Baby + the Late Night Howlers

by Kathryn Moon

  Waking up clear of the heat fog was like reconnecting to myself. I stretched and scrubbed and hummed in the shower until I was pink and squeaky clean, and not for one second did I wish for a dick in me. After the past five days, it was kind of amazing and liberating.

  I brushed my teeth, braided my hair, then craned my neck and admired the necklace of bruises my alphas had left in their attempt to satisfy me without bonding me. There was a lovely embroidered robe hanging on the back of the door, pale pink with red roses, and I put it on over a clean pair of underwear before venturing out of the tower and into the mansion.

  I wasn’t totally sure where to find Ryan, or even what time it was, but I had a vague recollection of Bullet’s layout of the house. It was ten times as ridiculous by daylight. The paintings I’d seen the frames of by night, revealed family portraits in daylight. Fashionably dressed packs, omegas clearly presented at the heart of the painting, set demurely between their alphas but with high chins and defiant stares. The carpet under my feet was lush and clean, wood banisters polished. The only scuff on the house seemed to be on the marble, our footsteps clearly marked in muddy boot prints from the night we arrived.

  I couldn’t remember what direction the greenhouse was in, but when I made it down to the entry hall I heard music coming from the back. The bouquet on the front table was wilting and I rolled my eyes. Alphas were maybe not the best at keeping up floral arrangements. I lifted the heavy vase into my arms, found it sapped of water inside, and followed the sound of music down a narrower and less grand hall to a large back kitchen on a lower level.

  Along with the music, a rich and spicy fragrance was floating out of the kitchen, making my mouth water. I grinned as my stomach growled and I found the source of the sounds and smells. Tornado was standing at an industrial size stove, wok in hand and steam billowing in the air. I made sure my approaching steps slapped against the floor so he wouldn’t be startled and his head twitched in my direction.

  “I hope there’s some for me,” I said in greeting.

  Tornado smiled at me before going back to the stove, swirling the wok, a lick of flame running up to the edge.

  “Well since you came all this way,” he said, and I laughed. “I didn’t realize you’d be…”

  “Not getting knotted?” I finished for him. I set the bouquet by the sink and went to join him at the stove, accepting his arm over my shoulder and leaning my head against his chest.

  “Heat’s done?”

  I nodded. “I…I mean not to diss the best sexual frenzy of my life, but it is kind of nice to like… walk around again.”

  There was curry in that wok, and I was even more excited about that than I was to wake up clear-headed.

  Tornado kissed the side of my head. “Bowls are in the cabinet to our left. Rice is in that covered dish. I’ll pull the naan out of the oven.”

  “You’re making all my dreams come true,” I sighed, crossing to the cabinet and stretching up to the large shallow bowls on a high shelf.

  Tornado followed, arms looping around my waist and lips by my ear. “That’s what you said when I was between your beautiful thighs, love.”

  I shivered as he pressed a kiss to my pulse. Okay, so maybe my alphas were always going to have me a little ready to go. Tornado winked at me and then slid away, digging a serving spoon out of a drawer and helping serve me a heaping plate of mouth-watering curry and vegetables and steak. It was the perfect meal to make up for the days of snacking on whatever was quick and easy to eat or could be fed to me by the attentive hands of my alphas.

  “Hey… have you seen Ryan?” I asked.

  Tornado’s smile was soft and knowing as he nodded. “He’s been…keeping himself busy messing around in the greenhouse. I bet he’d be glad to see you. Want me to make him a plate?”

  “Yes, please.” I resisted the urge to pester Tornado with questions about where the hell Ryan had been while I’d been taking knots left and right. Ryan could answer for himself if I worked up the courage to be so direct.

  Tornado gave me directions to the greenhouse along with the two bowls of steaming food. When my hands were full he stepped close, head lowering to mine, our smiles mirroring one another.

  “I don’t know what made you want me as your alpha, love. But I’m so grateful all the same,” he murmured, before slipping a slow and tender caress over my lips.

  “Well, the curry isn’t hurting your case,” I teased. His grin was wolfish, daring me to be tart again. “You made me want you. Your care and your heart. I know I’m still getting to know all of you, but you’ve been proving my instincts to want you right at every step.”

  Tornado purred as I rose up for another kiss, thinking over my own words. It was true. I’d chosen Pack Howler over a handful of index cards, which seemed so right at the time, and now felt comparatively silly. Those whiffs had offered attraction, but they’d been no promise of the respect and affection my pack showed me. I’d gotten lucky and I planned not to forget it.

  “Don’t worry why Ryan stayed away,” Tornado said as he pulled away, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “It wasn’t a lack of wanting you, I know that much. Don’t think he’s slept in days.”

  I sighed, the bubble of tension rising in my chest slowly deflating. I nodded and Tornado stepped aside, hand soothing down my back as I passed him. I tried not to dawdle on the route to the greenhouse, although it was hard in rooms so full to the brim with objects that made my eyes grow wide. Everything looked too expensive to be tacky, but also too expensive to be touched, and I worried constantly about dripping curry onto some priceless rug or piece of furniture. It was a relief to find that the greenhouse was a utilitarian space and not some magical botanical garden.

  Ryan was pacing along a long row of thorny roses growing up small trellises. His back was hunched and his hair stood at odd angles as he sprayed them with a mist of water. The glass door creaked as I shouldered it open and Ryan paused, eyes flicking in my direction. His back snapped straight so fast it left me wincing just to see.

  “You’re up.”

  I nodded and lifted a bowl. “Hungry?”

  His chest lifted with a deep breath as his eyes tracked over me head to toe. He was so stiff, he shook with tension. But then the moment broke, the water bottle landed on the counter and then rolled to crash against the floor, all while Ryan strode toward me in long, racing steps. Whatever had kept him out of the nest had clearly cost him.

  I set the bowls down on the counter before he could throw those down on the cold stone floor too, and braced myself. Ryan growled as he reached me, one hand diving into my braid, tugging my head back and up as he arched over me, mouth landing in a hungry slant. I roped my arms around his shoulders and lifted myself up against him, letting him demand every caress from the kiss, his other arm banding behind my back and holding me to his chest.

  It wasn’t arousal but relief that ran swimming through me, and I realized that going days without ever being near Ryan had left an undercurrent of pain that was only distracted by the demand of the heat.

  His growl softened to a purr, the drag of his teeth over my bottom lip soothed with sweeps of his tongue. His grip relaxed in my hair, turned into a supportive hold as the kiss transformed into a reassuring reunion before ending with mild presses. Ryan sighed and his forehead rested against mine.

  “Heat’s over.” It wasn’t a question, but I nodded all the same.

  “Yeah. You missed quite a party.” I tipped my head back, waiting for his eyes to lift from my lips to meet my gaze. “Why?”

  Wrapped in Ryan’s hold, I wasn’t angry or offended. There was no confusion that Ryan was my alpha, that we craved and cared for one another. I just needed to know what his hang-up was so I could work around it in the future.

  Ryan’s head tipped and his stare drifted down to my throat, thumb slipping from my braid to stroke over a tender spot where one of the others had left a bruise. “I didn’t want Scorch to try and kill me when I made good on those b
onding bites you’ve been asking for.”

  Oh. My lips were parted, eyebrows raised, and Ryan’s eyes narrowed with his hidden smile. He’d nearly gone through with it the first time and if my heightened scent had thrown him into rut, maybe he would’ve lost control.

  “I’ve been thinking about what you said. That you were sure about us and… sweetness, I sure as fuck am sure about you,” he whispered as if the air to speak the words couldn’t escape his lungs.

  I jumped and Ryan’s arms circled my waist. He held me to his chest as I buried my face into his neck, purr thrumming through us both.

  “I don’t really give a shit what Scorch’s got to say about it, but… he’s a little bit right that the bonding bite shouldn’t be about the heat or the goddamn Hangmen at your throat.”

  “It won’t be,” I said. “Whenever it happens. I made my decision already. You guys are it for me.” My throat clogged and I blinked tears away. This was not a moment for getting weepy. “You can’t miss the next heat,” I said, firmer.

  Ryan rumbled against me. “Trust me, I won’t. Nearly fucking killed me, but I… I think if you so much as threw your head back, I would’ve been too happy to sink my teeth in. No way I would’ve kept my head out of rut like some of them can do.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded,” I said, smiling into his throat as he growled. “But you’re right, Jonah would’ve thrown a fit.”

  “Two alphas losing their heads in your nest would’ve been a trash way to spend your first heat.”

  That much was true. I was still miffed Ryan had avoided the nest, avoided taking care of me when I’d been craving him, but I’d definitely whined and pleaded for a bite in the hazy days of being knotted. I couldn’t even blame him for admitting that he didn’t think he could resist the urge since I wouldn’t have cared if he’d given in.

  My stomach growled again and Ryan grunted, setting me back on my toes and glancing at the bowls of food. His hand slipped into mine. “Come on, there’s a couch in this next room that I already spilled cereal milk on. We can eat there.”

  I held him still for a moment staring at him and thinking my next words over before rushing to speak them. “The heat is over. The next time I say I want you, that excuse won’t hold up.”

  Ryan’s face transformed, eyes narrowing and lips pressing hard together. At first, I thought he was angry. Then I caught the low, whispering rattles of his purr as he stepped into me, forcing my head to tilt back to look up at him.

  “Baby, say it,” he purred.

  “I want your bite, Ryan.”

  His head lowered one scant inch at a time until my breaths were wild in my chest, and I thought I might get his bite now when what I really wanted was his bite and his knot and everything.

  “I want to be yours,” I said, a whine edging into the words.

  “You are mine. You will be,” he said, lips curling slowly upwards. “Soon as you say ‘bite,’ you’ll have that too.”

  Heat or not, there was no denying the pooling warmth in my belly at the promise. Dragging Ryan up to a bedroom was a tempting idea. I must’ve really been thinking like myself at last, because the more pressing issue was that I was starving, and I needed to have a final word with Jonah. I didn’t want to start my pack bonds behind anyone’s back, and I also needed to know that my alphas would listen to me when I spoke my mind.

  32

  Baby

  Ryan, Tornado, and I were exploring the ridiculous space of the mansion when the others finally made it out of the nest. I was wandering barefoot through an enormous and empty room with vast pillars that I could only assume was a now defunct ballroom. The scale was absolutely absurd, and there were cherubs painted on the high ceiling. I was fascinated, listening to the echoes of Ryan and Tornado’s soft murmurs, studying the grotesquely saccharine scene above my head, when I heard Jonah’s rumbling purr.

  I spun to face him, watching my alpha prowl across veined marble, sunlight spilling through double story windows, highlighting the edges of him in gold. It was every bit as dizzying and breathtaking as it had been when I’d seen him for the first time in that dingy bar hall. And his approaching apple pie scent was every bit as mouth-watering. My toes curled and my stomach did a happy dance of excitement as his smile stretched.

  When he was within reach I gave up my control and lept in his direction, caught in his hold as if we’d rehearsed the dance.

  “There’s my baby girl,” he purred.

  “Hello, alpha,” I said softly, bending my head for a brief kiss. “Heat’s over.”

  He smirked. “Oh, I know, you told us last night while I was knot deep.”

  I frowned, eyes growing wide. “What do you mean?”

  Bullet’s laugh was loud and Seth grinned at me. “You said, ‘you better finish this one on your own, I’m fuckin’ out of juice.’ And then you went to sleep.”

  I looked to Mackenzie, who nodded and shrugged, and then shook my head. “No, I don’t remember that, so it clearly never happened.”

  “Don’t be embarrassed, your alphas were barely hanging on as it was,” Seth said.

  “Speak for yourself,” Bullet muttered, cheeks pinking.

  “We got a visitor comin’, baby girl,” Jonah said. “How you feelin’?”

  Ryan and Tornado joined our cluster as I stared down at Jonah. “I’m fine, but what do you mean by a visitor?”

  “The Center’s been calling the bar, so Red finally got the message to us. They want someone to come check up on you, since uhhh…” Jonah’s brow furrowed and he glanced back at Mackenzie.

  “Moving you up here would kind of be considered ‘upheaval’ for most omegas. We figured it’d be better to let someone come and see that we aren’t keeping you in a shack in the woods.”

  “I suppose if anyone can be trusted not to give anything away to the Hangmen, it’s the Center,” I said. Then a thought occurred to me and a wicked smile spread over my lips. “God, I hope they send Yvonne. She’ll lose her shit at this place.”

  “She’ll lose her shit at the smell of that nest,” Seth said.

  Shit. He was so right. I patted Jonah’s shoulder and tried to shimmy out of his arms. “He’s right. We need to clean.”

  “Clean?” Bullet blustered, chest puffing. “This place is spotless.”

  “Tell that to the muddy footprints at the front hall,” I said. “And the bouquets that are wilting. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’ve kept you busy, and I’m very grateful for your, um, performance—“ Tornado laughed behind me “—but I want the Center off your backs about our courting and you bonding me.”

  Jonah squeezed me, catching my mouth for another kiss, his tongue flicking over my lips for a taste before pulling away. “You heard our bossy omega. Let’s put on a ritzy show for the officials.”

  Jonah set me down, his hands settling just above my ass.

  “I’ll deal with the floors if someone else tackles the nest,” Seth said, heading for the door.

  “No disguising what went on there, kitten,” Bullet said with a shrug and a smug smile. I was betting he’d pat himself on the back when I wasn’t looking.

  I mimicked him with a roll of my eyes. “Sure, but we don’t have to make anyone look at it.” He laughed and turned to follow orders, and I admired the sight of him leaving, his ass hugged deliciously in his jeans.

  “I’ll get some fresh flowers out of the greenhouse,” Ryan offered.

  One by one, my pack went to ready the house for our visitors. Or our inspection, as I was thinking of it. Finally, Jonah and I were alone in the open, hollow room, and I stepped into his chest, circling my arms around his neck.

  “You like it here?” Jonah asked.

  I wrinkled my nose and leaned back to look at him, my head tilting. “I mean, I like the nest. I didn’t realize what a difference it would make, but yeah, that was nice. But this place is kind of absurd and enormous.”

  “Better suited to an omega,” Jonah said as if I couldn’t hear the unasked questi
on in his voice.

  “Not this one,” I said, lifting a brow. His shoulders relaxed under my hands, and I stroked them. “Do you know what I want, as an omega?”

  He sucked a deep breath and shook his head with brief and faint movement.

  “I want a good, caring pack, who isn’t too proud to let me boss them around. One that makes my knees weak when they walk into the room. One that wants the best for me, and who realizes they are the best for me,” I said slowly, lifting an eyebrow meaningfully.

  Jonah’s head drooped and he nodded softly. “I’m hearing you.”

  “I didn’t want to admit that the nest we put together at the Plaza wasn’t working perfectly, but Jonah, I don’t give a shit about that as much as I just want to know that we are going to find a solution together,” I said.

  “Bull says this place is his. We can come up here for your heats.”

  “There, sold,” I said, shrugging.

  “You could have a place like this full time,” he said.

  “How the hell are you going to run a bar, a dispensary, a diner, and a garage in this monstrosity?” I asked, lips quirking. He huffed, and I continued. “I like the Plaza, I like the businesses. I don’t wanna be a society omega, I want to be your omega,” I said.

  “You are,” he answered immediately, hands tightening on my waist and holding me close.

  I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I am and I’m not, and we need to talk about that.”

  Jonah’s eyes narrowed. “Baby girl,” he growled.

  “Jonah,” I answered, trying to make my voice just as low and gravelly. Instead, it cracked on his name.

  “We aren’t rushing.”

  I made a rude sound and slid out of his hold. “Jonah, we left rushing back at the Plaza the first time you knotted me and refused to bite. We’ve courted. We’ve been through my heat.”

  “Just barely,” he said, hands and arms flapping at his side.