My omega’s heat scent stirs me in powerful ways I can’t even put into words. Ever since fighting Zack my inner alpha feels more alert and my senses work better. That insight now brings me a keen awareness of an omega in need.
My omega.
With trembling hands, I dig into her carry bag and discover boxes of condoms, a thick pack of wipes, and an envelope. As I flip open the unsealed edge, Zack lifts Red out of the hot tub and carries her to the daybed under the string lights and red curtains. Her chest plunges with each breath, and she bunches her hands into fists, revealing her rising anxiety.
Zack and Rickon hover, wrapping towels around her before lowering her onto the mattress. Judging by the concern on their faces, they sense the incoming tide of battle. Rickon grabs the box he brought up to the nest, which contains toys covering over our backup plan of restraints and some oral sedatives. Just-in-case plans discussed with the Omega Center based on Red’s last three heats; ones I hope to God we won’t need.
Swallowing down a ball of nerves, I pull out a sheet of lined notepaper.
It carries one simple line of Red’s handwriting:Alpha, the time is now.
My breath catches. When I glance up, Red’s staring at me over Zack’s shoulder, a silent question in her eyes. A few months ago, I would’ve hesitated. All the Omega Center rules and dangers about sharing a bond with a feral would scream in my head and tie my hands.
Not anymore.
I’m not the Callisto Wren who lives a half-life, and I’m not an alpha who leaves his pack in need.
I stalk across the stone pavers and climb the step to the raised platform, ducking through the sheer fabric covering Red’s nest.
Red pushes Zack aside with superhuman strength and kneels up, staring at me—waiting to see if her alpha will reject her request. But even as she bravely gazes up at me, her body quivers and sweat beads on her forehead.
“I-it’s n-not an impulse,” she mutters, hands digging into her own bare knees.
Fuck, I know exactly what she means. If she’d asked me to bond her during her heat, I might’ve thought it was just fever talk. But her letter means she’s certain. Red needs all three of us in her head to get her through this monsoon.
“My love,” I say. My voice cracks, and I clear my throat. Crouching down, I pass the letter to Rickon without looking at him. He’ll figure out the rest. “Red,” I try again. “Will you be mine, in every sense of the word? Will you have me, marry me, bear my children, be mine—”
“Ours,” Zack interjects, dragging Rickon down onto the mattress beside him.
I chuckle as I draw Red up onto my lap. “Be ours,” I correct. “Red Jones, my Scarlet Wren, will you take my bond?”
Rickon’s breath catches behind me, and Zack asks him what’s going on. I ignore them and focus on the omega who broke me free of my chains and brought the sunlight into my clouded existence.
Red wraps her arms around me, fingers imprinting deep into my skin as she clings on for dear life. “Yes,” she says, voice harsh with her panted breaths. “Now.” It’s a command, from an omega to her alpha; the kind of order that rings with the tides of fate.
I lay her down on her back, the day bed luxuriously soft beneath us. Her scent rises, reminding me of decadent desserts, especially with the barley and vanilla surrounding us. I suppose my scent is the odd one out, but perhaps that suits my delayed entry to the pack anyway—trees grow the slowest, after all.
She whimpers and bites her lip, fighting the wild impulses within.
I press my mouth to hers to tease her lip out of her teeth, and she kisses me hard, squirming and panting beneath me. With my fingers, I measure out the location of Zack’s bond on her shoulder and check the distance on the other. I want Red to look balanced, an alpha guarding her on all sides.
Her whimpers stop the moment I set my teeth on her skin. Slick cascades down her thighs, my omega welcoming me in every sense of the word.
I tremble, the weight of her absolute trust settling on me. Here, in her most dangerous, difficult moment, she turns to me, offering me a second chance.
I’ll take it.
I bite down hard, alpha instinct overriding any normal concerns about biting a human being. Hot, coppery blood splashes over my tongue, followed by an electrical current prickling through my chest. Red writhes into me, and mydick finds her, fitting us together like lock and key. We hang, suspended in silence, lips parted and bodies quivering with the intensity as our souls lock together.
Red Jones, everything she is, everything she fears, and everything she desires, roars into me, swamping my senses. In her wake comes Zack, boiling like a furnace, and Rickon who’s a solid ball of determination wrapped in sugar-sweetness.
A single low whine shocks through me as they come to roost directly in my heart, a delicious mix of calm and frenzy, like a storm with a perfect eye.
Red spasms through a violent orgasm, moaning into my hair as the powerful feelings flood through her. I’m right with her, groaning into her shoulder and writhing myself into her ceaselessly.
Wonder blooms through Red as my essence lodges deep within. Like a feedback loop, it grows and grows, mesmerizing me with the strength of her passion.
My desire burns fiercer.
