His cheeks are flushed, lips swollen, and his eyes are heavy with sated bliss. A small, contented smile plays on his mouth.
He’s so beautiful.
“I love you too, baby.” I kiss the tip of his nose, then hold him tighter, my arms banding around his back and pulling him flush against my chest. My cock is still buried deep inside him, a warm, intimate connection as it slowly softens.
For a long moment, we stay like that, a tangled, breathless heap on the hard workbench. Then I feel the slow, warm trickle of my own cum as it leaks out of him. It slides around my shaft and down his crease before dripping softly onto the dusty concrete floor below.
Nothing feels better than a dirty fuck with someone you love.
"It's going to be okay, Beck." I press a gentle kiss to his sweaty temple, my voice a low, soothing rumble. "I know everything is changing. I know Tansy’s scent is everywhere right now, and it's messing with your head, but I promise you, everything is going to work out." I pull back enough tolook him in the eye, my thumb stroking his cheek. "Your body will get used to her being here. I promise.”
But I don’t know if I’m trying to convince him or me.
Beck lets out a long, slow breath, the last of the tension leaving his body. "I know," he says, his voice soft but certain. He lifts a hand and gently brushes the sweaty strands of my blond hair off my forehead. The touch is so tender, so full of unwavering love, that it makes my chest ache. "I actually think..," he starts, hesitant now, like he’s not sure if he should share what he’s thinking.
“You think what?” I encourage him, caressing his cheek with my thumb.
Beck gives a shake of his head as he says, "I think the feeling inside me has more to do with the shot the doctor gave me than with Tansy's presence."
I pull back slightly, my brow furrowing in confusion. "Shot?" My post-orgasmic haze instantly evaporating. "What shot?”
“You know,” Beck says like he’s trying to remind me. “Right before Tansy’s heat hit,” he explains. “Dr. Pace said you and Cass wanted her to get some kind of immune booster.” He shrugs, eyes drifting over my chest like he’s lost in thought. “She was scared of the needle. Shaking pretty bad. So I offered to go first. Just to show her it was fine.”
He frowns, his voice dropping like he’s thinking out loud. “I think it might’ve been designed for an omega,” he says. “But Dr. Pace never said it would hurt me or anything. Just… didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.”
His words hang in the air for a beat while I rack my brain.
"Pace never asked me about a shot,” I say. "I never authorized anything like that."
“Really?” Beck’s head snaps up.
The sudden tension forces my limp cock to slip out of his ass with a wet, final sound. A warm gush of my cum follows, flowing down between his thighs.
Ignoring the mess, I push myself up and stride over to the sink. I grab a clean, folded towel from the stack I keep on the shelf above it, then return to him. I kneel, gently parting his legs again. I'm careful as I begin to clean his abused, reddened asshole, but my mind is racing.
Pace gave my mate and brand-new omega some kind of medicine that no one approved.
"No one talked to me about an immune booster, Beck," I say as I wipe away the slick evidence of our lovemaking. “And I overheard everything he and Cass talked about through the bedroom door.” I try to keep my unease in check while I wipe down Beck’s inner thighs. “Are you sure that's what he said?"
Beck immediately nods. “Yes,” he says, too fast. “I’m positive.” His hands curl into the edge of the workbench, knuckles whitening. “I knew I should’ve checked with one of you. I should’ve checked with Cass. Or you. I just—” He swallows hard, pausing like he’s trying like hell to hold something back, then all at once he blurts out, “Tansy wants to leave.” His eyes go wide, breath hitching. “She said she wants to go home. She wants to go back to Danvers. She said she wants to reject us. All of us.” He talks faster, unable to hold it in any longer. “I told the doctor that she didn’t want to stay. And that’s when he said the thing about the shot, about how Cass would get better faster if they were mated, and I didn’t think anything of it at the time because I was already upset and now—” He squeezes his eyes shut. “Now I’m convinced it was a heat-accelerator. He forced her heat to start, and I’m scared it’s messing up my body too.”
He ducks his head, bracing for impact, but I’m frozen in place, stuck processing everything he just said.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispers, chin quivering. “I should’ve told you sooner. I should’ve realized. I didn’t mean to—” His voice cracks. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
My chest tightens, and I stand up.
“It’s okay, Beck,” I say, firm but gentle, because he needs that from me. I reach out and hook two fingers under his chin, lifting his head before he can pull away. “Hey.”
He resists for a second, eyes squeezed shut, then slowly opens them. They’re bright and frantic when they finally meet mine.
“Tansy isn’t leaving us. She’s nervous,” I tell him, steady and reassuring even as my thoughts churn. “All omegas are nervous when claimed by a new pack. It can be scary for them. Even whentheychoose their packs.”
He blinks at me, a little surprised. “Really?”
“Yeah,” I say without hesitation. “All the time. Even at academies.” I keep my tone confident, matter-of-fact. “The omegas pick their mates, and they still panic. It's literally hard-coded in their DNA. It’s called a pre-mark flight response,” I recall the term from my high school health class. I can’t believe I still remember. “An unmarked omega’s instincts scream at them to run from a pack before they’re claimed and bonded. It's a survival mechanism. They have to be sure the pack is strong enough to protect them, and sometimes the only way they know how to test that is to run.”
I pause, watching Beck think it over.
