by Tanya Chris
“What if I say yes, though?” Owen still had his head turned studiously away, as if he were asking the fire to fuck him, but his cock was on the rebound, inflating with each beat of his pulse. Keesh ran a finger down the enlarging shaft, causing it to enlarge further until it stood straight away from his body.
“Are you going to hate yourself after if we do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how you…. I mean, you’re not an alpha.”
“I don’t have a knot, but I have all the rest of the parts. A cock, for instance.” Which was as hard as Owen’s. The two stretched toward each other, bobbing like swords in a friendly duel, grazing each other then skittering away again. “And a mouth.” He stuck out his tongue and used it to lick around his lips in a lascivious way. He’d never tasted slick before, but if it tasted as good as it smelled, then count him in.
Owen’s mouth gaped open in response. His tongue came out too, but in more of an unintentional panting way than in an attempt to be sexy. “You’d put your mouth on me?”
“Didn’t Devin do that?”
Owen shook his head, the vigor of the motion conveying both how little he had expected Devin to do any such thing and how much he would like Keesh to do it.
Keesh glanced around the clearing, the edges of which were barely lit by the reach of the fire he’d built. How long had Fortis been gone? What would he think if he came back to find Keesh with his mouth wrapped around the omega’s little dick? Would he be jealous? Excited? Disapproving?
They were supposed to be taking care of Owen, not taking advantage of him, but Owen wasn’t a virgin anymore and Keesh would love to change that sorrowful link he’d formed between sex and shame. He wanted to teach Owen how good sex could be, show him what an equal exchange of affection and pleasure was like and how much more Owen ought to expect from a mate than a knot.
He spun Owen onto his back. “You’re sure?” He had to give Owen a chance to change his mind, but he was thrilled when Owen didn’t change it.
Owen wiggled his hips against the dirt of the forest floor, his eye open wide like he didn’t want to miss a moment. Keesh lowered himself onto his elbows, framing the narrow span of Owen’s round hips between his arms. Owen’s cock thrust up at him, gleaming in shades of yellow and orange from the fire playing over it.
The novelty of omega slick called, so Keesh dipped his head to seek it out, burrowing between those plump thighs and pillowy ass cheeks to nudge into the cleft too deep for firelight to penetrate. He flicked out his tongue and got his first taste. The fluid, aptly named because he’d never touched anything so perfectly slick, burst in his mouth like unadulterated sex. Sweet without being sugary, rich without being sticky, yeasty without being cloying. A perfect concoction of heaven and earth.
Owen moaned as Keesh’s tongue probed his passage—a sound as rich as his taste. Great Moon, Keesh wished he had a knot to stuff Owen full of. He’d like to get his cock in there, knot or no knot, but Owen hadn’t consented to being fucked—not yet—so he reluctantly slipped his tongue out of the slick-dripped valley between Owen’s ass cheeks and raised it to run the length of his cock. Pretty cock. Small enough to suck down whole, which he promptly did. It filled his mouth like a treat, and when a drop of pre-come leaked from it, he tasted the omega in it. Owen’s come was going to be delicious, but Keesh would have to earn it.
He worked for his goal, mindful of the fact that Fortis might return at any moment. He didn’t want to lose his prize, to have to cede it to the alpha. Owen was his, and all alphas everywhere could go fuck themselves. Betas made the best lovers. Without a biological advantage, no easy gimme that allowed them to lie back and satisfy their partners without even trying, betas knew all the best techniques. And in the Central Pack where Keesh had come of age, where there’d been no stigma against sex outside of mating, he’d had ample opportunity to learn them all.
Owen had never had a blowjob before, but Keesh intended to make sure this wasn’t just the best blowjob he ever had had but the best blowjob he ever would have. He sucked hard, hollowing out his cheeks, loving the way Owen thrust his hips up in response. The longer he spent sucking Owen’s cock, the more he wanted to suck it. Why had he wasted so much energy pursuing alphas—pursuing one alpha in particular—when he could’ve had this? A precious plaything, someone who wanted to be pampered, a responsive partner who held nothing back.
Owen voiced his every emotion, cooing and moaning in amazement, whimpering and pleading in anticipation. He belonged so wholly to Keesh in that moment. It was powerful, intoxicating, addictive. Maybe Keesh could keep him, whisk him off to the Central Pack where they’d never have to deal with Prince Devin or any abusive alpha, where Owen would never be told that he could only be fulfilled by a knot. Maybe Keesh could have this—someone to call his own, the possibility he’d given up on when he’d decided to make his home in North Leland because he couldn’t bear to leave Fortis, despite that fact that he would never really have Fortis. Could he make a different decision now?
Owen came with an urgent keen—the explosion as satisfying, the flavor as rich, as Keesh had anticipated, but a more permanent joy remained out of reach. As sweet as it was to have this precious bundle squirming beneath him, moaning out his name, Keesh still didn’t know if he could walk away from Fortis, from the wolf he’d wanted for most of his adult life, the one he admired and respected and lusted after and loved. His best friend and the mate he would never have.
And even if he could, would Owen want him?
For now, Owen had settled into a contented stillness, purring out a litany of praise for the pleasure Keesh had given him, but it wasn’t a knot. And Keesh could never be an alpha.
Fortis
The clearing smelled like sex. Over the scent of fresh blood coming from his kill, Fortis could smell slick and come. It wasn’t Keesh’s come that flavored the air, because his cock was fully engorged, impossible to miss even by firelight. He had a nice cock, one Fortis had admired before, and it was harder now than he’d ever seen it, because that wasn’t just a stray erection. That was the result of some recent sexual activity with, obviously, the omega.
Owen’s cock was floppy with a shine that spoke of saliva, and his expression was a combination of satisfaction and guilt whereas Keesh’s was pure guilt. While Fortis had been out catching their dinner, the two of them had been fucking. He had no claim on either of them, but it hurt all the same. Keesh had always had a thing for him—watched him with his pretty green eye, so unusually colored and so expressive, as if to compensate for the dark blankness of the patch on the other side. Fortis had never taken Keesh up on the offer he’d read in that single green eye, because he would only end up disappointing him in the end—and Keesh was the one wolf in all the world he least wanted to disappoint—but he’d enjoyed seeing it there.
A better friend would be glad if Keesh found someone else to lust after, someone he could share his bed and his life with, someone who would see him as enough. But now that the prospect of such a thing had appeared, Fortis didn’t like it at all. Keesh was his. Keesh didn’t want an omega anyway. He liked alphas. He liked Fortis. Not this precious little ball of nerves who was even now cowering as if something were after him.
The something was him, Fortis realized. He’d barged into the clearing with the aggression of an angry alpha fighting to reclaim what had been taken from him. For a moment there, he’d been ready to challenge Owen, of all ridiculous things. Or maybe it was Keesh he wanted to challenge. He didn’t even know.
He refused to settle, that was the problem. He couldn’t give up Keesh, and he couldn’t give up on the idea of having an omega. So while he stewed over an unsolvable dilemma, Keesh and Owen had solved it for each other. Neither one of them needed him now.
He tossed his pack into the space between them, not caring that the thud of it landing scared Owen even more. Keesh moved the bag out of the way and hauled Owen against his side, throwing a hard look in Fortis’s direction. Owen might be int
imidated by his alpha posturing, but Keesh wasn’t. Keesh knew him too well. He might bluster, but he wouldn’t hurt.
“One of you going to cook that?” he asked.
“Did you clean them?” Keesh let go of Owen with one hand to flip open the pack.
“No, I didn’t clean them. I thought maybe since I caught them…”
“What crawled up your ass?”
“Gee, I wonder.” Fortis glared at Keesh who was still cuddling a clearly terrified Owen against his side. The smell of scared omega was killing him. He wanted to be the one fixing it, not the one causing it, but he didn’t know how to turn off his glower.
“I’ll clean them,” Keesh said, “but I shouldn’t do it where we’re going to sleep.”
Fortis agreed to that with a nod. They were probably the biggest predators in the neighborhood, but there was no point attracting attention to themselves. There were only three of them, and they had an omega with them.
“Not sure I can leave Owen alone with you right now though.”
Fortis growled in annoyance. Of course he could be trusted with the omega.
“I’m serious. You need to stand down. I don’t know what has your hackles up—”
“You fucking well do.”
“I don’t. Is it me or Owen? Neither of us is yours to fight for.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
“Fuck.” His head knew he didn’t own either one of them, but his body laid claim to them both. This was his little pack. His omega. His best friend.
Since Keesh was right that he couldn’t be trusted, he snatched the bag out of his hands and crawled back out through the ring of bushes to clean the carcasses himself, at a distance far enough away to not attract anything looking for a meal to their campsite and also far enough away that he couldn’t smell Keesh’s arousal or Owen’s come.
Tearing through bloody entrails satisfied his alpha’s bloodlust, and by the time he got back to the campsite, it smelled more of smoke than of sex. He handed the bag to Keesh who buried the carcasses in the embers to cook, and soon the predominant smell was of roasting meat. Keesh had to stop groping the omega in order to tend to their dinner, and that helped too.
Fortis’s inner alpha had backed off, but Owen wasn’t reassured. He sat with his arms wrapped around his knees, his eyes carefully following Fortis whenever he moved.
“He won’t hurt you,” Keesh said to him finally. “He’s in charge of you, that’s all. He’s trying to protect you.”
It was only half true, but it was a chance for him to apologize, so he did. “I didn’t mean to scare you. It was a surprise to find you fooling around with Keesh, that’s all. I didn’t think you’d be into it. You seemed so…”
“So what? Undesirable?”
“I was going to say virginal.” Fortis cocked his head. What could possibly be undesirable about Owen? “I thought we were trying to return you to your father all untouched.”
“Too late.”
“You shouldn’t have messed around with him,” Fortis jabbed at Keesh. He was all for omega rights, but Owen was an omega of royal blood from a pack nowhere near as progressive as the Northern Pack had become.
“I don’t mean what Keesh did,” Owen said. “I mean Prince Devin.”
“Prince Devin what?”
“Fucked him,” Keesh said. “Fucked him, knotted him, rejected him.”
Fortis had managed to settle himself down enough to sit on the opposite side of the fire from Owen, but he was on his feet again now. Owen wasn’t his to revenge or protect, but his alpha didn’t know that. The anger—the hurt and betrayal—that had risen up in him at the realization that Keesh and Owen had been fucking each other in his absence was nothing compared to what burned in his chest now.
“Did he take you against your will? I’ll fucking kill him. I don’t care what he’s prince of. It’s about time someone challenged that fucker.”
“It’s my own fault,” Owen said. “I wanted it. I liked it.”
“He consented because he thought Devin was going to claim him,” Keesh explained as he rubbed Owen’s back. “I don’t think he’d have done it otherwise. No one’s mad at you,” he told Owen, who was crying with great, heaving sobs that were tearing Fortis apart.
“My father will be. No one will want me now. I’ll probably be locked up in the palace. No mate, no freedom.”
“Hey, now.” Fortis tugged Owen up and wrapped him in his arms, letting his alpha pheromones wash over the little guy who was going to make himself sick if he kept crying that hard. “Keesh wanted you, didn’t he? Keesh is a good wolf. He’d make a fine mate. And there’s plenty of others like him.”
“Alphas?”
“Sure, alphas too.”
“Would you claim an omega who’s already been had?” Owen asked bitterly.
“Absolutely, yes.” He’d reacted to Keesh and Owen having sex, but not because he thought they didn’t have the right to do it. “Listen, why are we taking you back home if you’re going to be unhappy there?”
“Because I don’t have anywhere else to go, and I can’t stay in North Leland. Not if he’s going to be there. I don’t care how liberal the laws are.”
Fortis understood. If he lost Keesh to Owen, he didn’t know if he could go on being friends with him, and yet what had he asked Keesh to do all these years? Stand by him as a friend without a chance of more. He made eye contact with Keesh over Owen’s head, trying to apologize for years of stringing him along. But the omega in his arms smelling fresh and needy as he succumbed to the comfort of alpha pheromones reminded him that this part of him couldn’t be denied either.
Keesh was a strong, capable wolf, clever with his hands and quick to see solutions when problems presented themselves. He could find his way through a forest, catch his own food, fight off whatever needed to be fought. He didn’t need Fortis like this. In fact, he was more a source of care and comfort than someone in need of it. And Great Mother only knew what Keesh would think of the things Fortis wanted to do to him in bed. Owen would eat them up. Keesh would probably never speak to him again.
“What about the Central Pack?” Keesh asked. He was squatting next to the fire, pretending to be keeping an eye on their dinner but mostly watching the two of them. “We could bring him there instead.”
“Good idea,” Fortis agreed. “You’d like it there, little one.”
“What would I do in the Central Pack? I don’t know anyone. Or how to do anything.”
“They’d take care of you,” Keesh assured him. “Find you a place to live, teach you a skill. You’d have all the freedom you wanted—to run and hunt and fuck. You could get mated or not, whichever you liked, and have all the sex you wanted.”
“And knots?” Owen asked, looking up at Fortis with something other than fear on his face this time. Fortis’s cock jumped up just from the suggestion. See. This was the problem.
“And knots,” Keesh answered. He turned away to poke at the fire where their meat was getting overcooked. “Whatever you want.”
Owen
The second day wasn’t as bad as the first. By now, Owen had met most of the critters who shared the forest with him. There were chipmunks and rabbits and squirrels, all of which were too small and cute to be afraid of. There were birds who sang, though only at a distance, and snakes, who still made him nervous. Fortis had tried to explain which snakes would hurt him and which wouldn’t, but they were all scary to him.
Fortis knew everything about the forest, and Keesh did too. Last night, after they’d all settled down, Fortis and Keesh had stuffed him full of squirrels and information as the three of them sat around the campfire ignoring the sexual tension that seemed to run every which way at a constant low thrum.
When Fortis had burst into the clearing with wild eyes, his fangs lowered and the strands of his bright blond hair standing practically on end, Owen had thought for a moment Fortis was going to kill him. After an exhausting day followed by an unexpect
ed but very good orgasm, there hadn’t been enough left in his emotional tank to handle facing an angry alpha. He’d fallen spectacularly apart—first shaking himself half to death, then breaking into helpless tears when all his sins were revealed. He’d let Keesh please him, and he’d let Prince Devin take him, and Fortis was mad.
But not, as it turned out, at him.
As Owen followed Fortis’s haunches the next morning, his paws pitter-pattering over the rough dirt trail, he tried to make sense of it all, but wolf minds weren’t good at complex thinking, and his just kept saying things like pack and home. He couldn’t figure out if that meant Central Pack territory or Western Pack territory. Could the Central Pack be his pack? Could it be home?
He didn’t have to decide today, because Keesh said they wouldn’t get to the turn-off until tomorrow. But then he’d have to choose. Safe confinement in his father’s palace or an unknown world where he would have freedom but no one to take care of him. And look what happened when he took care of himself. He’d been delivered to North Leland perfectly untouched, and a few weeks later he’d had sex with two different wolves and was thinking about a third.
It was ridiculous. Foolish. Keesh was everything better than an alpha. He was kind, considerate, attentive, and he gave really good blowjobs. Prince Devin had never gone down on Owen, but Owen had gone down on him a few times, and he saw now that he’d had no idea what he was doing. Absolutely no idea. Because wow.
Blowjobs as good as that ought to be enough. A nice beta like Keesh for a mate ought to be enough.
But alphas were just so… alpha. And Fortis was magnificent. Brawny, confident, and aggressive in a way Owen was starting to understand would never be used against him. Fortis had a knot, just like Prince Devin, and unlike Prince Devin, he was willing to claim an omega who’d already been had. Fortis wasn’t even worried about defying Prince Angel. When Owen reminded him that he’d been given an assignment by a member of the royal family, he shrugged it off.
