The Duty of a Beta (10 page)

Talbot nodded again and he gave everything he had to staying still as Gunnar’s finger finally began to move inside him, sending heat and hope racing through his body in equal measure. Several minutes passed in a blur of pleasure for Talbot, until another finger was added. He jerked and tensed as he was stretched open further, but more than half his attention was on the other wolf’s cock rather than his fingers by the time a third digit joined those sliding in and out of his hole.

There was a drop of pre cum sliding down the beta’s shaft. Talbot would have given almost anything to be allowed to lean forward and lap it up as Gunnar’s fingers continued to dance inside him. Closing his eyes, he turned his head away from the sight, but the image of the other wolf’s cock was still there in his head, still tempting him.

Suddenly, Gunnar’s touch disappeared.

Talbot quickly turned back to him, but Gunnar had already moved away from where he’d been sitting on the edge of his bed.

“Don’t go!” The words were out before Talbot could stop them, and they sounded more like an order than any he had uttered in his life.

Gunnar frowned down at him and Talbot knew he had said the worst possible thing. There was no way he’d stay now, not even if he might have been willing to a moment before. Nothing could have angered him more than someone expecting him to take orders from an omega.

Talbot had never been more shocked than when Gunnar reached for him again. The larger man’s hands came to rest on Talbot’s sides. A second later, Gunnar had rolled Talbot towards the wall.

“I’m not going anywhere.” There was no hesitation in the beta’s words. He obviously meant every one of them. There was a flash of something in his eyes, too, but Talbot couldn’t work out what it was.

So much relief sang through Talbot’s brain that there was no room for any sort of clear thought process in there. His eyes dropped closed. He gave little thought to the way Gunnar arranged them on the bed, the larger wolf spooning close behind him, except to relish the heat from the other man’s body radiating against him from shoulder to heel.

It was only when a slicked shaft pressed against his hole that Talbot realised why they’d been rearranged that way.

Yes!

It was the only word that made it into his head, but Talbot was sure that was fine—it was the only word that needed to be there.

Gunnar calmly moved Talbot’s hands to hold on to different rails, then, ones better suited to their new positions. Talbot still wasn’t allowed to reach for the other wolf the way he longed to, but in that moment he found a strange kind of freedom in having his movements restricted.

There was no need for him to work out where to put his hands, or what Gunnar would like him to do with them. There was no requirement for him to know what he was doing at all. All he had to do was obey the beta in the very way that came so naturally to him, and everything would be fine. Gunnar would see to that.

Every instinct Talbot possessed screamed at him that he could trust the beta, more than he had ever trusted anyone else in his life, and with that instinct came a kind of peace Talbot had never even realised he’d been searching for. His mate would look after him.

The beta rocked his hips forward very slightly. The tip of his cock kissed against Talbot’s well-slicked hole. Again and again, Gunnar let him feel the gentlest pressure against his arse, driving him near-mad with frustration.

Finally, when Talbot was almost ready to cry with pure need, the beta pushed forwards. The tip of Gunnar’s cock slid past the tight ring of muscle. Talbot tensed at the unfamiliar sensation. The beta immediately stilled. His hand came to rest on Talbot’s hip, holding him motionless, too, freeing him from any responsibility to hide that little moment of discomfort as he ordered him to simply wait it out.

Gunnar made a soft, soothing noise in the back of his throat, a sound so different from his normal growls it was almost impossible to believe it came from the same wolf. Except Talbot was sure no other wolf would ever feel so right against his skin, or so perfect inside him.

Gradually, as Talbot’s body accept him more easily, Gunnar rocked his hips and buried his shaft further and further within him, until he was sheathed in him to the hilt. Stretched and full, Talbot squirmed, more desperate to come than ever, as every movement of the beta’s erection pressed against his prostate and the sensation rushed to his cock.

There was nothing he could do, though. Gunnar would decide if he wanted to reach around and wrap his fingers around his shaft. The older wolf would decide if he wanted to let him push against his palm and come the same way he had out by the old stone wall. Gunnar would decide everything. As Talbot opened his mind up and accepted that fact into an even deeper part of his mind, fresh waves of perfection flooded him.

Just a moment later, as if the beta had somehow sensed his complete and willing surrender to his control, Talbot felt the other man began to move inside him. Slowly, almost tenderly at first, then with more strength and more dominance to his movements, he thrust deep into Talbot’s arse again and again.

His lips caressed Talbot’s neck. Teeth scraped against his skin. Gunnar’s hands roved over his body with complete freedom, claiming more and more of Talbot as his own with every caress.

And through it all, the rhythm built between their bodies, calling to Talbot and pulling instincts he’d never realised he possessed to the surface. Pleasure built up inside him until it became bliss, then something beyond anything he’d ever known.

It was nothing like coming from a hand around his cock, from mere friction against his shaft. His orgasm seemed to tear through him as if it would rip him apart from the inside out. His whole body jerked. His muscles tensed around Gunnar’s shaft as if he could somehow keep the beta trapped inside him that way and they would never be parted.

All control disappeared from Talbot’s world as he spilled against his blankets. His body and his mind both belonged to ecstasy—they belonged to Gunnar. Talbot was barely even aware of the beta’s hand covering his mouth, silencing his howl. Lights shone and fractured behind his lids as he closed his eyes very tightly and lost himself in a way he never could have done if he hadn’t known Gunnar would be there to find him and put him back together again.

Gasping for breath, Talbot finally collapsed against the bed, exhausted, every scrap of energy drained from his body. A second passed, then another. Talbot managed to lift his head a fraction and look up towards the headboard. His hands were still around the rails. He hadn’t let his mate down.

Another second passed, and Talbot felt Gunnar rock his hips, calling his attention back to the fact that he wasn’t the only wolf in the bed who wanted to come that night. Talbot arched his back slightly, offering his arse to the other man as clearly as he knew how.

Riding him through his climax seemed to have taken Gunnar close to the edge of his own. It only took him a dozen extra deep, pounding thrusts to spill inside Talbot’s body. His hips jerked rapidly, sending a different, milder kind of pleasure through Talbot’s sated body, but Gunnar didn’t make a single sound as he came. Talbot was the one who gasped out his pleasure at the other man’s orgasm. The beta was still all control over the whole planet.

A moment later, regret crept into the edges of the omega’s mind.

They’d both come…

It was over…

Gunnar pulled away a fraction, separating their bodies, as if he’d realised the same thing at the exact same moment.

Then, before Talbot could even protest his leaving, the beta moved back closer to him, so his chest was once more against Talbot’s back. Gunnar’s softened shaft pressed intimately against his buttocks as he relaxed alongside Talbot’s body, his arms wrapping around him to hold him close.

“You’re allowed to move your hands now,” the beta whispered.

Talbot cautiously took advantage of the permission. One of his hands came to rest on the back of Gunnar’s hand, where the beta had placed it on Talbot’s stomach.

The larger wolf made no complaint about that. He made no comment about anything at all and it was impossible for anyone to tell what he might be thinking.

Talbot had no way of knowing if there were
two
wolves who wished that they could curl up in that bed forever and never let reality intrude upon the love he felt for the man at his side.

Chapter Five

“Alfred?” Gunnar stomped into the middle of the old barn and peered into the gloom, trying to spot the gamma among all the junk scattered around the dark, shadowy space.

There was no answer.

If Gunnar could have had the pleasure of seeking out Talbot rather than the gamma that the alphas were so keen to see him mated to, he could have taken the responding silence as proof that the wolf he was looking for wasn’t within earshot.
But, with Alfred…

Gunnar held back a sigh. It was bloody difficult to be sure of anything with Alfred. The annoying little sod was quite capable of keeping quiet and hiding away in some gloomy corner, just because it would amuse him to make someone go on a fruitless search for him all over the pack’s lands.

Striding farther into the barn, Gunnar continued to look in all the unlikely as well as the likely places that the gamma might be.

Finally, Gunnar spotted a movement up in the hay loft. He tilted his head up. Leaping back, his reactions were only just quick enough to prevent him being showered by a mouldering old pile of hay.

He silently watched the last couple of pieces of damp, foul-smelling hay fall to the ground just in front of his feet before he looked up again. “Alfred…” he warned.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there.” The brat didn’t sound even the slightest bit sorry.

“And I’ll bet you’re going to say that you didn’t hear me either, right?” Gunnar demanded.

“Did you call me?” Alfred asked. He didn’t have Talbot’s skill for sounding naïve and innocent.

Gunnar counted to ten. It didn’t make him feel the least bit calmer. “Get down here,” he growled.

“Why?”

Because I bloody well told you to!
Gunnar kept the words back somehow. “Alfred. Down here, now!”

For several long seconds, it actually looked like he’d have to go up there and carry the little bastard down, but finally, with a theatrical
sigh,
Alfred made his way towards the ladder.

Every step he took was insultingly slow.

Gunnar’s hand tightened into a fist at his side.

“What do you want?” Alfred snapped as he jumped down the last step and glared across at him. He wasn’t that much bigger than Talbot when considered from a logical perspective. As the lowest ranking gamma, his station in the pack wasn’t really all that different to the omega’s either.

Yet, somehow, the disparity between him and Alfred failed to affect Gunnar in the least. No hint of any protective or possessive feelings rose up inside him as he held Alfred’s eyes.

It took far too long for the gamma to drop his gaze. Even when he did, it was a hardly a real acknowledgement of their respective ranks. It was far more like a reluctant acknowledgement that he wouldn’t stand a chance of beating Gunnar in a fight. He was just as bratty as
Caden
had been out in the wood, but with none of the latter’s charm.

“Come on.” Gunnar turned his back on the other wolf and strode out of the barn.

“Where are we going?” Alfred asked, as he quickly caught up and fell into step beside him.

“For a walk,” Gunnar ground out.

“Why?” Alfred asked, sceptically.

Gunnar marched on in silence.

Because it was his duty, he reminded himself.
Because Alfred was the wolf he should be courting, not Talbot.
Because betas were always considered to be good matches for trouble makers, not for sweet little omegas. Because if he had to spend time with the little brat it was far better to do it outside than be cooped up inside, where it was far too likely he’d give in to the temptation to throttle Alfred long before he could bring himself to want to do anything else with him.

Alfred easily kept pace with Gunnar without needing the beta to slow his stride the way Talbot might have. No matter how much Gunnar told himself it was unfair to blame the gamma for that, right then everything about him that reminded Gunnar that Alfred wasn’t Talbot was something to hate him for. Nothing was said until they’d gone over a mile.

“The alphas were pleased with the work you did in the garage,” Gunnar finally managed to mutter, as he stopped by a stout wooden fence and rested his elbows on it.

The vantage point took in several of the fields that made up the land to the west of the pack’s sprawling farm house. It should have been beautiful and peaceful, the perfect place to steal a kiss. Gunnar kept his face turned towards the view.

As hard as he tried to force himself to at least attempt to see the gamma in a more positive light, Gunnar couldn’t even stop himself comparing Alfred’s reaction to his words with what would have been Talbot’s likely response.

The omega would have blushed at the gentle compliment and glanced up at him, quick and shy, and the hope to have pleased another wolf would have been shining brightly in his eyes.