Page 46 of Want It All

Rose was gone for hours.

I tried not to be a jealous asshole, but who was I kidding? My omega rode me hard, demanding I be with my pretty mate, and I found myself sniffing one of the t-shirts she wore to bed every few minutes like the obsessed loser I was.

‘It’s because you haven’t bonded,’ Tristan murmured to me, stroking my hair when I stopped pacing long enough to collapse into his lap. ‘Once you have her bite, this feeling will settle. According to the articles I read, anyway.’

‘Wait,’ I said, looking up at him. ‘Do you feel this way about Byron? All the time? Like if you don’t see him immediately , you’ll somehow die for want of it?’

He swallowed, but didn’t answer.

Fuck. My poor alpha.

What Tristan had done to Rose – and to me – was wrong; I had absolutely no illusions about that.

But seeing him so heartbroken – so tortured – was, I thought, punishment enough.

If what he felt was anything like the feeling churning in my chest and stomach, then he’d been in pain for weeks now. Surely he’d paid his penance.

When a soft scraping noise came from the apartment door, I jumped up and literally ran towards it. Rose slipped inside, looking beautiful, glowing, happy – and rumpled .

She threw her arms around my neck as I wrapped my own about her waist. ‘Fuck, I missed you,’ she said, the sound muffled as she pressed her face into my shoulder. ‘Is that silly?’

I buried my face in her hair. ‘No. I’ve been doing so much pacing, I’m surprised there’s not a new path worn through the carpet.’ I inhaled, catching a hint of scent – hers, and something else. I pulled back and grinned at her. ‘It smells like the thing you had to do went well. Very well.’

She flushed, and arousal hit as if I’d been punched in the stomach. I kicked the door closed behind her and tossed her over my shoulder, pressing my nose into the fabric of her heavy skirt as she laughed.

Chocolate and caramel. My mouth watered. ‘I know this will sound hyperbolic, but I think I need you to ride my face. Like, now.’

She laughed again – slightly shocked, this time – but didn’t protest when I lowered us both onto the couch. Tristan put down the book he’d been reading, audibly swallowing. I shot him a questioning look – are you okay with this? it said – and he gave a nod in response.

‘Can I eat you out?’ I asked Rose. ‘Please?’

‘You can do whatever you want to me,’ she said huskily. Whatever you want was a silly thing to offer because my imagination was fairly solid, and what it couldn’t conjure, I was sure the internet could supply.

I unbuttoned her skirt, murmuring wordlessly in approval when it pooled on the ground and I realised my omega was bare beneath it.

Byron might have been an alpha and not prone to nesting, but I’d bet my entire inheritance that Rose’s missing underwear had a new home beneath his pillow.

I settled on the couch and drew her down, arranging her knees beside my head and filling my hands with her plush ass.

‘Slick,’ I said, surprised; she was coated with it, its distinctive shiny sheen different to the usual arousal.

She flushed, though I wasn’t sure why; my cock was so hard it hurt. ‘It’s been happening for a while now. I think my body wants to have a heat, but my blockers are preventing it.’

‘Has it happened before?’ I swiped some up with my fingertips, then licked them clean with a purr of enjoyment.

‘No, but I looked it up online. Apparently, it’s not uncommon.’

My gain .

She was swollen and pink and looked very much as if she’d already come a number of times – possibly the same number of times that Byron had come inside her . The faint sweet scent of her slick filled my senses; I groaned, needing to taste more.

I started gently, mouthing at her swollen folds, licking softly at her sensitive clit.

She shuddered, rocking slightly as I mapped her with my tongue, indulging in my own need and pushing it inside her.

Chocolate and salted caramel flooded my mouth; my cock jerked in my shorts, the material already damp with precum.

Fuck yes.

Rose whined, and I switched my attention to where she wanted it, sucking gently on her clit. She shivered, her knees tightening around my head, and I made sure to keep my mouth gentle and slow so I wouldn’t make her sore. She circled her hips slightly, starting to lose herself to the feeling.

A moment later, she went still.

I looked up; Tristan was next to her, stroking her cheek. ‘Can I kiss you, omega?’ he asked gravely.

Oh .

‘Oh,’ Rose breathed, as if echoing my thought. ‘I … Yes, please.’

‘I need you to know,’ Tristan said steadily, ‘that it isn’t about him. That I want to kiss you for you .’

I returned my attention to between her legs; Rose bit off a moan. ‘U-understood.’

I didn’t watch them kiss, but I heard it.

Tristan was unhurried and thorough; Rose was increasingly desperate, her whimpers and pants caught by Tristan’s mouth as my own worked between her legs.

When her body tightened, I thrust my tongue back inside her, desperate to feel – and taste – her climax; while she was still shuddering, I fished beneath my waistband and brought myself off with two quick pumps of my hand.

‘I want you to move in here,’ I said, when Tristan helped her climb off me and she collapsed on the couch, still catching her breath.

She blinked at me, startled, but it didn’t take her long to answer. ‘Yes. If that’s okay with both of you.’ Her eyes flickered to Tristan, who was halfway to the bathroom, grabbing a towel to clean us up. ‘But we need to fix this, Seb.’

I knew what she meant by this : our pack.

The only issue was that I had no idea how .

Rose went back to her room only to gather her things.

It didn’t take long with Tristan and I helping; she didn’t have a lot to move.

The three of us made some unspoken agreement to sleep in the nest instead of my bedroom, and something about it felt right , as if that was where we should have been from the start.

Tristan had bought the largest nest-bed he could find, and even with the three of us in there we could sleep without touching.

Rose and I went through her things and mine together, choosing what would stay in there; we added her sea-green blanket to the end of the bed, and some of her cream cushions atop the pillows.

Her fairy lights were pinned to drape with the netting, and her scented candles went on the bedside tables.

We moved some of my cushions out, and swapped the abstract painting I’d hung for a set of vintage botanical prints of coastal plants and flowers we found online.

I was glad I’d already made some changes; Rose seemed to like it, humming happily every time she stepped into the nest.

Tristan ordered all her favourite snacks and practised making chai tea and lattes just the way she liked them.

He emptied out some of our shelves and helped her arrange her favourite books.

Within a few days, he knew what she needed when she studied; knew which foods would tempt her to take a break; knew the temperature she liked her baths and which oils to use in her water; and would time exactly how long she needed to be left alone in the mornings until she felt human again.

If I hadn’t already been wildly in love with him, those actions would have tipped me over.

Watching him with Rose made me realise just how much I’d taken for granted. I’d thought that he just had an instinct for knowing when I needed something, when in reality he worked hard to know and to anticipate our wants. Rose bloomed under his care and attention, her smiles frequent and beaming.

‘You’re the best alpha in the fucking world,’ I murmured to him one afternoon, after he brought Rose and I hot drinks as we read through a chapter on medical anthropology.

His cheeks went pink, and I was glad I’d said something.

He and Rose hadn’t kissed again, though she was happy to snuggle in his arms. Tristan blushed every time he pressed his lips to her hair.

I wondered whether that was all it would ever be – packmates didn’t have to be sexually intimate, after all – but I suspected there was a spark between them.

It was a quiet one, steady and slow-burning, but I had a feeling that when it finally caught alight, it would flare hot enough to scorch.

Byron and Rose saw each other every day, studying after class and occasionally retreating to hang out in his apartment.

I assumed they spent their hanging out time fucking like rabbits, which was what I would do in their situation, but Rose was careful to shower before she came home; she whispered one day that she was worried she’d upset Tristan if she came back smelling like Byron again.

I worried even more about Tristan than I did about studying; he was pale, distracted, and anxious.

I did everything I could to make him feel wanted, but I remembered how it felt not knowing where Rose was, and I knew it was a problem I couldn’t solve.

Rose and I talked about it at length – I even called my dads for help – but Tristan and Byron had to sort it out for themselves.

I just hoped they wouldn’t take too long.

It was mid-term break when it started.