Nick sat next to Gentry and reached out, putting his palm on Gentry’s forehead. “You’re burning up.”
“I’m guessing there was something in the creature’s nails,” Mal said. “The wounds look like they’re infected, or maybe poisoned.”
Gentry closed his eyes and leaned his head against the back of the couch. He wasn’t feeling well at all. He heard Nick and Mal talk, then Arlen join in. Someone took his hand while someone probed at his ankle and made him scream.
Gentry tried to move away, but strong arms held him in place even as a hand carded in his hair and whispered things he didn’t understand in his ear. Everything was a blur of pain and more pain, until Gentry finally fainted.
He was in his bed when he woke up. He blinked at the ceiling and realized it was morning, and that he was alone in the bed he usually shared with his lovers. Had they left him?
Fear flooded his chest and he jerked up. He didn’t even realize his ankle didn’t hurt until Arlen was next to him, holding him down and shushing him. “Hey, I’m here. You’re fine, you’re fine. God, I thought we’d lose you at one point.”
Gentry relaxed against Arlen’s chest. “What happened?”
“There was something in the creature’s claws. You got a fever, and it was so high you had hallucinations. You... you thought Nick and I were leaving you and you screamed after us, asked us to stay.” Arlen gulped loudly. “It wasn’t pretty.”
“I’m sorry.”
Arlen’s arms tightened around Gentry’s waist. He shifted on the bed until he was sitting up against the headboard with Gentry lying half on top of him. “It’s not your fault. I was so scared...”
“But I’m fine now. Right? It doesn’t even hurt anymore.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re fine, but it was touch and go for a while. Jared came with Noem, but even after Noem healed you, you were still sick. They had to get the venom, or toxin, or whatever they called it, out, but by the time they arrived it had already spread too much.”
“What did they do?”
“Jared pumped you full of almost all the anti-venoms he had.”
“Where did he found anti-venoms that work on paranormal creatures?”
“He told us he’d been working with a pharmaceutical company to produce anti-venoms to counteract paranormal venoms, stuff like that. They haven’t really been tested yet, but there wasn’t time and it...” Arlen took a deep, trembling breath. “It couldn’t wait. You’d have died anyway, and those anti-venoms were our last chance.”
Gentry turned until he could hug Arlen close. “I’m fine now.”
“I know, but I thought I was going to lose you, and I love you so much, I don’t think I could go on without you.”
“You don’t have to. I’m here, and I love you too.”
* * * *
Nick had to stop himself from bursting into the bedroom at the shared confession he heard. He hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but he was just coming in after looking for the creature that had attacked Gentry for most of the night.
He felt excluded. He felt jealous. And he felt guilty for feeling excluded and jealous. Nick snorted softly. Since when had he become a twelve-year-old girl?
He should be in the bedroom, checking on Gentry and telling both his lovers he loved them. So why was he still out there?
He peeked inside and saw Arlen and Gentry huddled together. They hadn’t noticed him, not yet, so he quietly took his jeans and his socks off, leaving them in a little pile in the hallway. Gentry could give him a bit of leeway for one day, especially with everything that had happened since the night before.
Nick added his T-shirt to the pile and finally entered the bedroom. Arlen looked up from Gentry’s face and saw him. “Did you catch it?”
Nick climbed on the bed and stuck his hands under the comforter, looking for Gentry’s foot. He moved the comforter away when he found it and looked at the ankle. “No.”
Gentry’s ankle had been swollen and black the night before, at least until Noem had healed it. Now it was as if nothing had happened. The skin was healthy and unblemished, and Nick stroked around the bone with his thumb. “We can’t even really scent it. It’s like it disappeared without even running around.”
“Like it might have shimmered?” Gentry asked.
“Yeah, but it can’t be a Nix.”
“It definitely isn’t. I didn’t see it very well last night, but it looked more like an animal, or something in between human and animal.”
“That’s... disturbing.”
Nick sighed. He was tired, but he also felt the need to be close to his lovers. His wolf wanted to touch them, to reassure himself that both Arlen and Gentry were fine. Nick had thought he’d die when Mal had ran out of the trees the night before yelling that something was hurting Gentry. Nick had ran outside, had seen Arlen in his wolf form, snarling and growling, but Gentry had been on the ground, struggling to get free.
The fear Nick had felt, more than anything else, told him just how much both Arlen and Gentry had come to mean to him. It didn’t matter if Arlen talked too much or if the usually neat Gentry left the toothpaste tube open every damn time he used it. It didn’t matter that Nick felt a twinge of jealousy every time he saw Gentry and Arlen together. He wasn’t even sure who he was jealous of—probably both of them, come to think of it.
He wanted them both more than anything, and he was ready to do anything to obtain that. “I love you.”
Gentry smiled softly. “I love you too.”
Nick turned his attention to Arlen. Arlen was looking down at his and Gentry’s joined hands. Nick had never told him he loved him, not yet, and Arlen had started avoiding looking at both Gentry and Nick when they said it to each other.
Nick reached out and cupped Arlen’s cheek. Arlen’s head snapped up, his eyes wide with surprise. “I love you too, Arlen.”
Arlen gaped, but it lasted only a few seconds. Then he launched himself at Nick and kissed every inch of skin he could reach. “I love you too, God, you don’t know how much.”
Nick’s wolf whined in his mind. It wanted to claim their mate, but it didn’t push when Nick ignored it. The instinct was easy to resist now, easy to ignore, especially when Gentry was there too, looking at both Arlen and Nick as if they were the center of his world.
Pulling Arlen’s head to him, Nick kissed him.
“About time you finally confessed,” Gentry said from their side.
Nick grinned. “What can I say? I’m a bit slow.”
Gentry laughed and pressed against them, completing the embrace. “No, you’re not. You just don’t like to talk about feelings.”
The embrace quickly became something more. It shifted from comforting and loving to heated as hands started to roam. The three of them moved on the bed until Arlen was pressed between Nick and Gentry. He moaned as Gentry and Nick rubbed against him, both on his front and his back, and Nick could feel he was already achingly hard, panting and holding on to Nick’s shoulders.
Gentry had slipped his hands around Arlen’s lower body and was stroking Arlen and Nick, rubbing their cocks together while he nudged his growing erection between Arlen’s thighs. Nick could feel the head bump against his leg every so often, depending on the way they moved.
“We should take turns fucking him.” Nick arched a brow in surprise at Gentry’s suggestion. Their sex life had always been good, but it was usually Nick who decided to change things a bit, or to make love in the living room rather than on the bed. Not that Gentry wasn’t good in bed or anything. He just didn’t have much imagination, although that seemed to have changed a bit since Arlen had barreled into their lives.
“And whoever comes first has to make him come,” Nick added.
“Who said I wouldn’t come before you two?” Arlen asked breathlessly.
Gentry chuckled, the sound sultry and sensual. “Oh, believe me, you won’t.” It was both a promise and a threat, and it made Nick want to offer himself.
It surprised him, because he liked control—he needed it, usually at least. He’d never thought Gentry in charge would be so hot and hit a lot of the buttons Nick didn’t even know he had.
Nick tugged on Arlen’s nipple and Arlen groaned. “Why don’t you prep him, since you have his back?”
Gentry smiled at Nick and leaned over Arlen’s shoulder to kiss him. The movements pressed them even closer together, something Nick wouldn’t have thought possible only seconds before.
Gentry moved away for a moment, rolling on his other side and taking the lube from the nightstand. Nick heard the sound of the bottle being open, the Gentry rolled again and handed it to him. Gentry’s hand disappeared from sight and Arlen started squirming between them.
Nick moved away and lubed his cock. Arlen took the opportunity to reach for his dick, but Nick stopped him. “Oh, no you don’t.”
Nick’s voice was enough to stop Arlen. Arlen blinked, his eyes huge and his pupils blown, and Gentry chuckled.
“Good boy,” Nick said in approval.
Gentry winked at him and did something that had Arlen groan and arch his back. Nick loved the fact that even though Gentry was blushing like crazy and biting his lower lip—signs of how embarrassed he was—he was still playing along.
“He’s ready. Who... who’s going first?” Gentry asked, his cheeks turning instantly red.
“You go. Leg up, Arlen.”
Arlen raised his thigh high on Nick’s side, and Nick felt Arlen’s cock throb against his stomach as Gentry pushed inside him and moved.
Gentry slid out. “Your turn, Nick.”
It felt very dirty to be sharing Arlen this way—very dirty, yet completely right. Nick felt like Arlen needed it, like he needed to feel loved by both Nick and Gentry, and what more could they do after saying it? Arlen seemed to be more than okay with Nick’s method, and he raised his leg further, allowing Nick access. As Nick slid inside him, he felt Gentry’s erection prodding between their bodies, bumping against his own thigh.
“Three thrusts,” Nick said, and Gentry nodded. They would each thrust three times, then switch, again and again until they all came. It was tight and the position was a bit awkward, but being so close to both his lovers at once made it made it exciting and so worth it.
When Nick withdrew he only pulled back far enough to let Gentry push his cock in, leaving his own where it rubbed against Arlen’s balls and where Gentry’s balls slapped against the head at every stroke.
Arlen moved one hand from Nick’s shoulder and slid it up his neck, reaching his mouth. Nick sucked on Arlen’s fingers as Gentry touched his leg to let him know it was his turn again. Nick shifted his angle slightly to push back into the slick channel of Arlen’s ass. He wasn’t trying to hold back, but he didn’t want to hurt Arlen, and he wanted the three of them to be able to really enjoy the moment.
“How did you think of this, Gen?”
Gentry’s voice was breathless as he nudged Nick’s cock aside with his own to plunge in again. “I don’t know.”
Arlen arched between them and groaned. “I don’t care how he thought of it, as long as we do it again.”
Nick chuckled and bit on Arlen’s exposed neck. “You should think about right now, not the next time. Looks like we’re not fucking you well enough.”
He reached down and wrapped his hand around Arlen’s cock to stroke it. He could tell from Arlen’s breathing that Arlen was close to coming despite all the shifts Gentry and Nick were doing, and despite his tendency to let his mouth run. Nick wanted Arlen to come while he was inside him rather than Gentry. He knew it was because of his wolf, and that maybe he shouldn’t give in, but did it really matter? They were together, both Gentry and he were fucking Arlen. It was enough. Giving in to the wolf right now wouldn’t be a problem, and it would keep it calm for a while.
An idea flashed through Nick’s mind, something he definitely wanted to try, but not now, not today. “Think you could take both of us at once, Arlen?”
Gentry withdrew to give Nick his turn.
“Not now,” Arlen groaned, but his cock twitched hard in Nick’s hand and for a moment Nick thought Arlen would come just from the suggestion. He thrust in hard, feeling Arlen tighten around him, and he tried to imagine how it would be possible without hurting Arlen. It didn’t seem to be, but then Nick had seen double penetration in porn. Just the idea of his cock and Gentry’s pressed together in that narrow space while Arlen came around them, tightening and gasping... it was almost enough to make Nick come right then and there.
Then Arlen was coming around him, spurting come over Nick’s hand and stomach, and Nick was past his turn, still thrusting into him. He glanced up at Gentry as he reluctantly withdrew. Gentry smiled softly at him over Arlen’s shoulder and pushed in again.
“Nick,” Gentry said, and Nick realized that they were waiting for him. Gentry’s hand found the base of his cock as Nick pressed into Arlen’s ass. “Go on, Nick. I know you need this.”
Nick knew what Gentry was telling him, giving him, and he hesitated. “You sure?”
“Yes. I can wait a bit more.”
Nick’s gaze flickered between Gentry’s face and Arlen’s as he pushed in, then out, then in again. He pressed his face against Arlen’s neck and squeezed his eyes shut as he felt Gentry’s arm slide around his shoulders, holding him close and reassuring him without words. Nick came, groaning against Arlen’s damp skin. He pulled his cock out as soon as his orgasm subsided and felt Gentry’s cock push against Arlen’s hole.
“Inside,” Arlen ordered breathlessly. Even though he’d already come, he pushed his ass back against Gentry even as he pulled Nick’s head toward himself to kiss him. Gentry cried out and Nick blindly reached out to him, pressing his hand against Gentry’s hip as Gentry came.
They all lay together for a long time after they were done. Arlen turned on his back so that he could touch both Gentry and Nick. Not one of them was still—they all seemed to need to touch each other, to reassure themselves the three of them were fine.
Then Gentry fell asleep, probably still tired because of the venom the creature had injected in him. He snuggled against Arlen’s chest, his head on Arlen’s shoulder, and Nick reached for the comforter. He pulled it over the three of them, knowing sleep would be easy to come for him since he’d spent the night outside, looking for the creature.
Arlen blinked as the stress of not knowing if Gentry would be fine finally got to him and he dozed off. Wrapping an arm around Arlen’s middle, Nick put his hand on Gentry’s hip and closed his eyes.
Chapter Nine
Arlen fiddled with the collar of his shirt. He was standing in front of the door that opened in what was about to become his classroom, and damn if it didn’t make him nervous. He hadn’t worked with kids for too long and it felt like it was the first day of school all over again—wait, it was his first day of school all over again.
At least the kids he’d deal with knew him already. Kameron had asked him to help Johanna Clary teach the pack’s kids. They were still too young to go to school, unable to fully control their shifts, so they were homeschooled. Johanna had to deal with ten kids ranging from two to ten years old on her own, so when Arlen had asked if there was something he could do within the pack, they’d jumped on the opportunity.
That way he didn’t have to commute, even though Gillham really wasn’t that far, and he was close to Gentry. It made Nick feel better because they still hadn’t caught the creature that had hurt Gentry, even though Nick and the pack’s enforcers were doing all they could.
“Ready?”
Arlen looked at Gentry. Arlen hadn’t asked his lover to accompany him, but Gentry had understood Arlen needed support, even if he hadn’t asked. So instead of walking to Kameron’s house that morning, he’d followed Arlen just a bit further in the woods to the building that was used as a mini school. There were only two classrooms, a small kitchen and two bathrooms, but it was enough for the pack’s n
eeds, and the fenced in space outside meant the kids could run around, although they couldn’t run too much with the snow that had started falling the previous night, at least not in their human form.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose.”
Arlen would teach the older kids. That meant he’d have five kids in his class. The younger ones, Hugo and Claire, were seven, the oldest one, Trey, was ten and would go to a public school the following year. Arlen wasn’t used to ages that were so different, but he’d make it work. He had to.
“You’ll do fine.”
“I hope so, but if you hear screaming, you better come and check if I’m still alive.”
“I’ll be too far away to hear anything.”
Arlen glared at Gentry. “Very funny.”
Gentry shrugged. “It’s true. I can’t hear the kids from Kameron’s house, not even when they’re playing outside.”
Arlen took a deep breath. “Wish me luck.”
Gentry reached for him and kissed him, slowly and carefully, as if he was afraid Arlen might break—or run away, and that was definitely a possibility. “You don’t need luck. You’ll be perfect.”
“Humor me, please.”
“All right. Good luck.”
“Better.”
Arlen turned to the door again, squared his shoulders, and after one last glance at Gentry, he opened the door and strode inside. The five kids were already sitting at their own desk and stopped talking as soon as Arlen put a foot in the room.
Johanna gave him a grateful smile from where she was leaning against the teacher’s desk and disappeared before Arlen could even ask her how she was. That didn’t bode well.
At least he didn’t have to teach the lab kids. Not that he had anything against them—he’d met Nathan more than once and had even babysat him a few times—but Luke and Melissa were terrifying.
“Good morning. I’m Mr. Giron.”
“Why?”
Arlen looked at the boy who’d talked. He recognized Hugo from the picture in his file, and he remembered Johann had indicated Hugo was vivacious. Great.
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