Nowis for the basic plan we came up with over lazy discussions, laughter, and even playing a game or two over the day.
Dan and Johanna will make love, ending with him knotting her. Since it’s his first time, Nathan and I both deferred in his favor, though he suggested some neutral way of picking who got to knot her.
Ultimately, Johanna said it should be her choice, and she chose him. End of argument.
While she’s knotted, we’ll all bite her, I’ll bite Dan, and she’ll try to bite me.
Simple enough in theory, trickier in execution, no doubt. With all Nathan’s decades experience as a dissolution lawyer, he noted that, if we can’t coordinate the logistics, we probably shouldn’t be bonding in the first place.
I’ll be more than content with four out of five bites. If Johanna doesn’t manage to make ours permanent, so be it. I’m happy to bite her as often as necessary to keep temporary bonds going, as long as she’s willing.
My feet are bare, toes cold against the floor. A good thing. Helps keep me grounded; it would be so easy to slip into what-ifs about alternate possibilities, if Johanna and I had managed to get to this point while Max was alive.
We didn’t. Impossible to go back and change anything.
Instead, I focus on Johanna and Dan: the way her head tilts back as he nuzzles her neck; their hands slipping under each other’s shirts, pushing fabric up in ripples to reveal soft beige and fawn-colored skin; the soft coos and groans as they discover—or, rather, rediscover,
And try to ignore the one bond left unaddressed in our plans for the evening.
A possible sixth bite.
Johanna giggles, a frothy sound unlike anything she’s made in the last year or more, as she pulls Dan’s shirt over his head. She glances my way as he returns the favor, smiling as her gaze meets mine and sending an added rush of cranberry through the room.
Evidently, she’s enjoying being watched as much as I’m heating up from watching her. Dan pays me no mind that I can tell, but he touches the nearly healed mark on his arm, then encourages Johanna to touch it as well. The latter makes him twitch as though shocked by static electricity.
Nathan likewise jerks, throat working. His head tilts back, eyes closed, and a blissful smile dances across his lips. When he opens his eyes he catches me watching him.
Standing, he adjusts his pants, though there’s no hiding that the scene has the same effect on him as on me, then strolls over, chin held high.
“You’re okay with this?” He nods at the entwined figures on the bed.
“It’s her choice and he makes her happy.” I shrug. He’s the one who told Dan and me days ago that a pack is only as strong as the relationship between any two of its members. ForJohanna and I to have a pack, we have to be willing to share with our mates. She wants a pack—and I’m increasingly of her mind.
“And that’s enough?”
“It doesn’t hurt that I like him. He brings strengths I didn’t expect, resources that I don’t have, and his inside is as attractive as his outside.” A glance at the bed shows the breadth of Dan’s back as he nuzzles Johanna’s breast, but it’s his stepping up yesterday when I couldn’t that sticks most in mind. “Isn’t that the best kind of pack—where we complement each other?”
“He’s more than I expected.” Nathan runs a finger along the place on his arm matching his mark on Dan.
“You were thinking a pack of just you and Johanna and Max, then just you and Johanna?” In his revelation of courting Max yesterday, there was no mention of me.
“I didn’t realize you were in the mix. I’m not sure Max did, either.”
“Good.” I shift, angling to face Nathan straight on, even though it reduces my ability to watch Dan and Johanna. Their moans and the drift of their mingled scent offers enough evidence of their activities.
Nathan raises his eyebrows.
“I wouldn’t have wanted him to worry.” I wish Max could be here—even though he’d probably have grabbed his phone and headed out, telling us to call him when it was safe to return. “I loved him, too. As a cousin and friend and all-but-packmate.”
“He was your omega.” Understanding flashes in Nathan’s eyes.
I’m not sure I agree, but Max certainly enjoyed non-sexual omega activities, particularly cuddling with me, Johanna, the girls, and anyone else he could corral. “In enough ways.”
“He could have been ours.” Nathan touches the scars on his neck. “You’re set on biting Dan?”
“He asked.” I turn away from Nathan to find Dan and Johanna cuddling and glancing our way. Dan did ask earlier, both of us aware that he wants a temporary bond with me, partly for Johanna’s sake, but also because another bond will give him a better idea of whether he can live without supplementing his daily dose of suppressors as part of a pack. I don’t mind; if things continue as they are, Dan and I will care for each sooner than later.
“And me?” Nathan’s voice lowers, softens, as he shifts so that only inches separate us.
