Page 13

Arrow stops. He turns to Striker. “Can you bark me free?”

Striker shrugs. “I don’t know. Sometimes, I can.”

“I tried to kill her,” says Arrow. “I can’t sit here in the afterglow, feeling her perfect pussy gripping me and—” He looks at Knight. “Andyou.”

Knight puts his mouth back on Arrow’s neck. “Shush.” He starts to lick again.

“So, the bite made you try to kill her?” says Striker.

“Bark,” says Arrow.

Striker huffs and then he nods. “Deflate,” he says.

Nothing happens.

Arrow groans. “Oh, fuck, Lotus, I—”

“It’s not the first time,” I snap at him. “Anyway, I know it’s not your fault.”

“So, who’s fault is it?”

“Hers,” I snarl, and that ripples through all of us the same way Striker’s voice did, and all three of them turn in the direction of the door to the basement, heads up, eyes focused, looking like dangerous birds of prey ready to fly off and do my bidding, rip Dr. Acker to goddamned shreds.

I want it, and I feel I could send them down after her, that they would obey me.

We all are charged with it for several minutes and then I let out a breath, and the air in the room changes, like the passing of a storm.

They all come for me, leaning in and kissing me wherever they can kiss, and I reach up and stroke their faces and their hair, soothing them. My chest vibrates, and I purr, and they purr back, and that goes on for several long moments.

Part of me is a little freaked out when we get like this. Animal. Designation. Instinct.

But the purring is soothing, and we all relax.

Arrow submits to Knight’s tongue again, sighing. Knight licks long stripes up Arrow’s neck, still purring. Arrow speaks, his voice subdued. “It was blood.”

“What was?” says Striker, who’s voice is different now, also subdued.

“I thought that I was going to sink my teeth in her and that I would taste her blood.”

In spite of myself, I purr at that.Want him to taste me,I think.

“I remembered the way it tastes, omega blood,” says Arrow. “And then, it was like she was in my head. Acker was. Like I wasn’t even here, like I was back in Cedar Falls, and she was calling me her good boy and petting me like a dog, and I just—” He grimaces.

“The way omega blood tastes,” says Striker in a guttural voice, and a shudder goes through him.

I put my hand on his forearm, steadying him.

He turns to me. “I’m all right.”

I give him a nod.

Knight speaks up. “When I was getting lube to take Arrow’s cherry, I saw that there’s some stuff in the bathroom, salve and things. Get that to rub into her neck, Striker.”

Striker crawls out of the nest. “Arrow’s cherry, huh?”

Arrow blushes and his scent rises, but it smells rich and sweet and good.

“Yeah, so you bit Arrow?” Striker leaves the room, going into the bathroom, but his voice carries. “I remember that Calix said we could bite each other and that it would scar up like an alpha bite, but this seems like more than a scar.”