Our prime slides his palm to the back of her neck and squeezes. “Settle, omega. Settle.”
“It didn’t work,” Grieves adds and we all watch as Ren melts a little, sagging between the two alphas. “As soon as she started perfuming, we left, went to a hotel and showered off her scent.”
“So how did she end up with a bite on her neck?”
“That is not our bite. Notmybite,” Forsythe growls at Florence who is watching him with the wariness that has faded of late back in her eyes.
“No? Then whose is it?”
I shrug. “She’s getting desperate. The queen too. She was probably hoping you’d see that bite, jump to the worst conclusion and leave without talking to us about it.”
A furrow appears between Florence’s brows and she tilts her head to get a better look at the bite on Isadora’s neck, partially hidden by a scarf, like she was trying to hide it and it slipped. But the glint in her eyes tells me she knew exactly what she was doing.
“So she let someone else bite her? Do you think she bonded them?” For some reason, Ren sounds saddened by the notion. “Do you think she was desperate during her heat spike and some alpha took advantage?”
“I doubt it’s a bonding bite,” Piers says, also tilting his head. “She wouldn’t want to risk her position with our pack by bonding with someone else. Even in a spike, like that, she would have enough control to not allow that.”
Ren’s nose wrinkles adorably. “Does that mean she had a beta bite her?” Her eyes flick to Piers. “Not that I have a problem with it. I really want you to bite me too. But it’s just… I know it’sgoing to hurt like a sonofabitch, worse than an alpha bite, and I can’t imagine doing it with anyone but a soul mate.”
My chest goes all melty as he beams at her. “I want that too, little bird. So bad.”
Ren gives him a sparkling smile, but then she grows serious. “That she would go through that pain just for this, on the slim chance that I wouldn’t ask you about it… She’s a little deranged, isn’t she?”
“Oh, Pixie, you have no bloody idea.”
“I suppose the fact that she tried to lure you into a rut with a fake heat should have tipped me off before that.”
Forsythe’s mouth tips into a smile. “She’s going to face a veritable shitstorm for this when we show up bitten and bonded to you.”
Ren startles, blinking up at him in shock. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
He runs a knuckle down her cheek before brushing over a spot on her neck, that I know he’s going to claim as his own, right at the front, where everyone will see. “We’re going to bond,cor mea.As soon as you're ready, I’m going to sink my teeth into your neck and claim you for my pack, for me. You want that, don’t you? To be ours? For me to bite you right here so everyone knows who you belong to?”
Ren’s staring up at him with a dazed expression on her face, that grows even more heated as he lifts her hand to his own neck, pressing her fingers into the skin just under his jaw. “And you’re going to bite me right here, where no shirt will cover, where there will be no doubt for anyone that I am taken, that I belong to you.”
A sweet little growl rolls out of our omega. “Mine.” That one word has my cock harder than steel.
“That’s right, Florence. Yours.” Forsythe strokes over her pulse point. “Whenever you're ready, you can bite all of us.”
Some of the haze clears from her eyes. “And-and you’ll all bite me too?” The uncertainty in the question guts me. But I can’t really blame her. She’s worried that we’ll only want a one way bond, one that will fade over time. That’s what happens when an omega bites an alpha. It creates a bond, but not one strong enough to last.
“‘Course we will, bubbles,” Grieves is the first to reassure her.
“I already have my spot all picked out,” Court adds. “I actually have two spots picked out. One where everyone will see and one that's just for me.” He gives her a saucy little wink.
Ren’s cheeks flush, even as she turns to look at me. “I’ll bite you right now if you want, killer. I’m more than ready to have your blood in my mouth and my mark on your pretty skin.”
Her eyes do that hazy blinking thing she was doing earlier and she nods. “Okay. Yes. Let’s do it now.”
My whole pack goes still, eyes sharp on the omega in our midst, hunters sighting the most important prey of their lives. Ren has gone still too, as though she just realized the danger she’s in.
Not real danger but inviting a pack of wolves to bite her is like waving a steak in front of a lion.
“You’re sure?” Sythe asks, voice rough with a growl that is entirely his alpha.
“I am.” Ren nods. “Unless you’re not?”
The grin he gives her is all wolf. “Oh, love. You have no fucking clue how ready I am.” His smile drops and he reaches out to tenderly trace her face. “But today has been a lot. You’ve faced down my grandmother, been shot at, worried about Grieves and have just been confronted with an image of Isadora with a bite on her neck. I don’t want you to do something you’re going to regret come morning, after you’ve had a chance to rest, to come down.”
