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Calix leaves.

I’m still in a rut. I have an erection and a knot, but I’m capable of ignoring this fact as I warm up food and go in to wake both Knight and Arrow to come and eat. We all stand at the counter in the kitchen area, butt-naked, holding the food, eating standing up, our cocks sticking straight out.

It’s vaguely ridiculous and also kind of hot.

But it also seems like I could get used to it, like it could just become normal.

Calix comes back. He’s dressed, but if he registers our nudity, he doesn’t react to it, and we don’t react to his clothes. He shovels food into his mouth and says that we really have no idea how long this heat might last.

Arrow speaks up. “Coltrain seemed to think that maybe we might be able to break it faster than betas.”

Calix considers. “That might make sense, but it doesn’t seem to be the way it works.”

“But,” says Knight, “heat breaks faster with more sexual partners.”

“Says who?” says Calix with a shrug.

Knight rubs his forehead, thinking about it. “Well, I guess I thought that because I witnessed someone at the Cedar Falls front desk upselling an omega when I was here to get Dr. Acker. I don’t know if she was just saying it to get more money or not.”

“But it would makes sense,” I say. “Why else do the omegas in the Polloi mate with so many alphas?”

“Well, because alphas are a status symbol and because omegas like being the center of attention,” says Calix, waving that away.

“Oh, come on, Lotus isn’t like that,” says Arrow.

“I think,” I say, “if we want to break her heat, we need to be all connected.”

“You mean, we need to embrace anal,” says Calix, raising his eyebrows at me. He sets down his food and starts examining my cock.

I let him, because I feel that it’s not sexual. He’s looking at the damage. I bite down on my lip.

“Turn around?” he says to me.

I sigh. “Yeah, okay, I’m still sore.”

“You want a knot in there again?” he says to me.

“If there’s lube…” I swallow. “More lube than last time, anyway?”

But everyone gets very interested in their food, and none of us say anything.

“She wouldn’t want us to,” says Arrow, finally. “Not if we’re not up for it.”

“It’s different right now,” says Knight. “She’s… she needs us. I’m the one who woke up with her. She was a little bit pitiful, and it made me feel, I don’t know, it’s different. But if we think we should go for it, I can take it. Knot the fuck out of my ass. I don’t care. If she needs it—”

“Stop,” says Calix, shaking his head at Knight. “Let’s not do that with each other. That’s the last thing we need, all of us competing over who can suffer the most for our omega.”

“We have to break her heat,” I say. “And we’re all tired, and if we do it quicker—”

“Her heat will break regardless,” says Calix. “It’s not as if, you leave an omega out all by herself that she just stays in heat forever and ever. Heat always ends.”

We all draw back, staring at him, and I feel our collective horror at this statement through the bond.

Calix sets down his food on the counter, scratching the back of his head. He sighs heavily and noisily.

“We would never leave her to get through her heat without help,” I growl at him. “Iwould never do that, anyway. Ifyouwant out of this thing, Calix—”

“None of us had a fucking choice, did we?” he says, and there’s real agony in his voice. “No one asked me what I wanted.” He points at the rest of us. “And no one asked you guys either. You’re just fine with it? Life-bonded to each other and her without even getting to know each other first? No chance to go back to your old lives? Chased and overtaken and forced into violence again and again? If I want out of this thing, what? Let’sbe real. There’s no getting out.” He picks up his food and stalks away, going into the living room area and leaving the rest of us there to gaze into his wake.