“Why not?”

“I guess…I don’t know. My mom has spent all this time taking care of my dad, and she’s the only one working now, and she’s always so stressed-out. I guess I’ve just gotten really good at being self-sufficient. It’s easier not to be a burden that way.”

“I don’t believe your family would think you’re a burden if you told them what’s going on,” I say. “Based on what you’ve told me.”

“I know it’s silly,” she says. “But…with my dad’s health being so bad for so long…I’ve always done my best to make sure I take care of myself as much as possible. It felt like I was making things easier on them that way. Like I was one less thing they had to worry about. I guess I still feel that way. With all this stuff happening with my dad’s pacemaker and them worrying about money…it feels almost wrong to dump this shifter shit on them on top of everything else.”

“I really don’t think they would see it that way,” I tell her.

She shrugs one shoulder, looking down at the water. “Maybe you’re right.”

I pull her closer to my side, leaning into the instinct to do so, to have her closer. She surprises me by curling her body, burrowing her head in my chest as my fingers tangle in her hair. I turn my head and bend forward so my nose can skirt along her shoulder, unable to resist the chance to breathe her in deeply, to revel in her warm scent, which never fails to make my mouth water.

I’m so wrapped up in it that I forget myself, forget to be careful. It takes me by surprise when the scent gland on her throat grazes mine, making us both gasp. I’m unprepared for the shiver that passes through her, despite the heat of the water. The effect is like adding gasoline to a flame, causing her scent to bloom and ripen, surrounding us in the small space, so thick I could choke on it.

“Hunter,” she whispers hoarsely, shaking against me.

Shit.

My fingers tighten their grip on her hair, my face burying in her throat to try to breathe in more of her. “Tess, are you…?”

“I think so,” she whimpers. “I’m sorry.”

“Fuck. I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I didn’t mean to—”

“It burns, Hunter.”

“I know, I know,” I soothe. “I can help. I’m sorry, I can help. I—Fuck, Tess. The way you smell.”

“Hunter.”

“I need to—Can I taste you?”

She pulls back, her pupils blown and her eyes glazed. “Taste me?”

“You smell so fucking edible. I’ve wanted to taste you since that first night.”

Her head whips around, noting how exposed we are. “Here?”

“Your brothers aren’t here, and Jeannie will have already gone home.” My hands slide to her hips under the water, urging her upward. “Let me make it better with my tongue. Please.”

Her nod heats my blood, and already I’m helping her scramble to the edge of the hot tub, tugging down her boy shorts as she goes. And when she’s bare from the waist down, I waste no time diving between her thighs. No warning, no pretense—just my tongue in her pussy like I’m starving for her. With her scent thick in the air, threatening to suffocate me in a way I would say thank you for, I guess that I am.

“Hunter!”

I close my eyes as I lap at her slit again and again until the slight tinge of chlorine gives way to the heady taste of her. I grab her thighs and pull them over my shoulders, unable to stop tasting her for even a moment. She gasps and writhes against my face when my tongue touches her clit, and I swirl it around the little bud ravenously as I curl my hands over her thighs to hold her tightly against me.

My cock throbs in my shorts, swelling to the point of pain, but I can’t stop what I’m doing. I’m dizzy with want and high on the taste of her, and I think distantly that I could do this for days without ever coming up for air if she let me.

Her fingers grip the back of my head to twist in my hair, and I relish the slight sting. I can tell this won’t be slow, won’t be drawn out; I’m too desperate, too keyed up by the scent of her heat. A dozen images flit through my head as I lap at her now-drenched pussy—of her riding me, of her stuffed with my knot, of me bending her over the side of this tub and fucking her until she screams loud enough to bring down the mountain—but none of that calls to me as much as the taste of her on my tongue at this very second.

Even as my cock swells to dangerous levels, so close to the edge that I can barely stand it, I grip her tighter. I lick at her soaked cunt. I suck on her clit until she’s gasping my name.

Make her come, my alpha chants. Make her come all over you. Mark her. Make her yours. Make sure everyone knows who she belongs to.

“Hunter—ohmygod, Hunter.”

I hum against her, my nails biting into the soft flesh of her thighs as animalistic sounds rumble in my chest. I feel it when it happens, and it’s far too late for me, but the sensation of her pretty pussy quivering on my tongue, of the gush of her slick that coats my mouth and chin—it’s enough to have me licking a wide stripe down the center of her, slower now, like she’s a treat to be savored. My eyes are heavy lidded and my body thrums with energy—and it almost feels a little like being in heat myself, tasting Tess.

I can hear her panting above me as she comes down from the furious orgasm I just gave her, her head thrown back and her chest heaving when I peer up the line of her body. And all the while, I’m still tasting her, almost as if I need to collect every drop of her orgasm so that it doesn’t go to waste.

“What about—” She sucks in a breath. “What about you?”

“M’fine.” I swirl my tongue slowly around her clit, enjoying the way she shakes from the aftershocks. “You taste too good.”

Her eyes widen, her fingers tugging at my hair and forcing my head back to look up at her. “You came?”

“I did,” I tell her with a dazed nod.

“Jesus,” she breathes. “That’s…that’s fucking hot.”

“Not exactly comfortable,” I mutter, already feeling my knot swell because of the heat-like pheromones she’s pumping out. “But worth it.”

I’m about to dive in and give her another orgasm as quickly as possible, but Tess is already wriggling out of my hold. “Not comfortable? Are you okay?”

Her scent is already changing, the heat ebbing away now that she’s been satisfied, but my knot is full and heavy, throbbing in my shorts with nowhere to go.

“Your heat,” I say through gritted teeth. “It forces me to knot…outside.”

She looks confused. “Knot?”

“Yes.” It dawns on me then, that she likely has no idea what I’m talking about. “When an alpha and omega…have sex, the alpha…you see, his dick, it…swells.”

Her brows shoot up. “Swells?”

“Fuck. It would just be easier if I show you.”

I stand with effort, drawing my shorts down only low enough for her to catch a glimpse of the base of my cock, flushed with blood and swollen to a round mass that should be inside her, making sure she keeps my cum. As it is, it fucking hurts.

“That’s…Wow. Why does it do that?”

“Well, at some point…it was to ensure conception. It’s…part of our biology.”

“So if we were having sex…” Her eyes look a little glazed now. “That would be…?”

“Inside you,” I murmur, watching the way her pupils dilate.

She lifts her hand as if considering, then looks up at me. “Can I?”

I nod shakily, the idea of her touching me making my head rush.

Her little fingers reach out tentatively, brushing against it, and I hiss as it throbs from her touch.

“It hurts?”

“When it happens…like this. Yes.”

“Like this?”

“…Outside.”

Her mouth parts in surprise. “Oh. Oh.” Her teeth press against her lower lip, considering that. “How can I help?”

“Usually I just…” I reach down to grip it, squeezing it roughly, massaging the dull ache away. “Like this.”

I watch as she licks her lips, her breath puffing out of her. “I could do that.”