Page 7

“Again, kitten. You can’t hesitate. Give me everything you’ve got—I can take it.”

Gideon pulls Nix to his feet and takes two steps back. He braces, and Nix throws his shoulders back with a nod.

But where Gideon had expected a moment where Nix prepares, instead, he gets tackled to the floor on his back. Both hands dig into Gideon’s sides in good, solid hits. The move is intended to be made with claws out, which will result in Nix’s opponent’s entrails on the floor.

He executes it flawlessly and is standing six feet away in the blink of an eye.

They’d been practicing for almost three hours, and, by Gideon’s estimation, that should be enough to disembowel Dawson Hayes. Short and oh-so-sweet . They’d practiced so many ways Nix could end this—and several counterattack combinations, too.

But this take-down move had been the hardest for Nix. “Fuck, if he grabs me like that, I’m going to freak out. It’s ingrained in me. He ingrained it in me.”

So they’d made this the new muscle memory. Gideon had pushed, and Nix had gotten faster and faster. Take the tackle on his terms—with claws and teeth out. Rip and tear, and then get the hell out.

Gideon hopes it’s a last resort. He wants Nix on offense, to use his speed up front before Hayes can get his measure—because Hayes may be a glorified office worker, but his team will no doubt make sure Hayes has some training of his own once they’ve had warning .

To Gideon’s shock and awe, Nix has taken to combat like a duck to water, and it’s horrifying to realize that his sweet sunshine would make an excellent killer. In some other universe, Nix Rena is a hired killer, or a super spy, or a warrior on a field of battle.

When he’s not scared of hurting anyone, he anticipates Gideon’s every move.

“Okay, kitten. Let this old man rest. That was…” Scary-good. “Adequate.”

Nix has him pinned in an instant while Gideon laughs.

“What you meant to say is, ‘Kitten, you are so good. ’ Right?”

Nix digs his fingers into Gideon’s ribs. His giggle bursts out—light, delighted, and wicked.

“Yes. Yes. Kitten is good. Kitten is purrrrrfect.”

He rolls Nix over, and Gideon can’t believe how beautiful he is. When he’s free and happy, he’s irresistible.

But, alas, Gideon must resist.

He leans in for a kiss, and his omega’s pupils blow wide, sweet sugary vanilla blooming between them. But before he can connect, Gideon says softly, “Kitten better get his cute butt out to the kitchen. We have that birthday surprise for Jay to prepare.”

Instead of his lips, Gideon lands a kiss on Nix’s cute nose instead.

Nix climbs to his feet with the cutest pout. “You’re a terrible tease.”

“Nix, this was your idea. Come on, up you go.”

Nix climbs onto his back, and Gideon has a tiny regret that he didn’t forgo the party preparations for a bit of frottage on the gym floor. With his hands supporting his butt, Gideon can feel that Nix is wet through the fabric, so he pulls him around to the front to make it easier to press his fingers into the rear-seam of his pants.

But Nix is having none of it.

“Nope. You had your chance, mister. Could have had me ass-up on the gym floor, all wet and ready, and you said, ‘No, thank you, Nix, I have better things to do.’ ”

Nix boops him on the nose, jumps off, and scampers away. It’s not quite a run, but Gideon stops at the entrance to the living room just in case his wolf gets any ideas about running him down.

Gideon watches as Nix slips out the side door, running across the yard to where Finn is sitting with his cup of coffee beside Grayson on the rose bench. He sits down side-ways on Finn’s lap and slurps his coffee, only to make a disgusted, scrunched-up face.

Why he thinks it’s going to taste different every single time, Gideon will never know.

Instead, he grabs a bowl of sliced fruit and water for an after-training snack and carries it out.

He quickly figures out that whatever is happening in the yard must involve the dog and Rowan, and that is always interesting.

The dog is, bar none, the ugliest dog Gideon has ever seen in his entire life. That’s not just because he is, most assuredly, a cat person. No, it’s because she is gray and furry, with one ear that flops up while the other hangs down—and they are never the same from one moment to the next.

Her eyes are close together, almost like a person’s, and her legs are gangly with feet the size of saucers.

But there is something much worse than her decidedly odd physical attributes.

The worst thing about the dog is that she likes him— loves him, even.

In the past twenty-four hours, she has dragged Gideon’s clothes, his shoes, the book he’s been trying to finish for the past month, and one of Luca’s toys from Gideon’s room down the stairs and into her dog bed.

He is sure he has closed his bedroom door every single time, and he’s come to suspect Rowan or Finn are facilitating the culprit— the little shits .

Gideon slides the glass door open to the deck, and in the next instant, he is holding his mate’s snacks high in the air.

“Dammit, dog. No. Not for you. Stop licking me. Kitten! Call your dog,” he yells.

Nix just whistles, and with a last lick, the dog gallops off to chase the tennis ball Grayson is throwing to entertain her…and Rowan.

When Grayson throws the ball, Rowan is right behind the dog, leaping and—most times—losing out on the prize .

Gideon’s mate is playing fetch—and losing to a puppy.

He watches as Rowan is shoulder-checked by the leaping dog, taking them both to the ground. Rowan growls low, under his breath, but Gideon can still hear it from forty feet away.

She wrangles the ball away from him as he wrestles with her—rolling over and over, tucking her into his arms with a laugh. Rowan lets the dog win—on purpose, probably—and flops onto the grass with a grin.

Nix howls with glee from his spot on Finn’s lap, clapping and cheering the dog on, trash-talking Rowan in the sweetest of ways.

Putting his empty cup on the ground, Finn holds Nix with both hands, nose pressed between his shoulder blades.

Rowan must have won at some point because instead of throwing the ball from across the lawn, he runs over to drop it into Grayson’s hand.

Only then does he run out and wait with the dog for Grayson to throw it again.

Settling on the grass at Nix’s feet, Gideon chuckles. “He knows he can just throw it back to you, right?”

Grayson nods with a sexy smirk. “You’d think so, but we haven’t told him. He’s such a good boy, though, don’t you think?”

“Turns Grayson on.” Finn’s voice is muffled by the mouthful of Nix’s t-shirt. “I think we might need to add puppy play to Grayson’s list.”

“Are you projecting, Finn?” Grayson teases, accepting the ball from the dog this time.

Gideon knows Finn enjoys being a good boy , too, but wearing ears and a tail hadn’t been enough to float his boat.

“List? Puppy play?” Nix is looking at him curiously, so Gideon turns away, his back to the puppies playing in the yard.

This discussion needs his full attention and while it’s not the way he’d imagined having it—this part could be handled here as well as anywhere.

Gideon hands Nix a fork and a bowl of fruit, then twists the cap off his water.

“Thanks, Gideon. You take good care of me.”

The words are simple, but they hit Gideon in the gut—the groin as well, if he’s honest, and he always tries to be. Especially with himself.

He lets his happy rainstorm scent flow out, and Nix lifts his nose while Grayson and Finn snort simultaneously.

“Do you remember that conversation we had in the library? Just you and me?”

Gideon accepts a piece of watermelon off the end of Nix’s fork before he continues.

“That night you played with Luca and us in the living room?”

Nix shivers and sucks the juice off his bottom lip causing Finn to groan as the scent of slick grows stronger.

Grayson has stopped mid-throw, and the delay has Rowan jogging back this way as the dog wanders off toward the woods.

“I remember.”

Nix feeds Rowan—a piece of tangerine this time—and wiggles a bit on what Gideon is sure is Finn’s very hard dick.

“Do you want to talk more about what I said that night?”

He hopes the answer will be yes, please, sir.

“About BDSM? Or, um…kinks? I’m not sure about what it all means. I mean, I have heard of kinks before. But…”

He hands the bowl to Grayson and leans forward just the tiniest bit, tilting his head, eyes dark with curiosity. “Kinks like…things we like in bed?” His hands drift unconsciously, fingers rubbing slow circles over his bare thighs.

Gideon watches his kitten explore himself without even knowing it, the way his fingers twitch, the way his breath hitches.

Fuck, he’s so pretty when he’s thinking.

“It’s okay, lots of people don’t know about this stuff, and even in poly packs, they might not have an understanding beyond what their partners might like in bed.” It’s a sad truth, in Gideon’s opinion.

“Oh, but because you and Luca, um… play , you have a better idea. And because everyone plays with you sometimes, you have a—what? A list of what everyone likes?”

“Well, I would want to know what my partners like even if they didn’t play, right? Like, if you hadn’t wanted to play with me and Luca, I would still want to know what makes you feel good. Does that make sense?”

It’s the most basic of intimacy as far as Gideon is concerned, but that’s not what they’re talking about.

“We do have a very detailed list. It’s a spreadsheet, actually,” Finn says. The alpha has his nose tucked up under Nix’s ear, and the tips of his long fingers tease at the bottom of their omega’s tank top.

Gideon had been used to the old paper version, but Finn had insisted it made more sense to make it a living document—so they could add and remove kinks as they changed or tried new things. It is encrypted and uses non-identifiers, but it is thorough and lengthy.

“Oh,” Nix breathes.

Nix takes the final piece of fruit offered by Grayson and uses his hand to wipe the juice off his chin. Rowan has his head on Nix’s lap in an instant, and as soon as that hand is within reach, he’s licking the back of it.

Huh.

Maybe they should talk to their baby alpha about a tail and ears. Maybe a muzzle.

Wow—maybe Gideon’s list needs updating, too.

Nix blinks up at him, pupils wide. “Wait…do I have a list?”

Finn groans. “Holy fuck, Nix, you having a list is on my list.”

Rowan chuckles, shifting closer. “You should have a list. And we could write it while you’re spread out under us…”

Nix visibly shudders, thighs spreading over Finn’s legs so he can squeeze them around Finn’s. “Oh. Yeah…okay.”

“Angel, we want you to have a list, too. We were waiting until you were…ready.” Grayson says.

“Mmm. Do you know some things you already like?” Gideon asks tentatively. The “like” part of the list might be easier in this case than the dislikes, given Nix’s past.

“Well, I like all of you. Naked, especially. Does that count?”

Rowan laughs. “It counts for sure, and it’s good to know.” He flexes his biceps, and Nix’s mouth drops open.

Gideon can see his pink tongue, and it burns hot through his willpower to keep this conversation on track.

“I think what we mean is, is there anything extra special that you like?” Grayson asks.

Nix shifts restlessly in Finn’s lap. With his trembling thighs spread open over Finn’s, Gideon can see his slick has made a wet mess of the front of Finn’s pants.

He lets his mind wander to pulling Nix’s shorts down, unzipping Finn right out here in the open, and sliding Nix down on Finn’s cock.

“Gideon?” Nix is looking at him strangely.

Grayson whispers, “You’re growling.”

“Oh shit, sorry,” Gideon rasps before, clearing his throat. “Okay, where was I? Right. For example, you know how Jay likes it when you and Luca call him ‘ Daddy’ ? Or that night when we explained about being an omega, and you asked us if we want—”

Nix puts his hand over Gideon’s mouth to stop him from saying it out loud, eyes wide. Everyone here was there that night except Rowan, and impregnating their omega was definitely on a few lists—Gideon wonders if it’s on Rowan’s.

Maybe now isn’t the time to find out.

“Okay, good point, kitten. That is something that’s on my list, and Finn’s, and Grayson’s.”

“Jamie’s, too,” Nix giggles.

“What?” Rowan asks. “What is it?”

Finn, the occasional minion of chaos, chuckles. “Nix wanted to know if we’d be interested in ‘putting a baby in him.’ ” He makes quotation marks with his hands, and Grayson snorts under his breath.

Rowan goes still. A second of perfect silence. Then his pupils blow wide, his cock visibly jerking hard in his sweatpants as his scent explodes in the air—so intense it makes Finn choke on a moan.

“Say that again.” Rowan exhales, voice wrecked.

A violent buck of Finn’s hips nearly knocks Nix forward. His fingers dig into Nix’s waist, anchoring them both.

With teasing fingers, Nix runs a hand through Rowan’s hair, nails scraping just enough to make Rowan whimper.

“You wanna put a baby in me, Ro?”

It’s pure fantasy—Gideon knows that. Just one of the things Nix likes to say that drives them all insane. Doesn’t mean he’s ready now…right?

“Yes. Fuck. Yes. I like that. Yes, please. On my list. Finn, go add it right now,” he whines.

He can practically see Finn wagging his imaginary tail.

Nix giggles and looks from Gideon to Grayson. “Okay, so things like that. What else?” Grayson pulls off his sweatshirt, exposing his t-shirt. They can all see that the area under his arms is soaked through, his throat glistening in the afternoon sun.

“Well, I like that Luca likes my sweat. So that goes on both my list and his. Knowing what we like and don’t like helps us make our partners feel good—and ourselves.”

Their omega is squirming for real now, and he moans when Finn shifts his hips up.

Smirking, Grayson slides the back of his hand along the outside of Finn’s thigh before giving his ass a squeeze. “Finn likes talking about kinks.”

“Fuck off, Gray.”

“You do?” Nix checks Finn’s expression over his shoulder.

Finn shivers and nods. “I do. It’s—fuck—it’s the intellectualism. Detached control. I don’t know why I do; I just do. It’s a sort of voyeurism.”

There had been a long, satisfying research session shortly after Gideon had joined the pack where Finn had learned he was as sexually stimulated by his mates’ minds as much as he was by their bodies. More so, even.

“Oh. Goddess, that’s hot . I think. You could…ah…ah…add Finn doing that…to my list.” He’s flushed, and his hands have crept under his t-shirt, headed for his nipples.

He freezes.

Their eyes lock.

“I…Can I come out here? W—would that be okay?”

Well, this has not gone the way Gideon had planned. It had hardly been any kind of talk at all, but as soon as Nix asks, Rowan has his dick out, pumping it slowly while Nix squirms on Finn’s lap.

The decision has already been made, and Gideon feels them careening out of control under the late fall sunshine.