Epilogue - Miles

EPILOGUE - MILES

Juno’s third heat did not go according to plan.

Everyone was excited — after all, it was the first heat with the full pack involved. The night after the party was the first of several practice runs. Preparations were made; a little drink fridge stuck next door in Juno’s study, meal prep in the days leading up to it as well as organising a specialised food delivery service to do daily drops.

Then Juno went into heat, triggering Isaac’s first rut and he locked the rest of the pack out of the fucking nest.

For a prime who was ordinarily so gracious, he sure was a possessive asshole of an alpha when boiled down to his baser instincts.

Any attempt to enter resulted in them being bodily removed from the nest. He even managed to circumvent Everett. Isaac was tapping into strength reserves that he evidently had access to now that he was bonded to an omega. It was even worse if they tried when he’d knotted her. They got barked at for having the impertinence to try and sneak up on him. Juno was too far gone and only focused on getting one thing — which to Isaac’s credit he was providing plentifully and often — and hadn’t noticed what was happening.

So they had spent the past 8 hours waiting outside, feeling everything Isaac was doing to Juno through the bond and hard as fucking rocks.

Julian was staring melodramatically out the window. “The only people we want to fuck are fucking each other. How is this fair?”

Ollie looked mournfully down at his crotch. “I really don’t want to jerk off anymore.”

Ari turned to Everett. “Mate, you should just go do it. You’re making it worse for yourself.”

Everett was hugging a pillow on the couch, unconsciously rocking back and forth slightly. “No! It’s all for her,” he insisted, a maniacal gleam now a permanent fixture in his gaze.

They all felt when Juno came. Ari bit down on his knuckles to stifle a frustrated scream, Ollie excused himself to presumably go touch himself again and Everett squeezed his pillow so hard it exploded. Feathers rained down on them slowly and Miles swore he could hear a sad violin playing somewhere.

Isaac knotted her moments later, an experience exclusive to Miles and Julian. Julian began to bash his forehead slowly against the wall.

“His knot’s gone down.” Miles exhaled loudly about twenty minutes later.

Ollie was back and slightly calmer than the rest of them. “Are you sure he’s not still knotted?”

Julian levelled him with a flat stare. “After these past 8 hours? Yeah, we’re pretty sure.”

Miles stood up. “Fuck it, I’m going in. If he’s going to try and toss me out again I’m going to kick him in the balls ’cause I am not leaving this time.”

Buoyed by Ollie’s impassioned you the man Miles, he strode purposefully toward the nest and pushed open the door. The lock on it dangled uselessly from their earlier entry attempts.

“Like what you see, alpha?”

Fuuuck.

Juno was on her hands and knees, presenting her rounded ass and glistening cunt to Isaac. She gave it a cheeky wiggle and turned to look at Isaac, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

If he tells me to leave again my dick will never go down.

Isaac’s hands covered her ass cheeks almost entirely as he spread her. “Push my cum out,” he said, bending down to lightly bite into her skin. “Show me what a greedy little pussy you have.”

Miles was certain he’d stopped breathing when she arched her spine, a dribble of Isaac’s thick white cum slipping from her pink pussy. Isaac shoved it roughly back into her with two fingers. “Such a good omega,” he purred, before sliding them in her mouth and letting her taste their combined release.

“God fucking dammit.”

Isaac’s head whipped around and snarled as he finally noticed Miles. There was nothing in their bond except Isaac’s maddening and insatiable need to mount and knot and defend his omega.

Miles held up his hands to show he wasn’t a threat as he slowly approached his alpha. “Love, I think you should let your pack help ease our omega. Can we do that?”

The alpha positioned himself between Miles and his omega. “Mine,” Isaac growled warningly.

“Of course she’s yours. But she’s ours too,” Miles said firmly, sending reassurance down the bond to him for good measure.

A small hand slipped around his waist from behind and the change in Isaac was immediate. His entire body went loose and the fierce tension left him. He turned in the circle of her arms, trapped by her loving gaze.

“You’ve done so well, alpha,” Juno praised him. She cupped his face and brought him down for a kiss and Isaac completely melted into her touch. “I think the others should join us now, don’t you think? Have a rest so you can be ready to knot me again later,” she said, scent marking his cheek with her own.

Then the formerly tyrannical, territorial, terrifying beast of an alpha lay down and fucking fell asleep.

“I’m so sorry,” Juno apologised, her brow furrowed with distress. She kissed his face all over, desperate to soothe the rest of her pack. “I’ve barely been lucid this whole time.”

Miles held her close. “Gorgeous, it’s definitely not your fault. Don’t be sorry.” He couldn’t resist stealing a kiss on her downturned mouth. “But…the others really want to see you.” He threw caution to the wind and decided to just start shucking his clothes off then and there. “Ok, that’s a lie, we don’t just want to see you. I hope you’re ready for five packmates who have been hard since 8am.”

Juno’s eyes dropped to his unveiled cock and god help him, it twitched and stood at attention like a well-trained soldier. Miles had never been more certain that she was his dream girl when she unearthed a bottle of lube from between her mountain of pillows and tossed it at him with a wicked little smile.

There was a perception that people had of omegas. That they’re spoiled and selfish. Monopolising their alphas (and sometimes betas) for heats every few months, being the centre of a pack’s attention. Needy, volatile, moody.

But no one talked about the emotional labour they put in. The way they balanced the needs and wants of multiple people. Making sure everyone was loved, valued and heard.

They all had their own bedrooms but Juno had a sixth sense for who needed to be in her nest each night. One time Miles was invited in along with Julian and Isaac. She had begun to notice the balance of time and effort between them was growing uneven. Nipped it in the bud before resentment could even begin to form. Another time, Ari was in there for a week straight when one of his old pack brothers had passed away and he was asked not to go to the funeral. After an uncharacteristically icy disagreement between Ollie and Ev, they went in hostile and came out laughing and joking the next morning.

It wasn’t a coincidence that Ari decided to return to advertising and won his second Grand Prix at Cannes a year later. Ollie mustered up the determination to train for and conquer a marathon in three months. Everett commandeered a good chunk of garage space to have a go at brewing his own beer. In fact, Miles was barely surprised when one night at dinner, Julian nervously revealed he’d been secretly developing an app ‘just for fun’ and now had to quit his job because it had gotten so successful he needed to focus on it full time.

Even Miles wasn’t immune, finding himself less and less drawn to minimalism and clean lines every day. His drawings got more rule-breaking and joy-infused until his concept for an omega-centric pack home landed him in the glossy pages of the notable design magazine Maison Aesthetica.

She gave them the room to be who they wanted to be, a kind place to fall when they failed and was their greatest motivation to succeed.

Interestingly, his and Julian’s bonds to Juno remained strong, for much longer than what little research had been done on it suggested.

Omegas were usually the ones who were bitten and subdued as they begged during heats. Miles wondered if it was different this time because she had initiated the bond.

Isaac, of course, kept tabs on Pack Zhao. Eric got fifteen years for violating his parole. But it would only take two years for them to receive news that Eric had died, killed by another inmate in an altercation between prison gangs. Miles was 99% sure Isaac had nothing to do with it, but the tiny sliver of suspicion would probably always remain.

Six months later, they were notified of Andrew’s death. He was hit by a car when leaving a bar he had been a frequent patron of and killed instantly. His blood alcohol content registered at 0.18. Isaac inferred that Andrew must have sunk into alcoholism after losing both his brothers. But Miles had read the regular reports they received on Pack Zhao. He knew full well that Andrew’s drinking did not begin with Eric’s death, but after Isaac had subdued him those couple of years earlier.

And so ended the line of Pack Zhao.

“You ready, Miles?”

Everett stood waiting expectantly, jangling his car keys. Miles shook himself out of his reminiscing and nodded. They were going to check on the progress of their new pack house. The pressure he felt this time around to get everything perfect was enormous and every construction delay or supply chain issue seemed like a personal insult designed solely to aggravate him. But it would be worth it in the end.

At least that’s what he chanted to himself in the shower every morning.

His initial drafts placed Juno’s nest at the heart of the bedroom floor, with additional guest bedrooms far away on a separate level. He didn’t tell her that Isaac had surreptitiously asked that he make sure those guest bedrooms could also work as children’s rooms. That the reason the basement had so much built-in storage was for its eventual conversion into a rumpus room.

But one day, she had looked over the plans, counted the guest bedrooms and said—

“Is three enough? Isaac and Ollie have six other siblings. How did your Nanay do it? ’Cause you can’t have teenagers of different genders sharing rooms. They’re all so far away too, although they would probably be in the nest with us until they are at least one. But after that…”

Miles should have known that nothing got past her. He revised the plans significantly after that. And sharing that particular exchange with Isaac had the alpha spending the rest of the evening showing both of them exactly how pleased he was with this potential future they had planned.

So yes, kids were definitely on the cards, but not right now. After all, Juno had just graduated and landed her first full time job as a junior designer/illustrator at a women-led production house. She was coming into her own, her past well and truly behind her. They were all extraordinarily proud of her.

He had a sense of déjà vu as he walked through the bare bones of the new house. Last time he built them a home he was on the cusp of a new future with Isaac. This time, he imagined the crayon that would be scribbled on the new walls. Sibling arguments and toddler tantrums overheard. Cries being quietly shushed and rocked away in the early morning hours.

But first, they had a proposal to pull off.

THE END