Fall Semester (Omega Wolf Academy Book 2) Page 9

  When his tongue grazed the inside of my thigh, I shuddered and went damp all over. Dimitri shifted his gaze up to mine, then slowly, licked the length of my panties. My mouth dropped open and saliva pooled on my tongue as need flashed hot.

  I wanted to jump him, I wanted to tear the clothes from his body and sink onto his glorious erection, then ride him until my release tore through us both, sweeping him along for the orgasmic ride.

  But I was locked in his gaze, unable to move as he inched closer to my damp heat, eyes as dark as obsidian and nostrils flared as he breathed in my scent. He flashed his teeth in a devastating smile then sank his teeth into my thigh in retaliation for my bite.

  An orgasm, impossible to deny, ripped through me like a tsunami, washing over me with reckless abandon. I threw my head back, smacking it hard against the windowpane, and gasped as stars burst in my head and through my entire body. Pain and pleasure mixed with violent delight as my body convulsed beneath Dimitri’s possessive hands.

  When my sight and senses returned, I lolled my head forward to look down at my dark mate and managed a satiated grin.

  His fingers dipped beneath my panties and ripped the last bit of fabric. He pinned me to the window with one hand, and attacked me with tongue, and teeth, and fingers.

  It was like a dream, senseless yet filled with sensations I couldn’t seem to pick apart. He destroyed me then put me back together again, until I had no sense of reality, just him.

  When he stood and lifted me from the window ledge and walked to the couch with me curled over his shoulder, unable to lift my head, I mewled, afraid he would leave me. Instead, he sat on the same spot we’d first fulfilled one another and shifted my hips while I summoned the strength to lift my head.

  His hands lifted me until the head of his cock, so thick and ready it pulsed with life, pressed against the entrance to my body, then he paused.

  I forced my eyelids to lift and stared directly into his dark depths, searching for an answer to questions I hadn’t the courage to ask yet. He was waiting, I realized a split second later, waiting for my consent. Keeping my gaze locked on his, I nodded and dug my fingers into his arm as he claimed me as his own and broke my mind into exquisite fragments.

  And when he laid me on the couch, entirely spent and unable to move, then stood and began to dress, my heart squeezed so hard I was afraid it would crush beneath the weight of regret and fear.

  Something was wrong with my mate, something that summoned shadows in his beautiful eyes and tore at his soul. I could feel it, like I’d felt my own darkness.

  He’d been there to help me find the light, I thought, as my eyes closed from sheer exhaustion. I’d help him find his if it were the last thing I did.

  Chapter 11

  The next week and a half spun by in a blur of classes, friends, and mates. I went to bed each night with a smile lifting my lips and enough hope pulsing in my heart to chase away the nightmares that still threatened to infringe on my happiness.

  I spent time with each of my men, separately and together as a group, and managed to maintain my rule of “no group sex.” While they teased and tempted, none of my mates pushed hard against the simple boundary. That fact, along with a growing list of little things that made my heart turn to mush whenever I was around them, had me falling endlessly in love with the men fate had seen fit to bless me with.

  Even Dimitri, with his dark moods and evasive maneuvers, which more often than not led to orgasms for me, made my heart beat erratically whenever his lips lifted in that crooked grin that made my knees go weak.

  Maybe especially Dimitri, I thought, feeling that now familiar tug of emotion in my chest. I rubbed absently at the tightness as I half-listened to Dr. Daniels deliver a lecture about the ethics of pack law. As interesting as his classes were, my mind kept slipping from the topic back to Dimitri and the shadows that still lived in his eyes. If anything, they were getting darker by the day and he’d yet to confide a single detail in me or his best friends. I’d tried my best to seduce it out of him, but he was standing strong. Stubbornness was his finest and most defined characteristic, it seemed.

  Thankfully, he was stubborn about how much I meant to him, too. It helped balance the scales enough to give me the patience I needed to wait him out. Only, the longer I waited, the longer he went through whatever this was alone, the more worried I got for him.

  I’d talk to Lucian and Chase about it tonight, I decided, then instantly felt relief lighten the pressure on my chest. We were still learning how to be together, but they’d had years of practice being best friends, albeit guy friends. I knew guys didn’t open up as much as girls, typically, but they’d dealt with some pretty heavy issues together. We’d figure it out.

  “Remember your papers are due one week from today. The Writing Center has lots of excellent staff and resources for those of you who need a little help with APA.” He clicked off the Smartboard and leaned back against the desk. “I’ll see you all Tuesday. Enjoy the weekend.”

  “I think I might make an appointment at the Writing Center,” Emily said, gathering up her book and papers. “I can’t seem to get the hang of APA. You?” She glanced up with raised eyebrows.

  I shrugged, still only half-focused on reality. “I’m not horrible at it but that’s only because I look at a million sites online to check my work. Maybe check to see if we can both go to the appointment?” I suggested.

  Emily grinned. “Sure, I’ll call them in a bit and let you know, but I’ve got to run now. I’m meeting this pretty girl I met at the library for coffee. Her name’s Jossette.”

  “Ohhh,” I said, wagging my eyebrows. “Pretty name, pretty girl. Have fun and tell me all about it later!”

  “But of course.” Emily tipped her head in a mock bow then waved and hurried out to meet her date.

  I took my time, putting my stuff into my bag while the class emptied of students. I didn’t have any immediate plans other than talking to Chase and Lucian about Dimitri, but that couldn’t happen until they finished their classes. For the first time in days, I was on my own for a few hours. I chewed over the thought of going for a run and dismissed it in favor of streaming some show and eating nachos.

  “Alexis,” Dr. Daniels called out as the last student shuffled through the door, interrupting my daydream of binge watching Supernatural.

  I turned expectantly towards his voice and smiled, then frowned in confusion when he shut the door to the classroom and turned to me. Nerves roared to life in my stomach. “Did I do something wrong?” I asked as nausea rolled. I really liked this class and Dr. Daniels. I searched my memory for any misstep, any wrong word, and couldn’t remember anything.

  “No, no,” he said, raising his hands like one did to a trapped animal. Not surprisingly, it didn’t calm my racing heart.

  I chewed my lip and waited for him to explain why he’d needed privacy to speak with me. It didn’t feel inappropriate at least, and my radar for sexual predators was pretty in tune.

  He pushed his hands into his pockets, then opened and closed his mouth several times, ratcheting up my nerves, then blurted, “That question you asked me last term, about the possibility of multiple mates? Were you talking about yourself?”

  My mouth dropped open. I snapped it shut almost immediately, but his intelligent eyes had already seen my reaction and confirmation showed in them.

  I wanted to deny it, to call him crazy and stomp out of the classroom. I opened my mouth to do just that, then simply asked, “How did you know?” I lowered back into my chair as my legs turned to rubber. He knew.

  Dr. Daniels moved forward, shaking his head. “Old Ones, Alexis, please, don’t be scared. That’s the last thing I want.” He pulled out the chair next to me, the one Emily usually sat in, and angled it so he was facing me.

  “What do you want, then?” I whispered, feeling shaky and lightheaded. If he knew, maybe others did, too. What would happen to us?

  “Nothing,” he said insistently. “Alexis, look at me
.” He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it on end.

  I looked at him and saw the face of my favorite professor. I also saw reluctance and apology written all over his face. The tight ball of terror inside my stomach eased.

  “I don’t want anything and I’m sorry to scare you like this. I just…” his eyes widened as he shook his head. “I’ve seen you with them, Dimitri, Lucian, and Chase. I’ve seen you all together and I couldn’t help remembering your question.”

  I remembered it, too. I’d been questioning the possibility of multiple mates while knowing deep down in my soul that I’d already found mine and had posed a hypothetical question after class. Dr. Daniels had been kind, and thoughtful, and had told me that only the arrogant believe knowledge is set. I took a deep breath and swallowed my nerves.

  “When you look at us,” I said hesitantly. “What do you see?”

  He smiled, and the sincerity of it eased the fear some more. “I see a bond between you, connecting all of you the same way it connects me and Asher. Alexis.” He reached out and touched my forearm gently. “Fate might be hard to understand at times, but it doesn’t make mistakes. You’ve been blessed with not one but three mates, and at such a young age.” He shook his head as if in disbelief. “It’s fascinating, really, but I’m sure it’s more overwhelming than fascinating to you and your young men.”

  I laughed and the sound of it echoed off the walls. “That’s the understatement of the year,” I muttered. “It’s better now,” I confessed. “Now that we know why we were so drawn to one another. It was really confusing last term. Now we’re just trying to get used to it and figure things out. I’m just trying to get to know them... outside the bond.”

  His eyebrows arched. “Outside the bond?”

  “Yeah, I mean, I bonded with them before I really even knew them. I’m still getting to know them.” I thought about Dimitri’s mercurial moods and shook my head. “I’m not even sure I like Dimitri half the time.”

  Dr. Daniels chuckled.

  I chewed my lip for a moment, trying to decide how honest to be with my professor. He already knew my biggest secret. Might as well lay out all my insecurities to someone who might understand. “Haven’t you ever questioned whether you love Asher because he’s Asher or if it’s just fate pushing you around and telling you what to feel?”

  Dr. Daniels slowly exhaled. "I have questioned it, which is part of the reason why I teach philosophy. The mate bond isn't equivalent to the human concept of love at first sight. Remember the brain scans I showed the class of mated and unmated wolves?"

  I nodded.

  "Well, something changes in our physiology when we meet our mate, or mates, plural, as the case may be." He inclined his head to include me. "It took me years to work through my opinion on this topic, so don't deny yourself the time and space to work through it on your own. But the realization I came to, after struggling to align our nature alongside science, is that reality is relative." He gestured with his hands as if drawing something from his mind. "What we experience becomes our reality. Our experiences are stored in our brains, which change after we meet our mates and again after we procreate. To deny our new realities after physiological proof of change, is to deny our most basic truths." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "You might not have ever foreseen this reality for yourself or for your mates, but they've changed you and you've changed them. You're connected now and for the rest of your lives. You can either choose to embrace that or struggle to understand it. Either way, the change in your physiology has already occurred."

  I pressed my lips against my fisted hand, thinking his argument over carefully. I'd had similar thoughts but hadn't finalized my opinion yet. What was love but a chemical response in the brain that sent signals to other parts of the body? Just because I was still getting to know my guys, didn't mean I had to fight the undeniable fact that I was truly, and deeply, in love with each of them, separately, and altogether.

  I exhaled slowly and swallowed as thick emotion rose into my throat. "I'm afraid," I confessed, letting the words spill from my lips. "Old Ones, I haven't let myself say that out loud or even think it before, but I am terrified that it's all a mistake. That somehow, our bond is a mistake that will be rectified in some way." Tears spilled from my eyes as the truth struck home. "What if it's not real? What if I let myself love them with everything I have, everything I am, and it turns out to not be real?"

  Dr. Daniels reached out and covered my trembling hand with his and squeezed. "There's one way to be sure," he murmured. "One way to see..." he trailed off.

  I frowned and wiped at the tears that, once started, seemed impossible to stop. "How?" I asked with surging hope that somehow, I'd be able to put my fears to rest and just trust in my mates and fate.

  "Well, the scans I presented last term were from a study I'm conducting right here on campus. If you and your mates agree, we could do scans and see the physiological changes happening right now, as your relationship deepens."

  My eyes widened and, immediately, I heard all the arguments Dimitri would throw at me. Could Dr. Daniels be trusted? What if our scans were leaked or released, then used against us? What if they treated us like freaks or, worse, separated us?

  I licked my lips, swallowed, and nodded. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I thought. "No promises, but I'll ask them."

  Chapter 12

  “Absolutely not! Are you insane?” Dimitri’s voice boomed from deep within his chest and echoed off the walls of my dorm room.

  I gritted my teeth together, holding back the frustration that sprung to life at his flat rejection of the proposition Dr. Daniels had put forward. A chance to understand more, to figure out if there was anything special about me, about us, that had caused such a unique mate bond.

  “Dimitri, just hear her out,” Chase said. His gaze tracked Dimitri as he stalked the room, pacing like a caged animal, then came back to me. “Ignore him. What else did Dr. Daniels say?”

  I blew out the breath that had stuck in my chest as soon as Dimitri had roared to life. I’d expected my Russian mate to be pissed, he was almost perpetually pissed these days. But I hadn’t expected Chase to be so supportive or Lucian to look so intrigued. I smiled in their general direction and turned my back on Dimitri’s hissy fit.

  “He noticed us, the way we are together, even the way the three of you are together when I’m not around,” I explained, reiterating the conversation as it had developed after Dr. Daniels’ offer to scan our collective brains. “I guess my question about multiple mates last term made his Spidey sense tingle, because he was pretty sure of his conclusion before asking.”

  “He’s been spying on us!” Dimitri said with a growl that earned him three sets of stink eyes.

  “Anyway,” I continued, ignoring him completely now. “We talked about how the mate bond isn’t just a feeling, it involves actual physiological changes in the brain, which, come on, is pretty cool.” I dared a glance at Dimitri to see if he agreed and was rewarded with a generous eye roll.

  “It’s actually fascinating,” Lucian spoke for the first time since I’d brought up the difficult topic. “Mated wolves, no matter their age or gender, show shifts in brain chemistry and neuron transfer that unmated wolves don’t have. The bond, no matter how much we link it to fate, is a very real and tangible phenomenon.” His head tilted to the side as he considered. “How does Dr. Daniels propose to interpret our scans without previous scans from before we were mated?”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Huh,” I muttered. “I didn’t think of that.” I tucked my lower lip between my teeth and chewed on it as I mulled it over. “They know what a mated brain looks like, so I suppose it’s not that important to compare our before and after shots. I think he’s wondering if we’ll get the same results as normal mated couples or if there are more connections because of how we’re mated.”

  Lucian nodded. “That makes sense.” He lifted his gaze to Dimitri who was still muttering to himself and pacing the room. “I ge
t that you’re uneasy with it, man, but Lexi trusts him and maybe we’ll be able to get some answers as to how this happened. Aren’t you the least bit interested in why we, of all people, came together as mates?”

  Dimitri whirled on him, eyes blazing. “Is knowing why going to change anything for us? How is this going to help us in any way? It won’t. But it could tear us apart. Is that what you want to happen?”

  My heart strained against my ribs as I realized what all this blustering was about. He was afraid. I pushed up from the bed and walked straight up to him. He stared down at me in challenge.

  “I’m afraid, too,” I said simply, laying my hand over his heart, which beat furiously in his chest.

  He tried to jerk away, but I snaked out a hand and grabbed him by the back of the neck, forcing his gaze to remain on mine.

  “Stop it,” I ground the command out and stared him down. “This, right here, is why we need to know more about why we’re mated. You aren’t a lone wolf anymore, you’re part of a family now and we’re stronger with you than without you.” I spread my fingers into his thick hair and sighed when his eyes closed. “Dimitri, I’m afraid, too. If this scan can help us understand, even a little, then I think it’s worth the risk. But to be frank, the risk is minimal. I trust Dr. Daniels to keep our secret.”

  “I don’t know why we need to keep it secret anyway,” Chase mumbled from across the room. I sighed as Dimitri’s eyes popped open again, filled with fresh ire.

  “You don’t know why we should keep it secret,” Dimitri said with a deadly calm voice. I glared at Chase, knowing he’d just destroyed all the progress I’d made.

  “It’s not the turn of the century,” Chase said, frowning at Dimitri’s tone. “We don’t need to hide in the closet. There’s an entire spectrum of sexualities out there, what’s one more?”