The word came out like a curse, like an expression of frustration more than arousal. Because this wasnât what he wanted. Stroking himself off in his office like some teenage boy who couldnât control his own body wasnât what he wanted. What he wanted was her. What he wanted was to bury himself inside her until he forgets why theyâd agreed to maintain distance. What he wanted was to mark her and bind her and make it so she could never question their ownership again.
But he couldnât do that.
Not while she was healing.
Not while her mind was still fragile and her body was still recovering from what theyâd done.
So instead, he stroked himself like a man possessed, chasing a release that would be momentary and unsatisfying and wouldnât solve anything.
He was close now. His cock was pulsing in his hand. His entire body was coiled tight. His release was coming.....
The pressure built to a breaking point and then....
Nicholas came.
Hard. Intense. Weeks of frustration pouring out of him in thick ropes of cum that spilled across his stomach and onto his desk. The relief was physical but not emotional. His cock was still hard. His balls still ached. His wolf was still demanding.
He looked down at his still-rigid cock with something like disgust.
Even after coming, he was still hard. The release had done almost nothing. Within seconds, the need was rebuilding. Within a minute, he was almost as hard as before.
Nicholas pressed his forehead against the back of the chair and understood, with crystal clarity, that they had a problem.
He couldnât sustain this.
None of them could.
The need for her was building to critical mass, and every day she recovered was a day closer to someone breaking completely. To someone going to her room and taking what their wolves demanded, consequences be damned.
Nicholas cleaned himself up and returned to his desk, but he didnât return to work.
Instead, he stared at the calendar and made a calculation that heâd been avoiding.
Three days since she woke up.
If she continued to heal at this rate, she would be strong enough within a week. Maybe ten days at most. She would be healed enough to be returned to Shadowmere. Whole enough to go back to her pack without risk of permanent damage.
Ten days.
Maybe less.
Ten days until they had to let her go. Ten days until the contract ended and they had to honor their agreement to return her. Ten days until his wolves would have to accept that she was being taken away and they couldnât stop it.
Nicholas pressed his forehead against the back of the chair and understood that the countdown had begun.
They would return her. Theyâd made the agreement with Shadowmere. They couldnât break it. Couldnât start a war over an omega, no matter how badly their wolves demanded that they keep her.
But the thought of her leaving, of watching her walk away and knowing heâd never see her again....felt like a physical wound.
He had ten days to figure out how to survive that.
***
"Alpha Sebastian! Yes! YES!"
The she-wolfâs screams filled the bedroom as Sebastian drove into her with brutal intensity. Her nails were raking down his back, drawing blood, but he didnât feel it. Didnât care. The pain was nothing compared to the ache in his balls and the desperate need driving his body toward release.
Heâd been fucking her for hours.
Literally hours. Since afternoon, when the frustration had become so overwhelming that he couldnât sit still for another second. When the need in his body had demanded an outlet that cold showers and masturbation couldnât provide.
So heâd found her in the training yard, a young she-wolf named Kara, pretty enough in a generic sort of way, with curves that might have interested him under different circumstances. Heâd taken her to his room without preamble, and sheâd been eager. Willing. Excited to have an Alphaâs attention, even if that attention was purely sexual.
He didnât care about her eagerness.
He cared about the temporary relief her body might provide.
Currently, he was fucking her in brutal doggy style, his hands gripping her hips hard enough to leave marks, his cock driving into her with a rhythm that had nothing to do with her pleasure and everything to do with his own desperate need. Her pussy was clenching around him, her body responsive to the pounding, her screams echoing off the walls.
But it wasnât working.
Rhen was silent inside him. Completely uninterested. The wolf should have been engaged, should have been enjoying the brutality and dominance of the act. Should have been satisfied by the use of a willing female. But Rhen remained detached, almost disgusted, like he was watching this happen from a distance rather than participating.
Because she wasnât Lilith.
The thought came unbidden, unwelcome. Sebastian tried to push it away and focus on the physical sensation of fucking, on chasing the release that had to come eventually, but his wolf wouldnât let go of it.
"Not her. Not her. Not her."
Sebastian growled...an actual growl that came from deep in his chest....and increased his pace.
He changed position, pulling her up so her back was against his chest, his hands moving to her breasts while his cock continued its relentless assault. She moaned his name over and over, her head thrown back against his shoulder, completely lost in the physical sensation.
Sebastian found he couldnât connect with it.
His body was working, his cock was hard, it was moving, it was doing what cocks do. But his mind was somewhere else entirely. On a different room. On a different body. On the omega who wouldnât even let him touch her because theyâd agreed to let her recover in peace.
He bit down on her shoulder....hard enough to taste blood, and she screamed his name like it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
He pulled out abruptly and flipped her onto her back.