FIVE
Kameron
FLYNN GOT UP and disposedof the condom once he was sure Leo was down for the count, but as soon as he and Jax had cleaned her up to their satisfaction, he returned to his place curled around her back.
She was totally out of it by that point, not even stirring when I carefully extricated myself from her arms and returned to my perch on one end of the sectional couch. I was a wreck, and I didn’t know what to do about it—my phantom nipples aching, my cock pulsing and oversensitive against the seam of my jeans.
This time around, even I could smell the faint perfume my body was putting out in response to all the heat pheromones choking the room. Jax came and crouched in front of me. Part of me wanted to cringe back from him, and the other part wanted to fall forward into his arms and beg him to take care of me. I did neither.
“You don’t look like an omega who’s enjoying himself in the heat-nest,” Jax said without judgment. “What can I do to help?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Everything’s fine. I’m not the focus here.”
If I became the focus, then I risked finding out once and for all that there was no hope for me. Right now, the possibility existed that I could still experience some sort of connection with these alphas, however stunted. But if I let them try and I still couldn’t perform as an omega in the heat-nest should... it was over. How ironic that between Leo and myself, I’d always been the one with the big talk when it came to sex with alphas... but now that it was actually on offer, I was terrified.
“You’re lying,” Jax said, “but that’s your prerogative. I respect your choice.”
A new voice intruded. “I don’t.”
My eyes flew to Alex, curled on the other section of the couch like a jungle cat lounging on a rock.
“I won’t have an omega huddled at the edge of the nest, looking like he wants to sink through the floor and disappear,” she continued, tone steely. Her forest-colored alpha gaze fell on me with a weight so heavy it threatened to bow my shoulders. “Not onmypack’s watch. Come here.”
I swallowed convulsively, my heart rising in my throat.
“You tell ’im, Alex,” Flynn said, not moving from his spot in the nest. “Soften him up a bit, and I’ll be along to help in a few hours, after Leona wakes up.”
Alex didn’t even spare him a glance. That heavy gaze was still resting squarely on me. “You’re not listening to your alpha,” she said, in a deceptively soft voice. “Why is that?”
Her summons had been a command... but it was also a promise of protection. These alphas had protected us, even at the risk of their own lives. And god, how I wanted someone to protect me—even if it was from myself.
I bowed my head and slid to the cushion-covered floor. “I’m sorry, alpha.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Alex said. “Just get your omega ass over here.”
Jax looked between us, his blue eyes assessing my defeated posture. “Be careful with him,alef.”
“He doesn’t want careful,” Alex replied, still not looking at her packmate. “He wants someone to remind him of his value here. Of his place.”
