Luke had to hand it to the Legate, he was smooth in getting his scent on his mate without acting like a mate. He didn’t lick Lycan’s mating gland or scent the more intimate places he could have. There were no kisses, no rumbles of affection. No doubt Seath’s wolf was aching to get his scent on his mate, and Seath had found a way to do it that benefitted both him and Lycan.
Seath was aroused by it, which happened, and given this situation, might not be able to be helped. What Alpha wouldn’t be aroused by a beautiful omega, their mate, at the end of a heat, pressing against him?
Of course, the tent Luke could see in Seath’s pants was hidden to the omegas, and while the scent of arousal was there, it was slight, thanks to Seath’s ability to lock his own scent down.
Seath had to hold himself back. His wolf roared that a skin-to-skin scenting of Lycan’s arms and neck wasn’t enough. His cock throbbed, instinct and arousal battling for him to come on Lycan, to rub his release into all of Lycan’s scent glands. And then do it again, before sending him back to the omegas. No, not just that. Make sure his release was deeper than the skin, in Lycan’s stomach and body so that he smelled of nothing but Seath.
And then, it stopped. Not the need. Not the longing. But as he scented Lycan the desperation stopped. Something clicked for his wolf and slowly in his own mind as well.
Lycan still needed this, likely always would in some way. Soft omega-play. Where it was safe to feel and be aroused. To know what he wanted and ask for it without the hormone haze of Alphas and omegas and heats and fated mates.
It became, not easy, but bearable. A lighter burden to scent the man in his arms and then to set him back in the nesting bunks.
Lycan looked at him and there was something new in his eyes when he did. Some sort of curiosity and vulnerability Seath’s muddled brain couldn’t puzzle out.
Seath was hardened to steel. No. Not steel. Obsidian or diamonds or some other fucking thing no one had discovered yet. Jesus, that image—Lycan with close to bedroom eyes that were full of curiosity looking back at him while climbing with his long lean limbs into a pile of other omegas.
Omegas were lucky with their omega-play. It would just be him and his hand or a toy to get through this, the way it had been since Lycan came into his life. Alpha’s didn’t enjoy other partners after they found their mate, where omegas often had heat-mates long into their lives.
He did his duty, scenting his omega, and also the shirt, and handing it back to Lycan who blushed prettily and then climbed back the rest of the way into the nest on shaky legs. Not without a breathy,thank you Alpha, that would ring in Seath’s ears as he went back to his own den and stroked his now aching cock. He wasn’t proud of that, but how he would stop it, he had no idea. As it was, he was barely hanging on.
His omega had been in his arms, in the embers of his heat, and he had to let him go back to the nest. Someday, that wouldn’t be the right call. What Lycan would need was him. His rut. His power to ease the need that arose in an omega’s heat. Especially when Lycan’s eyes had followed him, a small wrinkle of confusion apparent on his brow, a very wolf-like and curious turn of his head.
Someday, Lycan would know what he did.
But that day was not today.
Luke made to close the door after Seath left, leaving his friend to unwind from the scenting and his travels. Luke noted Uri and Lycan in the center of the bed. The unbonded omegas cared more about Seath’s scent than Uri, a bonded omega, did. For Uri, it would be about friendship and care. There would be sexual play, of course, he was going into heat, after all. But omega-play wasn’t going to put the beautiful omega through another pregnancy and possible miscarriage. The healer in him was anxious to see how Uri fared after the omega nest — if it helped his next pregnancy.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two omegas share a less than chaste kiss in the dark corner of the nest. He closed the door, wondering if omegas really did have lots of secrets they would never share. Luke imagined that they did, and that many of those secrets were told in the omega nest.
Chapter seventeen
The Day Lycan’s Wolf Knew
AftercheckinginonLycan, and vicariously, the omega nest, Seath took to his rooms. Officially, this would be on his schedule as some post-travel time to clean up and rest. He had spent a lot of time in his wolf form. Not only that, but it was late, and he was ready to rest in his own den, his own bed.
Unofficially, Seath did shower off the travel, but he did it to thoughts of his mate. It took a few mind blowing orgasms to tame his wolf. All he could think about now that he was around Lycan again was how he washismate,hisomega.
Hisheat.
Not this one, but maybe the next? Was that too much to ask for? Lycan was clearly at the end of this cycle, so maybe in the upcoming weeks . . .Seath sighed, just happy at the thought of Lycan becoming his.
Of course, as Alpha-Mate, Lycan would share some of his heat in the nesting bunks, too. But surely Greene didn’t mean to stay at the Council forever. They would have time for full heats together without Lycan acting as Alpha-Mate and Seath as Pack Alpha.
Seath had grown up around a pack and people who appreciated the balance of an Alpha and an omega. But, he knew there were people who didn’t appreciate the nuance. Those who saw a heat as weakness, something to be conquered, to be taken advantage of.
Seath was pretty sure that was all bullshit, because his wolf wanted nothing but to ease his mate, do whatever Lycan needed.
And that made the waiting bearable. Lycan needed his heats to be easy, to be calmed into soft loving, not to be claimed as Seath wanted to do. And because that was what Lycan needed, that was what Seath wanted to give.
Of course, the thoughts of claiming his mate roared through him the next few days and continued as he made his way to his offices to be briefed by Jamie and put out whatever fires could wait no longer from his return. Their calls and pack-link contact had been constant, but there was something to be said for working in tandem.
So, he locked down his scent, not wanting to offend anyone with the low-level simmer of arousal he couldn’t otherwise hide. Thank the goddess for that small gift. And, he avoided Lycan directly, or at least had for the forty-eight hours he had been home.
That all ended now, though.
Lycan had been reassigned to the office area instead of the kitchens with Min. Luke believed Lycan was strong enough now to resist going into heat just due to Seath’s proximity. Caine believed he was going to learn even more about Lycan now that he could observe the Little Wolf in an environment where he thrived. Jamie had told him about the times Lycan had been able to help, and Caine seized the opportunity to find out what Lycan knew.
