Would she even have recognized the scent of an omega in heat?
I couldn’t think about the two of them together. The fire rose in my blood every time I did, but that just drove me to move even faster than before. Reba was panting next to me, struggling to keep up, but me?
I didn’t even feel the pain when a branch struck me in the face. I just kept going.
Jim, naked, head thrown back against a pillow of moss….
Cammy, so convinced she’d never have the strength to resist….
“Let me take care of Cammy.”
I glanced at Reba. “what?”
“Whatever we find. Let me take care of Cammy, okay? You don’t touch Cammy.”
I growled.
“I mean it, Zach,” said Reba sharply. “Whatever happens isn’t her fault. And it isn’t Jim’s either.”
I glared at her. “Are you saying it’s mine?”
“I’m not saying anything,” said Reba, her patience nearly spent.
We heard the singing before we saw them. I couldn’t quite make out the words, but it sounded… jaunty. Familiar. And…
“….the ankle bone’s connected to the… leg bone….”
Juvenile?
“What the hell?” I said, confused.
“Cammy,” breathed Reba. I could hear her relief as she surged ahead.
“….the leg bone’s connected to the… thigh bone….”
“Mmm, thigh bone,” said a different voice in a seductive tone, which was promptly followed by a deep groan. “Wrong song, wrong song, sing something else!”
Jim.
“I don’t know what else to sing!” wailed Cammy. “I’ve already sung every song I know!”
“Oh my God, don’t you listen to the radio? Macklemore! Katy Perry. Robin Thicke even, I’m desperate here!”
They were close now – I could catch glimpses of Jim through the trees. He wasn’t lying down – he looked like he was sitting up, or maybe leaning on something. And Cammy….
“Don’t interrupt me, I’ll lose track,” begged Cammy, right before she started to sing again. She wasn’t close to him at all – maybe five or six feet away. “The thigh bone’s connected to the… um… stomach bone….”
“That’s not all it’s connected to,” said Jim. He burst into pained giggles. “Oh God, why can’t I just stop.”
He was still giggling helplessly when Reba and I broke through the final line of trees. Reba went right up to Cammy, pulling a large silk square out of her pocket. I automatically went to Jim, but stopped about five feet away.
Not because I didn’t want to go to him – I did. Very much. But now I could smell him – the sweet scent that had clung to the kids who’d returned.
The smell of Jim in estrus.
I couldn’t move a step.
“Oh, thank God,” groaned Cammy, as Reba ran up to her. Reba quickly wrapped her handkerchief around the lower half of Cammy’s face, as if they were in a dust storm. Cammy slumped in Reba’s arms. “I was scared the kids got lost.”
“Nope, they did great,” Reba soothed her. “Followed your GPS straight to the boat dock.”
“Zach,” said Jim, staring at me.
He looked exactly the way I’d pictured him – flush, damp curls, the curve of his neck over his bare shoulders. He had a blanket wrapped around him, but he was shivering. He couldn’t have been cold; the sunshine was hot on my face. Every breath was harder and harder to take.
“I didn’t touch him,” Cammy said to me. I could hear the shaking in her voice; she sounded exhausted. She had to have been exhausted – nearly two hours with Jim, in the middle of the woods, with no-one the wiser what they’d have done? “I swear I didn’t touch him.”
“True,” agreed Jim, just as a shudder went through him. “Cammy was of no use to me whatsoever. Fire her.”
“Ingrate,” said Cammy. Even exhausted, she sounded fond.
“Why were you singing, though?” asked Reba.
“It was Jim’s idea. Trying to make me focus on something that wasn’t him.”
“Worked, too,” said Jim. He sounded glum about it. “Except all she could remember was campfire songs.”
“You get a raise,” I said. Jim let out an annoyed shout.
Reba rolled her eyes at me. “Be nice to him.”
“What?” yelped Jim. “You’re leaving me with him?”
Reba turned and looked right at Jim. Her nose flared once – and then she smiled. She wasn’t shaking, she wasn’t trying to hold her breath, and she didn’t seem the least bit affected by the pheromones that filled the air.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. “You really aren’t attracted to omegas, are you?”
“Nope,” she said, voice even. “Jim, I’m going to ask you very plainly, and I need you to answer in a single word. Do you want me to take you back to the omega camp right now? If you say yes, I can leave Cammy here with Zach. It’s about an hour’s walk from here to Camp Lake Omega. I swear you will be completely safe, but I happen to know that Bob is very worried about you and I doubt he’ll think much of me bringing you back. He’s kind of overprotective. Wouldn’t surprise me if he sent you home right away.
“Or… if you say no, then I’ll take Cammy back to Alpha-By-the-Lake. I can’t guarantee what Zach here will do – but I’m pretty sure, given the fact that he nearly went ballistic the minute he heard you were missing, that he’s going to be inclined to stay here and help you out with the rest of your heat in whatever capacity you like. You should also know that he’s got a few things he needs to explain to you about how much of an idiot—”
“Reba,” I barked at her. Jim glanced over at me before he focused on Reba again. Or tried to focus; he kept shifting where he sat and blinking rapidly, which made me think he probably couldn’t really focus on anything at all.
“Anyway,” continued Reba, as if I hadn’t said a word. “Informed decision and all that. So. Yes, or no? Stay here with Zach… or go with me?”
I don’t think the earth even moved; I know I didn’t. I could barely breathe.
“Stay,” said Jim. Decisive. Certain.
All the breath came racing out of me.
“Right then,” said Reba briskly, hefting Cammy a little closer. She looked at me. “Don’t be an asshole.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off Jim. Which was fair – he wasn’t looking away from me, either.
It was strange… it had been years since I’d gotten more than a distant whiff of an omega in heat. This close to Jim – with no other scent except the woods surrounding us, and the now fading baseline scent of Reba and Cammy – I should have been out of my mind with desire.
I wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to rip the blanket off Jim and fuck him senseless… but that was the same sort of thing I’d been feeling for weeks. I didn’t think it had much to do with his pheromones.
“Are you going to accuse me of sleeping with Cammy too now?” asked Jim finally, long after the sounds of Cammy and Reba faded into the woods.
“Of course not!”
“The last time I saw you—”
“I was wrong, okay?” I said, harsher than I’d meant to sound. Jim winced and slunk back from me a little bit. I sighed and tried to soften my voice. “I was wrong. I thought… it doesn’t matter. You said you wanted experience, before you went back to your parents, and Reba—”
“You said you thought experience was a good idea,” Jim said, accusatory.
“I know.” I did know – and the memory of that conversation had been burning heavily in my chest ever since Reba had announced the end of her summer challenge.
“You can’t go telling someone to get experience, and then be pissed off when you think they do.”
“I wasn’t—”
Jim didn’t let me finish. “Especially when what you really meant was experience with you.”
“I didn’t—”
“Isn’t it?” countered Jim. “It’s all right for me to sleep around before my last chan
ce at bonding, at finding an alpha who’s willing to commit to me – as long as I’m doing it with you.”
The urge to actually finish a thought was making me testy, and I spoke much harsher than I should have done. “That’s not—”
“Then what did you mean, Zach? Why were you so pissed at me when I didn’t even do what you wanted me to do that you didn’t want me to do in the first place!”
I stared at him, confused for a moment. “Huh?”
“Oh my God,” groaned Jim. He pulled the blanket over his head, which unfortunately left his feet and ankles exposed. They were pale, despite the summer sun. “Just… go away. Tell me whatever it is that Reba wanted you to tell me, then go away and let me suffer through the rest of this in what relative peace I can scrounge up.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do!” I snapped.
“Well, stop trying!” Jim yelled at me.
Jim’s anger wasn’t a sucker punch to my gut. It was a bite of too much wasabi, straight up my throat and into my head, pushing every doubt and hesitating worry to the side. All that was left was pure adrenaline and the raw truth.
I didn’t stand a chance of keeping that in a single moment longer.
“I don’t want you to go back home, all right, dammit! I want you to stay because I’ve fallen head over heels for you and I know this isn’t the right way or time to ask but I want to bond with you, okay? There, I said it, and Reba can go—!”
I didn’t get a chance to finish – somehow, I’d been so wrapped up in my own diatribe that I’d missed Jim standing up. He stood in front of me on shaking legs, next to me, his arms wrapping around my neck, pulling me down. The blanket was a puddle at his feet.
“You… what?”
I didn’t dare breathe. He was so close – so warm. His legs were still trembling, and his chest heaved with exertion – but his arms were steady and sure on my shoulders. He looked completely amazed.
“You can make fun of me later,” I snapped. “God knows Reba will.”
“Oh my….” Jim pulled back and slapped me hard, on the arm. It stung – and he kept on whacking at me, too. “You… asshole. I thought you hated me!”
“Ow!” I yelped. “Jeez, are all estrusing omegas this strong?”
“You said I’d slept with Reba! That’s not exactly the best way to go about asking a guy to bond with you!”
“I was jealous!”
“Jealous?”
“Because I love you!”
Jim’s hand stopped in midair as he stared at me, his mouth dropped open.
“Oh,” he said, bemused. Right before he pulled me down for a kiss, his mouth eager and wet and warm.
“You haven’t answered the question,” I mumbled into his mouth. I could feel him tearing the clothes off my body – which probably should have been answer enough, but I was fixated on the taste of his mouth, the way the scent of him curled up into my nostrils.
“There was a question?” asked Jim.
I groaned as he fixed his mouth on my neck – and then I swear he climbed me and was sucking on my earlobe. “Yes, you… will you… oh, fuck, Jim, I can’t think when you’re doing that.”
“Idiot,” breathed Jim into my ear. I could almost hear the smile. “That was my answer. There was never even a question of it – yes, I’ll bond with you. Right now.” He paused. “Actually, really right now, I don’t know how much longer this flash heat will last. It might not stick, but….”
I growled. “If you tell me you have to be back by dinnertime….”
I could feel Jim’s mouth slide into a grin next to my neck. “It’s mashed potato night.”
“You.”
Jim laughed as I hefted his legs up around my waist. My fingers slipped in between his ass cheeks. I sucked in a breath when I felt the dampness there – omegas in heat always produced far more slick than they did out of it, to the point that lube wasn’t even close to necessary. Which was good, because we didn’t have any.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remembered what else we didn’t have.
“Fuck,” I groaned as I kneeled to the ground. “Jim, I don’t—”
“Can’t get pregnant in a flash heat,” said Jim in my ear. His voice was breathy; he was already squirming around my fingers. His cock was a hard little rod, jutting up against my stomach, dragging the polo shirt up with it. Every time he shifted, my shirt did as well, and I could feel the growing dampness as he leaked precum.
“You actually believe that?”
“Medical impossibility,” insisted Jim, and he sucked my earlobe into his mouth again, this time whining as my finger dragged along his hole. It gaped and clenched, as if trying to grab my finger and pull it in. “Come on, Zach, please.”
Omegas only leaked precum from their cocks in heat, so I hadn’t had a chance to taste it before. I wondered if it’d taste half as good as his mouth. The idea was too good to ignore; Jim straddled my thighs, and I let him slide down the incline until he was splayed out on the ground under me. It was easy to fold over and suck his cock into my mouth.
He cried out. I swallowed around his head, licking up every drop of his cum. He tasted every bit as delicious as I’d expected – not salty or musky, like beta males, but sweet and clean, like freshly mown grass. He bucked under me, shoving his hips into my face. I sucked him all the harder with every thrust because it made him shout.
After a couple of thrusts, he slipped out of my mouth, leaving a trail of saliva and semen in a long line from my lip to his cock. The whimpering sound from his throat made my cock throb in response – and I leaned over again, just as he thrust upwards. The angle wasn’t quite right – and this time, I ended up looking directly at his gaping hole, pink and dark and glistening.
I licked it with the flat of my tongue, moving my arms so that I was holding him up, some ten inches above the ground. His legs were splayed on either side of my head, I could feel them shaking around my ears, but I kept on licking, suckling gently, rolling my tongue into a point and diving into his hot, wet heat. Every other time we’d fucked, he’d been tight to start with – but now, maybe because of the heat, maybe because of all the slick, he was looser. I could still feel the pressure around my tongue, but he wasn’t fighting my entry.
In fact, he was pulling me, keening his desire. He kept trying to talk, but never managed to even complete a word, much less a sentence.
I could feel the orgasm, before it hit. Hell, I could taste it. I pulled away as he teetered on the edge and rested his ass on my knees while I quickly pulled off the rest of my clothes.
He stared up at me, eyelids heavy, breath catching in his throat. He was beautiful.
“God,” I whispered.
“Nope. Just Jim,” said Jim. If I wasn’t too careful about the end of my belt slapping his thigh as I yanked it off, it was probably deserved. And anyway, it barely made a sound. I doubted it’d done more than a light sting. He sucked in a breath and his eyes went a bit glassy.
“Oh,” I said softly. “Liked that, didn’t you? Another time.”
He went still. “Zach… do you really mean….” His voice wavered with nerves.
I paused, my hands on my waistband, ready to shove his pants down. My cock caught on my underwear, twisting a bit painfully. When I spoke, my voice was rough. “You’re mine. I’m claiming you. Here. Now. And yes, Jim. There is going to be a whole lot of other times ahead of us.”
Jim’s smile was gorgeous. “Maybe in a bed though.”
I growled and shoved my pants down, going up on my knees a little bit to get them clear of my cock, which was nearly purple, and so erect it was beyond pain. Jim’s eyes widened at the sight – then again, so did mine. I’d never seen it so large. I wondered how the hell it’d fit, even if Jim was a bit looser than usual.
“Oh God,” I whispered, staring at it, as if Jim’s sudden attack of nerves had suddenly transferred themselves to me.
Maybe they had, because when I finally realized Jim was talking to me, he was
back to sounding calm and collected – if a bit breathy. “It’s okay. Zach. Zach. Look at me.”
I dragged my eyes up from my engorged cock to his face. He didn’t take his eyes off me – he just reached and touched my cheek.
“Fuck me,” he said softly, and pulled me over him.
I held my weight on my arms, with Jim holding himself to my chest, and slid my cock home, exactly as we’d done before in my bed outside of the heat. Only now, there wasn’t any hesitation, there wasn’t any slow entry as he accommodated himself to my size. One smooth, even motion – watching his mouth fall open as I filled him – and I was enveloped by the still surprising snugness of his ass, the warm wetness of his slick, the smooth slide of skin against skin. New sensation on top of new sensation. I rocked into him, kissing and suckling every bit of skin I could reach, and he clung to me.
“I can’t… Zach… I need…”
I knew what he meant, even if he couldn’t say it. I lowered him down to the ground before drawing back. The air felt cold on my cock as I pulled out of him. “On your hands and knees.”
He did – reaching first for the blanket and spreading it out under him. As soon as he was in position, I was back inside, holding his hips with my hands, curving over his back. His cries now were louder, less inhibited, as he began to lose himself to the rut. I couldn’t breathe but for taking in mouthfuls of pheromones, and they just spurred me on further.
The position didn’t help calm me, either, not when I could look down and see the way my cock slid into him. My knot was engorged and thick, pulsing as it pressed up against the outer rim of his ass. Everything was hazy and slightly out of focus every time I thrust forward, but I could still see the way my knot went inside a little more each time. His breaths became more ragged, the sounds he made were reaching a fever pitch, in decibels I couldn’t hope to hear.
“Please,” he gasped. With one last push, and pulling his cheeks as far as I could, I pushed the knot in. It wedged itself there, locking us together. We went still, both gasping for air. It was the best feeling – warmth and closeness and all the endorphins we could handle. I could feel the orgasm about to trip. I tried to hold onto sanity; I didn’t think I’d succeed. Just then, I didn’t much care.
Camp Lake Omega Page 11
