Page 17 of Going Down Smooth: Part One
“Where are you, Mouse?” I whisper as I slowly stand and silently leave my brothers behind to sleep it off. As soon as I close the door behind me, I hear the shower running in the main bathroom down the hall. I smile at the thought of Mercy seeing the state we left her in, carefully marked, handprints on her ass from gripping her tight, hair wild, with slick coated and cum soaked skin. The urge to beat my chest like a caveman makes me laugh at my ridiculous train of thought.
When I reach the bathroom door, the sound coming from inside the room is like a punch to the gut. Mercy’s sobs leave me frozen in place, my hand on the doorknob as my mind spirals into a memory of me and Mercy when we were kids.
“Max! Help me!” Mercy’s cries echo around me as I turn in a circle listening for the direction her voice is calling me from.
“I’m coming, Mouse. I’m going to find you, I promise,” I call out to her as I try not to panic. I should never have challenged her to a race through the woods. This is all my fault. Now she’s somewhere hurt or probably dying because I wanted to best her. Her parents are going to be so mad. Then I won’t be able to come back to her packhouse ever again. Knight, Nate, and Trey will get to be with her more than me. Oh man!
“Max. Where are you?” Mercy calls for me again, this time I pick a direction and cut through the trees, running as fast as my feet will carry me. The sound of her pained cries makes my own eyes water at the thought of her alone out here somewhere without me to take care of her. Her cries get louder as I barely miss the deep ditch in front of me.
“Max!” she shouts as I approach the edge, just managing to brace myself as I catch sight of Mercy holding her ankle at the bottom. The ditch isn’t deep but running as fast as we were it is easily missed.
I fall to my knees and reach out to her. Mercy reaches for my hand, twigs in her hair, her knees scraped, and her dirt smudged face wet from crying. “I got you, Mouse,” I say, using my inside voice as my mother calls it. I lace my fingers with hers and I pull her up toward me.
“Don’t call me Mouse. I’m a ferocious lion and I still beat you,” she says with a pout as we collapse in the dirt beside each other.
“You will always be my Mouse, you know that, right?” I look over at her as she wipes her face with her shirt. Even at ten, she is my everything, I would do anything for her. She nods but says nothing as she checks her ankle, wincing as she touches it.
“Can you walk?” I ask, standing quickly. I know we are not that far from the house. I can give her a piggyback ride if I have to. But knowing my Mouse—
“I’m fine.” She waves me off as she glances up at me through long lashes, her eyes flooded with tears threatening to spill over again. Yet, she refuses me. She is stubborn. I watch her try to get up on her own, which she manages just fine, until she tries to walk and cries out in frustration.
“Come on. I’ll give you a piggyback ride home,” I say, reaching out a hand for her, but she hesitates. “I promise I won’t tell Knight, Nate, or Trey that I carried you home. It will be our secret, OK?” She watches me with pursed lips, as if she’s trying to determine if I am being honest. “I swear it. We can spit and shake on it.” I smile, spitting into my palm I then hold it out to her. She takes one look at my hand and her face scrunches up in disgust, making me chuckle. I already knew she would react this way, it’s why I did it.
“I’m not touching your spitty hand, Lox.” She smiles as my brows lift at the new name she’s called me. I wonder how long she’s been thinking of that one. I mean, I hate Maxim Julius-Seamus-Loxley III, and if that’s what she wants to call me for life, then Lox it is.
“I’ll accept the new nickname on one condition.” I raise my hand before she protests and smile. “I offer one piggyback ride in exchange for my new name,” I say quickly as she studies me for a moment, then awards me with that smile that makes my twelve-year-old stomach do flip flops. I turn and bend, waiting for her to jump on. When she does, I hoist her up and she wraps her arms around my neck. I will always carry her, I promise myself as I make my way back to the house. I know I’ll get in trouble for being reckless with her later, but that smile, it’s always worth it.
I blink away the unsolicited memory, wondering why my brain took me back to that day. The day I became Lox. Mercy’s cries focus me again. I twist the doorknob and pause at the entrance as I spy her sitting underneath the spray of the shower, hugging her knees to her chest. Her head rests on her knees as she sobs uncontrollably. Her shoulders shake as she whimpers, letting her tears fall unchecked. My heart breaks at the sight of her sitting there. Alone.
She doesn’t notice me as I approach. Opening the shower door, I sit underneath the hot water behind her and pull her onto my lap. She sucks in a sharp breath, her chest rising and falling fast as she gasps for air. Whatever this is, I want to make it better, I need to make it better for her.
“Did we hurt you?” I ask, knowing the answer to that before she shakes her head no. Yeah, I am sure she’s sore, but not hurt. Thoroughly used but not hurt. Those tears pour out of her soul, bone deep, for the burdens she carries, for the grief and loss she feels. That’s what I assume anyway. Whether she will confirm that is up to her. For now, I will comfort my Little Mouse, channelling my inner-Trey and give her my body to lean on.
“I—can’t—breathe—Lox,” She shakes in my arms, even with the hot water running over us both. I wrap my arms around her tightly, pulling her between my outstretched legs, her back to my front.
“Breath with me, Mouse,” I lean down to speak gently in her ear. She continues to panic but I start to take deep breaths in and out. My chest expands, pushing into her back for a few moments before finally she begins to mimic my actions. “Good girl, Mouse. In and out. In and out,” I say soothingly as I take one hand and run it down her arm where she’s still shaking. We stay like that until I finally feel her relax in my hold and her breathing returns to normal.
“I’m sorry,” she finally says. Those two words seem to have more weight behind them than just an apology for me finding her crying in the shower. Even then, she has nothing to apologize about.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Mouse. You—"
“But I do, Lox. I need to say sorry. For everything. I was so scared. I’m still scared. All this time and I feel as if I still don’t know who I am. I know I said I wouldn’t run again, and I mean it. I just don’t know how to do this anymore. I can’t be the same Mercy. She died when I presented as an Omega. She died when my choices were suddenly taken away from me. I had to protect myself, Lox, I had to.” She starts to breathe heavily again, but I kiss her wet shoulder and run my hands up and down her arms reassuringly.
“Do you think we care what you are? Do you really think your designation is important to us?” I ask as I sweep my now dripping locs from my face.
Mercy tilts her head back to look at me, brows knitted together in confusion. “Doesn’t it? What we just did—"
“Mouse, you needed us. We got you through your heat because instinctively that is our nature. But none of us care that you’re an Omega. Mouse, whether you’re an Alpha, Beta, or Omega, none of that shit matters. Hell, you can be a damn alien with horns, and I’d still love the shit out of you. What matters and what’s most important, is that we had and still have each other. It killed me to see you walk away from us. It tore me apart in ways I don’t want to get into. We all had to find our way without you, but you had to find your way as well.”
I wrap my arms around her again. Saying the words I should have said five years ago, but back then, I was too young, too fragile in my own skin, too angry to express myself. Back then I was so shocked that she just didn’t trust us enough, and I was too tongue-tied. I sigh.
“I’m sorry that Ben’s death is what finally brought you back to us. I’m sorry that it’s under the most ridiculous of demands. What I can promise though, my Little Mouse, is that I will remind you every day that you are our chosen Alpha. You always have been and always will be. You lead us. It’s not the other way around.” I tilt her chin up and lean down, giving her a chaste kiss.
Mercy suddenly turns in my lap and straddles my hips before pressing her forehead to mine. “Thank you,” she whispers before pressing her lips to mine. Her kisses are innocent at first, tiny nibbles on my chin, the corner of my mouth, my cheek, then she runs her tongue over the seam of my lips, and I open for her. I groan as her tongue licks the inside of my mouth, tasting me as if it were the first time. I can kiss these lips forever and I will never get enough.
I pull back, all too aware of the skin-to-skin contact, no barriers between us to stop the inevitable. “Are you sure about this, Mouse?” I ask before I lose all coherent thought. My dick already betraying me as it springs to life. Damn, it’s a miracle.
She nods. “Fuck me, Lox. I want to feel you without being in heat. Just you and me,” she says as she leans forward and kisses me again, and although I am worried about her already exhausted body, I give in to her request. Holding her hips still, my cock seeks her pussy like it’s lost and trying to find its way home. Mercy moans as the tip rubs her clit, her slick warmth blessing me by offering up her sweet scent of warm peaches.
