“Fuck…” I croaked out as everything started to go dark. “That’s hot.”
I slept then, for at least a few hours, because that was how frenzies went—swift storms that blew in, then out again, unless they were invited to stay. I’d have to offer one or more of them my neck, let them pierce my skin, making me theirs forever, for it to last. It would become a heat, the near mythical mating madness that would make food, water, sleep, and oxygen irrelevant. I snuggled down closer in the mass of masculine bodies at the thought of that. And for a while, there was peace.
Sometime later, I woke up feeling hot, sticky, and dying for a pee, so I wriggled out from under the bodies and padded over to the en suite.
“Jesus!” I jumped when I saw Marcus in the doorway, watching me as I walked over to the sink to wash my hands. “What do you want, Marcus? You scared the shit out of me.”
He walked up behind me, a dissolute Renaissance angel, wrapping his hand around my throat and tilting my jaw back, so my eyes met his in the reflection.
“They always want me,” mirror Marcus said, shifting slowly, sinuously like a snake. “It sounds fucking arrogant, but it’s always true. Man, woman, beta, omega. Some think they want my Orion, my Rhys, or my Brendan, but when they meet me, that shifts.” His hand shifted, tracing the column of my neck. “She told me she didn’t, that day in the forest. Kristy or Kirstie, I can’t remember her name. She told me she wanted my boys because she thought that’s what I wanted to hear. And I did.”
I shivered as his teeth grazed the tip of my ear, then his mouth trailed down the side of my face.
“But you, you don’t tell me anything, eyes full of my boys, getting your little panties wet for them.”
I gasped, going up on tiptoes as his fingers dragged through my seam, collecting Orion’s cum and my slick on the tips. He shoved the three of them into his mouth, his eyes going heavily lidded as he sucked them clean.
“I’m sorry…”
“Oh, don’t be.” His smile was as light and golden as the sun, his fingers clawing at the collar I still wore, the smile faltering a little when he couldn’t get the strands to part far enough. “I’ve looked for an omega for my pack for so fucking long, saw their hearts break, saw small pieces of them chipped off over and over by the process.”
“Jean?” I asked.
“Jean was the latest, supposed to be the last.”
When he smiled down at me, there was so
mething possessive and so bloody hot about it.
“I see everything coming. Orion always growls at me for my hubris, but it’s true. I see his father’s bullshit, the little factions he grew up with, our customers and associates. I see their deals and betrayals, I see their bullshit little agendas every time, and I plan for every single one. But you?”
When we stared at each other in the mirror, all smiles faded. It was as if we were strangers, so we studied each other in detail.
“I didn’t see you in the forest that day. They did, going on and on about this girl and her scent. But I see you now.” A finger went under my collar, pulling one of the strands of pearls so far, the string holding them together began to strain. “Rhys will never say anything, wanting you to find your way to him. Brendan will follow on your heels like a little puppy, then order you to strip naked so he can lick you clean. Orion has his own baroque little plans, will try to stick to them as everything inside him screams for you, but me?”
He let go of the pearls, depositing a gentle kiss on the side of my face, then wrapping his arms around me tight before delivering his final blow. He pressed his nose into my hair and breathed me in as his eyes fell closed.
“I’ll give you a week, omega, to make the right choice, to choose us. I’ll personally make it my life’s mission to keep you deliriously happy, because that’s all I want—them, you, this. If at the end of the week, you tell me no, clean and clear, I’ll make sure you get out of here in one piece and go back to your odd little life on the edge of the forest.” Then his eyes flicked open, shining now with an unearthly light. “But if you run? Because this is too much, because we’re too much, because whatever strange seed took root in you that day grows into something you can’t handle? I’ll come for you. I’ll hunt you down, drag you back to my lair, and throw you to my mates to devour until you fucking see what’s right.”
My heart hammered in my ears, the sound of his voice the only thing getting through.
“Yeah?” I snapped, watching his pupils blow wide, his smile wider as I turned around. I tangled my fingers in that mop of golden hair. “Then get down on your knees and lick me clean of Orion’s cum. Then replace it with your own.”
“Oh, princess, nothing would make me happier.”
Chapter 20
“I want to go to James Chadwick’s studio,” I said, lying on the bed.
Days had passed. I’d spoken to Mum, let her know what was going down, and she was strangely cool with it all. That didn’t make sense, but every time I went to question why she was being so accepting, they guys would drag me back down to the bed, to the oblivion of their arms.
“And Chadwick wants to fuck your arse,” Orion said, walking his fingers down my spine. “And your pussy. He might look all hipster cool, but he’s an alpha under the wanker exterior. It’s what he wants.”
“It’s what we all want,” Brendan said, moving behind me, raising my hips and biting my butt cheek, making me thrash underneath him. “You smell so fucking good. Like honey and fresh cooked biscuits and—”
“Stop comparing me to baked goods,” I said, kicking out at him and then pulling away. “He’s my favourite artist. I’ve been fangirling over him since I discovered his work. I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d get this opportunity, and I want to go. I’ll take suppressants.”
“You’ll take the boys is what you’ll do,” Marcus said, emerging from the bathroom freshly showered and fastening the buttons of his shirt. “Or better yet, just take them. Over and over.” He walked over, looking down at the four of us with a disturbing look of smiling possessiveness. “Wring every pleasure you can from them. Watch Brendan seat himself on Rhys’ dick, splitting him in half as his cock oozes pre-cum.”