Escaping Death

Ace

“I’m glad to see you finally eating,” I take a seat next to Solana at the kitchen table where she is all but inhaling her food.

She looks at me askance. “You act like I haven’t eaten in days,” her words are muffled by a mouthful of pancakes.

“It’s been about,” Hunter checks his phone quickly, “sixty hours since you’ve eaten anything other than dick.”

His comment takes me by surprise and my much needed caffeine injection aerosolizes all over the table. “For fuck’s sake,” I mutter, wishing he’d mind his table manners. But he’s not wrong.

It was Tuesday evening when Hunter called me to come home and now it’s Friday morning and her heat is definitively finished. She ebbed and flowed in and out of lucidity over the last couple of days. It was a good thing Hunter had the forethought to bring in water and food because Solana wouldn’t let us leave her side – neither of us.

“It’s Friday?” Solana asks, finally registering what day it is. “What about the job with the guys? Didn’t they need you?”

A small, genuine smile warms my face driven by my wolf’s satisfaction. “I needed to be here.” I wanted to be here.

Solana’s reaction isn’t what I expect. I expected her to roll her eyes and quip back at me with an attitude about how she didn’t need us. I expected her to want to move on from the subject as fast as possible. But instead she goes quiet, her chewing slows and she drops her fork to her plate before sliding her hands into her lap and looking out the window.

Hunter is equally perplexed by her response and we both watch her, giving her time and space to make the next move.

After a few increasingly tense moments she pushes her chair away from the table. “Well, what I need is a shower. Help yourselves,” she gestures to the buffet of unfinished food and takes off up the stairs towards the bathroom.

“I’m going to go check on her,” Hunter says before quickly adding, “if that’s okay with you.”

My brows pinch together, “since when do you need to ask me permission to do anything?” I’m not angry, I’m just dumbfounded. That’s not how Death operates, that’s not how Hunter and I operate. We talk out the riskier jobs as a group, but the hows and whens are flexible depending on who’s on assignment. As long as the job gets done and as long as everyone comes home safe then I don’t really need to know anything else. And they certainly don’t need to ask permission to move about the house, it’s just as much theirs as it is mine.

Hunter matches my expression before dropping his gaze to the floor. “Since she’s your mate,” each word comes out feeling heavier than the last.

“I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I don’t feel a pull towards her, but mate or not she can’t stay – she won’t stay. It would be a disaster in every possible way.”

“What if she wanted to stay…would you let her?” Hunter asks, his tone still just as heavy.

“We’ll discuss things tonight with the pack,” I deflect to buy myself a moment to formulate my next thought, “but…I’m not sure I could.”

Hunter nods sadly then he leaves the table and heads up the stairs in search of Sol.

The shit is about to hit the fan and I need to brace myself for impact. Before I can allow the guys to come home, especially Eli, I need to air this entire house out. It’s been a three day Saturnalia and her scent has permeated every crevice of the house. I think even Eli could smell her from outside, I don’t need to provoke his wolf into jumping her.

With the linens from her nest in the wash, I head to the bathroom to bring her a fresh towel only to peek in and see her pressed against the shower wall, impaled on Hunter’s cock. The shower curtain is hanging on by two rings giving me a full uninhibited view of their activities.

It should bother me. It should drive my wolf insane watching another man fuck my mate, but seeing her take his cock does things to me. Hearing her release on Dean’s tongue, watching her fall apart publicly with Eli…taking her together with Hunter. Fuck. It drives me wild.

Maybe it’s because these guys aren’t just any guys, they’re my brothers, they’re my pack mates. I share everything with them, why shouldn’t that extend to my mate?

She wraps a leg around his hip and rocks her hips, dictating a slow and deliberate pace that allows her to slide up and down every thick inch of his cock. Her body is littered with bite marks and finger shaped bruises from the last three days. My possessive side loves seeing her marked by us so much that my dick twitches in my pants.

Solana spots me over Hunter’s shoulder and rather than bury her face in his chest she maintains her hold on my eyes and bites down on her lip, wanting me to watch her.

I’m absolutely fucked.

I hate that I can’t deny that I’m going to miss moments like this when she’s gone. But that’s easier to live with than forcing Eli and Hunter to live with a daily reminder of the mate bonds they missed out on.

Hunter doesn’t flinch when I put my hand on his shoulder and lean in to nip the sensitive spot on her neck which acts as the catalyst that sends her skyrocketing into orgasmic bliss.

“Goddess, fuck,” Hunter curses, finding his own release. “If you wanted to be the one to make her cum you should have followed her up the stairs.”

I know he’s joking, or at least a part of him is, because the other part of him wants her to himself, wants what’s mine. The problem is that she used to be his. So where does that leave us now after what transpired these last three days?

I slap him on the back with a shit eating grin, place the new towels on the counter, and set about cleaning the rest of the house.

With fresh sheets on every bed, and all pillows, blankets, and hoodies returned to their respective owners, the house doesn’t reek of heat anymore.

When Solana saw that I had put our rooms back together her face was impassive but I could feel her unrest through our bond, her sense of rejection. Not only did I not claim her, I erased all traces of her nest immediately after her heat ended. If we were truly mated we’d still be in bed together, I’d let her build as many nests as she wanted all over the house and wouldn’t think twice about it if that’s what she needed, if that’s what instinct drove her to do.

But my pack needs to come home and we need to carry on as normal. The plan hasn’t changed. She’s still our job, we’re still hunting Nightshade, and when all is said and done she’s still leaving.

— — —

Solana

For a moment I thought that maybe Hunter knowing that Ace is my mate, the way they took me together, and saw me through my heat would have changed things. But seeing how Ace erased all traces of the last three days while Hunter and I were in the shower shows me that it hasn’t. It’s hard not to feel the sting of rejection even though I was the one who told him not to tell anyone that we’re mates, even though he and I both agreed that I couldn’t stay here when this is all over.

It just felt oddly perfect to be between them both, to be loved by them both. Like I belonged there. But that’s not a feeling I can afford to indulge.

Dinner arrives shortly before Dean, Tate, and Eli do and it’s like the entire house takes a deep breath of relief now that everyone is back under the same roof.

“You done hogging all the Sunshine?” I can hear Eli tease Ace the moment he walks in the door. “’I’m going to port home for a minute,’ you said. ’I’ll be back soon,’ you said. Three fucking days later.” Eli’s feet hit the bottom step and he’s about to charge upstairs to find me when Ace stops him.

“Not so fast, Eli. Pack meeting. Now.” Ace’s command is final. Eli growls his frustration but does as he’s bid and joins the pack in the living room. I’m perched in the shadows at the top of the stairs — they can all probably smell me this close but only Tate will be able to see me. Luckily for me he refrains from using his gift to reveal my position.

“First thing’s first, how did everything go yesterday?” Ace jumps right into business.

“Everything went well, the intel was good and we intercepted the girls in transit to the auction site.” Tate explains matter of factly.

“We don’t expect there to be any blowback on us. We made it seem like the drivers went rogue and stole the girls. Two guys on crew are driving the sellers on a wild goose chase across the country as we speak.” Dean adds, pride bubbling up through his tone.

“But what we want to know is what the hell happened here.” Eli speaks animatedly as he rips through his pizza.

Ace takes a short breath in and exhales forcefully out of his nose with a grunt. “I came back because Solana went into heat.”

You know those scenes in movies where glass shatters silently against the floor, where two spaceships collide at hyper speed but again it’s like someone pressed mute upon impact? That’s what this moment feels like. Ace just dropped a grenade on the floor and without even so much as a whisper of wind everything shatters and splinters into a million pieces.

“She’s your mate,” it’s a statement from Tate, not a question. Tate doesn’t ask questions he has the answers to.

Ace nods once, slowly, “yes.”

Every one of them looks, well… horrified. “Bullshit,” Eli scoffs, hoping it’s not true. “There’s no way. If she were your mate you wouldn’t have —“ Eli catches himself before finishing his thought which I’m sure is something along the lines of ’wouldn’t have let us touch her, kiss her, fuck her.’

“If you want to ask something, Eli, now’s the time because after tonight we’re back to business as usual.”

The guys take full advantage of Ace’s carte blanche offer asking about my well being, my location, why he didn’t tell them sooner. The last question comes from Tate, “are you going to claim her?”

I know the answer is no, but it doesn’t hurt any less hearing it. “No. The plan was and still is for her to go on her way when the bounty is dealt with.”

“Why?” Eli breathes indignantly.

“Why?” Ace asks like the answer should have been obvious to everyone. “I peeled you off of a bar floor when you found your mate already had a family. Every one of us helped Hunter bury what was left of his mate when she betrayed him. You really think I’m cruel enough to live happily ever after with mine after that? No,” Ace shakes his head, “Death comes first. It’s not even a choice.”

“What if she’s pregnant? Will you claim her then?” Tate asks.

“She’s on birth control,” Hunter answers quietly.

“You don’t understand. Her heat will have burned through the artificial hormones. Nothing but your seed could survive her heart.” Tate informs the group and suddenly I feel nauseous.

Ace and Hunter share a private look of concern before Ace responds. “If she’s pregnant, then yes I suppose I’ll have to claim her.”