Page 34 of Hide or Die

Kam took a tiny, hitching breath, and then another. The silence grew heavy.

“Yes, please, alpha,” he whispered, after a long, hesitant pause. Another tremor shuddered through his body. “I just... need... something to make all of this go away for a bit.”

A low purr rumbled up from Flynn’s chest. His weight shifted among the pillows and cushions. Muscular arms closed around Kam from behind.

“Come here, ginger tea,” he said. Still purring, the alpha curled his muscular body around my packmate. I squeezed myself against Kam’s front, tucking my head under his chin and wrapping my arms around him, too.

“I love you,odama,” I murmured against Kam’s collarbone. I might’ve been awash in post-orgasmic hormones, but it was still the truth.

“Hear that?” Flynn asked. “Your packmate loves you. It’s all right—you’re safe now. You’re both safe.”

Kam held himself with brittle stillness for long moments, his heart pounding a frantic, staccato rhythm against my cheek. Finally, a silent sob jerked free of his chest, followed by another, and another. Flynn curled tighter against him, his big hand coming to rest on my shoulder as we pressed Kam between us, giving him a safe place to fall apart.

THIRTEEN

Flynn

SOCIAL CUES were complicated, especially in the beta world. That’s why I’d always found it easier to trust Alex, or in a pinch, Jax, to make decisions about that kind of stuff, and just do whatever they said. Omegas were easy to understand, though—especially when heat was involved.

Kam was one badly broken omega, partly because beta assholes had apparently gotten hold of him young... but partly because he’d crammed himself into a box that didn’t fit. I had a sneaking suspicion that the ambassador—Leona—was in pretty much the same spot, though it wouldn’t surprise me if she buried the sharp edges a little deeper.

Passing in beta society was hard enough when you were aligned, with your gender matching what they expected of your biological sex. It was even harder if you were unaligned, as everyone in my little pack had ample cause to know. The idea that female alphas and male omegas even existed in the first place seemed to enrage betas. I could only imagine how Kam had twisted himself to fit into the role ofbeta male. Testosterone injections, almost certainly. Brutal gym workouts to maintain the sort of musculature that betas expected, probably.

Meanwhile, Leona would have needed to fight not only the perception that a hyper-feminine woman wasn’t suited to a high-stress political post helping to shape international policy, but also the added softness that came with being an omega. Instead of letting it define her, she’d channeled that soft aura into diplomacy, subtly turning an omega’s social influence within the pack against hardened beta diplomats and world leaders. How many of them had found themselves talked around to her point of view with no idea how it had happened, I wondered?

The two of them were pack to each other, but it was clear enough they’d never had anyone to guard their nest so they could let down their defenses every once in a while. Kam was trying to play alpha even though he had no bark or bite to back it up—convinced it was his responsibility to protect Leona when she was at her most vulnerable. No wonder he was shaking apart in the circle of my arms, clinging to hisodamaas he cried out the stress and terror of the past several days.

When it came to emotion, I didn’t feel all that much in the normal course of things—and that was the way I liked it.Numb. When I did get hit with feelings, it was simple stuff. I was angry at whoever had hurt Jax. If the stuck-up bastard ended up dying on us, I’d be angry at him, too. The emotions of the heat-nest were straightforward, even if I’d only experienced them firsthand on a tiny number of occasions. I hadn’t been a breeder on the slave plantation—except once, when a high-value omega was cycling and they didn’t have any better options to get her pupped on schedule. Mostly, though, I’d just been muscle. A laborer.

But an alpha still knew what was needed. Protectiveness. Steadiness. That was what we provided, when omegas were vulnerable and coming apart at the seams. It was probably the same thing that made beta women flock to us, whenever they thought they could get away with it without being shamed.

I shifted in the nest of pillows. My dick ached—my knot wishing it was in a nice warm passage where it wanted to be. Of course, my dick ached a lot after sex, since just because beta women thought they could take the alpha knot, it didn’t mean splitting them open withmyknot was something that would end well. Hence the more reasonably sized dildo, among other handy contraband sex toys.

At least it had come in useful here. From her reaction to the modest, beta-sized toy, it was pretty clear Leona was a virgin. I wondered if Kam had ever let an alpha try to work around whatever had been done to his body when they sterilized him. I’d been with two other sterilized omegas sexually since I’d been drafted into the UFNA military program. One had still been able to get off with a bit of patience and creativity. One hadn’t.

I vowed to find out which camp Kam fell into the next time Leona went into heat—because, to my mind, there was no question that both of them would be ours by then. I could picture it with total clarity inside my head. Jax would recover from whatever shit the terrorists had pumped into him. Kam and Leona would accept our courting and agree to mate with us. Three months from now, we’d take turns knotting Leona through her peaks. Well... okay. Alex probably wouldn’t let herself join in with us, because of what had happened with Irina a few years back. That had been ugly—but it wouldn’t happen again. We wouldn’t let it.

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