“My omega. My Cyn.”
And there it was, the perfect response. Just four words delivered in a tone so completely sincere, it felt almost intrusive to hear it. I reached up, studying his face, searching for every little micro expression to tell me what those words meant, but I knew really, because an answering feeling rose in me. They called it omega love, a seemingly fickle, fleeting thing brought on by cascades of dopamine and oxytocin that never lasted beyond a heat, not unless the couple spent some time and energy building that relationship.
Right now, it didn’t feel fickle. I traced the broad planes of his face, the hollows of his cheekbones, the strong decline of his nose, complete with a bump on the bridge where it had probably been broken. I pushed the sweep of sandy hair back from his face because it felt like feathers between my fingers and because I needed to see him, all of him. And those eyes, always an eerie pale blue, I watched the icy depths melt so completely, I melted along with them.
“Cyn…”
There was something intense, desperate there, and while his cock moved in small motions inside me, making my eyes feel the need to roll backwards, that wasn’t it. Or rather, it was just a symptom of this.
“He wants to mate you,” Marcus said, crouching down beside us, Orion joining him. But Marcus knew exactly what was going on, a reverent expression tinged with melancholy on his face as Orion stared, wide-eyed. “I think he’s always wanted to mate you. He went wandering off into the forest, trying to track your scent. You’d walked through a couple of streams, killing off your trail, but it didn’t stop him from searching.”
He looked down at his hands as he continued to speak.
“It feels inevitable, when he reaches out to you. Like you’ve been waiting for this for your whole life, and there he is. He’s like a planet and we’re his moons, sucked into his orbit by forces you can’t fight.”
His eyes met mine, his gaze so intense, it felt almost tangible.
“Don’t fight it, Cyn, not if this is what you want. You don’t have to take us as mates.” A small rustle of movement from Orion. “You don’t have to become our omega, if that’s what holds you back. If you want him like he wants you, don’t put us in the way of that.”
“But you said—” Brendan started to say.
“I feel his fucking pain like a knife in my heart, and I can’t bear it.”
When Marcus’ hazel eyes met mine, I felt like I was seeing him for the first time. No catlike smiles and wheels within wheels, for just a moment, he had surrendered too. To his bond with his mate.
“You can do this, big guy, with our blessing.”
Rhys’ eyes rolled closed when Marcus’ hand landed on his shoulder, just rubbing a couple of small circles there before pulling away. When his eyes opened again, Rhys’ focus was on me.
“Cyn.”
Deeper, more resonant now, his voice felt like it vibrated through me. His movements became longer, his cock moving in and out as far as the knot would allow, but the downstroke destroyed me. My cunt sucked at his knot, holding it fast, gripping him with everything I had, and his pull against it created the most delicious of stretches.
“Cyn.”
My spine lengthened, my body sinuous and catlike with pleasure, but this was so much more than that. I’d never made love, had barely had sex by omega standards. The betas I’d been with had been a source of curiosity for the both of us, each wondering what the big deal was about the other. But not now. I was a big fucking deal. Rhys looked at me like I was his whole fucking world right now, even with his three other mates in the room.
Other mates.
“Cyn, baby, this is it. Not if you don’t want it to, not if you’re not ready, but…” His face was mobile, his expression a dizzying montage of pain, need, pleasure, and lastly, love. “I think you are. Now, Cyn.”
His voice grew ragged from the effort it took to hold himself back, but he would. He would keep doing so through heat after heat until I said yes, even if I never said yes. I didn’t know Rhys, my human mind insisted, but I wasn’t human, not really. I wasn’t a beta to be wooed and slowly wind myself around a person through a thousand moments, conversations, gestures. I
was an omega.
His omega.
I saw exactly why each man had been drawn to him, because there was something about Rhys that you just wanted to fall into, spinning and spinning in his endless depths, knowing he’d always catch you.
When I closed my eyes, when I stretched my neck out, when I bared it to him, I saw that bear tattoo of his I’d seen that day.
“Now,” I agreed.
It wasn’t precisely that moment. He worked his cock until I was delirious with ecstasy again, the other men moving in, stroking my arms, my torso, mumbling soft words of encouragement as we moved. So when his teeth found my throat, when I felt the prick of his fangs in my flesh, it carried with it that same sharp stab of pleasure-pain that throbbed inside me. But when his jaws locked down, when my hips jerked up, sheathing him deep, when my cunt snapped down, there was only this.
I couldn’t describe it really. Imagine that really intense moment of pleasure, the absolute peak of an orgasm, or the sharp mind-blowing blast when something amazing happens out of the blue, and then weave all those moments together into something so much bigger and stronger, so much so, it dwarfed everything else going forward. When my eyes snapped open, when I searched the room for some sort of clue as to what the hell this was, they met them, Orion, Marcus, and Brendan, nodding in perfect agreement, because they knew what it meant, what I’d just become. I’d joined their number, and they were witnesses to this life-changing event.
Coming was almost an afterthought, his seed jetting into me, my cunt wringing every drop out, forcing his knot to deflate and pull free, but he didn’t. I was swept up into his arms, held so fucking tightly until I reached up and touched his cheek, capturing the small glistening crystal of a tear on my fingertip and holding it up the light.