“I thought you were going to rip my face off, messing with your man,” Orion said, shaking his head with a smile. “But that’s not the way it was. You could have told me to fuck off, rode his cock in front of me, flaunting what you had.”
“We didn’t know what we had. We were hungry, horny, and wanted comfort,” Rhys said. “The rest came later. So much more. Come here, Orion.”
Just then, I could see how it would’ve worked, a much younger Rhys, bristling with power and wanting to use that to create something secure, something real. Orion pulled away from Brendan reluctantly, but I shifted so he could straddle Rhys’ lap.
“Alpha…”
“I have you,” Rhys assured, with all that same certainty. He was the backbone of the group, its bedrock. “I’ll always have you.” The double meaning of the words, of what that would mean for Orion and what it said about what Rhys got from the relationship, was evident. “My beautiful alpha.”
But he resisted, Orion. I could see the pull towards Rhys, but he held himself back from his lover for a second.
“My father never understood what this was, why I came home not reformed but remade. You gave me everything that I’d ever needed and more, both of you. You gave me a family. I will always love you, always do whatever it takes to keep this safe.”
“You’re gonna need to share that plan with us,” Brendan said. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”
“I just want to keep us safe, keep the wolves from our door, because they’re massing there.”
“Not now, not yet,” Rhys said. “Just shut up and kiss me. I fucking need you.”
They wouldn’t have wanted me to pull away, but I couldn’t stop myself. Not because I felt outside of all of this, but because it all felt too close. I’d seen plenty of evidence of their bond, eternally fascinated by it, but I wasn’t lurking behind a bush anymore. I was here, watching them eat each other’s mouths, Brendan, Rhys, and Orion, in their need to consume the other. But once I was up and off the couch, James’ eyes followed me as I drew closer, looking down at the drawings he’d created.
They were blocky, rough, more gesture studies than anything, though some showed me the sharp line of Orion’s jaw, the full curve of Brendan’s lips. And the strength in Rhys, putting his arm around us, sheltering us with his body, but it went further than that. Any strength he had, physical, mental, emotional, was ours. He was a sure hand helping me through my frenzy, a calm piece of advice to help the others negotiate life with an omega, a growly assertion that I was his. This was how he’d created this little band, by giving all he had to them, so you couldn’t help but return the gesture. My skin felt too hot, too tight, my wrist wiping across my brow, and James noted that.
“You’re tipping over…into heat?”
What happened next was all instinct. His pupils blew wide, all his artistic distance dissolving, just like that, because that was the problem with alphas and omegas, why there were so many more rules for us than betas. What we built, that human persona, was created on a shaky foundation that could be yanked out from under you in seconds.
When James’ hand shot out, collaring my wrist, I knew it wasn’t him that was doing it—it was the alpha. He scented an unmarked, receptive omega, and his instincts told him to claim me as his.
But so did theirs.
“Get your fucking hand off the omega,” Rhys growled out, moving way too fast for a man his size, Brendan and Orion at his sides.
“Mine!” James’ snarled, hauling me in close, but a hand went to the back of Brendan’s waistband, his gun in his hand, cocked and loaded. The cool of the muzzle pushed against the skin of Chadwick’s temple managed to dissipate the fog, if only a little.
“Get your fucking hands off Cyn.” Brendan didn’t pull the alpha shit often, but he could, his deep voice vibrating with menace. “Or I’ll splatter that too smart brain of yours all over your pretty artworks.”
“Come here, sweetheart,” Rhys said gently, the vibration in his voice letting me know the effort it cost him. He held back his command, the part of him that sized up the situation and knew exactly how he wanted it to go. But he held out his hand rather than grabbing me, putting it out there for me to take.
I couldn’t have understood the other men more now if I tried. Taking Rhys’ hand when you felt scared, overwhelmed, and dazed, it was like a lifeline of strength, right when you needed it. My hand slapped down in his, and he yanked me close, holding me tight, a low rumbling purr designed to settle me, when the phone rang.
Orion fished it out, answering it with a snap. “What?” Silence followed as James struggled to pull himself together, his lips peeling back in a snarl every time his focus slipped. “We’ve got her. She’s come into heat. I know. Rhys has her. We’re coming home now, but we need to take this slowly. What?” I watched him frown, then glance at me. “You stupid fuck… Sometimes you need to—Fine.”
“Marcus,” Orion said by way of explanation. “We have to get her home, stat, and into the playroom.”
“The playroom?” Rhys’ voice was a perfect contradiction of growly alpha, delighted at the idea, and concerned lover. “Jesus…”
“It might work. It could put her in control, if she wants that.” I whined as I felt Orion’s eyes on me, clouded with every breath he took of me, but he fought for clarity. “Or it could give us a structure to take it.”
“If she consents,” Rhys said.
“You want that, don’t you, omega?” Brendan purred, turning from James and putting the safety on before tucking the gun back in his pants. “You want us to take control of your pleasure. We’ll give you everything if you just give us that. This is the power exchange between alphas and omegas. You’ll have everything you could fucking want, if you’d just give us that.”
“Yes.”
They called me omega during times like this, because that wa
s who was in the driver’s seat. I wasn’t Cyn, Cynthia Rhodes, Miranda Rhodes’ daughter. I was just a pair of eyes watching them shift closer like beautiful wild animals, golden in the sunlight, just as they were back in the forest, and just like then, my slick came in, drenching my clothes. I hadn’t reached for them then because I didn’t even know how to, but I did now. My hand shook as I held it out, but not for long.