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“Congratulations,” he said, in that kind, reserved voice he always seemed to use with us. “I’m so happy for you both.” A glint of humor entered his gaze. “Now get a good night’s sleep and come back to work tomorrow. Heaven help me, I’ve left Byron in charge of the place.”
And...Byron.
Because... yeah. Byron was another thing entirely.
I wasn’t sure if he’d taken the reins at the Hope Project today because Zalen asked him to, or because he didn’t want to support my mating with Luca by being here at the clinic. It wasn’t until we’d all driven back to the house that eveningthat he finally acknowledged it, with a brittle smile and congratulations delivered in a monotone.
Luca’s uncertainty stabbed at me like a knife, but he didn’t press the issue—just gave his own brittle smile in return and excused himself for a shower. I went up to my room to get changed, and it wasn’t a huge surprise when Byron followed me up. I turned, waiting to see how bad this confrontation would be.
“Well,” Byron said, venom creeping into his tone. “I didn’t realize until too late that you and I were in a competition for him, but congratulations on winning it, I guess.”
“You got something to say, go ahead and say it plain,” I told him.
Byron bared his teeth. I doubted he even realized he was doing it, because it was so far from his usual cool mask of indifference.
“Are you planning on barring him from my bedroom, now that you’ve put your mark on him?” he demanded.
God, I’d wanted to do this so many times over the years, and I’d never let myself before. I pushed into Byron’s space, backing him up against the wall with my greater bulk and dominance. It felt way too good to see the spark of alarm in his gray eyes.
“The omegas in this pack do whatever the fuck they want,” I told him, not raising my voice. “You want to make Luca feel good? Great, knock yourself out. You want to make Luca feel bad for mating me first, instead of you?” I put a hand around Byron’s throat, not squeezing, but feeling his pulse thrumming rabbit-fast beneath my fingers. “Then you and I are gonna have aproblem. And I’ll know if he’s upset. Don’t think I won’t.”
Byron swallowed hard. I let him go.
“If you think I want to see Luca hurt, you don’t know me at all,” he growled.
That night, Luca slept with me in my room. The next night, I slept in his nest with him and Mia and Nat, when she got off work at the restaurant.
The third night, Luca took me aside.
“I want to try something,” he said. “Will you let Mia handcuff you to the bed tonight, while I go spend time with Byron, and maybe Nat? Because I’m worried that Byron thinks I don’t want him anymore.”
I’d known this would be coming eventually. For some reason, it wasn’t as hard as I’d thought it might be. I drew breath to say yes, but Luca wasn’t finished yet.
“Also, there’s the small matter that we’ll be able to feel each other getting off now. Could be fun, right?”
I pictured Mia riding my cock while Luca was having sex with someone else, each of us able to feel every moment of what the other was doing. My breath caught.
“Yeah,” I managed.
It turned out, Byron wanted to make Luca feel really,reallygood. Not just once, but four times. Almost five. None of us got much sleep that night... but hey, that was what coffee was for, right?
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Luca