Chapter Eight

Pain tore through Mia like a living creature trying to claw its way out of her uterus. She pictured those horror movies where a beast grows inside a person only to rip itself out when it got large enough.

That was how it felt.

Something stroked down her side, and she only huffed when some cursed obstacle kept it from touching her directly.

Haziness slowed her thoughts and she tried to rub her thighs together. She couldn’t, and she wasn’t sure why.

Finally, she forced her eyes to open so she could figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

Blue eyes met her, and she frowned before everything came back. The clinic. Her heat. The alphas.

The fact that Shepard’s hands were cupping her cheeks meant that the hand stroking over her side was someone else’s. Shepard’s bare thigh was between hers, and she rocked herself against it.

She should be mortified. She should pull away and apologize and try to not humiliate herself anymore.

“And there you go,” Shepard whispered, so close he didn’t need to raise his voice for her to hear. “Always worrying. Always overthinking. Always coming to the wrong conclusion. For a smart woman, you think some dumb things.”

“I—”

The fingers that traced her side moved to her upper thighs, to the bare area not covered by the short gown, and that skin-on-skin contact reached so deeply into her that she released a needy moan.

As soon as it came out, she tried to press her lips together, to silence it.

“I liked that sound,” Dax said from behind her, clueing her in on who was doing that. “Don’t hide them or keep them in.”

It took her a moment to figure out where everyone was, their bodies so tightly intertwined that it felt a bit like an intricate knot. She rested with her back against someone—Hart, it had to be—with Dax sitting, her legs in his lap, and Shepard in front of her. It left her entirely surrounded by them. She also recognized none of them appeared to be wearing anything. They’d undressed sometime while she’d been resting, and she wasn’t sorry about it with all that hot alpha skin pressed against her.

Mia tried again after she swallowed to clear her mind. “I…” This time no one distracted her, but she realized she had no idea how to finish that thought.

Fingers ran through her hair, the touch soothing even though soothing wasn’t at all what her body craved.

“If you’ve changed you mind, we’ll go.” Hart. “But it’s time, now, to make that choice.” He rubbed her scalp, the touch seeming to drain the tension from her body.

She had to decide, this one last chance to back out, to decide this was a huge mistake. Was she ready for it?

Not just them but to actually have sex with an alpha? To experience something she’d denied herself her entire life, the thing she’d feared her entire life.

What would happen afterward? Could she go back to her existence that ignored this part of herself? It was easy to reject something she’d never personally known.

Shepard never looked away, never gave her a bit of space. He was solid—not overcrowding, not demanding, but making his point, nonetheless.

He wasn’t going anywhere. She could trust him to see her through this.

So Mia took the plunge.

As if there was ever another option. When she leaned forward to take a kiss, she laughed at the idea that this had ever been headed anywhere else.

Suddenly, even that first meeting—the interview when she’d sat down with them, terrified at the prospect of working so closely with three alphas—took on a different tone.

Everything she’d done with them had been taking her here. She’d always been aiming here, headed here without realizing it.

There was no course of events that would have led her anywhere else, and when Shepard returned the kiss, she couldn’t be sorry about it.

He was less aggressive than Dax, letting her set the pace, meeting her lust with his own but never topping it. He waited until she tentatively touched his lips with her tongue before he did the same, before he parted and let her deepen the kiss.

He swallowed her moan, and Mia found herself crowding him, trying to take more, needing to have everything.

His chuckle was strained, as if he walked his own line of need.

Dax slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her gown, teasing the skin there, not far enough to touch anywhere she desperately wanted him to touch. The next sound she released, once she broke the kiss with Shepard, was one of pure frustration.

That seemed to amuse both Shepard and Dax because the assholes let out near-identical laughs.

Even so, Shepard moved away, and before she could follow, someone pulled her backward. Things twisted, and she found herself seated and leaning against a strong, hot body.

Dax and Shepard knelt in front of her, which told her it was Hart who was holding her.

Didn’t that just figure? Of course he was the one who would have her trapped against him, always there to support her, to let her relax knowing he wouldn’t let her fall.

Shepard reached out and took one of the ties to her gown between his fingers. He didn’t pull right away, instead toying with the pieces for a moment. The gown didn’t hold together entirely securely, which meant a very small strip of her pale skin showed down her entire front like some provocative tease.

Shepard’s lips twisted into a smirk, as though her unease charmed him, as if he’d been waiting for that, before he tugged. The tie came free, and he grasped the edges of the gown. He didn’t yank them open, but instead pulled them ever-too-slowly apart, revealing inch after inch of her body.

Each time she’d had sex before, it had always been quick. Strange that the time they were truly driven by hormones in a way she hadn’t been before, when she needed as badly as she did, the alphas took their time to savor each part.

The cool air in the room chilled her and her nipples pulled into tight points both from the chill and the fabric teasing them as it slid over them then off.

“Beautiful,” Shepard said in a voice that should have been reserved for speaking about masterpieces, not about her.

Still, the way he looked at her, the way he ran his tongue over his lip as if he could already taste her made her almost believe it herself. She could almost see herself the way he seemed to, like something worth having, worth desiring.

Shepard leaned in, his slow movement agonizing. Still, when his lips met her heated skin, when he took one of the chilled, pebbled nipples between his lips, Mia gasped at the spark of sensation that ran from that point to between her thighs. She lit up from such a soft touch, as if she’d been wound so tight and just waiting for this.

Hart rubbed his hands over her hips, another steady, grounding presence. “How long have you been hiding this about yourself?” he asked in that tone that gave no room for denial.

“Is now really the time to talk?”

He closed his teeth around her earlobe, a sharp sting in contrast to the slowly building sensation of Shepard’s lips. “It’s the perfect time. You might answer, now. Besides, it’s important.” He took her arms and lifted them over her so she wrapped her hands behind his neck. It spread her out, making her chest push forward like an offering. “So how, long?”

“Always.” Her answer held the years of self-denial, of lying and hiding her real self.

He let out a soft rumble, the sound sweet, as if consoling her for the heavy secret. “In that time, you’ve told no one?”

“Do we really need to go through my dating history?” She knew what he was hinting at, and the idea of dancing around delicate topics right then seemed stupid. They were all naked and tangled together. “If you want to know something, come out with it.”

“Have you ever slept with an alpha?”

And there it was. The real question.

Mia shook her head, unable to get the words out, especially as Dax slid forward and caught the last tie between his fingers.

His green eyes were intense, that unnerving focus he had from time to time, as if his entire world had shrunk to that one tie and all the skin beneath it.

He pulled slowly until the bow gave way and the fabric fell open. Not that that was enough for him, since he set his hands on her knees which she’d pressed tight together.

Mia took one final breath before surrendering. She let the muscles in her legs go lax so they fell open beneath Dax’s gentle touch.

He didn’t move for a moment, his gaze locked between her legs. It was as though the entire world stopped, as if they’d crossed some threshold they all understood mattered.

And as quickly as it happened, everything moved again and far faster. Dax shifted down to his stomach, his face inches from her cunt. He cast his green eyes up her body, and that sight alone made her cry out. He looked delectable there, posed so close to her wet and desperate pussy, especially as he slid his hands up her inner thighs until his thumbs were so close to her cunt that she couldn’t draw breath.

He gave her a devastating smile, the sort that had won her over time and time before, then leaned in to lick up her slit in a single stroke.

A growl—low and feral—left him before he dove in. This was the Dax she’d known. Maybe she hadn’t ever seen it in this way before, but she’d seen his chaotic energy for so long, she recognized it. He put that all to use there, devouring her with messy and determined attention. He explored her folds, his fingers spreading her so he could tease every place on her, in her. He didn’t slow, didn’t even seem to think about what he would do. Instead, he acted as if driven entirely by instinct.

Mia tightened her grip around the back of Hart’s neck, twisting slightly at the intense sensations Dax forced through her.

Not that the other two gave her a moment of peace, either. Shepard traced the outside of her areola with the point of his tongue, the heat of his breath like a furnace against her. Hart used one of his hands across her waist to keep her pinned to him and still for Dax while he cupped her free breast with his other.

Too much.

It was all so overwhelming. She’d enjoyed sex before, but it had always been easy to control. Here, she couldn’t even seem to keep track of their hands, their lips. There were only three of them but Mia could have sworn there were more, as each touch drove her need higher and sparked more of her heat to life.

She cried out when Dax nipped at her swollen nub, and the orgasm that rocked her when he latched his lips around it and sucked stole the breath from her lungs.

She tried to move, to twist away, to do something, but Hart held her tight as Dax kept up that intense sucking, as he pulled every bit of pleasure from the crashing waves of her release as he could.

As soon as it was over, Mia whined softly, a signal Dax must have understood because while he didn’t move away, he eased to gentle kisses over her quivering pussy.

But the spark of relief was short-lived, and seconds later another rolling wave of painful need pulled her under.

Orgasms alone wouldn’t fix this, wouldn’t give her peace. If they had, she’d have been able to take care of herself during her heats in the past.

Instead, her body screamed for the thing it really wanted, the thing it needed—the cum of an alpha.

And when Dax moved, when Shepard slid into place in front of her, when Shepard’s hard cock brushed against her sensitive cunt, she knew she’d finally have that.

Shepard was heavy against her, his bare chest scalding, his scent thick enough to choke on.

And right then, Mia was pretty sure she’d die happy from it.

Shepard didn’t bother with asking her if she was ready or if she wanted this. She was thankful because she’d begged quite enough, hadn’t she? Only an idiot wouldn’t believe she’d sink her nails into his sides if he dared to deny her now.

He reached between them with one hand and caught her thigh with his other arm. He angled her, lifting her slightly. It made her recognize again how much alpha was around her.

Hart was still behind her, his rigid cock pressed between their bodies, and now Shepard moved her as though it were nothing, as if he knew exactly what she needed and intended to give her that.

He was thick, and she had a moment of disappointment that she hadn’t had the chance to properly worship his cock. Still, as he sank into her, as he forced her cunt to spread around his shaft, she figured there was always later. It was impossible to be sorry about anything with the way he filled her, a steady forward motion that tiny rolls of her hips aided with.

Mia kept her hands behind Hart’s neck, using the leverage to try and take more of Shepard, to have him faster. She didn’t want to wait, didn’t want to take it slow.

She’d waited six years.

She wanted him now.

Shepard let out one of his low chuckles before grasping her hips and letting her legs fall open over his arms. He tightened his grip and slammed into her with one solid thrust.

And it was everything.

All the times she’d wanted them, when she’d told herself she couldn’t, when she’d spent sweat-soaked nights trying to forget their scent, this was what she’d run from.

He filled her perfectly, but it seemed that wasn’t enough for him. He forced her hips to tilt more so his cock would angle up, then he pulled back and plunged in again. It rubbed him against her G-spot, and sparks exploded across Mia’s vision.

She lost track of everything. Her cunt squeezed down again, the release so fast it startled her. Even as she tightened around him, Shepard didn’t stop. If anything, he went faster, harder. She met his gaze, his blue eyes bright and full of so many things she couldn’t think about right then.

Not when her body was nothing but need and demands.

So she gave in to the stroke of his cock, to the way he used his hold on her waist to pull her toward him as he plunged in, just so he could take her deeper.

It made a mockery of anything before, and she suddenly understood the obsession omegas had with alphas. This was the primal connection she’d never experienced, and now that she had?

Everything else would always be empty.

She expected him to hold off, to try to make things last. That was what men did, some sort of attempt to prove their virility, as if all women wanted forty minutes of mediocre thrusting.

Not that Shepard was mediocre in the least.

That was why it caught her by surprise when he curled his lip up into a snarl, the cords of his neck standing out as he slammed deep into her once more and held her tight against him.

But then the other thing, the part she’d tried not to think about, happened. The base of his cock began to swell, and when she’d thought she could take no more, when she’d thought his shaft had stolen every bit of space inside her, his knot forced her to adjust.

Tiny thrusts of his hips kept their bodies pressed tightly together, even as she squirmed at the new and uncomfortable feeling. “Take my knot,” Shepard growled out, pressing more of his weight against her until he locked behind her pubic bone, until he couldn’t pull out anymore. “You feel so damn good, snug around me.”

The sensation of her body caught like that, the strangeness of his thick knot inside her, was all too much. She was breathless as her body came again, a reminder that heats were not for the faint of heart. She wasn’t even sure it felt good anymore.

However, when his hot cum filled her, that felt good. It was like balm across her frayed nerves and Mia nearly sobbed in relief.

Shepard wrapped her thighs around his waist and leaned against her. His cock twitched each time it released another spurt of cum, and in response her cunt tightened down as if to milk it of every last drop.

He had to be tired, but he played his lips across hers, the action surprisingly sweet given how hard he’d taken her.

Even with the relief, his knot still teased her exhausted body. She wanted him out, to have a moment to pull herself together without that never-ending stimulation.

“Relax,” Hart whispered, and she’d nearly forgotten he was there, behind her, his hand caught between her and Shepard’s body.

But she couldn’t. Shepard’s cock locked inside her was like an itch, something she couldn’t ignore, as though someone were continuously stroking over her nipples but expecting her to pay it no mind.

“So this is all it takes to get her to quiet down,” Shepard said, breathless.

Mia frowned, his words seeming out of place until they registered. She went to snap something back when she found that familiar crinkle in his cheek.

And, sure enough, he’d distracted her from the intimate and overwhelming feeling. He’d used that snarky humor to give her exactly what he’d known she’d needed.

It made her chest tighten, and his half-smile faded, as though he read something but didn’t quite understand what it was. Instead of asking—thankfully—he offered a gentle kiss then rubbed softly at her hips, at where his fingers had dug in before, as though to ease any discomfort there.

Mia closed her eyes, tired and knowing she wasn’t anywhere close to done, but willing to enjoy the short reprieve.