Page 40 of The Pack Next Door (The Wolfverse #4)

Mads

I wondered how the hell Briar survived her heats before now, and I think I had an answer.

Strong emotion, particularly fear, seemed to squash it all down.

Dinner was likely to be an awkward affair if she started perfuming midway.

The betas wouldn’t notice, but they would notice our reaction.

Instead, the sharp, sharp scent of roses, flavoured with an almost acidic aftertaste, filled the room, and our omega didn’t fidget once.

Maybe that’s why my arm shot out now.

Hooking her around the waist, dragging her back against me, I wanted to see if I could still provoke a reaction or if all of this was just some kind of fever dream.

Yep.

As I dragged my nose along her neck, feeling her whole body shudder, vanilla and roses filled my nose in turn.

“We need to take this inside.”

Gideon ground out the words, his eyes burning brighter, right as he plucked Briar from my grip and dragged her into the guest house. Pretty, open windows, spectacular view of the hills beyond, I barely registered the place we would be staying, focussed only on her.

“Don’t want the betas seeing what we’re about to do to our mate?” Jace asked, shooting her a sly grin. “Makes sense. If that old bastard tries to do what we intend?—”

“Intend.” Briar shoved herself away from Gideon, standing within the loose semi-circle we created. “What exactly do you think is going to happen?”

“What you want.” People always cursed me for being blunt, but why pussyfoot around it? “Briar, you know how this is going to go. We’ve managed to buy you some time before the heat hits you hard again, but that’s because you had all of our seed in you.”

I took a slow step forward, and she held her ground. Interesting.

“You’re going to need more and more frequent… application, until your heat breaks.”

“It might be over now.” Her voice was too squeaky to be convincing. “You don’t know.”

“Betas don’t know.” Gideon came to stand behind her, wrapping her hair around her fist, then using that to tilt her mouth up to meet his. “We do.” His fingers traced the line of her throat and we all saw the way she shook. “The need is hitting you hard.”

“Not for much longer.”

She bit those words off, and that tracked. A heat always culminated in a form of mindless mating, the biological need to breed riding every member of a pack, but some omegas fought it. We’d been educated about that. How to settle her, allowing her space to accept the reality.

“But right now.” The feel of her dress felt wrong under my palm as I slid it down her stomach.

I wanted the satin of her skin, not cotton.

“You do.” As I rubbed small circles low on her pelvis, she let out a thin whine.

“If I peel this dress off, I’ll find your breasts all heavy and swollen, right? ”

“Your underwear is soaked.” Gideon gazed down at her. “I can smell it.”

“And I need to taste it.” Jace fell down on his knees before her, shoving her dress up and then pressing his head between her legs, not even bothering to get her underwear all the way off before going to work.

“Yes…!” she gasped, her true nature asserting itself. Her fingers grabbed at his hair, as if scared he’d pull away. I pulled her dress up and over her head, revealing her glorious nakedness to the whole room as Gideon snapped her bra clasp open.

“That’s it, omega.” I scooped her up in my arms, presenting her to my brother, thighs forced wide, and he accepted the gift as its due. With her head lolling on my shoulder, panting out her pleasure, I placed kiss after kiss on her neck. “Take every bit of pleasure you’re due.”

The way she guided Jace right back where he was, her hips bucking up to meet him was just perfect.

“And what about you, brother?”

I knew I was taunting Gideon, something I always did, but this time with purpose.

He was holding himself back and that wasn’t the way it worked.

The conversation at Tom’s table? Briar spoke with more passion about the pottery than she had anything to do with Moon River.

This was not an omega who wanted to run a town, becoming the softer, gentler face of alpha authority.

Just like omegas ran PTA meetings and charity drives, our mate was a boss babe.

Well, I’d hand carry every damn vase, pot, and bowl Tom made from here to the city if that’s what it took to make Briar happy.

I just needed Gideon to wake the fuck up and do the same thing.

“You going to give our omega what she needs?” I asked.

“You need me?” One ponderous step, then another, Gideon didn’t answer me, but Briar.

Her eyes opened a crack, and she stared into my brother’s eyes.

His hand rose, inexorably drawn to her. He didn’t feel the way her whole body jolted as his fingertips hit her chest, but he had to see the way she arched up into his touch as they trailed down, coming to a point around her nipple. “I need an answer, omega.”

“Yes…” she gasped as he pulled the sensitive point so her breast was forced to stretch. “Yes, Gideon, I?—”

He didn’t let her say much more. Lips slammed down on hers, his breath coming in whistles as he plundered her mouth, which left me to my own devices.

With one hand, I shoved my shorts down, juggling my grip on Briar’s butt before settling my cock in the crease.

I’d never try to push myself inside her, but the soft slip of her skin on my shaft had me gritting my teeth.

Pre-cum spilled out, making each pass easier, friction giving away to a delicious slip of sensation.

“Keep going,” I growled at Jace when Briar stiffened.

He licked her through one orgasm and straight into the next. It was damn lucky we didn’t stay in the main house, because there was no hiding this. Her sobbing cries of pleasure, getting higher and higher, right before another wracking wave shook her whole body.

What were we up to? Three, maybe four orgasms?

I didn’t know, just that she needed more.

Jace pulled away, flush-faced and silver-eyed, before wiping his mouth and licking it clean.

Standing up, he shoved his shorts down, then slapped his cock against her cunt.

That jump had me glaring at him, but he just grinned as she hauled him closer.

“Want to breed this hot little pussy…” When he rubbed the head of his cock around her entrance, I knew exactly how he felt. That same need rode me hard too. “It’d feel like heaven, forcing you to take my knot.”

“But you won’t.” Gideon’s voice was a sharp snap as he pulled his mouth free of Briar’s breast. “Bad enough you’re rubbing your seed into her. Birth control is?—.”

“Not an issue.” Briar’s hand shot out, dragging Jace closer, and his eyes went wide. “So give me what you’ve got.”

“Don’t you fucking dare.”

Gideon and I looked at each other in shock, having said that at the same time.

“Trying really fucking hard not to…” Jace groaned, “but the heads in.”

When his hips flexed to push himself deeper, Gideon hauled Jace backwards, replacing him in seconds. His cock was out, rubbing against our omega’s clit in small circles.

“You want to be knotted?” There was a harsh snap to his voice. “You won’t be able to get up in the morning, if you just say yes.”

“Yes…?”

Briar blinked, the omega shoved to one side as the woman reasserted herself.

“Yes, to becoming ours. Yes, to the mate bond.” He spoke of the greatest day of our lives with a grim sort of determination. “Yes, to becoming mine.”

She couldn’t answer, the two of us moving in tandem now, grinding against our mate but not into her. Jace’s hand moved, working his shaft, ready to give Briar whatever she needed to get through this.

“I…”

Had I ever hung on anyone’s words like this before? If I did, I couldn’t remember it. My lips peeled back, my fangs bared, ready to strike. I’d plunge them into her neck, forging the bond in an instant if she gave us her answer.

But that wasn’t right, was it?

We were still hammering out the way this would work, and that took time. Discussions with cool heads, not overheated instincts. Because they would desert us, leaving just three people to make sense of the mess they’d created.

“I can’t!”

She wailed that out as she came on his cock, Gideon, all of us, erupting second after. I thrust and thrust, rubbing through the mess, working it into her skin, and my brothers did the same.

Which was enough to break the spell we were all under.

Lights were on, broadcasting everything we were doing to the entire property beyond.

Thankfully, there were only sheep out there, but still.

Then there were her words. Like a knife plunged into my chest, they twisted, making clear how bad things were.

Bleeding out all over the floor, that was what I was doing.

But rather than say that, I pressed a gentle kiss to her neck and then set Briar down, stepping back.

“I said I don’t want to become the next ruling omega,” she said, “and I meant it.” There was something harried about her tone. “That’s not the life for me. Help you become ruling pack, that was the deal. I’ll honour my side of it…”

But would we do the same? That went unspoken.

Not me. Getting away from the town, our parents?

The cool country air did more to clear my head than anything else.

If Gideon and Jace wanted it, I’d participate in the trial, but no more than that.

When Briar went, I’d go with her, and leave them to work out how to hold the town between the two of them.

“Whatever you need, o…” I smiled as I caught myself. “Briar. You know that.”

But she didn’t. Even I could see I was just a stranger that fate had shoved into her path, waiting to see how she’d respond.

Briar would though, I was certain of it.

The dads had trained us to pursue a goal single-mindedly, and right now I could feel an almost tangible shift, setting her square in my sights.

“And in theory…” Jace rubbed his seed into the skin of her stomach. “You should be good for a while. With several… applications today, it should hopefully hold you for tonight.”

“And tomorrow?” She stepped free of us, grabbing her dress and pulling it over her head.

“My intention was to stay here for the day. I don’t get to come up here often, and I still need to sit down with Tom to work out what to do next.

” Worries were piling up on her shoulders, and right then I wasn’t above offering to replace every single one of the old prick’s fences if it meant he’d make more pots for Briar. “If there’s a way forward.”

“We need to sleep on it,” Gideon announced before tugging his shirt up and over his head. “Which we can do outside.”

“There’s no need.” Briar sounded impossibly tired.

Resigned, even. I watched her stumble towards the bed, wanting to sweep her off her feet and carry her, but when she was clearheaded, that’s when everything got weird.

Our lack of knowledge about each other felt like an insurmountable abyss that was only bridged by her hormones.

“It’s a big bed and…” She yawned so hard her jaw cracked.

“All I’m going to do is sleep. If you’re out there, my wolf is just as likely to take control and force me to sleep beside you. ”

Because half of her knew where she belonged.

I kept that to myself as I got under the shower, scrubbing myself clean. Anything to get me in bed, settling into the soft mattress and her.

“You don’t have to snuggle me…” Briar was almost asleep, the moon casting long shadows across her face. “There’s more than enough space.”

“What if I want to?” I peered over her shoulder, waiting for an answer, but only got a long whistling breath in reply.