by Tanya Chris
“You see?” Keesh said to Owen. “Being an alpha means something when he wants it to mean something. You like being obeyed, don’t you, Alpha?”
Fortis gave Keesh an unimpressed look, but it didn’t fool any of them. He really did like being obeyed. And now they were all hard again because alpha/omega dynamics turned them all on. It was just too bad Keesh didn’t have a role in that particular dynamic.
Fortis
The two wolves sitting in front of Fortis couldn’t be more different. Keesh had corralled Owen’s midnight-black hair back into a neat braid, but his own hair stood out in sprigs as random as a thornwood bush, despite the fact that Fortis had just combed through it himself. Keesh’s stance was comfortable but alert, and a light smile played over his lips even though his cock was hard and the air thrummed with pheromones.
Owen looked cowed. Nervous after his burst of aggression, huddling back into Keesh as if he knew Keesh would protect him with his dying breath but didn’t realize Fortis would too. Neither of them understood how irresistible they were.
What would Keesh think if Fortis tore into him the way he’d been wanting to for five years? How fast would his crush evaporate if he knew what Fortis was really like? Fortis hadn’t been lying when he’d told Owen there wasn’t as much difference between alphas, betas, and omegas as some alphas would like to believe, but his equal-rights rah-rah spiel fell apart in bed. There, he had a tendency to go full-alpha, something most betas weren’t willing to put up with.
Keesh was independent, clever, capable. He didn’t need anyone bossing him around, in bed or out. Look how he’d jumped on Fortis for wanting to take Owen on a little detour. No, he wasn’t Owen’s alpha, and no, he didn’t believe in imposing his will on an omega just because he had the strength to do it, but come on. The detour would be for Owen’s own good.
“I’ll teach you to how to be a wolf,” he told Owen, “but I need some time to do it. No one’s waiting for you back home, are you they?”
“I guess not. My father probably thinks I’m mated to Prince Devin by now.”
“Are you in a hurry to tell him what really happened?”
Owen shook his head wildly.
“So how about we go visit the town Keesh is from. What’s it called again, Keesh?”
“Hybernia. There’s really only one town in Central Pack territory populated enough to be named. We have a lot of space and not that many wolves, so we like to spread out. Maybe we’re antisocial.” Keesh bared his teeth in an ironic grin. For an antisocial pack, the Central Pack did a lot of recruiting.
“How long would it take to get there?” Owen asked.
“A couple days. It’s not far out of the way.”
“Keesh would probably enjoy seeing his family,” Fortis suggested.
“Don’t make him feel obligated,” Keesh said with a tsk.
“I wouldn’t mind going.” Owen picked at his fingertips where his claws were currently sheathed, as if checking to see where they’d gone. “I’d like to learn to hunt, even though I probably won’t ever need to.”
“You never know.” Fortis hated the idea of any wolf being helpless, but especially Owen. If he was going to return to his overbearing father and oppressive pack, he’d need to have some survival skills.
“I guess we could go for a little while.”
“There’s my boy.” He tipped up Owen’s chin to give him a kiss, then pried him out of Keesh’s arms, impatient to get them all moving again. He led the way back to the spot where the trail to Central Pack territory branched south and then Keesh took it from there, starting off at a slow pace but speeding up as he went, as if he could smell home calling to him. Three days of running had improved Owen’s conditioning considerably. His footsteps were more certain, his breathing more even. He was still easily distracted, but he no longer jumped at every little rustle, and they all got distracted sometimes. They were wolves in the woods. There was a lot to check out.
Keesh stopped them while the sun was still high in the sky. They were passing through human territory, in between pack lands, and needed to think about where they could spend the night.
“A hunting lodge.” Keesh tapped the side of the rustic cabin he’d led them to, as if checking to see how solid the structure was. “Technically we’re supposed to be club members to stay here, but we’ll leave them a little donation.”
“Do they hunt wolves in this neck of the woods?” Fortis sniffed the air, checking for the smell of either humans or gun powder.
“Not this time of year, not legally.”
“You said those stories about humans weren’t true,” Owen protested.
“I said they were exaggerated,” Keesh clarified. “Some humans do hunt wolves. Not shifters—as long as they know we’re shifters—which means we’re safer in human skin. We’re not supposed to be hanging out naked like this though.”
Fortis delved into his pack for something to cover the parts of him humans thought needed to be covered. Owen pulled a pair of fancy capris out of his. They were a bright green—brighter even than spring leaves—and had bells sewn along the cuffs so that he tinkled when he moved. Both alluring and impractical. Fortis shook his head at the idea of a wolf announcing his presence like that before donning a pair of canvas shorts himself. Why humans wore clothes when it was so hot out, he would never understand.
Keesh wrapped a swath of burgundy cloth around his waist. It fell to his knees, leaving the space between his thighs cool, and complimented the warm light brown of his skin perfectly. Fortis had seen him in a skirt before, but Owen hadn’t. His mouth gaped open so wide Fortis had to go over and close it for him.
“Sexy, I know.”
Owen nodded as his mouth sagged open again.
“What are you looking at?” Keesh asked.
“Just you.” Fortis lifted the skirt, flapping it up and down like he was fanning a fire. “You’re making us hot.”
Keesh swatted at his hand, embarrassed but pleased, and Fortis let the fabric drift down again as Owen opened the door to the cabin and peered inside.
“It’s a whole house,” he exclaimed excitedly. “Right in the middle of the woods. I thought humans lived in cities.”
“Some do, some don’t.” Keesh pushed the door open wider and gestured Owen inside. “But this isn’t a place humans live. More like a place they visit.”
The cabin was one big room, unfurnished other than a wood table encircled by polished stumps to use as chairs and a few rugs scattered across the space in front of the open hearth. Cast-iron pots and rudimentary cooking utensils hung from hooks around the fireplace, and someone had left a stack of wood. On the other side of the room, a ladder led up to a loft.
“What’s up here?” Owen asked, but he didn’t wait for an answer before climbing the ladder to see for himself. “It’s beds,” he called down. “Lots of beds.”
Fortis followed Owen up the ladder and saw exactly what Owen had reported. Lots of beds. No bedframes or bedding, but there were four mattress, and they smelled fresh enough to use. The ceiling was so low he couldn’t stand fully upright, and a single round window gave a nice, early-evening view of the woods they’d been walking through.
Fortis scooped Owen up and tossed him onto the mattress farthest from the ladder. Owen squealed happily as he bounced up and down.
“Been missing civilization, huh?”
“Not really. But this isn’t civilization. This is like a tree fort. Do we get to have a fire?”
“Just a small one to cook over.”
Owen was becoming as addicted to burning things as Keesh. The two of them with their marshmallows—all sticky fingers and wide-eyed enjoyment. It was enough to do Fortis in. Owen may have gotten his rocks off the other night, but Fortis sure hadn’t. He eyed the arrangement of mattresses. It wouldn’t be difficult to slide them all together, make one big bed.
He shook his head at himself. “It’s not bedtime yet,” he told Owen. “Come on, let’s go back down and help Keesh ge
t dinner on.”
It was a fancier dinner than their usual road fare. While Fortis was out catching game, Keesh foraged for herbs and root vegetables, bringing Owen along with him to teach him his ways. Fortis could hear their voices if he listened for them—Keesh’s steady informative baritone and Owen’s excited high-pitched squeaks.
When he’d caught enough meat for the three of them, he turned it over to Keesh and brought Owen back outside to start the lessons he’d promised. He let Owen practice sneaking up on him, pretending to be surprised despite the way Owen crashed through the brush as bad as a human.
Owen was a good pouncer though—threw a lot of momentum into his spring thanks to youth and enthusiasm. He would land on Fortis’s back with his claws out, and Fortis would roll around until he’d pitched him off, then get him subdued until they were both breathless—not so much from the mock battle as from the anticipation of what could come next.
Then Fortis would lever himself off Owen’s body and bark at him to try again. He was relieved when Keesh called them to supper, putting an end to the lessons that were too much like foreplay. As the two of them dashed back to the cabin, Fortis showed Owen what being hunted really felt like, and they arrived pell-mell in a tumble in front of the cabin door where Keesh stood with his arms crossed in feigned disapproval.
Dinner was delicious. What Keesh could do with a few plants and some extra time was impressive. Owen ate ravenously, consuming almost as much as Fortis himself before rifling through Keesh’s pack to find their dwindling supply of marshmallows. He fixed one to the end of a tapered branch someone had left by the fireplace. Keesh no doubt. Making sure his pack was fed and happy.
Keesh was cleaning up from dinner, something Fortis should probably help with, but the warmth and good food made him sleepy, and he was content to watch Owen roast a marshmallow with adorable concentration. Such a pretty thing with his hair down around him. Keesh would be over there braiding it again in a minute, but Fortis liked it like this.
“Isn’t that fire too warm?” he asked from his sprawl on the rug farthest from the fire.
“I don’t mind it.” Owen pulled the marshmallow off the stick. A long string of melted goo stretched between the stick and his hand, and he stuck his tongue out and slurped his way up it until he reached the marshmallow, which he popped in his mouth with a contented moan.
Fortis cupped a hand over his cock. That game of cat-and-mouse he and Owen had been playing before dinner had been one long tease. The whole last three days had been one long tease, ever since he’d caught sight of this dark-haired angel who had more enthusiasm than sense.
“You’re getting yourself all sticky,” Keesh tsked. He came over with a wet cloth, but Owen shook himself free when Keesh tried to attack him with it.
“I’ll just get sticky again,” he pointed out, not inaccurately. Then he set to licking his fingers, which didn’t help Fortis’s situation at all.
Fortis rolled onto his back, telling himself he didn’t need to watch, but the sound of Owen’s giggle echoed by Keesh’s lower chuckle had him checking to see what they were laughing about. Keesh had Owen’s fingers in his own mouth now, the marshmallow he’d been roasting forgotten in the coals.
“You’re going to burn that,” Fortis told him just as it burst into flames.
Keesh pulled the marshmallow from the fire and blew it out with an intentionally lewd purse of his lips. “This one’s for you then.”
Fortis didn’t particularly care for marshmallows, but if he was going to eat them, he did prefer them burnt. The taste of fire cut the cloying sweetness. He opened his mouth to let Keesh feed it to him, but Keesh detoured at the last second to intentionally bop his nose with the gooey mess, coating it in charcoal-colored stickiness. Fortis was about to launch himself at Keesh in retaliation when Owen bounded over to his side.
“I’ll fix it.” He hunkered down and licked Fortis’s nose, his pretty pink tongue with its delicate human texture straying all over his face. Owen was basically eating him alive, sucking and nibbling on him from chin to cheeks.
Fortis held him still to kiss him. Owen responded immediately this time—not like the day before when he hadn’t seemed to understand what Fortis wanted. He opened his mouth and swallowed Fortis’s tongue with the same noise he made when he was eating marshmallows, as if Fortis was a delicacy he wanted to be filled by. And Great Moon, Fortis wanted to fill him.
Getting his tongue in Owen’s mouth was only the first step. His cock was raring to go, so hard and ready, butting up against Owen’s flank in a quest for its desired destination, but as he hovered over Owen’s welcoming body, he caught sight of Keesh slinking away. And fuck, this wasn’t what he wanted. Owen, yes. But not at this cost.
Owen
Owen had been wanting this for daaays. He shouldn’t. He knew he shouldn’t. But he wanted it. He wanted it so bad. Not just Fortis and his big body pressing him down into the floor with his big cock, threatening at his entrance. Not just the knot Fortis would give him, but all the security that came with it—the feeling, however temporary, of home and mate. Fortis was his protector, his mentor and guide, the alpha of their traveling pack, and Owen wanted him to be his alpha. Owen wanted to give himself up the way he was meant to do.
The thrust of Fortis’s tongue in his mouth, the rough scrape of hairy skin over his own less hairy body, the smell of arousal, thick and intoxicating. It was everything Owen had gotten from Prince Devin, everything he was supposed to say no to and couldn’t, but damn the consequences. What worse could happen to him now?
Slick leaked from his ass, soaking through his capris. The sweet tang of it filled the room. He tipped his head back, letting Fortis have him, encouraging him deeper, overwhelmed with need and the promise of having it filled. He squirmed under the heavy weight of Fortis’s body, loving how he couldn’t go anywhere. He was pinned, captured, conquered.
And then he was wasn’t. Owen opened his eyes to see nothing above him except a thin trail of smoke wafting up to the rafters. The ice-hot blue of Fortis’s eyes, the cascading layers of his shaggy blond hair, the sharp points of his bared fangs, had all vanished.
“Where are you going?” Fortis’s voice said from somewhere that wasn’t directly on top of him. Owen sat up with a protest on his lips. He hadn’t gone anywhere. It was Fortis who’d left. But Fortis wasn’t asking him. He was asking Keesh, who’d stopped with one hand on the door to the cabin.
“Thought I’d take a run.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Keesh gestured in Owen’s direction. “You’re in the middle of something.”
Fortis made an exasperated sound as he raked a hand through the messy strands of his hair. “I’m not sure what to do here.”
“Look, I’m not anyone’s judge. If the two of you want to fuck, then fuck. I’ve been in your way.”
“You’re not ever in the way.”
Owen wanted Fortis to come back and finish what he’d started. He’d didn’t understand why Keesh had to leave or why it was bad if he did, but something was wrong and it felt like his fault. “Should I go?” He started to get to his feet, but Fortis growled at him, so he sat back down.
“I want you to stay,” Fortis told Keesh.
“And watch you fuck the omega?”
“That was disrespectful. Use his name.”
“And watch you fuck Owen?” Keesh’s voice was tight and sharp. There was so much anguish in his expression that Owen whimpered. He didn’t want to hurt Keesh, but he was so turned on he might explode.
“Yeah.” Fortis’s voice was smooth in comparison. “I want you to stay and watch me fuck Owen. That’s what I want.
“Well, I don’t want that.”
“Are you sure?” Fortis cupped Keesh’s groin where the outline of his hard cock was clear against the fabric of his light cotton skirt. Owen swore he could see every vein running down the hard length of it.
Keesh gave an excited squeak at the contact. “That’s, um, uh…
. What does Owen want?”
Owen hadn’t known it until Fortis said it, but that was what he wanted. Please stay, he tried to say with his eyes.
“Go upstairs, Owen,” Fortis ordered with that steely edge to his voice that made Owen absolutely melt. He slunk slowly over to the ladder, fascinated by the two wolves at the door. Keesh was backed up against it, Fortis holding him there with nothing but the threat of his body.
“Now, Owen.”
He scrambled up the ladder, keeping his gaze resolutely upward as he climbed, but there was no way to tune out the strong scent of arousal. Fortis’s alpha pheromones and Owen’s slick mixed with a third note that could only be Keesh. Neither alpha nor omega, but strong and undeniably hot. Owen wanted to lick Keesh all over, but he also wanted a knot. He didn’t know what he wanted.
Up in the loft, he flopped onto the closest mattress and peeked back over the edge. Keesh had his head turned away, looking down at the floor as if he couldn’t bear to meet Fortis’s eyes.
“Now you,” Fortis ordered. When he stepped back, Keesh swayed as if he couldn’t stay upright without Fortis’s body hemming him in. Fortis caught him with a hand on his neck. He used it to tilt Keesh’s head up until he had no choice but to meet his eyes.
“Keesh.” There was something wheedling in Fortis’s voice. It was a command but also a plea. Keesh must’ve found it as irresistible as Owen did because he nodded. Fortis gave him a little shove toward the loft.
“Up you go,” he said when Keesh lingered at the base of the ladder.
“I could just stay down here.”
“But then you couldn’t be able to see.” Fortis came up behind Keesh and gave his ass a smack that got him moving.
“Why are you making me do this?” he complained as he climbed.
Fortis snorted. He was a step behind Keesh on the ladder, herding him up it. “As if I could make you do anything. This is what you want.”
Keesh came over the top of the ladder, his bulge leading the way. Owen scooted back to let him up and went tumbling off the mattress. Keesh sprang after him, and Owen popped up grinning with Keesh right in face.
