Chapter Nineteen
Kai woke warm. Not the pleasant kind of warm where you didn’t want to stick even a foot outside your blanket, but the sticky kind. Too hot. Grumbling, he tried to sit up, only to find he was trapped between Axel and Joe, both shifters still fast asleep.
“Um, guys?” he ventured, when their arms only tightened as he tried to sit up.
“Huh?” he heard Axel ask, the alpha’s tired face and sleep-mussed hair appearing over Kai’s shoulder. “What’s up?”
“I’m a little stuck,” he said.
“Huh,” Axel said again, looking him up and down. “So you are.”
He leaned in, his nose against Kai’s neck. “You smell amazing.”
“Well, I don’t feel amazing,” Kai replied grumpily. He needed a shower to cool down or a swim.
Joe woke then, rolling onto his back and stretching. “What time is it?”
“Time to get up,” Kai replied, spying his path to freedom and climbing over him. Axel reached for him with a disappointed sound.
“Five more minutes?” the alpha asked.
Joe was sitting up too, giving Kai an odd look. “Are you okay?”
Kai nodded. “Got too hot. Just needed a bit of breathing room.”
He noticed Joe and Axel sharing a look. What was it?
“Can we go swimming?” he asked, happy when both his almost-mates agreed.
They packed some food for breakfast and took it down to the lake with them. Kai wasted no time stripping and diving into the water, shifting into a fox before surfacing again. Axel and Joe joined him, Joe still in human form. After a while, they both returned to shore and neither of them came back into the water. So he came to them.
They ate a leisurely breakfast, watching as the early morning sunshine sparkled across the lake. In the near distance, the sound of waterfall called to him, but he ignored it in favor of staying with Joe and Axel.
After breakfast, both he and Joe shifted again and Axel started a game of chasing that sent both of them racing away into the nearby woods. Diving around bushes and trees, he searched for somewhere to hide. As usual, up was best. Even though they knew he could climb trees, they rarely remembered to look for him up there when he was in animal form.
He lay down on a low branch and watched for them, hearing Axel shout in the distance as he found Joe, followed by a brief chase through the trees. They came to find him then and Kai eagerly climbed down from his branch to meet them before rushing back toward the lake as they chased him. He went straight into the water, shifting back to his human form a few feet in before he struck out toward the waterfall.
The others followed as he knew they would. He dived under the water and swam through the waterfall before surfacing and climbing up onto the smooth rock behind it. He sat and waited. Axel arrived next, the alpha pulling himself up onto the rock to sit next to Kai. Joe was last, both Kai and Axel reaching out a hand to pull him up. He sat between them, an arm around each of them, pressing a kiss first to Axel’s cheek and then to Kai’s. He lingered near Kai, scenting him.
“What?” Kai asked, as Joe gave Axel a look. There was something up, he just didn’t know what.
“You’re warm,” Axel said, reaching past Joe to press a hand to his forehead.
“I guess, with all the running and swimming…”
“Your scent has changed too,” Joe pointed out gently.
“Changed? How?” He tried to scent himself but couldn’t tell any difference.
“Deeper. Pretty amazing actually. I mean, you normally smell good enough to eat but now you’re mouthwateringly delicious.”
Oh. Huh.
“What does that mean?” He had half an idea. Cade and Ollie had explained it, sort of. He wished he’d thought to ask them more questions.
“It means you’re in heat,” Joe said simply, taking Kai’s hand in his.
“I guess maybe I am. Now what?”
“What would you like to do?” Axel asked. “I mean, we don’t have to act on it, if you’d rather not. We’ll make sure you’re okay, either way.”
Kai thought back to the Gathering and what that meant.
“You chose me, as your mate. Both of you.”
“That’s right,” Joe said. “You belong with us.”
“And you belong with me, too. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? That’s what mating means.”
“Yeah, that’s what it means,” Axel said.
“But it’s your choice,” Joe added. “No one can make that choice for you, no one has that right.”
They seemed nervous, and Kai wasn’t sure why.
“But I already made the choice. That’s why I’m here, with you. That’s why I shared your bed last night. Isn’t it?”
Axel grinned. “When you put it like that, yeah, I guess you have. This is just the ‘making it official’ side of things.”
“By having sex?” The other omegas had explained that, too.
“By expressing our love in more than just words,” Joe said gently. “Your heat is your body’s way of telling you it’s ready.”
“I’m ready, too,” Kai insisted. He felt they’d all waited long enough. “Dara said this part’s the good part.”
It was Joe’s turn to smile. “Yeah, it really is.”
Kai loved the kissing. He was straddling Joe’s legs, his arms around the beta, and he never wanted to let go. Joe’s hands were holding his shoulders while the beta pressed kisses everywhere he could reach; Kai’s face, neck, the hollow above his collarbone. He seemed to know instinctively every sensitive nook and cranny in Kai’s body. Axel was behind Kai, kissing and licking his way down Kai’s spine. It made him shiver, alternating between arching into the warmth of Axel’s mouth and pulling away when the sensation got too much.
When Axel reached his lower back, he stopped, his hands on Kai’s hips.
“Are you ready for more?” he murmured into Kai’s ears.
Kai nodded wordlessly, swallowing another moan as Joe found a spot on his neck and sucked hard.
Axel’s fingers pressed lower, his forehead resting high on Kai’s back, just below his shoulder blades. Watching, Kai guessed. A finger slid between his cheeks and he whimpered with need. His body ached to be touched, craved it, and so far, it wasn’t nearly enough.
The finger pressed inside him and he gasped. Joe cupped his cheek and held his gaze.
“Breathe,” the beta murmured. “Just breathe.”
Kai looked deep into Joe’s eyes and did just that, focusing on matching the rise and fall of his chest with Joe’s.
“That’s the way,” Axel said from behind as Kai felt his body relax. “You’re so wet and ready for us.” A second finger pushed in and he groaned, pushing forward to rest his head against Joe’s shoulder.
“Kai?” Joe asked.
“Feels good,” he managed to stammer out. “Keep going, please.”
There was a chuckle from behind him as the fingers inside him pushed out and in again, twisting just slightly. There was a brief burst of pleasure, enough to make him gasp and wiggle his hips.
“Do that again,” he demanded, to laughter from both his mates.
Axel did, three fingers this time, and Kai tensed reflexively, trying to draw out the pleasure, make it last.
“It only gets better from here,” Joe whispered, his lips just touching Kai’s skin as he spoke.
Kai took a firmer hold of Joe as Axel’s fingers slipped out and something else took their place.
Joe lifted his head again, looking into his eyes as Axel pushed inside him. It felt strange but so good, filling a space within that he had barely realized was there.
Joe pressed their lips together, distracting Kai from the myriad of sensations rolling over him and helping him relax into it. The beta’s hand stroked his cheek as they broke apart for air.
“You’re doing great,” he said softly. “And when you’re ready, Axel’s going to move, and it’ll feel even better.”
Kai clung to Joe, pressing kisses across the beta’s face. He felt Axel’s hands on his hips tighten, felt the alpha shift backward and the push forward. The motion rocked Kai into Joe but the beta was ready, bracing them both.
Axel’s mouth was on Kai’s shoulder again, pressing a long kiss there while Kai panted, trying and failing to make sense of everything his body was experiencing. The alpha’s hips rocked again, pulling out and thrusting inward and Kai went with it, feeling the pleasure within start to grow.
Again and again, Axel moved, his arms wrapped around Kai to help hold him while Joe did the same. Pressed between his two mates, he didn’t feel trapped, he felt held, wanted. It was Joe’s hand reaching between his legs that came close to sending him over the edge. The beta’s hand stroked him in time with Axel’s thrusts.
“You’re close,” Joe whispered. “Both of you. I can feel it.”
Kai reached down too, his hand finding the flat plains of Joe’s stomach and stroking downward until he found Joe’s shaft, hot and hard. He mimicked the way Joe’s hand moved on him, as Axel’s thrusts sped up, the alpha nearing climax.
Lifting his head, he met Joe’s gaze, feeling one of Axel’s arms reach around him to clasp Joe’s hip. Each of them was touching the other, their bodies as one. One last thrust from Axel hit that spot inside him, sending a burst of pleasure that grew into a wave, washing over him. He felt himself go limp, pitching forward into Joe’s arms.
When he came back to his senses, they were lying on their sides on the floor of the cave. Axel’s chest was pressed against his back and Joe’s chest pressed against Kai’s.
“That was amazing,” he murmured. He felt a pull within him, a need, and turned over until he was facing Axel. Cupping the alpha’s face, he leaned in to kiss him, sensing both his heartbeat and Axel’s. The two synched together, beating as one, and he felt an overwhelming sense of wholeness. But it wasn’t enough.
There was a brief flash of frustration as he tried to understand. Breaking the kiss with Axel, he lay down on his back. Joe was sitting up next to him, looking down at him, and Kai understood. He reached for Joe, tugging the beta down into a kiss, while his free hand reached for Axel, pressing against the alpha’s chest. Their two hearts were still beating in sync but as his lips met Joe’s, the beta’s heart changed too, began to beat in time with both of theirs.
That was it, that was what he’d been longing for. It was like something slotted into place within his heart, shattering the last of the ice that had grown there, leaving him warm and happy.
Joe broke the kiss, looking down at him in wonder then up at Axel. Kai reached a hand for his chest, pressing it over Joe’s heart. Above him, his alpha and beta looked at each other before leaning over to kiss. Kai just watched, his hands over their hearts, feeling how they beat together, three hearts as one.
Groggily, Joe lifted his head and looked around. They were back in their cottage, back in their bed, piled together under the blankets. Kai had been exhausted after their first round of mating and Axel had carried him across the rocks and back to shore, Joe on his heels.
And now their new mate slept between them, sprawled out on his stomach. A beam of sunlight escaped through the curtains, falling on Kai’s back and catching something unexpected.
Joe bent over to look, giving an ‘oh’ of realization. Kai’s mating mark, of course. He’d seen Cade’s, Dara’s, and Liam’s. It made sense Kai had one too, a wolf print to signal his connection to Axel. It was positioned just under Kai’s left shoulder blade. Except… what was that?
Bracing himself on the bed, Joe leaned further over, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. There was a second mark, a second paw print, under Kai’s right shoulder. It was a little smaller than the first. And then Joe recalled Kai kissing him, feeling their hearts beating as one, all three of them. He gasped.
“Joe?”
Axel’s voice was rough with sleep and pitched low so as not to wake their exhausted mate.
“He took us both.”
Axel sat up, carefully disentangling himself from Kai.
“Who took what?”
“Kai’s back, look.”
With a confused frown, Axel bent over, letting out a hum of surprise, his fingers gliding gently over the marks.
“He took my mark, too,” Joe said.
“Of course he did,” Axel murmured, though he sounded surprised. “You’re his mate, too.”
“I didn’t know omega could do that. I thought it was just a thing that happened with their alpha mates.”
“So did I. But this… this feels right.”
Kai mumbled something under his breath and twisted, turning onto his side toward Joe. Both he and Axel lay back down, grabbing the blankets and pulling them up to cover all three of them.
“Shh.”
Joe reached for Kai, seeing the beginnings of a nightmare. Axel’s hand found Kai’s back, rubbing gently across it. Their mate quickly settled back into a restful sleep, sighing deeply. Glancing past him, Joe found Axel watching him, the alpha happy and relaxed. Joe knew the feeling. Everything had worked out okay. Better than okay. He let his eyes close, excited for what the next day would bring.