Page 20 of Fight or Fly

SEVEN

Alex

I’D FORGOTTEN, damnit. I’d forgotten what it was like to be knot-deep in an omega, holding them as they came down from a crashing peak. Not that Irina had been carrying anything like the kind of baggage that Kameron Patel was carting around—but the emotions of the heat-nest were still the same.

It wasn’t remotely like knotting an obliging beta male. I was drunk on Leona’s heat pheromones, my own alpha hormones sloshing around my brain in a heady cocktail ofprotectandmarkanddominateas Kameron’s body fluttered and clenched around the swollen base of my clit. My mouth watered with the need to bite, for Christ’s sake—and only the knowledge that doing so wouldn’t accidentally initiate a bond kept me from freaking the fuck out.

Was I broken? Defective somehow? Did all of the self-control I exercised inevery other aspect of my lifemean nothing the moment I was around an omega in heat?

I’d been watching the others like a hawk, and there’d been no indication so far that biting had even entered their minds.I’ve never been tempted to bite, Jax had said, and maybe he’d been telling the truth. Maybe it was just me.

I swallowed saliva, smelling the faint hint of ginger and lemon through the heavier miasma of sweetness. The omega in my lap made a humming noise and nuzzled against my throat. His cheeks were wet. Something clenched painfully in my chest.

Flynn crouched beside the divan where the rest of us were piled in a messy tangle. He reached out one big hand and ran it through Leona’s sweat-soaked hair. Her head was still resting on Kameron’s thigh. Her body, limp as a dishrag, was draped over the lower end of the couch. Jax knelt behind her, apparently intending to let her ride out his knot right where she was. He murmured soothing nonsense to her, stroking his fingers up and down her spine. His focus was on her, just as it should be.

Flynn’s focus, on the other hand, was on me. He gestured in a clear request for permission to touch Kameron while I was knotting him. I gave him a weary nod, stomping down on the ridiculous warning growl that wanted to rumble up from my chest.

My packmate laid his palm flat over Kameron’s belly, fingers spread. The omega’s breath puffed out in a sigh against the side of my neck.

“Did that feel good, Kam?” Flynn asked. “Did you like it when we made you come?”

Kameron nodded, not lifting his head from the crook of my neck. “Mm-hmm. ’S good. Thank you, alphas.”

Flynn nodded as well. “You want it again, you just ask. We’ll pin you down and make you come whenever you want. Lots of time to make up for, right?”

I tried not to tense up, not wanting to upset the omega still trapped on my knot. That hadn’t sounded like Flynn was only talking about the period of the heat contract. In lieu of saying anything aloud, I directed a glare in his direction.

It bounced right off him.

“What about you,alef?” he asked me. “You doin’ okay?”

And how thehellwas I supposed to answer that?

“Fine,” I managed.

And now Jax was shooting me worried glances as well.Brilliant.

“Fine,” I repeated more forcefully. Kameron let out a happy little gasp in response to the hint of a bark in my tone. He rolled his head to the side to bare his throat to me, which wasnothelping the situation, damn it. Leona didn’t react at all—already down for the count, it seemed. The others had the good sense to back off.

I shoved everything out of my head as best I could, letting myself sink into the raw physicality of the joining instead, as I waited for my knot to go down.

* * *

Later, as Leona dozedunder Jax and Flynn’s watchful gazes, I sat once more on the end of the sectional. I’d snatched a quick shower and put some clothes on. So had Kameron. He sat on the cushion-covered floor at my feet, with his back propped against the front of the couch, loosely hugging his knees.

The unrelenting aura of tension that usually hung over his head like a cloud was gone—it was amazing what a good fuck could do. Now, he merely appeared thoughtful.

“You’re still thinking too loudly,” I told him, somewhat against my better judgment.

He glanced up at me, surprised. “Really? I thought I was being admirably quiet about it this time.”

I raised an eyebrow, and he huffed. “All right. Yes. I’m trying to decide if it’s appropriate to ask a personal question. I’ve been leaning towardno.”

I had a pretty good idea of what that question would be. “No, go ahead. You’ve had my clit up your ass. You might as well ask.”

Honestly, I was kind of surprised Leona hadn’t given him the complete rundown on my messy past already.

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