22. Slip and Slide

Chapter Twenty-Two

SLIP AND SLIDE

Clayton

I rritated as fuck, I slam the door of the box truck closed then lock it as I watch Bramley peel off down the road like a bat out of hell.

He’s a dick, that has been well established over the last thirty- eight years he’s been breathing, but I’m so goddamn mad at him right now, I could kill something.

“I can’t believe him,” I grunt, punching the steel before fisting my hair. “I just—fuck!”

Nash walks up, his vibe pretty much the same as mine, then takes his gloves off and rests a hand on either side of my neck. “You’re going to break your hand.”

“So? It won’t hurt nearly as bad as watching Indy pour her fucking heart out, then witnessing the way our alpha dealt with it.”

Or how he didn’t deal with it.

Yeah, I know he’s not exactly touchy feely but I never thought he was heartless, not really. Not until now. And while I might still have a little hope that he’s having an off day, I’m questioning Bramley in multiple ways.

How anyone could stand there and not be moved in some way, or at the very least, not want to comfort her while she talked about some of the darkest shit that’s probably ever happened to her, is beyond me.

It was bad. So fucking bad, and I could barely hold it together as I listened to Indy bare her soul.

Me, the probable psychopath, wanted to cry and go on a warpath over the woman I love. I would have bawled like a bitch, too, if I hadn’t seen the switch flip in Nash. I had zero plans of leaving our girl alone and upset, body dump or not, but I also had to make sure our alphas didn’t murder each other the second they were out of sight.

I watched the oh shit switch flip, saw it in everything from Nash’s body language to the way those grassy eyes went almost as dark as Bram’s, and if I didn’t follow them out of that bedroom then out to the driveway, one of them might be dead right now.

One of them would be dead right now.

Nash was seeing red.

Hell, he was probably seeing red, white, and all the colors, but the fact that it was so obvious made him much more dangerous than usual. Those two bucking up to each other is always scary, and it’s exactly why I wound up between them in my least favorite way.

Nash swung on Bram before I got to them, landing a punch directly on his kisser, one that knocked his mask down, and split his lip. The idiot looked surprised by it, like he didn’t understand why Nash hit him, or why he was so angry.

In hindsight, that was really weird.

There’s usually a lot of yelling, shoving, maybe some punching and throwing each other around. One time Bram got stabbed, but that was just because they went at it while we were sitting in a tree. They fell out of it when they got too rowdy, and our alpha landed on his Bowie knife when he hit the ground. But they always hash things out while they fight, always know why it’s happening.

This time? Bramley seemed clueless, and just took it.

He didn’t fight back, he barely even reacted to the punch, but I still had to get between them because I wasn’t sure Nash was going to stop there. I’m almost positive he wasn’t going to. The look in his eyes, that was next level Nashy, and when that guy takes over, well, people usually die, and mad or not, I love Bramley and don’t want that for him.

Right now, I’m questioning if I made the right choice.

He said nothing from the time we walked out of the house right up until we got to the new dump sight. Nothing but some pointing to all get in his truck, more of that when he wanted us to drive separate in the box truck, then there was nothing when we got to the barn. Not that we needed direction, he had two mutilated bodies wrapped up and waiting to get loaded. That was self explanatory.

But it was fucking weird that Bramley had nothing to say.

Then it was infuriating because no sooner had we sent the dead to the bears, that shithead was in his truck, burning rubber to god knows where.

“Clayton,” my alpha says softly, bringing my attention back to him. “He’s going to come around.”

I roll my eyes with a huff. “You were seconds from killing him, Nash. You can’t tell me you still believe that.”

“I do.” His thumbs move over the sides of my neck, brushing back and forth under my jaw. Nash’s hand ghosts over my skin, his fingers gently tracing his bite mark on the hollow of my throat. “And so do you.”

My eyes slide shut as he does it again, calming me in a way only this man can.

He’ll tell you that I’m the glue in this pack, the one who’s kept the two of them together for so many years, and while I know I’m part of the why, I’m not the glue, he is. Nash is the fucking cement.

Bram listens to him, whether my alpha thinks so or not, and he’s the one who constantly reminds me that I have more of the humanity my doctors thought I lacked than I’ll ever fully accept. Nash is the bridge trying to close the gap between Indy and Bramley, and he’s trying like hell to keep it from burning.

He’s a good man, they both are, really, and I’ve been pretty goddamn lucky to call them mine for over half my life.

“Can we go home now?” I sigh as I lean into his touch, smiling when I feel his lips against mine. “I miss Indy.”

Nash chuckles as he plants one more kiss on me, then backs up so I can stand. “Couple hours away is too much for you now?”

“Yep.” I nod and head for the driver’s side. “It was before, you know how much separation anxiety I get, but our girl was naked when we left. It’s a solid motivator to get home lickety split.”

“She’s going to need to be comforted when we get home, not fucked.”

I grin as he slams his door. “Comfort first, fucking second.”

Nash shakes his head as we take off toward home. “We need to feed her, too, Clayton. Indy can’t survive on nothing but dick.”

“I’ve done fine with it.” I reach over and squeeze his thigh right by his cock. “Steady diet has kept me fit and full for a long time.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m right.”

I laugh as my alpha blushes, a small smile playing on his full lips as he stares out the window.

Finding our omega, having Indy in our life, it’s made him lighter but there’s still a heaviness hanging over our pack. It won’t last forever, and it’s easy to fix, but it’s there, and it’s weighing on even the lightest of moments.

Indy felt it when we were laying in bed.

She wanted Bramley with us just as much as we did, and it guts me that we can’t make that happen for her.

Nash is feeling it right now.

As stupid, and probably unhinged, as it would sound to anyone else, it sucks leaving a body dump as two instead of three.

All of that is why I’m so angry with Bram.

This is not the life we’re supposed to be living, and I can only hope his most recent disappearance will be the one to make him finally realize and accept that.

“Something’s wrong,” Nash grunts as we pull up to the house.

“Well, yeah, we don’t usually keep the box truck here. Bram is going to?—“

“Something’s wrong with Indy.” He bails out of the vehicle before it stops moving, running toward the front door while he fights to get his keys out of his pocket. “Fuck!”

He drops them as I clear the porch, mine already out with the teeth up, every worst case scenario playing through my mind while I cram my key into the lock.

Hall.

His name runs through my head on repeat, the terrifying possibility of that bastard showing up and doing something horrible to our girl.

Nash throws his shoulder into the front door as I push it open, an unnecessary action but one fueled by fear that he couldn’t control if he wanted to. Especially when we barely set foot into the house and hear our omega cry out.

“Indy!” I shout as we run through the living room, quickly glancing in each open doorway as we do, looking for a threat we better not fucking find.

When we get to her room, the door is shut and locked, but I can hear her in there.

She’s sobbing.

Indy is crying so fucking hard, and it almost sounds like she’s talking to someone, begging and pleading with a monster neither of us can see.

“Open the door!” Nash pounds his fist against it, swaying on his feet briefly before he looks at me. “We’re breaking it down.”

I nod, and get in position, not really thinking about how this could impact any potential situation taking place behind it because I just want to get to our girl.

And so does my alpha because his nervous energy throws him into the wood so hard, he didn’t actually need any help from me.

We charge in, armed with nothing but fear and anger, but there’s no one in here. Not in the immediate bedroom, which looks relatively the same as when we left. The bed is a mess, my bag and the boxes on the floor, Indy’s clothes, it’s all the same.

Except… her scent is literally everywhere.

I can taste the red poppies on my tongue, I can feel it against my skin.

Indy’s scent has filled this entire room, and it has my cock hard as stone without even trying.

Goddamnit.

“She’s in heat,” Nash chokes out, peeling his shirt off as he sways again, shaking his head as if he’s trying to focus. “She’s been alone for three fucking hours.”

I know.

We fucking left her.

Not on purpose, not really, and ultimately Nash was ready to defend her honor to our mate if he had to, but we left our girl. Then she went into heat while she was all alone.

She must hate us. “Go,” I say as I help him get his jeans off while he kicks his boots across the room. “I have to grab something, but I’ll be right behind you. Go help our girl.”

My alpha stares at me for a second before he shakes his head again, blinking repeatedly before taking off his glasses and handing them over to me. “Don’t… Don’t be long.”

“I won’t.”

“I…” Nash swallows hard and fists his cock, his pupils blown wide as he looks from me to the door of Indy’s nest. “I don’t want to?—“

“You’ve got this, Nashy.” I give him a quick kiss then turn him toward the closet before making my way to the bedroom door. “I will be right back.”

He’s so damn nervous. Not just about helping Indy through her heat, but being with a female for the first time.

Even as he goes into rut, as his instincts kick into high gear and take over, Nash is still nervous, and he’s worried he’s going to hurt our omega, or somehow disappoint her. That’s why he won’t, though. Nan said that this could get intense, and she said that it can be rough, but she was confident that even in rut, Nash wouldn’t let things get to the point some alphas do.

He’d put Indy first, half crazed from the pheromones or not.

I rush toward the stairs, taking them two at a time the best I can with a rock hard erection slowing me down. I go to our closet and open my dresser, pulling out the things Nash and I bought specifically for this scenario, and if it happened without Bramley around.

Pulling my shirt over my head, I toss it on the floor before I push my sweats down to join it, then plant on the edge of our bed to get rid of my boots and socks. I take the small boxes and quickly make my way back downstairs, rushing to the kitchen to grab the rest of my stash of shit to help our girl through this, toss it all in a cooler, then race to Indy’s nest, my dick bobbing up and down the entire time.

Nan told me this is part of my job as their beta.

She said I’ll have the clearest head in the room, and I laughed in her damn face, but I can already tell she was right. It’ll be important for me to directly help with her heat, but in the moments of rest she’ll have in between knotting, I have to make sure Indy eats, that she stays hydrated, and that she can sleep if at all possible. Our omega won’t be thinking about anything but alpha dick, and Nash was already getting cloudy, so I don’t think he’s going to be much help outside providing her with one.

Which is exactly what he’s doing when I get back to the nest.

Indy is on all fours, facing away from the door, nearly sobbing in between moans as our alpha rails her from behind.

Guess he got over his fears.

Setting up what I keep referring to as the food station, I take the frozen fruit and place it on top of the cooler along with a few bottles of water, and Gatorade. It isn’t nearly enough to sustain her, let alone either of us, but it’s the safest way to keep something in her belly and get some fluids in her whenever I have the chance.

Opening one of the small boxes, and thank fuck I preplanned for this; sterilizing everything ahead of time, and making sure there wouldn’t be reason to leave this room until our girl says we can was genius on my part.

“More,” Indy cries out, moaning as she begs. “Please, more.”

“I’m coming, pretty girl.”

I make my way over to them, ignoring my dick the best I can, even when it grows impossibly harder when I get a good look at what’s going on.

Nash has a hold of one of her hips, his knuckles white from how hard he’s gripping it. He’s looking down at where they’re joined, watching his cock move in and out of Indy’s cunt, slamming into her fast and deep, her slick dripping down his pelvis and thighs as it coats him completely. He has three fingers of his other hand buried in her asshole, moving in and out at the same rhythm he’s pumping into her pussy, and while I’m impressed Nash managed to remember that there are other ways to help, it’s not going to be enough.

Careful not to get in between his dick and her cunt, I slide his fingers out and plant his hand on her other hip, flinching when Indy whines over the loss. I gather as much slick as possible, momentarily amazed by how much of the creamy substance there already is, and how it’s collecting in a puddle underneath them.

I cover the anal plug from one end to the other, making sure to get every bit of silicone, coating the entire thing so it glides in smoothly.

“More,” she sobs, meeting Nash thrust for thrust, dropping to her elbows for leverage.

Indy whimpers and whines, raising her ass in the air, and I take advantage of her position, pressing the knotted plug to that tight ring of muscle, then allow her to essentially fuck it into herself.

I hold my breath once it’s in, silently praying that this helps as much as possible because two of us can only do so much, and I’m even more limited without a knot.

Oh, right.

Moving as quickly as I can, I go back for the second box as soon as our good girl lets out a long winded, almost relieved yes, grab the fancy cock ring I’ll probably end up using at some point, then make my way back to Indy.

I pull her hair up and out of her face, unsticking it from her forehead and cheeks as I drop to my knees in front of her. When I see the tears streaming down her cheeks, and how incredibly red she is, my heart breaks a little more because we really fucked this up.

“Oh, pretty girl, I am so fucking sorry.” I bend and kiss the top of her head, tying her dark brown waves up with a scrunchie. “I’m so goddamn sorry we left you.”

Indy winces at that, almost flinching away from me, and it’s like a knife to the chest.

But I’d let this woman flay me wide open and slowly cut away my insides if it made her happy, and since I know Nash would do the same and can’t really voice it—considering I don’t think he knows what’s going on outside of how his dick looks while he fucks our omega—I have to.

“I love you, pretty girl,” I whisper as I stroke her cheek. “I know I kind of said it before but you need to hear it now. I need you to hear it now, because we didn’t leave because of you.” Not entirely, we’ll save the full explanations for when she’ll be more likely to retain them. “I love you, so does Nash, and I can promise you we will never leave you like that again.”

“Clayton,” she groans as her eyes flutter closed, and it’s the only thing she manages to say before she cries, “Please.”

I’ll take that as a good sign.

“Fuck.”

My eyes move from Indy to Nash as he hisses the word between his teeth. His knot must have slid all the way in because his thrusts are quicker and shorter, and he’s pulling Indy’s ass back to his hips like he can’t get deep enough.

This is good. This is what’s supposed to happen. Nash locks in, he unloads buckets of cum, they get a breather, then we rinse and repeat for who knows how long. Indy will feel better when he orgasms, I’m sure Nash will, too, and?—

Choking on the words in my head and nothing more, I gasp and cough as something unexpectedly tightens around the base of my cock.

“Jesus,” I grunt, channeling a little bit of my alphas as I look down in time to see our girl lick me from root to tip before essentially inhaling my dick. “Fuck me.”

Indy sucks hard, hollowing out her cheeks as she bobs her head, twisting her hand at the base of my shaft each time she moves it in time with her mouth. The tip hits the back of her throat and I moan, reaching out to brace myself against the wall, watching as Indy takes more of me, deep throating my cock like she was born to do it.

Christ, this feels good. So fucking good, especially since I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about my direct participation but the unexpected and enthusiastic blowjob put my doubts to bed.

“Fucking hell,” Nash groans, slamming his cock into Indy the best he can. “Fuck, fuck I’m going to come.”

Those are the magic words, apparently.

Indy’s pace quickens, sucking me faster and cupping my balls just as they draw up tight. She pushes back against Nash so hard, rocking until she gasps around my dick, moaning so loud I can feel it vibrate up my shaft, and when our alpha yells out his release, knotting Indy in place as he starts to come, I lose it.

The first jet of my cum fires straight down Indy’s throat, my spine tingling as I watch her start to swallow me down.

“You’re taking us so well, pretty girl.” I bury my fingers in her hair as I keep coming, my hips jerking with each rope of my release. “Such a good fucking girl, our perfect little omega.”

Those bright purple eyes flip up to mine and making that kind of contact while she sucks my dick, as my cum spills from between her swollen lips and starts running down her chin, it has my orgasm hitting a new high.

“Fucking beautiful,” Nash growls, his stare still fixed on where their bodies are joined, and I can’t help the way I watch him, too.

His back arched, his fingers digging into her hips, Nash’s chest heaving as it pumps like crazy. Every inch of his body is covered in sweat, his tattoo covered muscles shiny in the dim fairy lights, rippling as he tries to catch his breath.

“Holy god in the after,” I whisper as I keep coming. It’s an incredible feeling, one I don’t think I’ll ever have words to truly describe, but I had no idea there was this much cum inside me, and that must mean?—

I look at our alpha again, my eyes dropping to Indy’s ass, and I see exactly what I had a feeling I would.

From just below his belly button down to his thighs, out across his hip bones, and all over our omegas ass, is easily the largest quantity of the creamiest, sticky, thick combination of cum and slick ever known to man. His pelvis is against her ass, our alpha clearly knot deep inside Indy, but that is a lot of fucking spillage. I have no idea how it even made it outside her pussy. And Nash is pushing it up over her perfect asscheeks to her lower back before dragging it down the back of her thighs then up between them.

Wow.

Talk about intense.

And I don’t think that’s even close to the half of it.

Something that is undoubtedly confirmed when my dick slips from Indy’s lips as I finally stop coming, my legs shaking enough to draw my attention, and when I look down at our sweet girl, I finally understand why an omega’s heat is a total fuckfest.

She stares up at me, a sense of calm washing over her, if only for a second, then she opens her mouth and shows me what she has yet to swallow. My brow furrows as I watch, remembering that an omega typically doesn’t waste one single drop no matter who it came from, Indy once again proving that theory correct. She takes my still painfully hard cock and licks the tip, coating the head in my cum, then our girl paints her goddamn lips with it. Indy spreads my cum across her lips with my cock, rubbing it into her chin with the swollen head, sliding it down her throat until she’s wearing what she covered it with, all while keeping eye contact before she swallows whatever is left in her mouth with a smile.

I’m supposed to be the one with the clearest head, but I’m pretty sure I’m the one who’s not going to survive Indy’s heat. Our omega is going to kill me with sex, and I’m almost positive she’d do it with a smile on her gorgeous face.

Nash

My brow furrows as I feel the blankets shift beside me, the movement only half registering through my cloudy mind, and buzzing body.

The movement gets closer, heat growing at my side, the scent of poppies washing over me in a warm wave. There’s a weight on my chest, not much but enough to notice, and when I feel more at various points on my stomach and legs, my eyes finally open as I feel what is clearly a hand, wrap about my cock. I push myself up a little, looking down my body in time to see Indy fisting my erection, lining it up at her entrance then slamming herself onto it until her ass is against my pelvis.

“Mine,” she groans as she wiggles her hips, bearing down as far as our bodies allow. “More of mine.”

I can’t help but smile a little, even through the haze I’ve been in for the last few days.

Our omega has turned into an adorable, cum covered cavewoman during her heat, speaking in broken sentences and one word responses whenever she can force them out, and I’ll be sad to see it go when this is all said and done.

“Fuck,” I hiss and grab her thighs, digging my fingers into her muscle and flesh as I watch Indy start to ride me.

Up and down, up and down.

She goes up on her knees until just the head is inside of her, then slams back down, taking every fucking inch of my cock, her pussy swallowing my knot as her muscles squeeze around it. She rocks her hips, wiggling to create friction, working her clit and g-spot at the same time, then drenching me in a gush of her slick. I watch it slide down my shaft as she goes up again, my entire lower half coated in her sweet, creamy honey.

Beautiful.

Fucking beautiful.

Especially when she throws her head back in pleasure, her long dark hair brushing against the top of my thighs.

I move my hand between her legs, waiting for her to lower herself again, then circle her clit with my thumb and relish in the way she lurches forward in ecstasy. Indy braces her hands against my chest, whining as I start working her faster, our omega whimpering above me while she tries to bear down even more, my cock so deep I’m bottoming out.

That drives me fucking wild.

The way Indy can’t seem to get close enough, how she wants more and more of everything I have to offer her. And when she whines again, her velvet walls spasming around my dick, something I haven’t felt until now takes root inside me, and I act totally on instinct.

In one swift move, I flip us, pulling Indy under my body as I mount her, raising her hips so when I start to thrust, I’m sending her anal plug deeper into her ass with every single one.

“Yes,” she moans, her nails biting into my back, clawing at my skin as she tries to get closer. “Yes, please. More.”

I start pounding myself into her, spurred by her words, by the way her hands slide down to my ass and pulls me to her. I bury my face in her neck, breathing her scent deep into my lungs, pressing my nose to her throat as my pace becomes brutal. Indy tilts her head, most likely looking for Clay, and knowing he’ll happily do whatever it is she needs, for some reason it has me already on the edge.

Lifting my head slightly, I look up in time to see our beta push his cock between her lips, Indy humming her satisfaction around his shaft as he starts to fuck her mouth. Slowly at first but he quickly speeds up, sliding down her throat as our omega lifts a hand so she can give his balls a tug.

I’m already about to bust, my orgasm shooting down my spine before it rolls through my belly. So, I hook Indy’s knees over my elbows, rolling her up a little bit so I’m bottoming out once again.

That does it.

Without any warning, I sink my teeth into the side of her neck, biting down until the coppery tang of her blood fills my mouth, but I don’t let up. No, I lock my jaw as Indy whines around Clayton’s cock, his movements something I can feel against the side of my face. My knot swells, expanding to its full thickness, and I slam into her until it pushes past her entrance and locks us together. My release blows through me as I tighten my hold, more of her blood sliding over my tongue, spilling down my chin as I make this omega mine. Rope after rope of cum explodes from my body, not one drop of it leaving Indy’s cunt as I shove my hips harder against her ass.

That’s when she screams.

With a mouthful of Clay’s cum, Indy throws her head back and screams through her climax, her entire body tensing for a few seconds before it starts to violently twitch and spasm. She begins chanting our names, whispering them, shouting them, turning them into pleas while her pussy milks me of every last drop, and when it does, that’s when I let go of her throat.

I almost immediately collapse, my arms giving out just as I flop down beside her.

“Love you,” she whispers, her hand falling to my chest, her body twisted just enough to keep my cock inside of her. “Love you.”

Smiling, I cover her hand with mine, bringing it to my lips and press a kiss to her palm.

I’ve said it to her so many times over the last few days. Professed my love while I was fucking her, while I was holding her in between, while I waited for Clayton to feed her. We’ve both told Indy that we love her more times than I can count at this point, but that’s the first time she’s said it back to either of us, let alone both of us.

Fuck all if that didn’t make every single second of her heat worth more than it was before.

If I was back in Blackhurst, I’d get jacked in the mouth for this.

Well, someone would try to knock my teeth in for it, but they wouldn’t get very far.

Namely because I didn’t get put into gen pop until right before I got out, and during the previous stretch of my stay, I was lucky if I saw anyone who wasn’t on the payroll. The nurses, even the doctors were uneasy as hell when I was around, but the paid staff didn’t really like dealing with guys like me, anyway.

The quiet ones made them nervous. Especially if they were committed before they were legally considered an adult.

Had I been put into general population sooner than my last week, openly staring at someone while they slept would have, and probably still will, result in getting knocked the fuck out at Blackhurst Ridge Institution. Which is a fancy way of saying asylum.

But this isn’t that shithole, and I’m as close to alone as I want to get anymore.

Indy shifts around a little, burrowing deeper into the mountain of pillows and blankets she’s buried under, her brow furrowing while she does.

She is really beautiful.

Her features are soft, and elegant. There’s a warmth Indy carries with her at all times, something you can see when she smiles or feel when she laughs. Clayton says she’s shiny and as weird as it is to describe her that way, it’s true. Indy is such a bright spot for us, a flash of light against all the shadowy gray that’s been consuming our lives, and Bramley fucking knows it, too.

I’m so pissed at him for missing this.

He’ll be pissed, too, once he gets his head out of his ass.

The way I feel about her, the way we feel about her, it isn’t just from mine or Clay’s instincts or feelings. It’s fueled by that stupid fucking behemoth we love because he can’t hide those things from us no matter how hard he tries. Bram does feel exactly the same way we do, and sitting here looking at Indy now, I can’t understand why he’d want to be anywhere else.

That’s not entirely true. I know what Bramley is afraid of, and I get it, but he’s not using all of his brain cells right now so it’s really hard to be understanding, or empathetic.

I’m kind of scared, too, if you can call it that, but my fear is different.

I feel like I’ve been in nothing but a constant state of fear. Between worrying over losing my alpha, and fussing over my beta, I’ve been a disaster for a long time, but now? Indy has added another layer to my anxiety that I’m not really sure how to handle, while actually handling my anxiety better than I have before. Which makes no fucking sense at all, but I guess that’s love and bonding for you.

When I got locked up for feeding my mother the business end of a shotgun, I was barely stepping foot into puberty, and I presented as an alpha real quick after that. All that awkward shit that happens when your balls drop and your knot pops? It happened while I was in a fucking asylum for the criminally insane, and I still thank whatever higher power there is for making sure I stayed in isolation.

But… That means, before I settled in Obsidian Falls, I had absolutely zero experience with everything. And everyone.

Bramley took my virginity. At twenty years old, he was the first person I’d ever been with in every way you can be with someone, and Clayton is number two on that list. He was also where the list ended until a few days ago.

The two of them? They’ve been with their fair share of people. Clay refers to his time before me and Bram as his living loose years, and that’s fine. I’m sure I’d be in the same boat given my situation was different, but it wasn’t, so I’m not.

I’m content with the fact that the only people I’ve been with are people I love, and I don’t care about the fact Bram and Clay threw wood like it was their jobs for a while before we met, or that Indy was put through everything she was. I hate it, fucking hate that she went through all of that, but it doesn’t change who she is, or how I feel about her. It doesn’t change anything for any of them. To be totally honest, I never really put any thought into it at all once my cherry was popped, but lately it’s been on my mind.

Not the fact that I was a virgin when I got with my pack, but the fact that the bonds we have, they almost erased everything that happened before we were together.

Until Indy.

Her past, her history, it’s so much more intense than ours, and that’s with murder being one of the common themes.

Indy being a Harden omega? It doesn’t change how we feel about her, doesn’t have any impact on our bonds or the future I know we’re going to have. But it does bring everything full circle.

This sweet woman, who’s been through some kind of hell, who lived every day surviving some of the most depraved shit that any warped mind could come up with, she trusts us completely. Blindly, without question. Indy trusts me and Clayton, even Bramley to a degree, and there isn’t any real reason for it, she just does.

She’s still trying to figure herself out, trying to get to know herself right along with us, and I don’t think she has the slightest clue about me and our mates, but none of that matters. Not when there’s more going on than a bunch of serendipitous coincidences. Not when love is involved. This is the real fucking deal, the most honest type of connection you can have with someone because it’s as natural as breathing, and it doesn’t require any effort at all to be what it’s supposed to be.

But it didn’t erase anything from Indy’s life before Obsidian Falls, and I don’t think it’s going to until we can throw Bryce Harden, that Hall son of a bitch, and anyone else who’s ever laid a finger on her at her feet, and help her carve out a new path from their bones, and let their blood wash away her old life once and for all.

“Why are you so far away?”

With a smile, I watch Indy’s brow furrow as she forces her eyes open. “How do you even know I’m that far away?”

“You’re not right next to me.” She blinks a few times, clearing the sleep from those purplish-blue crystals. “That’s too far away.”

“Ok, honey.” I chuckle as I crawl toward her. “I’ll come back, but you have to take a few sips of water for me.”

Indy frowns but allows me to stick a straw between her lips.

Someone definitely knew what they were doing when they decided to make this feisty female Bram’s scent match. She is going to give him such a run for his money, and I cannot wait to watch it all go down.

“On your back, mister,” Indy says as I set her water on the other side of me. “We are tired, we need to sleep more.”

“We?” I ask with a grin, scooting myself down into her mountain of blankets until I’m close enough for her liking. “Are you talking about you and Clay? Because I think our beta is going to be comatose for at least a week after you sucking the life out of him through his dick for the last four and a half days.”

Her cheeks go pink but she giggles. “Yeah, you might be right about that.” Indy glances over her shoulder, smiling at Clay as he snores in her ear. “It was worth it, though.”

“I know he’d say the same if he was amongst the living.”

Indy reaches for me as soon as I’m settled, tugging me close and lifting long enough for me to slide underneath her. She rests her head on my chest, wiggling around a bit before she wraps her arm around my waist and throws her leg across mine.

“You good?” I smirk down at her then laugh when she shakes her head.

“Hold on.” She reaches behind her, grabbing Clay’s arm and draping it across her middle, tugging it a few times until he scoots closer, then curves his body around hers. Indy snuggles into my side again, her head back on my chest. “Now I’m good.”

Me too.