Page 32 of Pack’s Prize

“No, I–” she said. “I can stay, I know this is a big event–”

I could feel the rumble in my own chest now, and she looked up at me, her eyes wide and dark.

“I can,” she said, her eyes shining. “Ican–I just…I need–”

The cloying scent of sweet, rich wine intensified.

I knew what she needed.

CHAPTERTHIRTY-THREE

Ava

“Get up on the desk, omega.”

The room was hot–too hot–and now, with both Elias and Theo here, it was too filled with their scents and mine to even bother pretending nothing was wrong.

My heat.

It wasn’t supposed to be here for… for I couldn’t remember how long. It was too late to worry about it now, anyway, now that Theo had arrived and lifted me onto the desk, his arms flexing as he stared at me hungrily. Thinking back over the past week, it was obvious: that throb between my legs, the middle-of-the-night warmth that had me kicking off the covers just last night. I’d thought it was just living with alphas again after a week on my own. I had been so stupid, like a freshly presented omega who didn’t recognize the changes in her own body.

Why tonight, though?I thought, a desperate sob nearly escaping my chest as Theo nudged my legs apart, standing between them. So, so close.

“What do you want?” he asked, his hands gripping my thighs, just above my knees. On another day, his hold on me would have been too tight, too much, but right now, I wanted more.

“I want you,” I moaned, “Fuck, Theo, I want you, I need you now–”

“You want me to make you come on my fingers, darling?” he asked. “My tongue?”

I shook my head, and reached for him, pulling his head down to my level so he was crouched over me, caging me in on his desk. I kissed him, hard, surrendering easily as he took over, his tongue tangling against my own. He tasted so sweet, better than any Champagne. With one hand, I reached out, unbuttoning his jacket and letting it swing open, then touching the buckle on his black leather belt. “I want you to fuck me, alpha.”

I felt, more than heard, the low moan that resonated through his chest, but he pulled away slowly. “Ava,” he whispered, his eyes searching mine. “I don’t–”

“I do,” I said. “I want it, I want you,” I pulled him in closer, wrapping my heels around his thighs, dragging him back to me, until the hard bulge of his cock in his trousers was pressed tight against my core. “I swear to you, alpha–” the title made his cock twitch, and I felt it against my clit. “I want…”

I had thought I had more time. I hadn’t known it would come so soon–even despite the warning signs that I’d ignored over the past week. I’d wanted my first time with Theo, with all of them, to be not in the throes of heat, but in Elias’s soft, cedar-scented bed, where we could take our time exploring each other’s bodies as we had so many times over the past week, preparing myself physically as well as mentally before we crossed that final line.

I’d come so far from wanting to get fucked by a stranger at a club,I thought. A sound that was half laugh and half sob escaped me.And look where it got me: fucked in an office.

“I don’t want my first time with you to be during my heat,” I said, with all the seriousness I could manage. I wouldn’t last long like this; already, I could feel the edges of my brain going soft and fuzzy. Theo’s pulse was rapid under the skin of his throat, and I licked my lips.

“Shit,” said Elias, from somewhere behind Theo. “You’re going to do it, Theo, aren’t you?” His voice was strained. I tore my eyes from Theo’s and saw him standing by the door as if he were guarding it. His hand was pressed tight against the front of his dress pants, and the muscles in his jaw were jumping. Distantly, I was impressed by his self-control around an omega practically in heat.

“Go tell Michael, Elias,” Theo said, not looking away from my face. “You’ll be alright for a little while, after this, right, Ava?Lucide?”

I nodded.

“Tell him what’s happening, then, but… don’t close the event.”

“What?” Elias said. “But–”

“She wants to stay. Tell Michael, then come back. Guard the door. Don’t let anyone in this office,” Theo said, and drew one knuckle from my temple to my chin before tilting my lips up to meet his in a too-brief kiss, “until we come out. Then everyone will know she’s ours.”

My eyes fell shut and a shudder passed from the base of my skull down into my tailbone at his words, fire lighting me up from within. I was so attuned to Theo, Theo’s scent, Theo’s voice, Theo’s hands on my skin, that I barely noticed Elias leaving, only that his scent was suddenly less distinct.

Theo he cupped my cheek with one hand, pulling me in for a deep kiss. With the other, he lifted me up so I was balanced precariously on heels and the edge of his desk, then he yanked my dress up over my thighs and my ass. I shivered as my hot skin met the cold, smooth wood.

“I want to tear this dress off of you, darling,” he growled, “but I’m afraid we’re in public, so I’ll have to settle for…” he slipped his long fingers under the delicate straps, tugging them from my shoulders. “This.” The dress fell down around my waist, revealing my breasts to the office air, and I arched my back. His hands went to my thighs, kneading his way up the inside of my legs towards–