

"Well, you did say it," said Dmitri, his scent swirling tighter, growing more volatile, and more… delectable.

I stiffened inside my own pajama pants. I was wearing a t-shirt with my plaid pants, though.

"No, it's the way you are," said Johannes, shrugging. "You're the heir to the throne. Everything revolves around you. You always get whatever you want. If you're upset about something, everything focuses on you. I'm not even angry about it anymore. Actually, I've accepted it. It's the dynamic. It's fine."

Dmitri scoffed. "Fuck you, Johannes," he muttered.

"Hey," I said. "Did you come here to pick a fight?" But part of me might have been eager for a fight, part of me might have been turned on by that idea.

Dmitri rounded on me. "When the hell did you lick Aurelie's pussy?"

My eyes widened. "She told you that? I told her not to tell—"

"You did what?" said Johannes.

I groaned. Oh, wow, this wasn't going to go well, was it?

"When?" said Dmitri.

"When?" said Johannes.

"It was before she went into heat. You two were having trouble connecting, and I thought if she was a little less tightly wound, like if I sent her to you after having a release, it would help. And I guess it did. Sort of. Although whatever you did to her when you told her that she had to submit to you and that she shouldn't be with Johannes at all, I think it triggered her heat, and you two have been off in that bubble for weeks now, and I'm not sure if it was a good thing in the end."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me this," said Johannes. "I don't hide things from you, Nik."

"I wasn't going to hide it forever," I said. "I was waiting until things were more settled with all of us."

"What was it like?" said Johannes.

"Like tasting the sunrise," I said, my voice going reverent.

"Shit," said Johannes, dragging a hand over his face.

Dmitri sighed heavily. "She does taste very fucking good." He pointed at Johannes. "Apparently, you kissed her?"

"Was that not allowed?" said Johannes. "I mean, it was before you put a bite mark on her fucking boob—"

"It's a very tasteful ornament to her décolletage," Dmitri countered.

Johannes rolled his eyes.

"You know what I think," said Dmitri, moving closer to Johannes, his scent swirling around like dark clouds gathering speed. "I think, all along, you've been trying to turn this into something between you and me, some kind of competition. So, let's just have it out right now."

"Wait," I said. "You already punched him, and—"

"It's about who's got the bigger dick," said Dmitri. "Whip it out, Johannes. Let's measure."

I raised my eyebrows. Seriously?

Johannes let out a guffaw.

Dmitri was undoing his belt. "Come on, don't be scared. We both know I'm packing something you can't possibly compare to, so let's just settle this once and for all."

"I'm not afraid of your fucking penis," said Johannes, hooking his thumbs into his pajama pants.

I was riding a giddy excitement that was making my scent go haywire.

Dmitri unzipped and reached into his pants. "Count of three?"

"Yeah," said Johannes, baring his teeth.

"One," said Dmitri. "Two. Three." He yanked his cock out.

Johannes shoved down his pants.

And there they both were, both of their cocks, both sporting big, pulsing knots at the base, both heads huge and swollen and reddish purple, both weeping a little liquid at the tips.

I grunted, but they ignored me.

They were looking at each other's junk, running their hands over their erections, holding them out so that the other could see.

I moved closer. "Um? I really think you two should really, you know, manually explore each other. Just to be sure you really have a good idea of the other's length and girth and general hardness. For science."

Dmitri jerked his gaze up to find mine. He almost put his dick away.

But before he could, Johannes was touching him.

Dmitri sucked in a breath and turned to look at Johannes. Now they were lost in each other's eyes. Dmitri's scent was a roaring, turning wind that encompassed both of them. He reached over to fondle Johannes.

They both swallowed, and I watched their Adam's apples bob as they began to stroke each other.

Now, kiss, I thought.

And their faces moved closer and closer, drawn together by some invisible thread.

Dmitri licked his lips.

Johannes lined up their noses.

They collided.

The kiss was rough, harsh, a clash.

They broke apart, gasping, now really jerking each other off, rubbing each other's cocks with frantic determination.

Oh, fuck this. I got myself out too and started jerking myself too. This was hot as all fuck.

Dmitri made a strangled noise.

Johannes leaned forward until their foreheads rested against each other.

They both shut their eyes.

It went on for some time, and it was a very gorgeous show.

They came at nearly the same time, all over each other, splattering each other's cocks with their mutual release.

I went down on my knees, still stroking myself, and licked them both clean, looking up at their surprised expressions to find me there.

They both put their hands in my hair, which meant I got more alpha come all over me. I was going to need a shower before bed, but then, they were, too. What were the odds I could convince them that we should all shower together?

Dmitri stroked my cheek.

Johannes toyed with the shell of my ear, affectionate.

I came, my mouth full of their mingled taste, my body shot through with the sensation of them both touching me.

Then, I settled back on my knees, sighing in satisfaction.

They both held their gazes on me, and I grinned up at them, feeling a little bit punch drunk on this moment. Both of them. At the same time. I'd never even really allowed myself to fantasize about something like that. If you'd have asked me before, I would have said it wasn't even possible. I licked a little stray alpha off my lower lip and said in a throaty voice, "We're all a mess. We should definitely shower now."

Dmitri laughed.

I got to my feet. "If you both need help getting out of the rest of your clothes, I am definitely here to help."

Dmitri put a hand on my chest. "There's a problem. With the omega."

corentin

THEY WERE ALL really stupid.

I should have expected this, though. I'd been around rich people my entire life. They had this idiotic sense that they were safer than they were. They tended to believe that things were going to work out for them, and I guess it was because—when you have that much money and power and influence—you usually can make it so that you don't have a lot of real problems.

But it made them stupid when people were plotting against them.

Prince Dmitri let me walk off, out of that room, and run free in the castle. He was a dumbass.

Even if he'd tried to have me removed, it wouldn't have mattered. I'd spent my first day working in the kitchen surreptitiously stealing the keys from where they hung in the pantry and then I'd had copies made on my lunch break and brought them back without anyone being the wiser. So, I could get into the servants' entrance anyway, anytime I wanted. If they'd escorted me out, I would have just come back in.

Because I wasn't giving up on this, not yet.

Aurelie was right about the way I left. In my defense, it was a bad situation for me. I'd had to cart her, in heat, to her family's doorstep, while she was begging for my cock, and tell them, like, "I think your daughter is an omega."

Which I really should have figured out before, during that situation, but I think I didn't want to figure it out, because I knew that would mean we couldn't be together.

Even though I'd tried to tell myself, only a thousand and a half times, that there was no way we could be together.

The thing about me and Aurelie is that it was always there, always, in some weird way that seemed to defy all sense. When my mother first told me that I had to come to their huge house after school every day because she didn't have anyone to watch me, I was pretty intimidated.

I remember the first time I saw Aurelie, though. Her hair had been put into pigtails, but one of them had nearly fallen out. She was wearing pants she'd rolled up to her knees, but they were wet at the ends anyway. She had two mermaid dolls clutched in the other hand, and she had these enormous big brown eyes, so big they took up her whole face, and she was just beautiful.

The minute I saw her, I couldn't look anywhere else.

She started chattering at me right away. "Hi, I'm Aurelie, do you like mermaids? I do, and I'm making them swim, but then I got wet, and I'm not supposed to get my clothes wet, oops. I heard you were coming and that your name is Corentin. I'm six, how old are you? Do you like to swim, because we have a pool, but I'm not allowed to swim without adult supervision because they think I could drown, but I won't because I'm a good swimmer, but they don't care." Like that. On and on, asking me questions, but never pausing to let me get a word in edgewise. Constant chatterbox.

She should have been annoying, because she was vain and self-centered and thought too much of herself.

For some reason, she wasn't.

I followed her around all the time when we were there. I would do whatever she wanted. I played mermaids and ponies and even Barbies a few times. But, to be fair, she liked to play with my toys, too. I'd bring over toy cars and trucks and water guns, and she thought they were fascinating and fun.

When I was around her, it was better. That's what it was like. I always wanted to be around her, and when I was around her, it soothed something inside me. It made me feel connected and safe and happy and… and complete .

I started thinking about having sex with her from the moment I hit puberty. She was a girl, and we were the same age, so she shot up taller than me when were twelve, and then she started to look, you know, woman shaped, and I was frightened, because I still looked like a little boy, and why did that happen that way? But then the next summer, I had a growth spurt, and then I towered over her, and every time I was around her, I started getting these awfully embarrassing erections out of nowhere. Touching her was all I thought about for years, even though I never did anything about it.

If I hurt Aurelie, it could have ruined my mother's life. She needed that job, and Aurelie's parents had been really good to my mother, and to me by extension. The last thing I wanted to do was to taint all that by putting my grubby hands all over Aurelie Le Blanc.

I swear, I never would have. Too much was at risk. It wasn't worth it, especially since we had no future, none at all.

I mean, okay, yeah, I kissed her after she started pursuing me, figuring out where I hung out and with who and then showing up there. And after that kiss, maybe I started to think that maybe somehow there was some way I could make it all work, maybe I could find a way to get money somehow, and that if I had money, maybe then things would be different.

So, when she showed up that night, at my window, all breathless and a little sweaty—and even then, the way she smelled drove me out of my head—and said she knew she was ready to lose her virginity, and she wanted it to be me, that it had always been me, I…

I should have said no.

I should have known it wouldn't work.

I should have realized something about that was off, that girls didn't do that unless they were omegas, but I was so in love with her that I didn't think that way. I just wanted it. Wanted her.

I remember pushing her back through the window of my bedroom, which was the way I usually went in and out at night, since my mother didn't know I left after my curfew all the time. I remember driving off with her in my car.

She was sitting in the passenger seat, squirming a little, letting out these breathy sort of moans, and I think I knew then, deep down, what it was, I think I did. I didn't allow myself to really acknowledge it, and I guess I hoped, somehow, I was going to be enough for her, even though, uh, I was a virgin, too.

Did I save myself for Aurelie Le Blanc?

Not exactly, but it was hard to compete with her. When you've experienced a connection with someone that had a foundation of feeling complete when you're around her, one that's so strong that it doesn't matter what you're doing together, whether it's playing with unicorn dolls or listening to her talk to you about makeup or whatever the hell she would babble on about, when you're dazzled by a woman to the degree that I was dazzled by her, then other women simply seem like pale imitations.

I'd had chances with other girls. I knew it, but I'd never taken advantage of any of them.

And then, there she was, asking me for it, and I felt like it was all supposed to happen that way. It was almost as if she and I had been fated for this, written in the stars, and I believed that we'd come together and everything would be perfect.

Except it wasn't.

I fucked her adequately in the back seat of my car, and she seemed to like it, even, which I thought, at the time, was probably a good sign. I'd heard that it hurt girls the first time or even that girls just weren't very responsive to the entire experience. It's not like porn, was basically all my friend Mattie had said about it.

She was, uh, responsive. She kept moaning, "Harder, please, harder. More. I need more."

I did my best. I was a seventeen-year-old guy, so it wasn't as if I didn't have stamina and that I couldn't get hard for her again. I mean, within reason. It was just that it became pretty clear that no matter what I did, it wasn't going to be enough for her. And then she started shaking and shivering and spasming in this way that wouldn't let me ignore it anymore. She was an omega. She was in heat. I was never going to satisfy her. Whatever she needed, I didn't have it.

So, anyway, yeah, then I left.

I didn't mean to abandon her or ghost her or whatever she said. I was out of touch with everyone, even my mother. I was in a bad way.

It seemed to me like the sky had collapsed on me. I hadn't realized how deeply some part of me had always believed that it would be me and her, that it really was fate, somehow? Knowing that I was wrong, that all those things I'd felt with her meant nothing?

It shattered something inside me.

I went on a bender. I started doing the drugs I was selling and then some that I wasn't and then I ended up in Nilthin in some converted warehouse with a needle in my arm when I met the guy who told me the news that was going to change everything.

It wasn't until then that I even had a reason to live, because I had the chance to get her back. Without her, it was like I didn't even matter anymore.

Like I said, she made me feel complete.

So. I wasn't giving up.

But I didn't know what I was going to do. I needed to convince Aurelie that I was the better option than an alpha prince who would one day be King of Valhn, and who had already bitten and bonded her.

It seemed impossible.

I skulked around the castle, curious about these other alphas she was going to sleep with, with all of my competition. Eventually, I found them.

All together.

With their cocks out.

I could scent them through the door of the room, and then, while they were all distracted, I managed to pop the lock open—the doors inside the castle didn't really have robust locks. It didn't take a lot to undo them.

The door opened just a crack and I looked inside. They were not even looking at me, just looking at each other, very distracted.

Taking in a deep breath and holding it, I pushed the door open just enough so that I could get inside. I kept my gaze on them all along, and they didn't turn.

I shut the door very quietly.

Then, carefully, I lowered myself to floor and crawled behind chairs and other pieces of furniture, staying low and out of sight, until I found a closet.

I eased inside to perch in the darkness and watch.

(And, um, play with myself. Because they were all very pretty men, and I liked looking at them like that, and I sort of couldn't help myself.)

But eventually, it was over, and Dmitri started to tell them about me. I tucked myself away, after having wiped any mess I'd made on the clothes in this closet. Whoever they belonged to, I didn't care.

I knew about Prince Johannes, because he was a public figure, and I figured out the tall, skinny guy's name from conversation. He was Nikolai.

They listened, rapt, until Johannes broke into Dmitri's explanation to say, "I can't believe you didn't say this right when you came in."

"Well, I had things to settle," said Dmitri, looking him over. "You two don't know your place with the omega, and until we get everything settled within this pack, how am I supposed to trust you with her?"

"Pack?" said Johannes, crossing his arms over his chest. "This isn't a pack."

"Could be," said Dmitri. "You and me… maybe it's not…" He shrugged. "Or maybe it is, hell, there's something here."

"What are you talking about?" said Johannes.

"Obviously," spoke up Nikolai, "he's talking about how you guys could be fucking, how we could all be fucking, and with the omega in the middle of it, and stop being an idiot and agree , Johannes."

"I was just thinking that if she was with all of us," said Dmitri, "she'd be too busy to think about this Corentin person, whatever he was to her in the past. And I think she's angry with him, too, so maybe we don't have to work that hard. I want to go to the Heirastein Castle for our honeymoon."

"I thought you two were forgoing a honeymoon because you just had one," said Johannes. "I thought you would be back into formal appearances next week."

"Well, with this Corentin guy around, it seems like it might be better to lock things down," said Dmitri. "Get her secluded, with the three of us, knot her senseless, maybe knock her up… I don't know."

"Knock her up," said Johannes.

"Yeah, I'm due to get another injection," said Dmitri. "But I don't have to get one. If I don't, I'll be fertile again. She'd need to go into heat again, I guess, so maybe that's not likely, but I broke through her suppressants before, maybe I could do it again."

I fumed, inside the closet, not at all liking this talk of impregnating Aurelie as a trap. Hadn't Dmitri trapped her enough already? Was he that insecure?

I got out my phone and pulled up a recording app. I began to record their voices.

"No, definitely, no ," said Nikolai in a terse voice. "Getting her pregnant without her consent for the purpose of distracting her from some old flame is not the way to go here."

Dmitri grimaced. "You're right, that's fucked up. I just don't like the guy. He ran off, and he said if he couldn't have her to himself he wasn't interested in sharing, but I figure he'll reconsider that entire idea and then he'll be back, and if she's not ours, really ours, by then, we're going to have to try to incorporate him into this is in some way."

"Wait, he seriously thinks he could have her to himself? He's like that?" said Nikolai. "Well, fuck him, then."

Johannes snorted. "Seems to me that we're all like that when it comes to her, aren't we?"

"I'm not," said Dmitri.

Johannes raised his eyebrows.

"Well, not anymore," said Dmitri. "At first, sure, maybe, but now that she and I are mated, I couldn't do that to her. She needs more than I can give her, so I wouldn't deny her that."

"Except," said Johannes, "you have been exclusive to each other for weeks now."

"You're one to talk," said Dmitri. "You got really possessive of her—"

"Well, I'm over that, too," said Johannes, defensive.

"Sure," said Dmitri.

"Look," spoke up Nikolai, "we should really think about that shower. Maybe if we were all together and not wearing clothes, we could dissipate some of this tension with us—"

"No tension," said Johannes.

"What tension?" said Dmitri at the same time.

Yeah, there was tension all right. I was a little torn, because it scented very enticingly, and I was wondering what it would be like to be in the middle of this harem, actually. When they talked about all of them with Aurelie, could I be there too?

I'd never been with a man and a woman at the same time. Admittedly, I hadn't been with a lot of women besides Aurelie, due to the comparison factor and all, but it was true that I hadn't been celibate. When Dmitri had accused me of that, I'd felt guilty about it. The truth was, though, I'd mostly hit up men on apps. Hookups only. I'd often insist on hookups with no talking. I'd just give them the address and tell them to come upstairs and find me, face down on the bed. They were to smack my ass a few times, fuck it hard, and leave. Never had much problem with finding volunteers for that kind of thing, I had to admit.

I couldn't help but begin to think of all sorts of interesting scenarios. Knotted into Aurelie while one of them was knotted into me, for instance? What would that feel like, being fucked and fucking at the same time? Softness in front of me, hardness at my back?

My scent rose, and I realized that I needed to be careful if I didn't want to be discovered here.

No more thinking about sex, I scolded myself.

I was missing the conversation, anyway, which I was still recording.

"…and Nikolai isn't like that when it comes to her, anyway," Dmitri was saying.

"Possessive, you mean?" said Nikolai, raising his eyebrows. "Well, I did keep it from both of you that I put my mouth on her. I wanted that to be mine somehow."

"You haven't thought you could somehow go off with her, all by yourself," said Johannes.

"To be fair, when you were on that kick, Johannes, you said I could be there," said Nikolai.

"When were you on that kick?" said Dmitri in a hard voice.

"I don't think that way," said Nikolai, smoothly speaking up before the question could be addressed. "I don't ever think that I could have anyone to myself, so, I wouldn't even conceive of that idea."

"You were plotting this, Johannes?" said Dmitri. "When?"

"Nik," said Johannes, touching the other man's shoulder. "What do you mean by that? You have me to yourself. You had Dmitri to yourself. We were the ones sharing you ."

"Yeah, but I was the possession in that situation, right?" said Nikolai. "I didn't possess anyone. And the omega… she's the first thing I've ever wanted for myself like that."

Johannes looked down at the floor, furrowing his brow, as if this resonated with him on some deep level.

I wondered about it. Was it like me and Aurelie? The way she completed me?

No, they couldn't have what I had with her.

If they did, it would cheapen what I had with her, because it would no longer be rare or unique.

Of course, I wouldn't deny the idea that it had never really been about me, that it had always been about her .

There was something about her, definitely. If they felt it, too…

No.

No point in thinking like this.

She was mine. I was hers. End of story.

"Johannes," said Dmitri sharply. "Talk to me about plotting to take my omega."

Johannes lifted his gaze, smirking at Dmitri. "Whatever. You ordered her to stay away from me, and she did it. So, what does it matter? She's yours. She's always been yours. We're just accessories to your relationship. You're her real alpha."

"Maybe," said Dmitri. This guy was a dick, wasn't he?

Johannes flinched.

"But it's not like any of us have a choice about these things," said Dmitri. "I'm the heir. I was always going to bond her. And even if I decide you two can bite her, it'll hardly be public knowledge, so—"

"Is that even on the table?" Nikolai's voice was full of a desperate longing.

"If you decide," said Johannes, clenching his hands into fists.

Dmitri took Johannes by the shoulders. "Look at me, Johannes."

Johannes swung his gaze up to meet Dmitri's, defiant.

"We can't both lead this pack," said Dmitri. "You and I both know that I'm dominant—"

"We know that, huh?" said Johannes.

"Show me your neck." It was a bark. It went through me, in the closet, and made me all stiff with the need to obey. Dmitri wasn't wrong about himself. He was a very dominant alpha. There was some kind of intensity to his power, a regalness, a rightness. It was seductive.

Johannes whined. His eyes bulged. He resisted… and then he did it.

Dmitri put his teeth to him, not breaking the skin, but biting down hard enough to show Johannes that he was mastered. He reached between the other man's legs and cupped him, cock and balls. I watched him squeeze.

Johannes whined again, but the sound was different, a whine of pleasure.

Dmitri let out a little breath. "Better?" His voice was deep.

Johannes backed away, cowed, still angry, but now with no foundation to mount any resistance. He gingerly touched the back of his neck, resentment coming off him in waves.

"For fuck's sake, Johannes," muttered Dmitri. "It's just how it is. This is the dynamic with us. I'm the pack leader. I know that felt good to submit. I could scent how much you liked it. You're still hard."

Johannes wouldn't look at him.

"I am, too," said Dmitri, his voice dropping in pitch, silky. "You know, if I wanted, I could have you and Nikolai, both on your hands and knees next to each other, and I could take turns fucking your tight holes, and you'd both love it. I'd make you come on command, Johannes. You are mine . We've both always known it. Submit."

Inside the closet, my scent jerked like a whip, and I had a fucking huge knot. Shit, Dmitri was… wow.

"No," breathed Johannes, slowly raising his gaze to Dmitri's, his entire body shaking with the effort it was taking to say it. "No. Never."

Dmitri stalked forward, taking Johannes by the chin. "She is mine. If I decide I want to let you bite her, it's up to me. She will not have your bite unless I say, and she will never get pregnant with any children that aren't mine. If this is a problem, I will cut you off from her. My rules, Johannes. She is mine ."

Johannes pulled away, his scent wild and tumultuous.

"I'll take Nikolai on the honeymoon, then," said Dmitri. "You can stay here alone, while we go and take turns knotting her. Is that what you want?"

Johannes was shaking. "You know it's not."

"So?" Dmitri folded his arms over his chest. "Submit."

"I already showed you my neck. I let you… what more do you want?"

"Who's is she?" said Dmitri darkly.

Johannes swallowed hard. His voice was choked. "She's yours. She's your omega."

"Who says if you have permission to bite her?"

"You do," muttered Johannes.

"And if I decide to get her pregnant, who will do that?"

"You," said Johannes.

"Was that so difficult?" said Dmitri.

"Fuck you," snarled Johannes.

"We leave immediately after the wedding," said Dmitri. "She has an unknotted virgin asshole that I am going to take on our wedding night. I want you both there to watch and assist. It will be our wedding night, all four of ours. I will share her with both of you. I will be generous. We just all need to be clear that she belongs to me ."

aurelie

CORENTIN WAS THERE , in my room, when I got back after taking shots with Ilse.

He played me the recording on his phone while I chewed on my lip and hunched up my shoulders.

"This is the man you're in love with," Corentin said in a low voice. "He views you like a possession, like a thing. And this is the harem you're going to have? It's not yours, it's his. He's willing to let you have those men because he controls them. It's not about you, Aurelie. It's about his desires, his needs, his status, his dominance. You've always known this about him."

I hugged my elbows, not saying anything, because the truth was, all that talk of being Dmitri's, about how he was going to give the other alphas permission to do things with me, about how they'd assist with taking my anal virginity, it had made me sort of stupidly horny, and I was quaking with that right now.

"Come with me," said Corentin. "Let's go now."

I hugged my elbows even tighter. I didn't know what to do.

"Hey," whispered Corentin, his voice soft and velvet. "I get it. He's, um, he's…"

I looked at him. "He's what?"

"I mean, he gets me going, too," said Corentin. "Before I was an alpha, I don't know if I was as turned on my submission and dominance, but I am now. It takes a powerful alpha to make me want to submit, and he's that powerful. When he barked, it made me all jelly. As an omega, I can hardly imagine what he's like to you."

I let out a breath. "He's… he's…"

"Yeah, I know, but that's just sex and instinct. You have hot sex, okay, fine, but that's not a basis for happiness."

I lifted my shoulders. "W-well, it doesn't feel like it's just sex. When I submit to him, Corentin, it feels like submitting to something bigger than both of us. It feels like everything good in the world. It feels so right. And we are in love, and it's not just because of sex—"

"You're in a state of heightened chemical connectivity that's induced by your complimentary designations," Corentin said. "It's not love. You and me, we're in love, and we know it's real because it happened before all this alpha-omega shit."

I mean, that did make sense to me. "But I don't know that it's real," I said. "Because you left me, Corentin, without even saying goodbye, and you hurt me—"

"Right, I know," he said. "And, on top of that, you don't even know if we can have hot sex, because we never have. So, I'm asking you to run off with me and leave him, but you don't have a good reason to do that."

He was not wrong. I didn't want to agree with him out loud, though, for some reason. It seemed needlessly cruel to say that our one sexual experience had been nightmarish, even though we both knew that.

"Let me," he said, "show you that it can be different."

"You're asking me to let you fuck me?" I said.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Now? On the night before my wedding?"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"Corentin—"

"You heard what he said," said Corentin. "He told you that you could have me as one of your alphas, but then he told the others that he didn't like me and didn't want me part of it. He's trying to whisk you off to that castle in the mountains so that I can't get to you. He's trying to separate us. Even if you don't decide to leave him and come with me, is that what you want? I'm back in your life now, don't you want me to stay there in some capacity?"

I wavered. "Would you consider being one of my alphas?"

He shrugged. "I mean… maybe."

I narrowed my eyes. "You're just saying that to get me to let you have sex with me now, aren't you? You think if we have sex, it'll change everything. You think I'll leave with you on the strength of it."

"What if we could have sex that good?" he said. "What if it could be that amazing, and you don't agree to it, and then you never get to have it. One thing is for sure. If you marry him tomorrow and you submit to him, you'll be his property and he'll always be part of it, probably watching everyone who ever knots you. It'll be his rules, like he said. Don't you want to have sex with me, just once, on our terms, you and me?"

I did, that was the thing. "He won't like it."

"He never has to know," said Corentin.

I considered it. Truth was, even if Dmitri did find out, he wouldn't have much of a leg to stand on here. He'd already told me that I could have Corentin as a sexual partner. We hadn't worked out the details yet, true, but he'd have to admit he was lying to me about it if he was going to get angry.

It seemed wrong, though, the night before my wedding.

Especially when Dmitri had asked me multiple times to wait until after the wedding for sex with other men.

The wrongness added some other level to it, though. It made it more exciting, because Corentin was forbidden.

Corentin had always been forbidden, of course.

I stepped closer to him. "I'm not going to leave with you."

"We'll see," he said.

"But I can't deny how much I want you," I said. "I've always wanted you. I've always been drawn to you in a way I can't quite understand."

"Me too," he said, coming closer to me. He reached up to feather his fingers over my cheekbone and then my jaw. "So… this means… yes? I get to make love to you tonight, Aurelie?"

I nodded.

He leaned in closer and breathed in my ear. "I want to hear you say it out loud, my love."

"Yes," I whispered.

"Yes, you want my cock?"

"Yes," I said, smiling.

"My knot?"

I perfumed.

He crushed me against him, letting out a low groan. He spoke into the skin of my neck, his voice raw. "Your scent undoes me, Aurelie. I've never smelled anything like the scent of you. Even before I was an alpha, I loved it." He kissed my neck. "I love you , Aurelie. I adore you. I worship you."

I wrapped my arms around him, pressing into his chest. "Corentin, Corentin," I breathed. "I've loved you for so long, for too long."

"Love like an ache," he said, reaching down to seize the hem of my shirt. "Love like a wound that won't heal. It stings. It burns. It never fades."

"Yes," I said, lifting my arms.

He tugged my shirt over my head, letting out a noise as he took in my bare skin. "Oh, Aurelie, you're so beautiful."

"I'm fatter now than I was when you saw me without my clothes," I said ruefully.

"No," he said. "Your breasts are totally huge, though, and your hips, too. You look… delectable. Mouth-watering." He reached back and unhooked my bra one-handed. He tossed it away and put one hand on one of my breasts and his mouth on the other one.

I sighed, shutting my eyes, letting him taste me.

"Perfect," he breathed around my hardening nipple. "Perfect size, perfect shape, perfect little nipples. Look how hard they get when I barely touch them."

I moaned and he rubbed and licked me.

He pulled back to look at me. "Mmm, I like seeing you glistening here where I put my mouth on you. I like seeing where I made your nipples tight little points on your beautiful, big breasts. I want to see all of you." He unbuttoned my pants.

I helped him take them off, my underwear too.

He ran his hands up and down me. "You're shaped like sin, Aurelie," he told me. "You're shaped like torment. Fuck, you have no idea what you're doing to me. I want to show you what kind of knot you're giving me."

"Yes," I said. "I want to see your knot."

He reached back with one hand and pulled his shirt over his head, baring his chest, which was now heavily tattooed with vines and swords and sea monsters entwined around ships. I tried to take in the canvas that was his body, but then he shoved his pants down, and there was his cock.

There was a tattoo around the base of him, another snake, this one a striking cobra, its jaws stretched, right on his swelling knot, as if it were vomiting up the rest of his cock.

I reached out to trace the ink.

"Hurt like fuck," he breathed.

"How did they even do it?" I said. "Did you have to stay hard the whole time?"

"Just thought of you," he said.

I looked up at him.

"Always do," he said, pulling me close, searching my gaze as his lips came for mine. "Have since the first time I ever started jerking off. I can't come unless I'm thinking about you." And then, he kissed me, his lips pressing warmly into mine, his tongue sweeping in to tangle with my tongue, and I wondered why I let him suck my tits before I kissed him again for the first time, and why it seemed right somehow.

Everything with him seemed right, though. He was Corentin.

He broke the kiss. "Every time I've ever had sex with anyone who wasn't you, I've had to think about you to get off. I don't know what that means, exactly, but it's just how it is."

I touched his face. "I… me too, sort of."

"Until recently, with him, you mean?"

Well, and until Johannes told me to masturbate and think about him Nikolai.

"It doesn't mean anything," said Corentin. "He's just dominant is all. You'll forget all about him, I know it. We belong together, Aurelie." He kissed me again.

The kiss was like being tangled up in a rose bush, bright beautiful flowers everywhere while prickly vines tied me down. Corentin was right. Loving him was an ache, a torment.

I wrapped my legs around him, like I was climbing him.

He supported my ass with his hands and walked us over to the wall. He braced me there. "My knot is going to fit just right inside you, Aurelie. I know it will. It'll give you exactly the right amount of pressure, and you'll come for me, my love. I want to be inside you now. I know we didn't do much foreplay, but it's what we both need at this moment, and you want it, too."

"I do," I gasped.

"Take my cock, then, Aurelie?" he asked. "Take my knot?"

I sighed. "Yes, yes."

"I've, uh, I've never knotted anyone before," he murmured. "I've always known it was for you, just for you, only for you."

I reached between us, tightening my thighs around him for balance, and I put him inside me.

"Good girl," he said, pushing his cock swiftly into me. "Fuck, you're wet. You feel so good, Aurelie."

"You feel good too," I moaned, because he did. I remembered the sex when I'd been in heat, and how it had just been a tease, working me up to things that couldn't be finished, so I couldn't be satisfied. But here was the sweet stretch of his knot.

"We're going to go slow," he panted. "Take our time working it into you, Aurelie. Savor every second of it."

I gasped.

And then, as we kissed, he slowly, ever so slowly, wrestled his knot into me, an inch at a time, taking breaks to pull it out and reach down to spread my slick over his knot and my pussy, breathing praise to me all through it. "Such a good girl, so wet, stretching just like she should for her alpha's knot, that's right."

He eased the stretch through me, and each inch of it was another layer of pleasurable intensity. He circled my clit a few times, sweeping my slick over the sensitive bud of me, and then went back to pushing further and further inside me.

My pussy began to have little tremors, warmups for my impending orgasm. I moaned and wriggled, stuck there on his cock, pinned to the wall, my legs wrapped tightly around him.

He groaned, rocking against me. "Wait, wait, not yet, Aurelie."

But my little clenches sort of sucked him in, all the way in, and his knot was snugly lodged all the way deeply inside me and I began an ascent of pleasure that robbed me of the ability to make noise.

He panted. "Oh, Aurelie, you're so damned tight." He started to thrust, just shallow little thrusts, but he was taking up all the space inside me, everywhere, so every little movement stimulated me in all the right places.

I could not moan, I could not scream, but I wanted to. Each thrust nudged me, as if I was a tendril of a rose bush, growing rapidly towards the light, lengthening and shooting out leaves and flowers and using its thorns to get higher and higher. My pleasure grew, like that, agonizing, a build that would not end, a build that kept becoming more intense and more intense. It felt so good, but the goodness was practically painful.

I needed to crest, to climax. I needed the end.

I wanted to beg him for it, but I couldn't speak.

For his part, he was only making soft noises into my skin, noises that sounded almost like sobs, and when he did pull in front of me to look into my eyes, there were tears spilling over, onto his cheeks.

I kissed him.

And then I crested, the mother of all orgasms, an explosion large enough to make every rose on the bush lose its petals and they rained down over me, as he thrust and thrust and thrust through each of my sweet, sweet clenches of goodness.

And just when the last one happened, he pierced me deep, deep inside and I felt him come in me, too.

Which was when I had a belated thought about condoms. It probably wasn't that bad of a thing, because if I wasn't in heat, I wasn't fertile, so there wasn't a chance of pregnancy, and people with designations didn't tend to get sexually transmitted diseases—but Corentin shouldn't have a designation, so was that the same thing?

He dragged his tongue over my bite mark.

Oh .

I came again, squeezing his knot in a frantic little rhythm. I could make noise now. I cried out.

He licked it again.

The orgasm was too much.

"I could just… here," he said into my skin.

"You could what?" I wheezed.

"On top of it," he said. "He'd never notice because we'd both have bitten you here."

"Corentin…" Panic spiked through me.

He jerked his gaze up. He must have scented it. "No, huh?"

I bit down on my bottom lip and gazed at the ceiling. That had been an orgasm like I'd never had in my entire life, and I did… and I was…

"Sorry, I shouldn't have…" He kissed my bite mark, gentle. "I got carried away." He wrapped his hands around my bottom and pulled me away from the wall. He took me over to the bed and we scooted around on there, arranging ourselves, because he was knotted into me.

Now, he was sitting up against the headboard of the bed and I was lying on his chest with my legs spread around him. He was still knotted inside me. We were connected.

He rubbed his fingers up and down my spine. "I've wanted to bite you for a long time, so I can wait."

"Not on top of his bite," I said in a rush. "Don't. He'll… please, Corentin, don't make me some pawn in a game with him."

"Ah, got it," he said. "Yeah, I see what you're saying. He'd be angry, and the evidence of what I did would be on your body, and it would make you the object of the anger in some way, and that would be hell for you. Sorry."

I let out a breath, relieved.

"So somewhere else?"

I drew in a breath, thinking about it.

"It's okay, I shouldn't have asked," he said.

"Where?" I said.

He chuckled, a little knowingly. "I never had a fucking orgasm like that, you know that? My cock, it was waiting for you, and I was so attuned to you that I was riding the edge of my orgasm, just waiting for exactly the right moment, exactly the moment when I could finish and I knew I needed to keep going for you until then. And the pleasure, it just kept deepening and deepening until I thought it was going to kill me."

"For me, too," I said. "I mean the deepening part, not the waiting for you part."

He kissed me.

I clung to him. "Where do you want to bite me?"

"Anywhere," he said. "Anywhere at all."

"So, you want me to choose?" I said.

"Yes, of course," he said.

It was strange, because when Dmitri had said this, I had somehow known that he was going to choose himself, that if I tried to dictate that to him, it wouldn't go well, and I had let him decide. But with Corentin, I knew I should choose, and that he really wanted me to.

I traced the outline of one of the vine-covered swords on his chest. There was an ax, too, and an arrow sticking out of a bullseye. "You shouldn't bite me tonight."

"Yes, I should," said Corentin, and here was another difference between Corentin and Dmitri. If Dmitri had said that, I would have wanted to do it, for him, but when Corentin said it, it didn't seem to override my own will.

"No, because you'll want to tend it nonstop," I said. "You won't want to let me out of your sight. When we're together, you'll want to put your mouth on it, or at least your fingers, or you'll want me to stroke it so that you can watch."

His cock twitched inside me. "Fuck, I'm going to be ready to go again if you keep talking about that, Aurelie," he gasped.

I kissed him, hard. Then I pulled out and looked into his eyes. "I can't let you do the tending you'll need to do, because tomorrow, I am getting married."

He grunted, shutting his eyes, slumping into the headboard. "Come with me, Aurelie."

"You know I can't."

He opened his eyes. "I do not know that."

"I'm his now, Corentin." I picked up one of Corentin's hands and made him finger Dmitri's mark. It felt very good, Corentin touching it, and it felt forbidden and a little bit dirty, and it also felt perfect, both of them at once, because they were both my alphas. "I'm still yours. I think I'll always be yours. But I was never only yours."

"Weren't you, though?" he said, rubbing his thumb over my bottom lip.

"No," I said with a little shrug. "I'm sorry, Corentin. In some ways, I wish it was different. I think… if I could have been yours, just yours, we could have had something together, something really amazing."

He shut his eyes again. He looked hurt.

"We can still have something amazing," I whispered, touching his face. "I just… I need to work on Dmitri."

"How?" he said. "When he's so dominant that no one can think straight around him?"

"Well, Johannes kind of can," I said. "You can."

He snorted. "Uh, I don't know about that."

"At the very least, we'll all feel good while we're…"

"Becoming his willing sex slaves?" Corentin grinned, eyes still closed. "Except he doesn't like me. He won't even let me be his slave."

"You want him," I said.

"I want you more," he said.

"Good," I said. "Good, that's exactly right, then."

He opened his eyes.

I leaned in and kissed him hard. "They have… things with each other. They both have this previous relationship with Nikolai and I'm supposed to just meld into their life and accept all their drama and… you even things up for me. Now, I have my thing, my own past, my own alpha. I'm not giving you up."

He smiled at me. "What if I say I don't want to share you?"

"You'd be lying," I said with a shrug.

"No, I would not," he said. "I don't want any other man to fuck you, Aurelie. Why would I be into that?"

I rolled my eyes. "You do so. Just think about it. Think about me on my hands and knees with Dmitri behind me, rubbing the head of his cock up and down through my slick and then sinking all the way into me, think of watching my expression when he forces his knot all the way in, think of watching the way I—"

"Okay, okay," he muttered. He rolled us over, my body under his, and started to thrust.

I giggled, throwing my hands up over my head, triumphant. "See?"

"Yeah, it'd be hot to watch you get fucked by another man," he said, working himself into me.

"By three other men," I said.

He grunted, picking up speed, fucking me faster and harder. "Yeah. That'd be hot. But what would it do to us, my love? How would it change us?"

Oh, his knot was hitting the back of my clit now. Knots were fantastic . They made sex so much nicer. "Change us?"

"Yeah," he gasped, picking up my legs and pushing them together, ankles over his shoulder. "There would be consequences."

I moaned because he was deeper now, and with my legs pushed together, I was getting even more sweet pressure on my clit. "What do you mean, consequences?"

"I mean, jealousy and feelings of inadequacy, and how would I ever feel like I mattered to you if I'm just one of your harem? You're all I want, you know that? So, how do I reconcile the fact that all I want is you, and yet, I'm not enough for you? That doesn't work, my love, not longterm. That will eat at me." The more he talked, the harder he fucked me.

I was gasping, unable to think or breathe by the time he finished speaking. I couldn't respond.

He went at me, harder, faster, almost as if he was angry with me.

I shut my eyes, breathing his name like a chant. "Corentin, Corentin, my Corentin."

He fucked me until I came, hard, like stars bursting in my head, and then he came and then his knot deflated, and he slithered out of me, in a mess of my slick and his come, and we lay there, both on our backs, staring up the ceiling of my room.

"Come away with me," he said. "Just you and me."

"I wish I could," I said.

"What if I leave, then?" he said.

"Don't," I said. "Please don't."

"So, you want me to suffer for you? That's what you're saying?"

"No," I said.

"Yes," he said, sitting up and looking down at me. "Yes, it is."

"Corentin—"

"It's fine," he said. "None of this has been easy, my love. You've already destroyed my entire life. I'm happy to let you set the rest of it on fire." He bent down and planted a kiss on my clit. "I love you, Aurelie. Anything for you."