Standing in front of the Midwives’ House with his duffle bag over his shoulder and his midwife’s kit—mostly wolfsbane and supplies for compounding, but also a basic set of instruments—in his hand, Casey stopped to stare at the car he was about to get into.

He’d been in it once already today, but he hadn’t been paying much attention to anything but Adam’s bleeding hand and staying calm enough for both of them. Now he had a minute to actually see the shiny new car, a four door Nissan in a dark blue so muted it was nearly gray. A garment bag, presumably with Adam’s suits inside, hung in the back seat.

He thought longingly of his own car, a mud-splashed twelve-year-old Subaru that had belonged to Auntie Robin before him and was deeply saturated with his own scent and the scents of other omegas and children. Four babies had been born in the back of his car; Casey had delivered two of them.

For a second, he was tempted to tell Adam that he’d drive, to return this soulless, brand-new, human-smelling thing to whatever rental car company he’d gotten it from. Then he considered having Adam’s scent permanently woven into his car by weeks of occupancy—thought about the inevitable arguments over who should drive—and he sighed and went to throw his bags in the trunk. No point starting off already at each other’s throats more than they already were.

Casey almost didn’t sleep at all, his first two nights staying with the Brysons. He wasn’t exactly among strangers—the Niemis and Brysons were close, and one way or another Casey had worked alongside all the Bryson midwives and had spent plenty of nights in their pack lands during summer gatherings.

Still, the person who felt most familiar—the person he couldn’t stop homing in on—was Adam, and Adam was bedded down in a guest room in the Midwives’ House not nearly far enough from Casey’s. He didn’t think Adam slept much either, which didn’t help, especially since Adam’s sleep-deprived shortness was tempered, during the day, with That Look.

Casey might have believed that Adam had started up with That Look after Adam’s weirdly intense reaction to the idea of Casey getting sent up north, but it had taken about five minutes for Casey to find out that Callie had taken Adam off to have a talk with Alpha as soon as Casey was out of the way.

It wasn’t hard to work out that Alpha had deputized Adam to be Casey’s local Person Who Knew The Truth—and now Adam was feeling the same awful pity Callie had felt when she first found out. Adam, at least, hadn’t said anything or tried to hug him, but Casey could still see the Casey, that poor dear, in his eyes every time he bit his tongue instead of shouting at Casey.

And it wasn’t like Casey had anything much to do during the days to wear himself out properly; a handful of the Brysons had already joined Adam’s study while working over on Niemi land, and the ones who hadn’t had heard all about it and mostly made up their minds. There were probably people who had decided against it—Casey’s mental roll call showed some absences—but those people just avoided them. Casey couldn’t even bitch to a sympathetic ear about the questionable wisdom of propping up some alpha’s certainty that anything alphas didn’t know, and couldn’t put down in numbers, wasn’t known.

The ones who did turn up treated it like an amusing whim of Granny Tyne’s, or, worse and depressingly plausibly, like the whole study was just a ploy to get Adam and Casey together. Signing up meant getting their moment with a front-row seat to the soap opera in progress, so of course they wouldn’t stay away.

Casey handed out pens and collected forms into envelopes while Adam took DNA samples. The most effort Casey had to put into anything was ignoring all the amused and knowing glances turned his and Adam’s way. It wasn’t nothing, but it definitely wasn’t as satisfying as doing his job, and it was completely the wrong kind of exhausting.

So he didn’t sleep, and the next day the knowing looks were more knowing except when they were knowing and concerned, which was just insulting. And he still didn’t sleep, and the day after that was even worse.

Friday night, he had a plan. He was going to get to sleep. He was not going to be deterred. He waited until the house was mostly quiet around him and put in earbuds to block out the sound of Adam’s heartbeat with his Private Fun Time playlist. He took one pill from the blue bottle, and he lay down naked on his bed, running his hands idly over his own skin while he waited for it to kick in.

Even before he was getting any chemical help, the slow touches felt startlingly good. He tried to count back to the last time he’d gotten himself off, but he couldn’t remember anything since the last full moon, which hardly counted. No wonder he’d been wound so tightly for weeks.

Casey skimmed his hands over his hips and thighs, leaving his dick and his hole alone for now. He wasn’t hard yet, wasn’t wet, but he could feel the possibility starting to wake up in him, blood starting to move that way. He brought his hands back up, thumbed at his nipples, and squirmed at that reliable little zing of pleasure, then back down again.

He didn’t even have to consider what fantasy to turn to tonight. It was the same one as always, newly vivid. Adam, but a different Adam, a fantasy Adam. That Adam would be no sweeter or kinder than the one in real life—less, in fact, because That Look would never show up on his face—but somehow he would be capable of turning Casey into the fantasy version of himself, who could lust after an alpha without going into a complete tailspin. His scent would be just different enough from the real thing—still alpha, but without the secret awfulness attached.

Casey could just want that Adam, and he would. He did. That Adam would be gruff and a little rough with him, effortlessly mastering in the way that betas tried to be and never quite were. And Casey would be wet for him, dripping before he even got his clothes off. When he did get his clothes off Adam wouldn’t hesitate, grabbing him by the nape with one hand and shoving two fingers into him with the other.

The real Casey alone in bed wasn’t quite there yet, but he rubbed two fingers over his opening, feeling it start to yield, start to dampen. He could get there if he could just hold on to the fantasy, and he could hold on if the mix from the blue bottle would just help him along.

He focused on that image, of fantasy-Adam holding him down on the bed, Adam’s thick, deft fingers sliding into him where he was so, so wet. He could almost hear the wordless snarl of Adam’s voice, the racing of his heartbeat, the quick cadence of his footsteps—

Casey’s eyes flashed open and he paused the music before he considered whether he wanted to do that. He could hear Adam’s heartbeat, and Adam’s footsteps—a little muffled now, because he’d gone outside barefoot, because... because it was the middle of the night, and if Casey could hear Adam, then Adam could hear Casey, and obviously neither of them were sleeping.

It struck Casey forcefully in that moment that this was stupid. Here he was, trying to ignore the real Adam to fantasize about a pretend one, and there was Adam, outside in the night because he couldn’t bear listening to Casey trying to get off. Holding himself back, clinging to his self-control, the way he always was around Casey unless he’d given up and started shouting.

But shouting wasn’t what either of them really wanted to do, was it? Casey had been feeling that pull since the moment he laid eyes on Adam, but it always came out angry, because he didn’t dare be anything else. And Adam... Adam had come looking for him, found him having a bad dream and woke him. Saw him on the roof and shouted at him for being careless instead of saying oh, Casey.

That was the Adam he wanted—not the one who pitied him, the one who looked at Casey and only saw what had happened to him all those years ago. He wanted Adam to see him, and that wasn’t going to happen if he stayed up here and Adam stayed down there.

Casey knelt up on the bed and pushed the window open. There was a screen, but it was easy enough to get that free, and then he could lean head and shoulders out into the crisp October night. There were a million stars blazing overhead and just one heartbeat pounding in the same rhythm as his own. Casey pushed himself out, turning in midair to land on his feet, and he was running as soon as he touched the ground. The air was chilly on every inch of his bare skin, and it only made him burn hotter.

The Midwives’ House on the Bryson pack’s land was perched right at the southwest end of a crescent-shaped ridge that followed the curve of a small river. The ridge was wooded, and so were the banks of the river; it was a place that felt like cover, and the Brysons had a firm custom of ignoring anything that happened under that cover if it could possibly be ignored. With so many werewolves living so close, privacy was more often a matter of mutual agreement than actually being out of earshot of anyone else.

So it seemed like practically an invitation when Casey heard Adam’s heartbeat and footsteps heading up the steep slope of the ridge around back of the Midwives’ House. Casey followed, getting more excited with every step. He and Adam were on the same wavelength, finally, and this time they would get it right between them. This time they wouldn’t have to have a stupid fight.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Casey stopped short, his eager grin converting instantly to a scowl. That was not what Adam was supposed to say, and Adam wasn’t supposed to still be so far away, another fifty yards along the ridge.

“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing,” Casey hissed. “I’m following you to everybody’s favorite hookup spot so we can hook up and get it over with.”

“No, you are—” There was a crashing sound as Adam obviously decided that snarling at each other through the trees was stupid, and Casey folded his arms and waited for Adam to come back into sight. He did in a seconds later, only to look sharply away as soon as he saw Casey.

Casey looked down at himself—naked, hard—and then at Adam, who was... more clothed, but just as hard. Proportionally. There was a lot more hardness available. Casey licked his lips, and felt himself getting wetter.

“What am I doing?” Casey asked sweetly, taking a step closer. “Cutting through all this bullshit and getting us both what we actually want so we can sleep instead of winding ourselves up even more? I did come with you for alpha exposure, after all, and I can’t get much more exposed than—”

“That is not the kind of—you were doing fine by yourself, that is why I came outside, because I didn’t want to—”

“Well, it’s not eavesdropping if I chase you down,” Casey said reasonably. “And it wasn’t fine, which is why I came outside. Because I want this. You.”

Adam scowled at him, and Casey was close enough to smell him even in the open air now, though still not close enough to touch. Close enough to know how hot he was running, how fast his heart was racing; close enough to see how dark his eyes were and the way they flicked over his body before Adam remembered to look away again.

“How much medication are you on right now?” Adam demanded. “You said you were looking for the dose where you wouldn’t—proposition me.”

Casey grinned. “No, I said I was looking for the dose where I wouldn’t straight go for your dick. And I haven’t—look at all this personal space I’m giving you, listen to me talking to you about this instead of just jumping you. I know what I’m saying, Adam, and I’m saying I want you.”

“Well I don’t want,” Adam said, his voice gone harsh, his intonation ending the sentence right there, as if not-wanting was just a general condition that applied to him.

Casey raised his eyebrows and looked deliberately down Adam’s body while breathing in his scent, hot and aroused and alpha. “You... do want, though.”

Casey listened to Adam’s teeth grind for a few seconds before he said, “A physiological response is not consent.”

Casey squinted at Adam, like if he looked closely enough he could see the point where Adam’s reality diverged from his own. They were obviously having two almost entirely different conversations, and on the one hand it was maddening, but on the other... Casey wanted him, but Casey was not going to be the one who trampled over what Adam wanted to get there. He was just going to have to keep talking until he figured this out.

“Yeah,” Casey said. “Thanks for the fucking newsflash. I go through heat, I am pretty clear on that. Which is why I haven’t jumped on your dick yet. And if you’re going to choose not to fuck me for some reason of your own, then that’s up to you, but don’t pretend you don’t want me, and don’t pretend I don’t know what I’m saying when I say I want you.”

Adam did not stop scowling. “You don’t even like me.”

Casey was startled into a laugh. “Whoa, sorry, I didn’t know I proposed marriage, I thought said I want to fuck so we can both get this out of our systems and get some sleep, and so maybe I can just get all my midwife-ordered alpha exposure in one go.”

Adam actually met his eyes for a second, a flash of startled bewilderment crossing his face, and that was an opening at least.

“Look,” Casey said. “You’d be my first alpha, but not my first fuck, by any means. I’m not some sheltered virginal little omega who’s going to need you to explain where you’re gonna put your dick and how it can possibly fit. I’ve done this, and I know very precisely that I want you to come over here and fuck me till I scream.”

Adam’s expression went hard and closed-off again, and he shook his head in one quick jerk. “No, you—”

“Okay, look, whoever fucked you clearly did a real bad job of it if you can’t believe I want it—” Casey stopped short as Adam’s eyes went wide, like a deer brought to bay.

Casey just stood there, staring at him, trying to get his head around what Adam’s body had just admitted, even if his mouth wouldn’t. Not such a stereotypical alpha after all, if that flippant accusation had him telegraphing, Oh fuck how did you know that about me.

It shouldn’t have made him like Adam better, that he was so ashamed and maybe had made some stupid sexual decisions that ran totally counter to what he actually wanted, but he also didn’t turn defensive or nasty, or jump at the chance to establish his alpha superiority by fucking an omega. Casey felt himself softening, somewhere a couple of feet above his dick.

“Okay,” Casey said, gentler and not at all sarcastic this time. “Well. Wow. They did a really bad job. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do a good job, if you’re with somebody who’s actually inclined to like it and you listen to them when they tell you what they need.”

Adam turned away while Casey was still speaking, but he didn’t move beyond that. He just stood there, his broad shoulders hunched like he could possibly make himself small.

“What would you even want,” Adam said, mostly just sounding tired now. “With an alpha who...”

Casey huffed, shrugging with his whole body so Adam would catch the sounds of his motion. “Well, I dunno, what did I want when I hooked up with omegas and betas?”

Adam’s shoulders jumped at that; Casey had managed to surprise him again. Fair was fair, after all. Casey didn’t have any macho alpha ego to protect, but it still mattered, to admit that he wasn’t exactly on the straight and narrow either.

“Look, I—you’re not a bad guy, Adam,” Casey said. “It’s... gonna be awkward tomorrow no matter what, at this point, but if you don’t want to fuck because...” Because apparently your issues are even bigger than your dick... “That’s up to you. But I want to. I chased you down because I want to. And this is probably the most privacy we’re going to get for the next month and a half, because I don’t know where the hear-no-evil spots are in other packs’ lands.”

Adam ran a hand over his hair and then turned to face Casey again, his expression intent. “You—you swear to me you know what you’re saying this time.”

Casey closed his eyes so he wouldn’t roll them, then looked up at Adam. “Yeah. I swear.”

Adam took a step closer, staring intently into his eyes, breathing him in, and Casey tried not to smile too wide just yet.

“I won’t... expect anything,” Adam said. “Afterward, just because we—”

“Good, because you’re not getting anything I don’t decide to give you,” Casey agreed promptly. “I figure you know better than to provoke the guy who packed nine different strains of wolfsbane for the trip. Don’t you?”

Adam almost smiled, and took another step in, raising a hand to ghost along Casey’s arm. It wasn’t quite a touch, but Casey could feel the heat of him, was almost drowning in his scent. He felt a little giddy with how good Adam smelled—only good, only that alpha enticement he’d caught a shadow of now and then from other alphas before it was swamped by his own overreaction. The stuff from the blue bottle was doing the job, apparently.

“You would, wouldn’t you,” Adam said, sounding weirdly pleased. “You would absolutely... poison me, or whatever you needed to do, if I...”

“I mean, I’d start with punching you and yelling real loud, at this point,” Casey said, letting himself smile and lean in, tilting his chin up. “But, yeah, if I still had a problem with you down the road, you would definitely know about it.”

Adam kept looking at him for another few seconds, until Casey said, “I’m gonna just climb you like a tree if—”

Adam’s hand closed on his arm and his other arm came around Casey’s back as Adam kissed him. It was all sweet and soft, tentative, and then Casey’s patience with whatever Adam thought was going on here snapped. Casey surged up into the contact, kissing back hard enough to be a challenge.

Casey felt Adam go rigid, holding himself back, but he didn’t pull away from the kiss. Casey hooked one arm around his neck and scraped his teeth over Adam’s lip, prodding at that control, and it didn’t take long before it broke.

Adam hauled Casey up against him, nearly off his feet, and sank his fingers into Casey’s hair. Casey grinned into the kiss as Adam took charge, expecting a tug next—no one could resist pulling his hair—but Adam’s hand pressed flat to his skull instead, tilting Casey’s head to just the right angle as Adam kissed him rough and deep.

Casey hooked one leg around Adam’s hip, pressing himself tighter against the hard bulge of his cock. It also spread him open, spiking the night air with even more of his scent. Adam groaned against Casey’s mouth and grabbed his ass. His hand was so big, his—everything—was so big. Casey felt a shiver of fear, but he wasn’t afraid of Adam, just—afraid, like watching a scary movie.

Except he was starring in it, out here having sex in the woods surrounded by werewolves. Luckily he and Adam were werewolves too, and all the other ones within a quarter-mile were sleeping or politely pretending to.

“Right here?” Adam growled against his lips. “What, up against a tree?”

“There’s... grass?” Casey offered, loosening his grip on Adam to gesture further along the ridge. His waving hand was behind Adam, but Adam just firmed his grip on Casey and swung around, looking. He hoisted Casey higher against him, so Casey wasn’t pressing quite so directly against his dick, before he started walking again. Casey curled every limb around him and pressed his face into Adam’s throat. His scent was so good and so familiar and unfamiliar at once, because after the last few days of course he knew Adam, but Adam and sex and Casey’s own reaction made a heady new combination.

Adam grumbling under his breath—which for a werewolf’s ears meant he wasn’t even forming words, just making tiny, irritated growly sounds—was very familiar. It was so exactly out of the fantasy Casey had been spinning that for an instant he was afraid the stuff in the blue bottle had kicked in really hard, and he was dreaming all of this.

Then Adam dumped him in a chilly patch of grass, and that worry vanished. Casey glared up at him for a moment, and then he saw the way Adam’s shoulders made a rigid line, the way his hands were closed into fists. He was holding himself back again. Casey was tempted to snap at him, to jump up and start yanking Adam’s clothes off, but he thought there was probably a better way. Just this once.

Casey leaned back on his elbows in the grass, letting his knees sway in and out as he looked up at Adam with a challenging smirk. “Come on, then. Get your clothes off. It’s only fair, isn’t it?”

Adam snarled, glaring like he knew exactly what Casey was doing, but he also stripped his shirt off. Casey’s mouth went a little dry—and his hole got wet—at the sight of his bare chest and arms in the light of the stars and the waxing moon. He was big, broad, effortlessly muscular like no one else Casey had ever dared to be with before. Something in his lust-addled omega hindbrain—or maybe just his hind end—was transfixed. Yes, that, I want that, I want this one.

Casey didn’t realize he’d made a noise until he noticed that Adam was staring at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Fuck off, you know I want you or we wouldn’t be here,” Casey said, snatching a handful of grass and throwing it uselessly at Adam. “Take your pants off, let’s go. You’re not gonna fuck me with your abs.”

“Well,” Adam said, shoving his thumbs into the waistband of his pajama pants, which were valiantly attempting to restrain his cock and only succeeding in shadowing it. “My abs will help.”

Casey growled and pushed up on one hand, and Adam snorted and shoved his pants down. His cock jutted up, huge and thick, and the scent of his arousal rolled off him with nothing at all to hold it back. Casey felt his own heart rate spike, a dizzy rush of lust and panic that had him digging his fingers into the grass, thankful he was already on the ground.

Adam hit his knees, leaning over him—looming—but Casey sat up and grabbed for him, seeking Adam’s mouth with his own like it held the only air he could breathe.

But he could breathe, when Adam’s arms were around him, Adam’s lips crushing against his. The panic faded again to just that delicious thrill of fear, and need took up all the space it left. His skin was humming, his hole aching to be filled, his dick hard against his belly. Adam was kissing him hungrily, teeth scraping Casey’s lip as Adam’s tongue fucked his mouth.

Casey tore his mouth just enough to gasp, “Come on, come on, I need—” you, but he wasn’t going to say that. No need to make it weird now.

He reached down instead, getting his hand on Adam’s cock. Adam groaned and bucked into the touch, his hips snapping hard as his eyes squeezed shut.

Adam had never fucked an omega before, any more than Casey had ever done this with an alpha. He hadn’t said so, but it was obvious—and it was probably nearly as overwhelming for him as for Casey.

“Don’t,” Adam said in a strained voice, and Casey froze. Adam shook his head sharply, still not opening his eyes. “Don’t let me hurt you.”

Casey’s heart squeezed with something that was surely nothing but the product of pheromones and hormones and the little blue bottle. He snorted and said roughly, “Don’t worry, I don’t like you anywhere near enough for that. In fact, I think I ought to ride.”

Adam made a noise at that, startled and turned on, and that was enough for Casey to press the point. He shoved at Adam’s shoulders, and Adam let himself be moved, sprawling on his back in the grass. Casey followed him, straddling his waist without stopping to let himself stare at the alpha’s cock or really think too much about what he was doing here.

Adam grabbed him again as soon as Casey was over him, hauling him down into a kiss, a hand gripping hard on the nape of his neck. Casey felt himself go a little boneless with instinctive surrender, his back arching and hips tilting automatically.

“Can I,” Adam gritted out, his voice so harsh and tense it was barely a question. His fingers tightened harder on Casey’s nape, and immediately loosened, but Adam didn’t let go. “Casey, I—how—”

“It’s okay,” Casey said, trying not to let himself feel that tender something again. He grabbed Adam’s other hand and guided it to his opening. “Feel. You’re not going to hurt me, I’m built for this. I’m ready for you.”

Adam tugged Casey’s head down—not another kiss, but bringing Casey’s forehead to rest against his. They were too close to see each other, but their quick, hot breaths mingled between their mouths as Adam rubbed over Casey’s hole, his fingertips sliding easily on slick.

“Come on, come on,” Casey panted, tilting his hips again, begging for it with his body better than his words.

Adam growled a little, low in his throat, but he pressed inside, his fingers sinking easily through the pliant ring of Casey’s opening.

Casey moaned at the feeling. It had been a while since he’d been with anyone, and Adam’s thick fingers felt good inside him, felt right in a way he couldn’t remember anyone else ever feeling. Adam kept fingering him, twisting and working his fingers in and out, making filthy wet sounds and sending pleasure singing up Casey’s spine and down to his balls.

Then Adam hooked his fingers and rubbed in just the right spot, and Casey jerked up, breaking Adam’s grip on his neck as pleasure jolted through him, his dick spurting a little against his belly.

“Okay, okay, see?” Casey gasped. “Ready, come on, please, let’s move this along.”

As soon as Casey said please, Adam jerked his fingers free, using the wetness on him to slick his cock. Casey whimpered at the sound, reaching his own hand back to join Adam’s, and, okay, ready may have been slightly optimistic—Adam was big—but Casey was definitely done waiting. It worked out to the same thing.

“Keep it steady for me,” Casey said, angling himself to meet Adam’s cock. Adam got a hand on Casey’s hip, more like he thought Casey might need the support than because he was about to drag Casey down onto him.

Casey closed his eyes, tipping his head up and letting himself just feel. When he got the head of Adam’s cock, big and blunt and hot, nudging against his opening, he stopped there for a few seconds, swaying his hips in tiny motions to rub his own slick on Adam.

Adam made a noise that sounded nearly pained under him, and his fingers tightened hard on Casey’s hip. Casey didn’t doubt his other hand was tightening even harder on his cock, holding back orgasm.

“Feels good, huh? Like it’s supposed to? Me too. I was so sure I wasn’t missing out on anything, fucking betas and omegas, but...”

Casey let himself sink onto Adam’s cock. The blunt thickness of it just pressed against him for a few seconds, feeling impossible even like this, and then Casey remembered the way to breathe, the way to relax, and he was sliding down and exhaling through the burning stretch of it.

Adam didn’t make a sound at all this time. He didn’t even seem to be breathing. Casey had to look, even though he could hear Adam’s heart racing louder than anything else. Adam’s hand was still holding him tight and the pulse was pounding in the head of Adam’s cock, all that was inside him so far.

Adam was staring up at him with wide eyes, eyes gone black with pupil. It was the darkness, mostly, Casey knew, but it was him, too. Adam could get high as hell on him, and that knowledge was as intoxicating as anything Casey had ever mixed himself.

The first pain of being stretched vanished completely in that rush, and Casey moved again, sinking lower over Adam, taking him deeper. He took his hand off Adam’s cock and laid it over Adam’s hand on his hip, and Adam’s other hand came to hold him on the other side, bruisingly tight and sticky-wet.

Casey still had to breathe through the feeling of being filled, stretched, practically impaled on a cock bigger than any he’d ever taken, but it barely hurt. He could take it. And even if the only thing about it that felt good was that stunned look on Adam’s face and his breathless silence, it would be worth it.

But then Adam closed his eyes and moved, not thrusting but circling his hips, changing the angle of his cock and setting off shocking sparks of pleasure. It was Casey’s turn to moan helplessly. Both his hands were clutching at Adam’s now, and he wasn’t sure which one of them was guiding the motion as he sank down farther, taking another inch and another, until the thick base of Adam’s cock was inside him and he was sitting flush against Adam’s body.

For a moment they were both still, staring at each other and holding on. They barely breathed, and Casey couldn’t have said whether he felt pleasure or pain or fear or desire; he was too flooded with feeling to put names to any of it.

Then Adam gritted out, in a voice so tautly controlled it would have sounded furious if he wasn’t still staring up at Casey with that wide-eyed expression, almost reverent, “Can I move?”

Casey nodded frantically and lifted up a little, and Adam groaned and chased him, thrusting his hips up hard. Casey gasped at the impact, and at the shock of pleasure that seemed to take over his whole body. He rocked down into it, shifting to get the best angle, and Adam’s hands were hard on his hips as Adam moved under him. It felt like a fight as much as like fucking, both of them struggling to take charge, but they hit a rhythm almost despite themselves, fast and hard and so, so good.

The night was full of the sounds of their bodies meeting, the slick sounds between them and their panting breath and pleasured sounds. They snarled half-formed words at each other, more and now and come on, and the answer was always an unspoken yes. They didn’t need to speak, not really, not when they had this between them.

Casey’s orgasm took him by surprise—like he’d never done this before, like he had no idea that this fierce, frantic pleasure was going somewhere. Suddenly the electric sensations gathered at the base of his spine and down in his tight balls, and a second later it burst over him, leaving him crying out breathlessly as he tightened on Adam’s cock, his own dick spurting against his belly.

Adam tipped his head back, going rigid under Casey, his hands tightening hard again. Casey had exactly enough time to think oh fuck if he knots me it’s gonna be fucking awkward and then he recognized the pulsing feeling as Adam came inside him—all at once, the easy way.

Casey closed his eyes and let himself sag a little, his head hanging down as his body started to settle with Adam still inside him, still hard. Adam subsided under him, flat in the grass, his hands resting loose at the tops of Casey’s thighs.

Casey’s hands still rested on top of Adam’s, but it didn’t matter. They were still connected in plenty of other ways. Where his hands rested was just another tiny detail in the big picture of we just fucked. A little breeze washed over them, clearing away the thick scent of sex, and when it died down Casey could smell them again as if for the first time: alpha and omega, slick and come and sweat.

The approaching ordeal of talking to Adam after fucking him wasn’t technically a scent, but it was so thick on the air Casey could just about taste it. Given Adam’s... everything... Casey couldn’t imagine that Adam was going to handle this part gracefully, and he didn’t want to ruin what had been a really good fuck by fighting with Adam over it immediately.

Casey was probably not going to handle this very gracefully either, by any objective measure, but if he could handle it fast enough Adam might not notice right away.

Casey opened his eyes and met Adam’s gaze, which was, yes, already wary. He squeezed the backs of Adam’s hands before gently pushing them away, and wriggled up and off Adam’s softening cock, standing up in the same motion. He was absolutely not dizzy when he stood, but it did take him a second to get his feet under him. While he did that Adam jumped to his feet and then caught him under one arm when Casey jerked back from the sudden motion.

“Are you,” Adam started, but Casey was really, really not doing this tonight.

“Fine,” Casey said, beaming up at him and starting to edge away. “I’ll definitely be able to get to sleep now! Do you know the way back? I’m just going to go take a dip in the river, if I come back smelling like this it’ll be as good as inviting all the Bryson aunties to comment tomorrow morning and nobody’s got time for that.”

Adam’s expression turned aggressively neutral. He gave a short nod and turned away, grabbing his clothes off the ground. Casey stared at him as he walked away, spine perfectly straight and his ass making Casey regret that they hadn’t done this in a more leisurely manner, because he really had to work on undoing whatever Adam’s past partners had done...

Except, no, he didn’t need to work on any of that, because he and Adam had just had some really good sex, and that was it. Twice would make it a thing, and Adam’s alpha everything would come screaming out all over it, and Casey didn’t need that.

Maybe he didn’t need any of this anymore, in fact. As he turned the other way, walking down the ridge to the river, Casey considered that possibility. He’d come with Adam to get some intensive exposure to an alpha, and he had the evidence trickling down the inside of his thigh that he’d gotten about as intensely exposed as he possibly could. Maybe that was all he’d needed. Maybe he would be fine now.

Maybe nothing he had felt in the last hour was going to ever come up again. Maybe keeping the aunties off his back was the only reason he needed to wash Adam’s scent off his skin. Maybe Casey hadn’t made everything more complicated and difficult on a whim when he was overtired and buzzing on wolfsbane.

Maybe the moon would rise in the west tomorrow.

Casey ran the last few steps to the river’s edge and dove in, and for a while he didn’t have to think about anything but the cold rush of the water around him.