28. Tristian

The chirp of a bird brings back the first stirrings of awareness. It's answered by its mate, the twittering making it impossible to fall back asleep. The morning light speckles down through the canopy, and the sky beyond that is a dreamy peach. The pack must have passed out in the backyard after movie night.

I run my hand along the hard chest I'm plastered against, and the expanse makes me pause. Graham is all alpha, wide in the shoulders with a trim waist and a light smattering of hair. This is not Graham. The body beneath me is expansive, the muscles rigid, sharp dips and valleys. My leg is tangled with a furry tree trunk, and all around me, the scent of gooey s'mores makes me feel warm and cozy. Somehow during the night, I've attached myself to Elliot's side like a mollusk and my hands have wandered underneath his shirt.

The desire isn't new. I've been desperate with the ache to touch Elliot for years. But the fact that I'm allowed to is as confounding as it is glorious. Ever since we got back from the river, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for El to crawl back inside himself after each new push. Ever since, I've been wrong.

I snuggle in closer to his side, a thrill racing up my spine when his arm tightens around my back, his grip firm and possessive. I lick across his collarbone and the slope of his shoulder where his skin is exposed by the sagging neck of his muscle shirt. I love how strong his scent is here, as if it's been baked into his skin. It has a hint of his sugar and chocolate sweetness that melds with the musky, salt of his sweat.

El makes a low rumbly sound in his chest, and it makes my lazy morning wood grow hard, heat tugging at my core and swirling through my balls. I give a tentative roll of my hips, dragging my jean-covered cock along his side. El's hand tightens on my back, pulling me closer, then skirts down lower to make a pass over the swell of my ass.

The sound coming from my mouth is breathy and needy, my cock jumping at his touch. His fingers crawl under the shallow space at the curve of my back where it meets my jeans. He rubs my crease, teasing back and forth.

My body floods with arousal, my ass flexing and my gut heating at the thought of Elliot taking me there. He rubs along my hole, tapping and teasing the sensitive area until my cock jerks against his hip, leaving a wet spot on my briefs.

I lift my head and meet his eyes. His thick eyebrows are bunched into a look of concentration and his jaw is tight, but it isn't his usual fear or panic I see in his eyes. They're a dancing blue flame, liquid lust mixed with a steady determination.

"What do you need right now?" I ask, swallowing my doubts and fears.

If after this El sneaks back into his cave, I will adjust. I have before, and I can do it again. Because there isn't any scenario where I won't give my mates what they need. I'll give them all of me, every time. But that needy, hopeful part of myself wants to believe that Elliot's openness is here to stay.

He cups my jaw, giving me a scratch along my morning stubble. "You," he answers, his voice gritty with sleep.

The sound makes my breath catch, the word a silky caress that wraps around my heart, making it throb. I brush my lips against his. At first, it's sleepy morning kisses, slow and languid presses of our mouths and twirling tongues. But as the heat in my limbs rises, my mouth becomes more insistent and my tongue demanding, exploring the shape of his mouth.

We sit up, fumbling off my shirt between kisses. I wiggle ungracefully out of my jeans and boxers, tossing them off the makeshift bed and diving for El's tank top. It joins mine on the ground.

Beside me, Logan and Hunter are cuddled up with Sadie, who, so far, has managed to stay sleeping amid all the jostling. From the look on Lo's parted lips and the movement beneath the blankets, I would guess that Hunter is starting up a game of edging that the dominant alpha might play all day. I don't have the patience for edging.

I nose my way down Elliot's throat, nipping and sucking skin as I go. He makes a low grunt, then I'm rolled on my back, my huge alpha's hulking weight straddling me. He runs his nose along mine, kissing the side of my mouth, my cheek, then sucking the lobe of my ear between his teeth.

Holy shit.Elliot like this for me is beyond my wildest dreams. I moan, unable to keep in my surprised excitement.

I grope his skin, needing him closer. His mouth sucks and licks, tasting me as he travels down my neck and across my chest. He flicks my nipple with his tongue and rolls the other between his fingers. My cock jerks against his skin, leaving a trail of sticky pre-cum in its wake. Elliot groans and licks his way past my belly button, dragging his hips along my body as he moves. He takes my cock in hand, holding it steady and licking a long stripe from the bulge of my knot to my tip.

I lift my head to watch as El stretches his lips around my tip and sucks the head of my cock. He's tentative, but even that light squeeze with the pressure of his warm mouth feels as if he tosses a lit match into a dry forest. The hairs on my body stand on end and goose bumps break out. The fire spreads when those eager eyes meet mine. He sucks me deeper, pumping the base and teasing my knot.

My head falls back and my hips lift. From my upside-down position, I see Graham walking toward us brandishing a bottle of lube. I don't know when he left or care if the lube makes it here. The heat of Elliot's body weight on me is almost as good as the feel of his mouth on my cock.

I card my fingers through Elliot's short hair—tugging him off to warn him or pull him closer, I'm not sure which. I'm suspended between both needs, walking the tightrope of pleasure and so close to the edge of falling. My eyes squeeze tight when he sucks a long drag down my cock and adds savage, glorious pressure to my knot.

His technique is born out of a greed that makes me delirious with him. Elliot is touching me, letting me show him how much he undoes me. I feel exposed, but each time he touches me, it soothes that long-standing ache.

He pops off my cock and kisses my thigh. "Tell me." He grinds out the words, his voice wrecked. The rasp makes my dick jump.

He raises his brow and I realize sex has scrambled my brain.

"Tell you what?" I ask, lust-drunk.

Graham leans over my side, tugging my chin to meet his eyes. "He wants to know the best way to open you up. How to get you to take his cock."

Graham's hair is a tangled wavy mess, curling around his ears and sticking up in the back. He gives me a lopsided smile that's all boy-next-door-charm. I blink and realize Graham fried my brain this time.

"Fuck," is all I manage to say when a cool finger rubs past my cock and dips between my cheeks. Another finger, this one larger, takes its place next to the first. I groan when I realize El's joined Graham, the two of them teasing my hole as Graham teaches Elliot what to do.

"Spread him open, El. Get him nice and ready to take you," Graham instructs.

It's painfully slow prep, a kind of teasing show that makes my hips buck and my dick jump against my stomach every time Graham tells Elliot to give me a little more.

Beside us, I hear Sadie's sighs and gentle moans as she wakes up. Her growing arousal in the bond adds to my own until I'm teetering on the edge again.

My alpha mates prolong the torture, kissing and licking my thighs, sucking my balls and fingering my ass.

"Shit. Please. No more prep. I need to feel you now."

Elliot's weight returns, blanketing me in his scent. His pupils are blown, but the nerves have returned in his jaw.

My hands go to his cheeks, and I hold him. "Your pace, El. I'm ready to come. This can be?—"

El cuts my words off with a growl, spinning us around in the covers until we've switched positions. "Like this."

"However you want."

I take his mouth, using the new position to my advantage. I want to savor my turn to taste, make sure I memorize every dip and curve of his skin, find out what makes him tremble and moan beneath me. I suck and lick my way across his chest, kissing his nipples. He throws his head back, his hips jerking. I keep up my exploration, noting each hitched breath and strangled curse, eventually dragging his shorts down his legs before tossing them off and kissing my way across the old scars on his thighs.

Graham follows the trail I set, doing his best to double-back over each area. El pulls him into a kiss as I work my way to El's cock. It's proportional to El but fucking huge. It jerks in my hand, already slick with pre-cum. I taste him, sucking in his scent and moaning at the feel of his weight in my mouth. I give the wide head extra attention, licking his slit and swirling my tongue until he's nice and slick.

I search blindly for the lube until I locate it already open and pooling in a mess on the blankets. I squeeze enough into my palm to get my hand slick, then I work Elliot's cock hurriedly and straddle his hips, lining him up with my hole.

Graham lets go of El's mouth but whispers in his ear, his hand rubbing along Elliot's hair. I lock eyes with Elliot, and the want I see in them settles something inside me.

He's mine. He's always been mine.

I brace my hand on his chest and hold his cock steady, pushing out and taking that first wrecking inch.

"Holy fuck," Logan moans.

Sadie whimpers, but all I can focus on is the burn. It's all-consuming. I'm already full of him and I haven't even started yet.

I close my eyes and bite my lip, working myself down slowly as Graham squeezes my knot and strokes my cock. The stretch is mind-blowing, scattering my thoughts. El trembles beneath me, his grip possessive. When I've adjusted to the feeling, I slowly lift my hips and sink back down, finding a rhythm and opening my eyes.

The sights and sounds are glorious. It's my pack as they were made to be, lost in one another and the love between us. Needy noises create a soundtrack to the dreamy early morning garden. Panting breaths and cries float on the breeze, mingling with the scent of pack and earth. It blurs the edges of the world, making only the people in this moment exist.

El's fingers paw at Graham's neck as my two alpha mates kiss in a messy tangle of tongues. Graham doesn't stop teasing my cock, pumping me slowly then speeding up in an erratic rhythm that keeps me on edge. I ride Elliot, chasing that fullness, craving the closeness between us.

Next to us, our omega is about to come. She's tangled in blankets, exposing patches of her pale skin. Her chest heaves and her legs are open wide. Lo is flicking his tongue at her swollen clit, fingering her furiously. Her moans are muffled, drowned out by Hunter's heavy grunts as she sucks him into her throat. My bonds are lit up from all sides, fanning the fire inside me.

"Fuck, El, you feel so good." I angle my hips to take him deeper, pressing more of my weight onto his chest.

Graham breaks away from Elliot's lips and sits up, tossing aside his clothes in hurried movements. When he returns, I pull him toward me, grasping for his lips.

"Look at you taking him, Doc. Makes me feral to watch," he murmurs near my ear.

El grips my hips and thrusts, taking over in savage pumps that stuff me full of him. His cock nudges against my prostate on every drag of his hips, making my cock jerk and a tingle start in my balls. He sits up, pulling me down on his cock in harsh, jerky movements. My arms wrap around his neck, and my mouth slants over his. He sucks on my bottom lip and grips my ass, lodging himself deep. Beneath me he stiffens, flooding my ass with cum. On a final roll of his hips, he throws his head back, roaring into the morning.

I suck along his Adam's apple as Graham reaches in the narrow space between our bodies and takes hold of my aching cock.

El knocks Graham's hand away, his eyes finding mine. "Mine. Come for me. I want it."

His claim sends me over and I shoot onto his chest and hand. My orgasm is a straight dive into the ocean of bliss, my body humming and my limbs going languid. I drift on the waves, only half aware of my surroundings.

Sadie lets out a keening moan that draws my eyes. She's crawling to us, Hunter half trying to drag her back by her toes.

"So hot," she cries, diving for our mouths.

It's a messy four-way kiss of roaming hands. I pinch her nipples as she pets down my chest and rubs my scent into El's skin, marking him. I groan into her mouth, and El takes back my lips, his tongue twisting with mine.

Sadie wiggles between us, squirming until she jumps into Graham's arms. "Now, alpha. Can't wait. I need your knot."

They roll and tumble in the covers next to us, getting lost in each other. Graham blankets her body with his, the first surge of his cock into her making my spent cock jump. I wince, oversensitive and stuffed full of El.

"Come on, Doc." El helps me climb off him and rolls me onto my side so that I can watch our mates.

His warm heat snuggles into my back, his thighs against mine. He hooks his arm over my chest and yanks me closer, his breath near my ear. His fingers tend to my hole, soothing that soreness and stuffing his cum back inside before he settles for nestling his spent cock between my cheeks.

"You were perfect, Doc. I love to hear your sounds, to give you pleasure," Elliot says softly.

I cherish the hard-won words from my mate. I bring his arm around me, holding on tightly. My eyes are wet and my heart full of overwhelming contentment. "You blew my mind, El. I loved every fucking minute."

He smiles into my shoulder and his purr starts, motoring a blissful sound.

The chorus of my pack helps me keep that floaty feeling. My eyelids droop. Behind us, I hear the teasing sounds and slaps of Hunter and Lo. I blink at the beautiful sight of Graham and Sadie in motion, their moans sending a warm simmering heat to my gut.

She cries out and he locks his knot inside, roaring for her as he comes. He spins them around, settling her on his chest, the two of them kissing and riding out their orgasms. El and I shuffle closer, snuggling into them. Hunter and Lo do the same behind El until we're a sated pile, hovering on the edges of sleep.

This is right. This is perfect. And no matter what happens, I'll always have this.