First Street Heat (Beastverse #1)

17. Lilah

17

Lilah

S unlight hits my face and wakes me in the morning. Scott and Fenrir are lying beside me, one arm slung over my waist, pinning me against them, the other underneath my head with my fingers intertwined in theirs. A soft smile plays on my lips as I take in his scent surrounding me. I try to force myself to stay in this moment for as long as possible.

Unfortunately, it seems my mate is either a light sleeper or very in tune with me because his purr starts up behind me before I can even think of getting out of bed.

"My omega." Scott's voice is raspy this early in the morning as he nuzzles the back of my head with his nose. His mouth finds the soft part of my neck, and he presses a quick kiss against it. "My beautiful mate."

"No regrets then?" I ask, sounding more uncertain than I mean to. I mean it as a joke, but the words themselves sound so laced with uncertainty and worry that I cringe at my own desperation.

For so long, I told myself I didn't need a mate and that it was okay that I never found one. Now, I'm lying in bed with a man who wants me more than the air he breathes, and he's already told me he loves me.

I love them, too, but I'm so worried it's going to end up the same way my last relationship did. With them ending up with someone else. I know it's different because we're tied to one another now.

He's my mate, and I'm his. My worries aren't rational, though. They just make me need more reassurance and a little time before I'm ready to admit how strong my feelings are.

"Do you know how long we've been looking for our mate?" Scott asks after long moments of quiet contemplation.

He doesn't wait for me to answer. It's a rhetorical question, anyway.

"I became an alpha when I was seventeen. Fenrir made himself known a few days later. So, for thirteen years, we've been looking for the missing piece of our soul. Thirteen years of feeling like monsters. Unloveable, untrustworthy monsters that take and take and take."

He flips me onto my back, pinning me to the mattress with his body as he spreads my legs and positions himself between them.

"The only thing that kept us from hating one another was knowing somewhere out there was a beautiful, amazing, strong omega that would want us for who we are. Who would fall in love with us and all of our rough spots? Do we regret finding you, Lilah? No. We regret that we did not try harder to find you."

His lips catch mine, and he kisses me with so much passion I wonder if he was holding back on me when we made love last night. I moan into his kiss, deepening it and letting my tongue play against his. A smile pulls at his lips as he gives me one final peck and pulls away.

I whine at the loss of his touch, my body responding in an attempt to draw him back into bed with me by perfuming for him. He narrows his eyes on me, the color flickering from golden back to dark and golden again before finally stabilizing on dark.

"I need to feed you and get some water in you, and then Fenrir will see to your other needs," Scott tells me as he pushes off the bed and walks into the bathroom. I catch a glimpse of his backside and admire the view before he closes the door and starts up the shower.

I groan loudly as I stretch out my body. I try to convince myself to get out of bed and go snooping while Scott and Fenrir are preoccupied.

Janie pulled out some family albums before she showed me Scott and Fenrir's bedroom last night. I never did get to go through them, but I don't want to until I have someone there to tell me who's who in each photo and the back story behind them. So, I toss that snooping to the side and decide to find some clothes to wear so I'm not prancing around the house naked. Not that any of us would mind, but I'm not trying to drip all over the house while my body's adjusting to having a mate.

Scott's phone buzzes on the nightstand, and mine does the same right next to his. My brows furrow, trying to figure out if it's just a weird coincidence or if we both got messages. I grab my phone, not feeling snoopy enough to go through his phone. My brows shoot to my hairline when I see it's a group chat I've been added to with Scott and three numbers I don't recognize.

Unknown: Family dinner tonight. We want to celebrate!

I don't even second guess when I send a response telling the unknown number that we'll be there. It's probably Janie or Sarah who sent it. They told me last night how they do family dinners pretty often.

I want to meet with all of them without the awkwardness of their brother making me perfume at a charity event or the weirdness of me not knowing if Scott and Fenrir are going to mate with me. Now that they have, I want to be immersed in their life.

I want to know that they all want me and that I'm not an inconvenience. They haven't made me feel that way in the five minutes I've known them, but I worry they'll find me lacking. That somehow they'll find someone better to be with Scott and Fenrir, and I'll be left again.

Just as I'm about to slip down another spiral of worrying over nothing, the bathroom door opens, and Scott's dark eyes pierce me. His blond hair is damp. Water droplets trail down his lightly-haired torso and absorb into the towel, slung low on his hips.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

Any sexy thoughts he might have been having are done with as soon as he sees the distraught look in my eyes. I shake my head, trying to force my self-doubt away, but he doesn't believe it for a moment. His purr is loud in the room, the only sound except for my thoughts running a mile a minute.

"Just thinking," I say. It's the truth. Kind of.

"About?" He cocks a single eyebrow at me before wrapping me in a hug and pulling me against his slightly damp body, whether I want it or not. I do.

"I have self-doubts, you know," I say, trying and failing, yet again, to keep my voice light. "Just some things with being left that I worry about."

"Who?" Scott asks a single word.

It's enough to have tears starting to prick my lashes while I lean harder against his chest. All the unchecked emotions I've kept pushed deep down inside of myself, all of the feelings of abandonment and loss that I keep tucked away from even my own thoughts come flooding back with a purr and a single question.

"Every alpha before you," I whisper and sniffle.

I hate that the words are even a thought I have, considering I have my mate now, and it's all I should care about. Yes, it took a long time to find him, and yes, it was a messy ride to get to him. But he won't leave me. We're scent-matched, and now we're mated. There's nothing more we could be for one another that could give me any more security than we already have.

Still, I dated three alphas, and each of them left me due to scent matching an omega while we were still together. Not to mention my dad, who never even mated my mother after helping her through her heat and impregnating her with me.

Scott's warm hands trail down my arms and rub soft circles against my back. They have me relaxing into him as his purr vibrates through me.

"I don't know if you know this, but I'm kind of better than all of the alphas you've been with before." A growl stutters his purr as his eyes flash, but he's quick about swallowing Fenrir back down. "We don't like the thought of other alphas touching you," he says roughly, his purr starting back up again strong.

"Sorry," I mumble, trying to wiggle in his hold to be even closer to him.

"Don't apologize. We want you to tell us anything and everything." He pauses for a moment to take a deep inhale of my hair. "We might also need to claim you for a little while to rid you of ever thinking about any other alphas."

"I wasn't fantasizing about them!" I gasp in horror.

I don't want him to think I was thinking about past alphas in any way other than a disappointment. The mere mention of fantasizing has Scott sighing and his eyes switching to the bright gold of Fenrir before I can fully register that he's taking all of this the wrong way.

Fenrir's purr is more of a growl as he spins me around and bends me over the bed. " You can fantasize about one alpha other than me. He looks exactly like me and shares a mind with me. You talk of any other alphas in the same breath as fantasizing about anything, and I'll need to remind you of your options."

"Fenrir." I start to push back up on the bed, but his hand tightens in my hair and pushes me back down on the mattress.

" Shh, " he whispers close to my ear as his body folds over mine. " No justifying, no excuses. " His fingers in my hair force my face more into the mattress, so I can't speak even if I want to. He growls at my neck, teeth scraping along my shoulder. He makes sure not to get too close to my fresh bite marks. " Say no or tap twice if you can't handle me, and I'll stop. Understand, little omega? "

I nod my head vigorously, wanting him to know there's no way I'm about to tap out when I can get him in all his primal glory. Fenrir's sexy all the time, but extra so when he wants to claim me, mark me as his, and bury himself inside of me until I'm crying out in pleasure.

My body's on the same page as my mind as slick starts to wet the apex of my thighs, and my pheromones coat the air. Fenrir grabs my hips in one hand so hard he's going to add to the bruises from last night, but it only makes the passion that much hotter as he moves down my body and begins to lick between my legs.

His hand in my hair has long since joined his other to hold my hips in place so I can't grind against the slow, torturous strokes of his tongue, but I don't dare move from where he put me. Sure, I want to test what he'll do if I disobey, and I'm sure he's itching to show me. Right now, I want to be his perfect mate, though. I want to do as he says and let him shower me with pleasure.

Our phones both vibrate simultaneously and Fenrir's licking pauses. He shakes his head and returns to what he was doing behind me with the same vigor and enthusiasm.

Only a few moments pass before they vibrate again, and this time, he curses softly, the words vibrating against me and causing a ripple of pleasure to erupt throughout my body. It's not an orgasm, but I am so close I can practically feel the final stroke that will have me shattering on his tongue.

Fenrir's phone starts vibrating at a steady pace, the sound of someone calling him. His growl reverberates throughout the whole room, the sensations almost toppling me into orgasm as I tilt my head to the side and offer my neck in submission even though he can't see.

" Do not come, Lilah, " Fenrir's command is deadly when he pulls away from between my legs. " Not until I'm inside you. "

I whine at the denial, but it only earns me a dark chuckle from Fenrir. I roll over and lie on the bed when he stands behind me. I spread my legs wide, my fingers moving between my thighs and stroking where Fenrir just had his tongue.

He growls and snaps his teeth at me to show his displeasure in me not being his good little mate right now, but he likes it. I can tell he wants to use his strength to pin me back on my belly and make me take everything he has to give me.

He looks like he's about to do just that when the phone starts vibrating again. He closes his eyes, his hands curling into fists before stomping to the nightstand and picking up the call.

" Emergency or you're dead, " he growls a deadly sound into the receiver.

I can barely make out a woman's voice on the other end, and I assume it's either Janie or Sarah since both of our phones received messages before he was called.

" I didn't agree to that at all. " Fenrir snaps his teeth, making a sharp clicking sound as he walks back over to where he was standing earlier. He looms over me, watching me with devilish delight as I lick my lips in anticipation. He cocks an eyebrow at me, an accusation playing in his eyes.

" She did, did she? " His eyes narrow as they fall from my face, down to my chest, and lower still to where I'm shamelessly spreading my legs for him, all but inviting him back to continue where we left off.

" Yeah, we'll be there. Make sure it's outside. My omega is an insatiable mate. "

My face heats in embarrassment, causing Fenrir to beam in pride. I go to close my legs, but he pins me down, cradling the phone between his ear and chin. In one motion, he's pulling me toward the edge of the bed and kneeling so his face is right between my legs again.

" One hour. " He nods, giving me a wicked look as he says it. " Yeah, we'll be there. "

I whine softly, wanting to know what we're doing in an hour or, more importantly, what we're doing between now and when we're supposed to be wherever we're supposed to be.

" Yeah, see you then, Janie. "

The phone falls from his ear, and I silently hope that Janie is the one who hung up because Fenrir doesn't even check before he's feasting on me again. I tug at his hair, wanting to pull him off to ask where we're going.

" Take your punishment, omega, " he growls against my wetness as his tongue makes another long, steady stroke against my clit. " I have thirty minutes to get you so full of need you're going to think you're going to explode if you don't come. Then, I'm dressing you, and we're going to have lunch with my family. "

I tug at his hair some more, a whine leaving my lips. "Fenrir, please, I didn't know."

" Didn't know what? " He smiles at my torment before sucking on my clit long and hard enough to have me arching my back and calling out his name. " Didn't know that I would want you all to myself for the next, well, probably, year, but we can't stay hidden away for a whole year. A week would be acceptable, though. "

"It was supposed to be dinner," I whine again, locking my ankles behind his back and squeezing his face with my thighs.

He hums a sound of approval as he continues his work, always giving me pleasure but stopping right as I'm about to break. He repeats the same thing over and over again. Waiting until I start begging to come before he slows his licking and sucking, sometimes stopping completely to nuzzle and bite my thighs.

I'm a sweaty, needy mess when he finally pries my thighs away from his face and begins to stand up. His lips are swollen, the gleam in his eyes is bright, and his cock is hard and thick, just asking to be licked in its own right.

" Time to go, mate, " Fenrir growls the title like a curse as he pulls me to my feet and ushers me into the shower. " Get you clean, get you dressed, and get you fed. " He nods to himself as he talks.

His hands test the water until it is warm enough, and he guides me under the spray. I'm still adjusting from being edged for half an hour to question any of it and let him move me around before washing my hair and my body for me. Just as I think I'm starting to settle from the high of almost coming, he'll get close to my ear and whisper to me in the same sexy growl he uses when he fucks me.

" Such a good mate. So perfect for me. So perfect and slick and needy. " He smiles in pride each time his words cause me to perfume and fresh slick to slide down my legs. He groans, pressing his length against me and holding me tight. Before he turns the water off, he presses his lips to mine in a possessive kiss. " I love you, Lilah. So much. "

He pulls away, his eyes darkening again, and Scott is back in control of the body.

"Do you want to come, little omega?" Scotts purrs loudly in the shower as he grabs the nearest towel. "Did Fenrir make you needy and desperate and then leave you like a present for me?"

"Yes," I moan as Scott starts to dry my arms and then legs. "He's such a cruel mate."

Scott laughs a sound that makes my heart flutter and my cheeks flush even more. He tucks the towel around me before grabbing a second and towel-drying my hair. He breathes deep in the crook of my neck as he keeps working the strands of my hair in the towel.

"Can I make you come, Lilah?" Scott asks as he moves in front of me, allowing me to wrap my hair up and then holding my cheeks between his palms. He tilts my face up to his. The intense sincerity in his eyes isn't something I'm prepared to see.

Fenrir edging me and enjoying making me embarrassed is completely normal and easy to understand. The confusing part is Scott coming out the other side with genuine care for me. I don't hate it. In fact, I really kind of like it, especially since he genuinely wants to treat me right and wants my full, enthusiastic consent.

"Please." I lick my lips and close my eyes as I lean closer to him. "I want you to make me come, Scott."

His lips find mine, placing another kiss against them before murmuring how much he loves me and starts kissing down my body. He picks me up easily enough and places me on the counter.

"Legs around me, omega," Scott purrs against my abdomen as he trails the last few inches of my body with kisses before his tongue splits my folds and sends ripples of pleasure all through my body. "You taste so fucking good."

He sighs as he takes another slow, long lick. "We knew you would. As soon as we saw your picture, we knew you were ours, and we would love how delicious this pussy tastes."

"My picture?" I ask through heaving breaths as I try to chase the pleasure and fall into a climax.

Scott chuckles between my legs, and I throw my head back at the sensation of the vibrations. "The picture for your heat application. We thought you were the most beautiful woman we'd ever seen."

"Oh god," I groan, remembering just how terrible that picture is, but it comes out as more of a moan that Scott takes as encouragement to keep doing what he's doing.

"Come for me, little omega," Scott demands in a whisper, a hint of his dominance filling the air. It's enough for me to tilt my neck and for the bubbles of pleasure to overfill me and have me calling out his name in appreciation. "That's a good girl. Come for your mate. So slick, so needy. I wish we had more time. I'd knot you and make sure you're truly satisfied."

My fingers are tugging at his head, begging him to stand and bring his face close to mine. He gives me a crooked smile before obeying and allowing me to kiss him over and over and wrap my legs around his waist to pin our bodies together. I can feel him hot and hard against me, but he doesn't even grind against me.

"Please, Scott, I need a knot," I whine as my hips tilt to rub against him.

Scott pulls away from me and then works my legs off of him easily. "I'd love to, but we're already running late. I don't want to have to explain that we're missing lunch because we were locked together."

"Why lunch?" I ask, pushing off the counter and letting him guide me into the bedroom, where he starts going through his closet and tossing clothes out for himself.

"They called and asked if we could do lunch because my brother needs to meet with some colleagues this evening." Scott pops his head out of the closet and looks up and down my towel-covered body. "Get in here and grab something to wear."

"What?"

I barely get the question out before he pulls me by the wrist into the small walk-in closet. My brows furrow when I see half the closet has been filled with feminine clothing, and none of it's making sense as I turn to face Scott, who's smiling and waiting to see what I'll say.

"What?" I repeat.

"You're about Janie's size, so tops I mostly got in the size she wears. I bought a few dresses if you want those, but it's a pretty informal get-together. Jeans and skirts are in the dresser in the room, and I bought a few sizes because I wasn't sure what size you were there. Anything you don't like, don't want, doesn't fit, I'll return and take you back out to get new stuff when I'm able to not knot you every thirty minutes."

"You bought me clothes?" I walk over to the dresses and blouses hanging up in the closet. There's not a lot, but there's so much more than I ever thought he'd have for me, considering I didn't plan on mating him until Monday.

"Is that okay?" His eyes go wide as his cheeks flush. "The urge to buy you things has been strong." He clears his throat as his eyes avert to the ground for a moment. "It's normal alpha behavior, and Sam assured me you probably wouldn't mind. I want to prove to you I can provide, and well, you provide for yourself pretty well. But I knew you wouldn't have anything here, so just in case, I bought some stuff."

"You bought these for me?" I ask, knowing full well it's basically the same exact question I just asked.

Scott tilts his head to the side. "Yes, " he says slowly, as if he is unsure if it's the correct answer.

"For me?" There's no way this wonderful, put-together sex God of a man is embarrassed because he's doting on me like any other alpha doting on their mate would. I can't be that lucky. I've never been that lucky in my life.

Scott's expression shifts as though he can read my mind and realizes I don't dislike what he's done. I just don't know how to respond because no alpha has ever doted on me. None of them have ever wanted to, and so I've always been the one to dote on myself.

"Yes, for you, Lilah," Scott wraps his arms around me, pulling my body close against his. "Anything for my mate, my heart, the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"Anything except for a knot right now." I purse my lips and cock a brow at him. He laughs before spinning me back around and giving me a soft swat on the ass.

"Get dressed. We have ten minutes to get to my brother's house, and they live twenty minutes away."

Scott doesn't give me a moment to argue that since we're already late, we might as well be really late and satisfied instead of a little late and needy. I sigh but don't chase him out into the room.

He's right. We need to meet with his family. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can return to our home and get back in our nest.