Page 16 of Truth or Lie

“I should make you buy me dinner first,” Kam muttered.

“You’re holding all our money,” I pointed out. “So that’s going to be difficult. I could do your laundry for a week, though?”

“Nowthat’sromance,” Flynn said, and Jax snorted a breath of laughter behind me. Flynn sobered a moment later. “Might be better to wait until we can get him nice and horny again, though. It’s going to hurt.”

But Kam shook his head. “No. Do it now—I need to know.” He huffed and rolled over, presenting his left shoulder with its inflamed mating gland, Flynn’s bite mark still livid against the olive-colored skin. “God. This is surreal,” he said.

I laid a hand on his shoulder, suddenly unsure. “I just sort of... get my teeth around his shoulder and bite down? That’s all?”

“That’s all,” Jax said. “Blood and saliva carry the genetic match, or so I gather.”

“Omega blood andalphasaliva,” Kam retorted.

I gave him a squeeze. “Careful, now. Anyone would think you didn’t want my bite. A girl could get a complex.”

His tense shoulders relaxed. “It’s not that, beloved.” He craned around, meeting my eyes over his shoulder. “I’m just trying not to get my hopes up. You know how I am about things.”

I did. So many times in Kam’s life, the worst of all possible outcomes had materialized just in time to punch him squarely in the face. He still had a surprising amount of optimism for the rest of the world, but he had trouble when it came to optimism for himself.

“No hopes,” I promised. “Only possibilities. I can still feel you. Can you feel me?”

His brown eyes glowed. “I can. You shine like a star.”

I smiled, tremulous. “And you draw me like a welcoming haven. Maybe we’ll feel even more, after this.”

He smiled back, uncertain, and turned away, baring his neck to me. As an omega, the idea of being bitten played into long-buried genetic and sexual instincts. But the idea of biting someone else felt foreign. I’d been raised as a beta, and... well... you didn’t just go aroundbitingpeople.

But I’d kissed and teased Kam’s mating gland countless times over the years, so I started there. He was extra sensitive to my touch after Flynn’s bite—just as he had been after Jax bit him, way back in the holding cell in Cuba. Rather than performing thewham-bam-thank-you-ma’amversion of omega-on-omega mating bites, I took my time, seeing how strung out I could make Kam with only my lips and tongue playing against the juncture of his neck and shoulder.

The answer?Verystrung out.

Unfortunately, there was no question of making him come again—not so soon after Flynn had taken him apart earlier. It took Kam a couple of days to recover from that, even in a nest full of heat pheromones. Flynn’s bite had already stopped bleeding under the power of his healing alpha saliva. I steeled myself, knowing that if I held back and didn’t break his skin on my first attempt, I’d just end up bruising him without accomplishing anything else.

“Sorry,” I whispered, before clamping my teeth around the raw flesh and biting down until I tasted fresh blood.

Kam stiffened, a faint, choked noise escaping his control—but he didn’t jerk away as I pulled bloodied lips away from the wound and started licking away at him. It felt...odd. Not nauseating like I might have expected, but the action didn’t really raise any buried instincts inside me, either.

“Oh,” Kam breathed, and I realized that the soft, warm presence in my head felt a bit closer now... a bit more immediate.

“That’swhat I’m talking about,” Flynn said with satisfaction.

“Too bad no one really does alphomic-based research these days,” Jax mused. “This is pretty interesting.”

“I’m happy not to be someone’s lab experiment,” Kam said breathlessly. “Thanks all the same.” He paused. “Though... I suppose if it could help other omegas in a similar situation...”

“Maybe there will come a day when that kind of science is common again,” Jax said.

“If so, we can always revisit it,” I agreed. “But, Kam! We’re mated. I can hardly believe it’s real.”

“Still withholding judgment on that part, actually,” Kam murmured.

I leaned around him so I could kiss him, heedless of the blood on my lips. He winced as I accidentally brushed against the wound, and I pulled back immediately.

“We’ll have to tell this hypothetical future scientist that omega saliva doesn’t do much for closing fresh wounds,” he said without rancor.

“I’m on it,” Jax replied, and eased me out of the way so he could get his mouth over the seeping injury. I scooted around to a better position and went back to kissing Kam like his life depended on it.

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