Page 87 of Into the Fire: Before

Caine’s scoff pulled me from my spiral. “Yeah fucking right,” he said.

Brooks turned from the front seat. “Don’t you mean, ‘yeah, fucking right you are!’” He tried for a stern expression, but the dimples ruined it.

I tied my hair up in a high messy bun to get it off my neck and pulled my sweatshirt off as Brooks and Caine and Brea bickered over each other about whether or not he’d continue therapy after all this was done. It became background music as I stared out the window and watched the landscape rushing by.

A playbill from the show was still nestled in the seat pocket. I pulled it out and fanned myself, hoping for a rest stop and some fresh air soon.

Brooks

Theoretically,weshould’vehadfour or five more days before Taryn’s heat set in.

Practically, ten hours in the cramped confines of the SUV with three alphas was apparently too much for Taryn’s fragile hormones.

It was the universe, I was convinced, giving us the biggest and most ironicfuck youof all time.

We’d pulled off to refuel and stretch our legs around hour five, and Lin had shoved the keys into my hands. The alphas could already sense she was barreling toward her actual preheat, and when she did someone had to be behind the wheel who wasn’t at risk of going into rut.

So at hour seven, when Taryn’s first needy whine had broken through and she’d climbed into Brea’s lap, I was driving, forced to keep my eyes on the road.

I did mention the cosmic ‘fuck you’ at play here, right?

That hour was the hardest of my life, staring ahead into the dark, listening to first Brea, then Lin, use their mouths and fingers to soothe the increasingly desperate omega to climax.Her sweat smelled like salted toffee, and it made my cock ache to be soaked in it. She fell asleep in Brea’s lap.

Caine sat up front with me, not trusting himself still, even after all the revelations of the last few days.

My alpha will take over. I won’t be myself. I don’t know if he can share. I don’t want to hurt anyone.

Excuse, excuse, excuse, but no one asked me, so I kept my mouth shut.

Taryn woke halfway through hour eight, her perfume so thick it spun even my head a bit. Caine sat next time, hands clenched on the console and door handle, the tendons of his neck standing out sharp as he clenched every muscle in his body in response to her once again rising preheat scent.

“Liiiin,” she whined, slipping off her mate’s lap and into my mate’s.

“Ssshhhh, precious, we got you,” he answered, voice low and sultry.

“Need a knot, Alpha.”

Fuck me sideways and bury me upside down.

Next moment, and we were swimming in toffee and honey, blackberry and cream. The air positively dripped with their heightened scents, Taryn falling deeper and deeper into heat and Lin barely hanging onto the sane side of rut.

My cock stood up at the sounds they made as he fucked her, Taryn riding him with the prettiest sighs and moans I’d ever heard, as he brought her to the edge and then slipped his knot inside her right before they both toppled over. I breathed through my mouth and kept watch out the windshield.

Barely ninety minutes away from the cabin.

Behind me, sounds of kisses tingled my skin. To my right, Caine sat stiff and terrified, like he was staring into the barrels of a firing squad.

Still, his own blood orange and cinnamon aroma bloomed bit by bit.

“Need alpha,” Taryn mewled from behind us.

“Right here,” Brea crooned.

“Needallmy alphas,” Taryn insisted through a whine that bordered on a sob.

I cut my eyes toward Caine. “Get back there, man.”

He gave a sharp shake of his head. “Can’t.”

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