Page 14 of Truth or Lie

Or, maybe wrong wasn’t the word?

Someone was whispering in my ear. Possibly two someones? They were so far away, though. It felt like I was standing in a long tunnel, and they were at the far end. My eyes had slipped closed as I tried to focus inward. A slender hand gripped my thigh and I wrenched them open again. Leo’s hazel gaze bored into mine.

“Kam?” Her voice trembled on my name.

Jax was standing right behind her. Distantly, I was cognizant of what I must look like, sprawled across Flynn’s lap with splatters of fluid drying on my belly and thighs. It didn’t matter. Something had just happened, and I couldn’t quite trust that I wasn’t dreaming.

“That’s you, isn’t it, Ginger Tea?” Flynn asked, with something like wonder.

“Kam, we can feel you,” Leo said.

And... it wasthem. They were the ones standing at the end of the tunnel. My breath stuttered and caught inside my chest. Jax crouched next to us, one hand on Leo’s shoulder and one on mine.

“What’s happening?” he asked. “You can feel a bond forming?”

“It’s faint, but yeah,” Flynn said. “You two are already mated. Can’t you feel it?”

Jax shook his head. “No, nothing on my end. Kam?”

He expected an answer. I moved my lips a couple of times before words came out. “I don’t think so?” My voice sounded strange in my own ears.

Leo’s fingers tightened on my leg. Her words were rushed. “Jax. Bite me. Right now.”

There was a slight pause, and then Jax said, “You think he’s piggybacking off Flynn’s mate-bond with you?”

“Maybe,” Leo replied, sounding unsure.

“That could make sense,” Flynn said. “Just like we think your system uses Leo’s heat pheromones to help you perfume, Kam.”

Jax leaned in to kiss the top of my head, then the top of Leo’s. “A second bite’s going to hurt a lot worse than the first, love. I still want you riding a sex-high when it happens, so you don’t notice as much, okay?”

Leo rolled her lower lip between her teeth for a long moment before giving a reluctant nod. “Okay.”

Behind me, I felt Flynn’s chest rise as he breathed in, scenting the air. “It won’t be long. You’re climbing toward another peak, Sweet Thing.”

I breathed in as well, still feeling like something huge and warm was wrapped around my lungs—smothering me, but in a good way. I could track Leo’s impatience and Flynn’s curiosity as faraway echoes behind my own rampaging emotions. This couldn’t really be happening, could it? I was broken—not a proper omega anymore, despite what the others said. I couldn’t have a real mate-bond.

Could I?

Leo climbed up to straddle my legs, both of us in a messy tangle on Flynn’s lap. Her lips pressed against my forehead, then to each of my eyelids, and finally my lips. This kiss wasn’t chaste. It was filthy, and it helped me center myself instead of spiraling out of control.

The others would take care of me, no matter what this impossible thing meant for us in the long term. I was safe. My shoulder throbbed with Flynn’s bite, and Leo’s throbbed in sympathy through the faraway bond. Flynn’s mouth closed over the raw wound again, soothing it with his tongue and sending fresh shivers along my overstretched nerves.

It was okay. We were okay. Maybe this was some kind of post-orgasmic dream and not reality, but at least it was a good dream? Flynn was a sharp-edged shadow in my mind, his details hard to make out. But even at a distance, Leo shone so very brightly. I managed to get enough muscle control back to wrap my arms around her and hold tight, kissing her back with everything I had.

* * *

Flynn had, predictably, been right about Leo’s next peak. It was hardly anytime at all before her hormones took control again, rendering her mindless with need. Jax put her on her hands and knees. She arched her back, presenting for him, and I watched from the shelter of Flynn’s arms as they coupled, raw and wild and joyful.

Flynn purred behind me, churning out happy, protective pheromones as fast as Leo and Jax churned out lustful ones. It was impossible for me to obsess and overanalyze everything under these conditions—doubly so, since my muscles still felt like rubber after the orgasm Flynn had wrung from me earlier.

I closed my eyes, trying to track what was happening through the fragile bond, rather than by sight. I could feel what Leo was feeling, but it was still muffled, like there was a blanket draped over the connection. And then, Jax bit her.

The jolt of pain and pleasure sparked along the bond with more clarity than anything else had so far, ebbing and cresting in a rhythm with her cries and garbled pleas ofyes, more, don’t stop. Suddenly, Jax was just...there... as though he’d always been there inside me—a storm half-seen on the horizon, companion to Leo’s sun and Flynn’s shadow.

“Holy shit,” Flynn said, taken aback. “This is so wild. You getting that, Ginger Tea?”

“A bit,” I managed, taking in the fact that Leo and I had afucking mated packnow... even if it was currently one person short.

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