Page 42 of The Omega's Alpha
Green Moon wasn’t letting him off so easy. “What do you think, Mercy Hills? No, and I expect we’ll be forced to eat all the cost of the rebuild.” He sighed and Quin could feel the other Alpha’s pain in the sound. “Maybe we should just disperse into other packs, let the place go.” He shook his head and his gaze met Quin’s. He looked beaten, as if he’d spent his life fighting and this had been the final blow.
“That’s your decision, Green Moon,” Quin said carefully. “Myself, I’m reluctant to let them win, but it won’t be me fighting.” He paused and considered his next words. “But humans do have their uses. And we have a few here that we can use.” He led Green Moon around the side of the house to gaze back at the fire, where Garrick’s little group had gathered with Mac in the slowly dimming light of the funeral pyre. Boxes and boxes of liquor had come out, a gift from the humans, and Mac was organizing the dispersal. “They aren’t all bad, or cruel. But most of them are appallingly ignorant.” He turned back to Green Moon. “Consider it. But if there’s one thing the humans don’t like, it’s looking bad in front of each other. If this was caused by humans, that’s going to look incredibly bad. You can’t let them sweep it under the rug.”
He squeezed the other Alpha’s shoulder then and left him to think about Quin’s words. Quin was tired, and there was an omega and two orphaned pups waiting for him in their little hideaway in the trees.
Chapter Thirty-Six
That evening, the pack had a party. Not a happy party, but one of those gatherings that’s more about releasing pain and sadness in the company of those who understand what you feel. Garrick’s humans had brought alcohol for the living as well as the dead, and the pack was well on the way to tomorrow’s hangovers.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Holland, beautiful and for the first time since they’d arrived in Green Moon, his old self. Quin watched as he smiled and chatted and moved around with the grace of a hunter, and his prey followed him around like the amorous young men and women they were. It raised Quin’s hackles and he had a momentary thought that he needed to stop drinking before he hurt someone, and then Holland spotted him and his obvious delight in Quin’s presence crushed the youngsters who had been hanging hopefully around him.
“There you are!” Holland draped his arms around Quin’s neck and leaned against him. He tasted of sweet berries while their mouths were pressed together. “Someone’s looking after the pups. I’m all yours.”
Quin laughed, almost a bark of triumph, and swept Holland around in a circle. “You don’t want to visit?”
“No.” Holland began to back away, pulling Quin along behind him by one hand. His eyes danced wickedly and he’d never been more sensual, more desirable in Quin’s eyes. As if something about this night had stripped away everything except the essence of Holland. The crowd parted raggedly around them, everyone else just as wrapped up in their own incipient celebrations of life, so they barely noticed Quin and Holland except as they wormed through the crowd in their search for privacy.
Holland led him past the Mercy Hills tent, past the trees, into what Quin realized was a small garden tucked into an odd corner of the enclave wall. He stopped with his back to the wall and bit his lip, unusual but so sexy that Quin’s alpha side rose up, and he scooped Holland off his feet to lay him down in the scraggy grass below. Quin followed him down, his hands already sliding Holland’s t-shirt up to drag it off over his head. Holland gasped and laughed, working at the fastenings to his jeans and pushing them off while Quin stripped with equal eagerness and speed. And then it was his skin against Holland’s and all he wanted was to bury himself in the heat of Holland’s body and make this wonderful, loving, strong man his.
It seemed to him that Holland had the same thought. His hands roamed Quin’s body, setting off goosebumps of pleasure in their wake. While Quin ravaged his neck and his jaw, it felt to him that Holland found every single square inch of skin, setting off ribbons of sensation like chain-lightning over his body. Quin fed at his mouth and rubbed himself over Holland’s body, the hunger he felt for touch, for sex, for that eternal communion between an alpha and his mate driving him to wrap himself around Holland as if they could truly become one, instead of just the temporary illusion of it.
Holland moaned and arched into him, fluid as a willow. He bit at Quin’s lower lip then pulled away to bury his face in the side of Quin’s neck, breathing deeply and shuddering. “You smell so good.” His hands stroked up Quin’s back, fingernails scraping exquisitely over the skin.
Quin slid down Holland’s body, just far enough that the head of his cock brushed teasingly over Holland’s balls. “I want you,” he said in a ragged whisper.
“Then have me,” Holland groaned and tilted his hips in invitation. “I want you too.” He tucked his heels into the small of Quin’s back and gave a low, snarling moan as Quin pushed unceremoniously inside. “Yes. Oh, Lysoonka, don’t stop!” His fingers clutched at Quin’s shoulders and when Quin paused to watch him, he saw that Holland’s eyes were tight shut, as if overwhelmed. It was a wonderful feeling to know that Holland felt so strongly about him, was so erotically entwined with him.
Quin began to move, the brush of Holland’s chest against his a charged counterpoint to the sweet tightness of Holland wrapped around his cock. He made a sound dangerously close to a whimper and pressed his lips against the pulse bounding in Holland’s throat. Holland gasped and his body clenched around Quin’s. He strained toward Quin and moved as if to double the force of Quin’s hips as they slapped against his own.
The fire in Quin’s flesh began to gather, snarling together into a slowly condensing ball of arousal that drew itself in from the edges of his body, concentrating itself low in his groin and growing rapidly. His hips sped up and he looped one arm under Holland’s thigh so he could shift the position of the other man to something that would let him aim for that place inside that gave Holland so much pleasure.
Holland whimpered and wrapped his arms around Quin’s neck. He hid his face beneath Quin’s jaw, and canted his hips up in response to Quin’s urging and his breathing grew ragged.
Quin indulged himself in Holland’s body, doing anything, moving any way that gave him pleasure or wrung sounds of ecstasy from Holland’s lips. Holland’s fingers dug into Quin’s back and his body was strung tight as a wire, tense as that last moment before a fight, before the command to race into war, though with a much better goal in mind. Quin gasped and thrust harder and Holland laughed and clung to him, and Quin’s joy in their union drove him to attempt get closer, to push father inside, to make Holland more his and to give himself up entirely.
And on that last half-formed thought, he came undone and, with an ecstatic groan, the ball of tight desire in his groin exploded and as the waves of pleasure coursed through him, he knew himself entirely Holland’s.
Quin collapsed, breathing in Holland’s scent, still unsatisfied.Unfair.With an effort, muscles gone limp and rubbery with contentment, he levered himself down the still-panting omega’s body and took Holland into his mouth.
Holland yelped and curled up off the ground, his hand coming to rest on the back of Quin’s head like a blessing. Quin teased along the length of Holland’s cock, a glow of pride warming him at the noises Holland made as Quin licked and sucked and demanded his orgasm with lips and tongue. Holland shouted hoarsely, his body stiff, hands gone claw-like as his body spasmed through his orgasm. Quin rested his head on Holland’s belly and soaked up the fading edges of Holland’s climax as he slowly climbed back to the world.
“Oh, Quin,” came Holland’s voice, entirely sated. His fingers threaded through Quin’s short hair, following the curve of his skull down to skirt the hollow of his eyes sockets and reach for his mouth. He traced the edges of Quin’s lips over and over, as if mesmerized by them. Quin kissed them and rolled his eyes up to gaze at Holland, barely visible in the starlight and waning moon. Holland’s eyes were closed, but his fingers kept moving hypnotically over Quin’s face, and a small smile graced his lips.
“Mate me,” Quin said softly. “Seriously. Be mine, let me be yours.”
The sleepy relaxation in Holland’s body disappeared. “We’ve talked about that.”
“I know.” Quin crawled up Holland’s body and pulled them together. “I know, and I know you believe this is in my best interests.” He laid his cheek on top of Holland’s sleek black hair. “I want a family. They don’t have to be blood. I love you, and the thought of living without you, of trying to find something like what we have with someone else makes me sick and tired. Would you say yes if I wasn’t Alpha anymore?” He hadn’t planned to say that, hadn’t even known he was thinking it, but it fell from his lips like a certain future. Certain, anyway, if it would convince Holland to pledge himself to Quin.
Holland squirmed in his embrace until Quin gave him enough room to prop himself up on his elbow and look Quin square in the face. “You don’t want to be Alpha?”
“Alpha doesn’t matter if I can’t have the best Alpha’s Mate I can find.” He ran a hand up Holland’s arm to cup his jaw. “I love you, I admire you, I think you are amazing. Being Alpha is a worthy goal, but it’s not worth the cost if it costs me you.”
Holland regarded him dubiously. “It’s not going to cost you. Not that way.” He leaned in to nuzzle against the corner of Quin’s mouth. “I’m yours, as long as you want me. But you don’t need to mate me for that.”
“I want you to. If you’re mine, mate me, and make a home with me, and maybe Dorian and Agatha. If they’ll have us.” Dangerous that, when he only suspected the longing of Holland’s heart. He should have waited, but maybe it was for the best. Otherwise, why else would Holland have asked him to stand for the pups tonight? “You and me and the pups. A family.”
“The pups?” Holland pushed away and sat up. “Explain yourself.” His tone was firm, with an edge of anger.
