Baby + the Late Night Howlers Read online

  “Fuck,” I said, nudging and watching Baby’s throat flex and eyes flutter. “Fuck.”

  This was better than they said. This was everything. Like finding home in another human heart. This woman was mine.

  19

  Baby

  Holy fucking strawberry truffles and double rainbows and twelve-setting rechargeable vibrators! Except none of that actually compared to the way it felt to have Jonah press in, knot stretching and filling places previously untouched by anyone, brushing against over-sensitized nerves that made me shiver with every breath between us.

  I was speaking in tongues. I couldn’t even breathe. It didn’t hurt at all, it felt like having every lonely day erased and replaced with the perfect union of being tied to Jonah.

  “Baby,” he moaned in my ear, shifting forward and making me see stars, my entire body clasped around him, waiting for the tension to break. Any second now, any second, and this perfect pressure would crack and I would drown in the staggering release.

  “Jonah, more,” I whined, holding tight to his back.

  I didn’t know how to think or move or exist, filled like this. Thankfully he did and soon I was shouting and whining and shattering or maybe just hanging at the very edge of it all, waiting for him to drop me over.

  The sheets rustled beneath us as Jonah rode me up the bed, our chests sticking with sweat, breathing uneven. Our lips barely connected, too overwhelmed by the sudden shift between us.

  “Doesn’t hurt?” he asked, pressing in deeper, making me lose my voice.

  “Holy shit. Wow, can you smell that, Scorch?”

  “Baby,” Jonah growled.

  “No, god, no. Feels so good. So much. Didn’t know, ohmigod, Jonah, Alpha, please don’t stop.” And then, possibly like a total mindless idiot, I turned my head and bared my throat. “Bite. Bite. Please.”

  Jonah purred, arms wrapping around my back and holding me to his chest. He grew fuller inside me, and his beard scraped against my shoulder, face turned away from me, as he bucked, shifting his knot inside me.

  I whined, shoulders tensed, bracing for a bite that wouldn’t come, until my body couldn’t take the high suspension of pleasure. I snapped, electrified ecstasy racing through me, embarrassed to make a sound so close to screaming as I came, dragging my nails down Jonah’s back as he flooded me with slick heat.

  Everything was white and fuzzy and shivery for long minutes. I was on my stomach on top of Jonah—he’d turned us on the bed in my haze—Seth's hand brushing up and down my spine when the liquid waves of release started to abate. In their place, unexpectedly came a tightness in my throat and a swelling ache in my chest.

  What the fuck was this? I wanted to run and hide, tears threatening to spill over and me suddenly wanting to be anywhere else. This was not what I was hoping for at the end of my first knotting.

  “Baby that was,” Jonah purred, and I trembled. My vision was watery and the space around me felt too close. I wanted to squirm away, but when I tried, it pulled at Jonah inside me, too full to separate. He hissed and looked up, and he was foggy in my vision. “Hey. Oh shit, baby girl, did I hurt you?”

  I shook my head rapidly, trying to blink away tears. Was I overwhelmed? I felt as though I couldn’t catch my breath. “No, I—“

  Jonah sat up, the crack in my voice clear. “Shit, Baby, what’s wrong? What did I do?”

  I whimpered and curled in on myself, frustrated at the sudden shift in my mood, confused and also wanting to be away. Fuck. The Center never mentioned this part of knotting.

  “Nothing. I- I dunno what’s—“ I hiccuped and squeaked, trying to swallow the sob rising up.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “C’mere,” Jonah murmured, reaching out to me, but I stiffened and shrank, my eyes going wide on his at the reflex. He went pale, and I could see the wheels turning his head.

  “Baby, are you hurt?” Seth asked, crowding my side. I leaned into him gratefully, wincing at the shift of the knot lodged inside of me.

  Thirty seconds ago and it’d been all pleasure, and now it was an uncomfortable leash tying me to Jonah. Jonah, who despite making me just feel complete and beautiful while giving me an insane orgasm, I was now embarrassed to be near. Fuck being an omega, this shit was wack.

  “No, I don’t know why—I don’t know why I feel like this,” I managed. And then the floodgates broke and I was crying fully, embarrassed and uncomfortable and annoyed with everything.

  “Purr,” Seth ordered.

  Jonah made a weak rattling noise in response, an unenthusiastic, distressed kind of purr. “Call Books.”

  “On it. Hold her.”

  “She doesn’t want me to.”

  “Hold her, Scorch.”

  Jonah’s arms wrapped around me and this time I went willingly. Thanks a fucking lot hindbrain biology. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s my fault,” Jonah said in my ear. “Whatever it is, it’s my fault.”

  Which was worse somehow and made me weepy all over again.

  “Books. Something’s wrong. Baby… Jonah knotted her, and now she’s crying. She says no. Um… I dunno, he, you know, put it in. Everything was good and… Uh yeah, she did. Um… no, he didn’t. Ah. Ahhh, okay, yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Suuuure, I’ll tell him that. Yup.”

  Jonah’s purr was still halfhearted, and I was starting to wonder how long it would take for his knot to deflate so I could go hide in the shower again.

  “What’d I do?” Jonah growled as Seth hung up the phone.

  “You rejected her,” Seth said, throwing himself back against the wall and staring at the two of us.

  Jonah’s hands stilled on my back. “I did fuckin’ not.”

  I was shaking, trying to resist the tears still wanting to slip out, and the sobs in my throat, but I frowned at Seth. “What do you mean?”

  “Lay down, put Baby on her side, so you two can look at each other,” Seth said. When Jonah didn’t move, Seth raised an eyebrow. “Do you want her to keep crying until your knot loosens and she hides and you slither off feeling like dirt, or do you want Baby to feel good?”

  Jonah lowered us down to the mattress, his hands taking on the steady soothing pattern along my sides.

  “So this is some wacky alpha and omega biology nonsense, not anything either of you did knowingly,” Seth said. “She asked for your bite, and you refused.”

  “Because I said so,” I said, leaning my head back to “That’s not his fault. I didn’t even mean to say it!”

  “I know. Like I said, it’s biology nonsense. Makes me glad to be a beta.”

  “Bomber,” Jonah growled. “How do I fix it? I can’t bite her till she’s good and ready, and I’m not fuckin’ knotting her if it’s gonna make her sad like that.” I whined, and Jonah looked down, nuzzling the top of my head. “I know, baby girl, but seeing you cry is the worst feeling.”

  “Do you want to bite her? Not now, but later,” Seth said.

  “‘Course I do.”

  Oh. Just like that, my tears hiccuped to a stop.

  “Tell her so,” Seth said.

  I eyed our beta with sudden understanding. He was enjoying this confusion a little too much, smirk flicking on his lips. “Quit laughing at us, and tell us what he should’ve done.”

  Jonah purred and Seth grinned. “Right. Sorry. You should’ve kissed her throat, licked it, even bit without breaking the skin, marked her up there. Told her that the spot was yours and she was yours and laid claim. It’s just the turning away and not acknowledging thing that stirred her up. Unconscious rejection.”

  “And if I do that now?” Jonah asked.

  Seth's grin grew. “One happy omega coming right up.”

  My breath hitched and then Jonah rolled me to my back, still fastened inside me. His hands cupped my face, tilting my chin until I stared up at him.

  “Baby girl,” he purred, and already I was melting, the riot of unhappiness driving me to escape fading away just as fast. “Baby girl, you know you’re mine,
don’t you?”

  Only a squeak escaped my lips. I was still sniffling, and my eyes stung from crying, and I felt like a damn idiot driven by hormones. None of that stopped me from sighing as Jonah bent his head, the tip of his nose running down my throat, and then back up again. He kissed my pulse, and I shivered. Then he licked the spot, and I moaned and turned to jelly beneath him.

  Heat stirred between my legs and suddenly I could feel Jonah’s pulse thrumming inside of me where his knot filled me up. Well, alrighty then.

  “Books also said I should tell you that omegas like to hear when they’ve pleased their alphas,” Seth said from above us.

  Jonah rumbled over me, kissing my neck, peppering soft marks and brief nips over every inch of my throat until I was sighing and clinging to him. Crying was over with, wanting to crawl was gone too. Now I wanted to crawl into Jonah.

  “Baby,” Jonah whispered. “Do you want that? Do you wanna know how sweet you are? How perfect you fit around me?”

  I whined and my head tilted back, and this time Jonah didn’t hesitate, licking a stripe up my throat and making me groan.

  “That’s right. Never felt anything as good as your heat surrounding me,” Jonah murmured.

  “Except Seth,” I said, thinking of the way the two men looked at each other, years of love between them.

  “Yes, that’s my good girl. My sweet omega and my perfect beta. One lucky fucking alpha to have you both.”

  I was rocking under Jonah already, sorrow gone and replaced with simmering desire again. Hellloooo omega heat, you bonkers bitch.

  “I’m sorry I freaked out,” I gasped, waiting for him to move with me. “I didn’t know. I won’t make you do that every time.”

  Jonah growled. “Do what? Tell you how I can’t wait to claim you? Put my mark on you?”

  “Oh, fuck, Jonah.” He wasn’t even moving. The words alone were enough to have my cunt thrumming around him. I would’ve been irritated if the whole world hadn’t felt so good at that moment.

  “Baby girl, I’m gonna sink my teeth into you one day, make you the perfect final piece of this family, and never let you go. You’re ours. You’re mine.”

  “Yours,” I sang breathlessly. “Please, Jonah, move. Move with me.”

  He grunted and then the room spun as he rolled us over until he was on his back, with me straddled over his lap. “Wanna watch, baby girl. Watch those perfect tits bouncing as you fuck yourself on my knot like my good little omega.”

  I moaned like the omega in heat I was and started to bounce.

  “Gonna research you like Books so I never get anything fucking wrong again,” Jonah hissed.

  I whined. I didn’t want him talking that way, didn’t want to hear any uncertainty about who we were to each other. I had chosen this damn pack, and now we just needed to get me through this heat so we were good and ready for them to claim me.

  “Sweet things, Scorch,” Seth murmured, traveling to me on his knees. “Like she sounds like a perfect sinning angel as she comes.”

  I gasped, my pace quickening on Jonah’s lap as Seth took my face in his hands and kissed me. I couldn’t move much but I didn’t have to, the friction of the knot was unlike anything I’d ever felt. Every slight shift sent new rolling waves of pleasure through me.

  “She’s perfect,” Jonah gasped. “Perfect. Never was an omega for us till her. Sweet, pretty, fucking tight, shit.”

  I tore from Seth's lips as I came again, trembling between them as Seth dragged me down to Jonah’s chest, the pair of them kissing my throat and shoulders and jaw and cheeks as I fell apart. It wasn’t white lightning this time, more like a heady fog lying over me as Jonah turned me again, spooned between the pair of them, their kisses never stopping and Jonah’s purr becoming a satisfied roar through the room. He was still full, but this time I wasn’t anxious for us to separate. I snuggled in closer to his chest, tugging Seth along with me.

  “Gonna nap,” I announced with a yawn, as the fog became dense and drugging. “More sex later.”

  I felt their laughter softly nudging me from either side, hands mapping my skin and warm limbs covering me like blankets.

  20

  Baby

  Jonah and I were in a bit of a haze together for the next day and change, perfecting an art we’d stumbled over on the first try. Seth was there, in and out, handling the club and bar when he couldn’t be spared. Finally, when I’d lost the function of speech and my body was too weak to beg for more, I slept soundly through the night and woke up rested and nested, Jonah and Seth already dressed.

  Which only removed part of the temptation. They looked fuckin’ delicious in that bad boy, rolled up t-shirt sleeves and jeans vibe.

  Jonah started purring as my eyes opened, and Seth cuffed him gently on the back of the head. “Give her a break man.” I stretched under the bedsheets, grinning as one slid down over my bare breast and caught Seth's eye. “Precious,” he warned.

  I laughed, drawing the sheet back up as Seth held Jonah back by the cuff of his neck. “I know, I know. I do need to, like, get out of bed today. Get out of this room maybe.”

  “Only if you’re feeling up for it,” Jonah said. “Books said you should indulge in…whims and shit like that.”

  I grinned at his summation and shifted to sit up in the rumpled hurricane of bedding around me. “I think my immediate whim is a shower and to eat as much breakfast as Chef can afford to feed me.”

  Jonah planted his hands on the bed and leaned in, and I accepted the kiss he offered, and then took a few more just because his lips were soft and he tasted wonderful and he purred like an engine.

  “You’re gonna smell like me for days,” he said, eyes and smile soft.

  I nodded, scratching the short beard along his jaw until he pulled away. I looked to Seth who was getting ready to duck out from under a sheet. “Hey. You too, handsome.”

  I looped my arms around Seth's neck, stealing slower, softer, licking kisses until I was almost falling back into the pillows with him.

  “If you two don’t cut it out, I’ll never let either of you out of this bed,” Jonah growled.

  Seth sighed, breath slipping over my lips and untangled me from around him, scooting off the bed. “You’re dangerous.”

  “Come find us if you need anything. Or grab one of the other idiots around here,” Jonah said.

  “Can do.”

  He nodded and took another long look at me before his lips quirked. “Cover up so I’m not lookin’ at skin I want to taste when I’m trying to walk out of here.”

  I giggled and dove under the covers, Seth snorting and shuffling his way out from the nest. “Cheese, man.”

  I waited for them to close the bedroom door behind them before stretching again, throwing back the sheets and groaning at the incredible ache in my muscles. It was probably just as well Jonah and Seth had worked up the will power to leave the bed because I was feeling just on the too much side of sore. Not from the knotting, but definitely from the extra sexual effort I’d put in during the last twenty-four hours.

  I slid out from under the sheets and through the maze of the blanket fort walls, running to the bathroom on tiptoes, my stomach already rumbling. I used a mix of the goodies my guys had gotten me, and the things they’d left behind for themselves. It may not have been traditional scent marking, but it still left me with a warm fuzzy feeling to use their body wash.

  My phone chimed as I came out of the shower. The dresser in the bedroom was an odd combination of my clothes with some of Seth's spares, and I settled on a pair of leggings and a t-shirt of his that came down to mid-thigh with a faded motorcycle company logo.

  Chef’s got the grill goin’ for you. Be good today, baby girl. But not as good as you were for me and Bomber ;)

  I blushed, recalling the grit and rasp of his voice in my ear in those final cascading moments where ‘baby girl’ became ‘good girl’ and I turned into a needy, gasping creature.

  Right. Food. Socialization. Must n
ot think about knotting and sweaty, delicious, half-hour long orgasms.

  I found my leather jacket from Dusty on my way out of the apartment, ignoring the discomfort of leaving the nest. If I got really twitchy I could come back, but I wanted to see some friendly faces and I didn’t want to keep dragging people into my space to do it. Especially not when it might lessen the fresh and heady smell of what I’d been doing there with Jonah and Seth.

  It was nearing lunchtime when I tugged my boots on and locked up the apartment, and the rest of the floor was quiet, either still sleeping the night off or already at work. I wondered if Chef needed a waitress for the diner. Or if Dusty would want a secretary for the garage, some way for me to help out with my pack. By the time I was coming in the back way to the diner, I was drooling over the smells.

  “There’s our girl,” Chef purred, bringing a hot plate of fluffy biscuits, fried eggs, and crispy potatoes with a deep bowl of sausage gravy on the side. “Whatcha want to drink, honey?”

  “Grapefruit juice and coffee, please.”

  I was drowning my plate in gravy when Brody grabbed the counter stool next to mine. “You gonna eat all that?”

  I snorted. “If you want some, ask Chef to make you a plate. Yes, I’m gonna eat all of it.”

  Okay, so it was kind of a big plate for me, but Brody looked like the kind of guy that could eat the entire thing in two bites. I wasn’t just gonna invite him to do it.

  “Coffee, cream, and honey for our honey,” Chef said.

  “Flirt,” I shot back, earning myself a wink before I took a deep sip of the coffee. Just how I liked it. Even the alphas who had betas of their own took good care of me.

  “You gonna barf if you eat all of that and then come down to the gym with me?” Brody asked.

  I wrinkled my nose. “The gym?” It wasn’t not like I’d never seen one, but they weren’t my usual stomping ground.