Years.Years I have bowed to him and followed his orders, trying to fit into our pack with as little resistance as possible. My Alpha rises with my jaguar, and I bristle, shoulders square as we size up against each other. Normal human packs struggle enough with the power dynamics of having two Cardinals in one pack, let alone shifters of different species, and the stress brought about by our wilder instincts often causes flare-ups. Such as what happened during dinner. For the first time since I joined this pack, I…Played.Flicking sauce at Atlas in return was childish and petty, but his big grin stretched across his face and welcomed me. I had nearly purred in front of them all. Fury and Clay had been in deep conversation about the scent trails of Brynn’s pack passing close to the land, and we all knew that had to be dealt with before it turned into a full-on turf war.
And that’s how I ended up in the hallway, once more at odds with our pack leader over our Omega. Fury’s heart gallops beneath my hand, the snarl rumbling in his chest, the hot puffs of breath as he bares his teeth at me.FuckI don’t want us to come to blows, but I won’t bow to him for something that we are both to blame for.She is so flighty, and my Alpha pushes at the seams. He wants to go out and comfort her, wrap her up in her nest, and have her sunken on my knot until she can’t possibly pull away. The way her sweet little pastel eyeshad peered up at me yesterday when I asked her about spending the evening with me… Her scent had bloomed, the citrus hints bright and cheery in the kitchen. Despite my anger at the rest of the pack for forcing me into this situation, I have become comfortable with her in the space and the way she justfitsbetween us all without issue. It has only been two weeks, and she’s almost seamlessly integrated. The spare seat at the dining table is hers, that part of the sofa, her suite on the top floor. But it bothers me to watch her eye the exits when I enter the room, just because I don’t want to mate her right this second doesn’t mean I want to sink my claws into her. Except I had, the bleeding marks on her hips and shoulders had taken a few days to close up, and they’d left scars. Scars that made me feel guilty about marring her beautiful, pale skin.
I turn to Fury, still snarling away, “Fuck off, Anthony, I have had enough of your bad mood flexing your power, and scaring our Omega.”
Fury makes a sick sort of laugh, the disbelief catching him at my words, “Seriously, Lucas? Oh, now she’sourfucking Omega? You’ve been on our backs about her being here since the start, and treating her like she doesn’t exist! You don’t just get to decide that now!”
“Well, I am fucking sorry, I refuse to let my heart be torn out a third time!” The resounding thunder rumbling from my chest has the other three ducking back into the kitchen, and a sharp whine in the air. Were it our Omega making the noise, I would have calmed, but Atlas’s submissive distress has little effect on the burning flame of frustration within me. I’m being unreasonable, I know it. Fury is right, I have no claim to her, but oh, how her perfume lights my nerves in a way I haven’t felt in years. My knot aches every time I hear her in the shower, singing horribly off-key but with the confidence I wish she showed at other times.
Muscles tense as I almost lunge at the other Alpha before we all hear it.Ai meu Deus,it brings me crashing to my knees, the breath leaving my body like I’ve taken an arrow straight through my sternum. It’s yearning,need, a howl wailing through the night like a siren call to every Alpha in the area. My cock is pressed painfully against my tight boxer briefs, and my beast is fighting within me, his claws tearing at the edges of my mind, driving me delirious. My own claws tear through my fingertips, flexing into the flooring as I try to inhale my packmates’ scents and ground myself in them. Someone cries out, there’s heavy thumping. My eyes rise from the gouges I am carving in the hardwood to see Fury taking a shifted Atlas to the floor, wrestling the giant gray and black wolf whilst battling his own shift. Crimson fur spreads across the backs of his hands, his ears, and tail, already peeling from him as he scruffs the other wolf. We haven’t seen our Cardinal in his half-form for a very long time.
Fur flows through me equally, clothes tearing as I yowl and reform, sheathing my claws and flattening my ears before shaking out my coat. Pale paws pad across the carpet as I push at the front door, left open by our Omega only moments before. Sharp barking sounds behind me as Atlas stills in our Cardinals hold, his tongue lolling from his mouth, tail making somewhump-whumpsas it wags against the wood. Teddy will be furious; he’s only just cleaned the last batch of drool and fur from the house. Fury calls for me, his voice softer now.
“She’s just rang the dinner bell for every unmated shifter in the county. You need to find her, and do it quick. If her wolf is in full control, and she’s still calling for mates… She might spike again. And she needs someone there who won’t bond her by accident like this idiot.” Atlas whines in his grip, “do it.”
He is offering me something I have no right to. The whole pack should participate in a mate hunt, taking our turns withher, claiming and bonding after we’ve proven our strength and stamina in a hunt. My breath catches in my throat, and I huff a deep reply to him, slipping out into the darkening night to follow the prints torn across the gravel drive and the grass. It’s not the first time I’ve caught her when she’s run, but I will be sinking more than my claws into her this time.
The air is cool and crisp with the beginnings of the winter chills, stars twinkling above us in the clear night as I begin tracking her. Fury filled me in that it wasn’t just the wolf pack we are worried about, but he is so on edge from thebearhe scented. A bear like the one that had terrified the Omega at the auction facility.
Snarling, I unsheathe my claws and climb the first large tree next to the house, spraying bark and sticky sap across my belly that will clump later. The thought barely deserves a second, with too much else running through my mind. If the pack is following her, there's little I can do by myself, despite being a larger predator than a wolf. Brynns’ pack is at least seven Alphas strong, and without the backup of my own pack, I’d be a red mess in the dirt long before rescue would arrive, and they’d think nothing of bonding an unwilling Omega. With luck, Fury can get Atlas under control to leave him at the house with the more vulnerable humans, whilst he helps me wrangle the wayward woman back under the safety of our roof.
Driving myself faster, I’m a blue or gold and black through the branches, keeping pace with the birds flitting through the leaves alongside me, crying out danger. Flexing my claws, I tuck and bounce to the next tree, thankful for the thick, ancient branches in our woodlands, keeping me well above the sight and attack line of wolves. I see now why Fury sent me first. I am much faster without detection… And despite my dislike of admitting fault, I am far less useful in a fight than two massive,heavy Alpha wolves. Against one or two maybe, but a cat's strengths lie in stalking and surprise, not an all-out fight.
Another mating howl calls through the night, tugging on my heart and cock as it all but drags me towards her, the branches creaking with every step of a heavy male jaguar. So focused on the sounds around me, it is impossible to miss the horrifying moment when the other pack calls back, my tail lashing as I pick up the pace again, bounding along at breakneck speeds. For the first time since I was a young boy, I curse being a cat, damned the lung capacity we lack compared to the canines. Skye has probably lost me to the woodlands now, but I won’t give up yet. Fury will probably be on my trail. Her thick rum scent soaks the air, prickling with awareness across my entire body like an electric current right from my tail to my whiskers. There’s a sharp, tangy edge to her scent, the kind that only comes with a heat, and I can faintly smell wolves, too. Not ideal. I'm going to have to ease the spike and be the first to take her out here in the dirt.
There’s a familiar howl from back home, Fury finally setting off to help, and the thought pushes me on. I won’t be alone for long. His immense power will be here, directed at the trespassers on our territory.
Ahead of me, curled on the ground and back in her human form again, is our Omega. She’s curled up, sobbing and clutching her belly amidst the leaves. Flooding my nostrils as I breathe her in, her scent is pained, calling to her Alphas to ease it, to fuck and fill and bite and bond. The breeze just keeps blowing more to me, and my eyes drift shut, my mouth opening to taste it in the air.Caralho, there’s a whole bouquet of scents on the wind, coming our way; we have to do this quickly. Neither of us has the time to enjoy it properly, and I have no doubt that she’ll come on my knot, but I really should take the time to build her up.
Dropping to the ground beside her, she doesn’t even startle, bright seafoam eyes locking onto mine. Despite the last time I had come to her in this form,injuring her as I leapt from the canopy—she reaches toward me.
And like a good Alpha, I go to my Omega.
Skye runs her fingers through the fur around my chest, tracing dark rosettes with gentle fingertips even as another wave of cramps overwhelms her.
“Lucas… Lucas, please help. Just until someone else gets here who wants me.” Her voice is high-pitched and whiny, but her words tear through my heart and soul, worse than any set of claws ever has. Goddess, if only she knew. I’m so mad because she’s so irresistible to me and my cat, and my Alpha, and I promised myself I’d never do it again. She deserves a proper explanation when this is all over, but for now…
The change comes with cracking bones and the careful packing of my beast back in its neat little box, the temperature dropping as my fur recedes and leaves me kneeling naked next to her. Roaming across my body, my Omega takes me in, and I lean back so she can catch every inch. Blood rushes to her cheeks, pinkening them, eyes darting to the sides and avoiding mine until I give her a soft growl. My cock is throbbing, rock hard and ready as soon as she gives me permission.
“I need your consent, Omega,” I snap, just a little of the Alpha bark leeching into my voice in desperation, “This will be fast and rough. I don’t have time to savor you the way I want to, but I need you knotted before the other pack gets here. That’s usually the end of a mate hunt.”
She’s bobbing her head before I’m even finished, eyes glazing over with a whimper.
“Words, Omega,”
“Yes… Yes, Lucas, knot please!”
“Present then, show me what belongs to me.” Her sweet little whimper will be my undoing. It was hard enough to hold back when Atlas was eating her out like his last meal on death row at her first spike, and now I have her thick ass in my face as she drops to her elbows and shoves her face in the dirt. Fiery hair glows in the moonlight, my hand threading through the waves to wield them like a handle as I purr for her, “Good girl, such a good Omega letting her Alpha take her like this.”
Her own purr starts up at the praise, pleased that she’s pleasing me, but it turns to cursing as she curls again with pain. We are out of time. I knew I didn’t have time to prepare her properly, but I did not think I’d have no timeat all. Shit, she is going to hurt tomorrow after this, if she even lets me have her in a moment. Notching my cock at her entrance, I can feel the moment she stiffens, turning her head to gape at me. Not from the pain, but from the delicate row of barbs around the crown.
“Shh, they won't hurt, I promise.” It is the truth, they’re not true barbs in this form, more like rubbery spines. In her desperation, that seems to soothe her, rubbing back against me, the sputtered out purr resuming. I wish I could take it slow, but as soon as her scorching heat envelopes my tip, I’m lost to the pure feral desire of my rut. With an animal grunt, I bare my teeth and punch my hips straight into her. Moans echo between us as she clamps down, inner muscles bearing against me as the simple entrance pushes her over the edge for the first time, and I have to recite the instructions for the climbing wall just so I don’t pop my knot early.Fuck,I’ve forgotten how much I love an Omega in heat, they’re dynamite, ready to go off at the slightest touch. She’s like a vice around me, and despite being only the first thrust, I pull out and flip her. Her face shows pure bliss, her mouth open with a soft pant, and her cheeks flushed. Hair spreads like a mahogany halo behind her, and she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. Driving straight back inwithout a second thought, I watch her lids flutter, only the barest blue-green ring around the endless dark of her blown pupils. Tomorrow I can worship her, tonight, I’ll fuck her like I still hate her.
The barbs catch on each backstroke, dragging against every sensitive spot within, a smirk tugging at me as those lovely eyes roll back and a low, drawn-out cry of pleasure escapes her.
“Lucas…” My name on her lips is pure sin, better than anything I could have hoped for, and it takes everything in me not to lean forward and puncture the bared flesh of her throat, to claim her before she’s ready. Instead, I grit my teeth, dragging my nose across the soft skin as I rut, burying her scent as deeply in my brain as I bury my cock inside her, until the top of my half-swollen knot is catching. The tip of my tongue traces her pulse. Little hints of citrus gather on my taste buds, the throbbing of her lifeblood and scent glands so close to my teeth. I see now why Fury sent me. Atlas had no self-control, and Fury’s Alpha is a domineering prick; they both would have claimed, whilst I simply enjoy.
Her legs lock around my hips and keep me close as I fight to drive in and out. The wet slap of my balls against her ass almost covers the whispers of my name, and my mind blanks as she comes again.
