31. Tristian

I've studied omegas most of my life, but I've never met anyone who has seen an omega's breeding kiss. It's the stuff of folktales, though I'm not sure why I'm surprised. Didn't the others turn out to be true? Why wouldn't our fairy gift me with this honor too?

Cock warming is a known practice in the kink community. But this isn't the same as cock warming. My eyes watch hungrily as Sadie nuzzles into my lap, her hands petting my thigh and her sweet mouth suckling my cock even in her sleep. My alpha preens in my chest, my purr loud in the enclosed space of our pack's heat nest.

She's been doing this since we got her safely in the Jeep after that close call of a heat spike at the bar. The owner and some guys from the sheriff's office stepped in, along with the security team, and backed Hunter. El handed Sadie off to me and dove into the scuffle, moving bodies back and providing escort. It wasn't anything more than a rowdy-ass bar fight, but we're not taking any more chances. We're home until her heat passes.

She started the kiss with our Prime on the way back to the pack house, then moved to Elliot when we got her home and into her nest. She stayed there during the first of her fever and has traveled between each of us sometime during the night.

I watched with bated breath as she moved from mate to mate, hoping she would find her way to me. And when she crawled into my lap to suckle my cock, her eyes glazed and soft, I wanted to weep from joy at the sight.

She's beautiful and vulnerable and so fucking perfect. I didn't think to want such a thing before tonight. Didn't even count it in the realm of possibility. But fuck if it isn't making my soul fly.

Around me, the others are sleeping, all of them trying to rest before her true heat starts. We got through the basics. Calling it in for work, gathering supplies, and locking up the house, and now we wait.

But I can't keep my eyes off her. In the glow of the twinkle lights, her skin looks warm. Her slick lips are parted around the head of my cock. I trace back and forth over her cheek, content to watch her doze and nuzzle.

Time stops having meaning beyond the incremental increase of her perfume. Our nest becomes a humid garden in full bloom, her perfume so thick it feels like an atmosphere around us. It makes my cock ache with the need to rut.

Sadie stirs slowly. A twitch of her leg. The tensing of her fingers on my thigh. Her tongue swipes along the underside of my cock. The soft moans she lets out as she nuzzles into my leg wake the others. Their hands join mine in caressing her soft skin.

Her eyes pop open, and she's up in a flash. Whereas moments ago she looked like a cat sunbathing in a window, now she has the air of a lioness stalking. She crawls around the sheets of her nest, slow and sensual, her soft eyes surveying each of her mates.

She tends to her territory first. She tucks the edges, smoothing out each spot as she goes. It's rolling hips, flashes of her pink pussy and her glistening slick, and those full tits swinging softly. The sight makes my gut tight with need at seeing her like this for us. My cock is hard, and my knot is insistent as I watch her nest. The bulge where it will expand throbs each time she grunts as she works.

Around me, my pack is in a similar state, all eyes trained on her every move. I reach for my cock, giving it a good tug, trying to relieve some of the gnawing ache.

Sadie slinks toward Hunter, half crawling into his lap to get to the edge of her nest behind him. It makes her legs open wide, her wet center on display as she bounces and jiggles to get the edges right. Her hips sway, and it takes everything I have not to crawl to her and bury myself between her legs so I can get a taste.

Hunter tries to move back to give her working room, his body stiff with restraint. She makes this sound, and he freezes. It's like a deeper version of her purr—not a growl, but a chirp? It's a command, whatever it is, and possibly the cutest sound I've ever heard.

Our Prime kisses her head before whispering softly in her ear, causing Sadie's bond to burst with approval. When she's finished with his section, she crawls to the center of the nest and kneels. Her freckled skin is bathed in gauzy light, every one of her soft curves on display. The fine features of her delicate face are framed by her auburn hair, making her look like our forest fairy. But it's her eyes that make her my Sadie. They telegraph every expression, the coloring changing with her mood and emphasizing different aspects of her warmth. Right now, her hazel eyes are more golden than I've ever seen. She's all omega, stripped down to her essence.

It's rapture. The sublime. It feels like looking at the sun. I'm frozen, my breath caught as I wait for her. And I know deep in my gut that I must wait for her. Her omega is in charge of this, not me or any alpha here.

"Mine," she purrs, taking us all in. Her voice is low and breathy, causing a shiver to ghost down my neck.

A tug yanks, like a string from my chest, and without her saying anything, my feet carry me through the house and to my library. Instinctively, I know where to go, though I've never shared this book with anyone. All around me, the house buzzes with anticipation, my packmates all moving on their own errand.

It feels like a dream, then I'm kneeling before her. She takes my copy of Whitman with El's notes tucked in the pages and sets it in the corner. She arranges it next to a small notebook that must belong to Elliot, a paddle that spells "boy" that clearly belongs to Logan, and Hunter's bike helmet. She finishes her creation by sprinkling flower petals Graham brought her in a circle around the little shrine. Her bond drips like honey, sappy sweet and illuminated from within.

Whatever we amassed was what she needed for her nest, and our omega purrs in satisfaction. She curls up next to the pile and closes her eyes. In seconds, she lets out soft puffing breaths. Like before, my bond urges me forward. My pack shifts, all of us in motion, until we've made a cuddle pile with Elliot holding her in the center on his chest and all of us making skin to skin contact with our omega.

"Doc, I need the For Dummies version. What the fuck is happening?" Graham murmurs.

"Second that motion," Lo whispers.

Grunts ring out from our two others.

I think about how best to explain it. I don't know for sure if it's what I think it is, but I try my best. "The old stories tell of a breeding kiss. The kiss is a symbol of submission that marks an omega's pack as claimed. I'm guessing that Sadie did that with Hunter in the car, then with each of us in the nest."

Those old records aren't exhaustive, but the breeding kiss has only ever been reported at the start of a heat, though the act has never been documented beyond personal accounts. It's rare, but it is meant to show the outside world an omega has claimed her pack, like a blessing beyond the mating bond or bonds. It was said to be how biological fathers in a pack were chosen. The stories say those deemed omega kissed were worthy as breeding mates and chosen to enter the nest during heats, but the entire pack would reap the blessings.

Pack bonds can be strong without it. Babies are made with or without the kiss. No one talks about omega-kissed mates anymore. I'm sure most people have never even heard about the phenomenon. In my field, however, it's sacred.

"I've always said cock warming was underappreciated magic," Lo jokes.

Hunter rumbles his approval. "Damn right. Sweetest thing I ever saw."

El ignores Lo and Hunter's comments completely. "I don't get it, Doc. What does all that mean?"

I organize my thoughts. "Right, okay. So, omegas don't bite, but the tales hint that this works like a bonding bite might."

"We're already mated. She's claimed," Hunter says, his deep voice full of confusion.

"I don't know. It's a story. Magic. Like a legend we learn in grad school when we read these tomes and old folktales."

"Give me a synopsis, Doc." Logan groans. "Normally you won't stop with the details and now you're being cryptic."

I sigh and hope I'm right. "In the stories, omegas initiate the kiss as an act of ultimate submission. And then in each story, the packs restore that balance by returning the act of faith in kind. Don't ask me how. It's different in every story, but it's always the catalyst that seals a pack's bonds and makes way for breeding heats. When packs have an omega's kiss, their scents change to the outside world, physically marking them as one, and they're usually gifted with many children."

"Like we'll literally be next level?" Graham jokes, his breath warm on my neck as he peeks over my shoulder to watch our sleeping omega.

"Special powers unlocked," Logan adds, his voice mimicking the deep sound of a video game announcer.

I sigh, but my lips twitch. "Is literally nothing sacred?" Elliot's vibrating laugh sounds next to me, and I give in, chuckling along with them. "Fine."

Hunter grumbles, "Is that a fancy ass way of saying we unlocked a breeding kink?"

"Who's surprised?" Graham tacks on. "That shit ain't new, Doc. I've wanted to lock her on my knot until she's spoiled, well-fed, and round with our babies for ages."

"But she's on birth control," Elliot wonders aloud.

"It's an honor and a claim. But it doesn't mean she'll get pregnant this heat. More like her omega is saying these will be?—"

"Her baby daddies," Lo sings.

Groans ring across the circle.

Logan laughs, but then he clears his throat, and his next words are serious. "I say we just do whatever feels right. Giving in to her is always easy." He reaches from where he's snuggled into Hunter's side up near Elliot's shoulder, carding his fingers through her hair and down her back.

"Yeah, Sadie's easy to love," Graham says. He's been saying that about our omega from day one and he's right.

A chorus of agreements ring out, and people settle into our cuddle pile. Even though my cock is still rock-hard, my knot pounding my pulse, the weight of my pack around me and the mellowness of Sadie's purr urges me toward sleep. Her floral perfume thickens, a blanket of cozy that makes my eyes and limbs heavy. I feel flickers of light in my chest that remind me of Hunter and Logan, making me think familial bonds aren't only symbolic, but before I can study it further, I'm in a sunny meadow.