Page 40 of Hangman's Knot
"No!" Julius can't stand the thought of her thinking that, and his voice is hoarse and desperate as he responds. "No, baby. There's nothing we want more than for you to be our mate. But you're getting out of here. You're going to have opportunities and options. There's no taking a bite back. We just don't want you to be... tied down."
"You want me to... mate someone else?" Fuck. She sounded heartbroken, like he just fucking kicked her in the gut.
"No," he says again. His voice sounds weak, like he's making excuses.
He'd never let anyone else hear him like this, only her. She could have whatever softness he had left in his hard soul. "But we don't want you to mate us just because you were thrown in prison with us and we protected you. You don't owe us anything, baby."
She pauses, looking at him in confusion. Her hands tremble where she clutches the blanket to her naked body. When she finally speaks, her voice is slow and measured, like she's speaking to a particularly stupid toddler.
"I don't want to be your mate because you protected me and I think I owe you. I want to be your mate because you are good men and I am in love with you."
She giggles out a noise that sounds almost hysterical, and he fights the urge to reach for her.
"Do you know how many alphas would have just joined in to rape me that first day? Or who would have forced me to be their... their sex slave in here? Theirprison wife?Or pimped me out? But you didn't, you saved me.
"You never once have forced me to do something I didn't want to do. You go out of your way to make me feel safe. You feed me your own food, even if it means you go hungry. I would agree to be your mate even if we never saw each other again. Even if we have to be separated for the rest of our lives."
She lets out a frustrated little sigh and scrubs her hands over her eyes, quickly catching the blanket again before it falls, but he catches one sweet glimpse of her full tits.
"It's not like I was single because I just wasn't interested infinding a mate. I've always wanted a mate. I was single because I was never able to find a good alpha who made me feel safe. You made me feel safe, even in a prison full of rapists and murderers. You are the only mates I want, and the only mates I will ever want."
The juxtaposition between her soft words and the harsh voice she's using to deliver them is jarring and he doesn't know how to fucking respond. He's never been a man who did much communicating beyond "yes" or "no" or "go fuck yourself." The fuck did he know about declaring his feelings for a woman?
Tenor spares him from having to formulate something to tell her.
"What if you regret it?" His pack brother asks, a frown on his face. She turns to look at him, her gaze intense as she bores into his eyes with her own determination clear on her face.
"I will never regret you. Never," she says to him, her voice a harsh, determined whisper. "I would stay here with you if I could. But I know when something happens to me, you will never forgive yourself. So I'll go, and I will spend every minute I have working your appeals and trying to get you out sooner. I'll wait for you."
'When' something happens to her, she said, not 'if.' Because she knew they can't protect her forever, but she still wanted them anyways.
Tenor smiles softly down at her, and Julius can't help the smile tugging on his own face in response. This was why she was their mate, fierce little thing that she was. She had a fire inside of her, just like they did. And she was fucking right. She was theirs.
Before he can even think to stop himself, Julius crawls onto the bunk and nudges her until she is laying on her back, his body pressing her into the mattress.
She lets the blanket fall away, every bit of her body language soft and submissive to him as she reveals her perfect rack and smiles shyly up at him.
"You fucked up, Eden," he grumbles down at her, his words gruff even as his voice is that soft tone he only uses with her. "You should've just asked me. I'd have bitten you in without question."
"Watch your language," she says lightly, and goddamn does being scolded by teacher Eden do something to his dick.
Her arms and legs lock around him, her heels pressing into his ass as she pulls him to her with all her strength.
He's not sure if they should let her keep getting away with that little trick she's learned, but he cannot resist leaning forward and pressing a slow, affectionate kiss to her lips as he lines his cock up with her pussy and sinks it into her.
Fuck, she fit their cocks like she was made for them. Her little sheath flutters around him as he enters her. Tenor's seed and her own copious slick ease his way in and he groans into her skin as he seats himself fully inside her.
His lips tease against hers as he gently thrusts into her again. The omega had been so intent on getting Tenor relaxed and distracted to get his bite, she didn't manage to come herself, and now she's already poised right on the edge when he hasn't even done anything yet.
He holds her there, fucking her in slow teasing thrusts until she's near tears with the frustration, he pussy gripping and releasing him, small contractions rippling through her, the beginning of her orgasm just far enough that it can't take hold.
He doesn't touch her clit, careful to keep his thrusts just even enough to hold her there without tipping her over the edge or letting it recede.
All that military training on endurance and self-control and what did it teach him? How to torture the mate writhing on his cock. Fucking worth it.
"Please, alpha." She's a begging, pleading mess now. "Please, I'm so close, please, pleaseplease..."
"Please what, baby?"
