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Shauna had taken the pill five hours ago.
Mrs Taylor and Mrs Sadecki had brought it to her in the bridal suite, with a glass of water and a ‘just to make sure you’re receptive, dear.
Shauna didn’t need to be receptive. She was an Omega. Jeff, the Beta she was marrying in the morning, was the one who needed the help for his mating bite to take. If Shauna were marrying an Alpha, they wouldn’t need the pill at all. She’d smiled gratefully and taken it under their watchful gaze, and they told her that tomorrow would be perfect for her and wished her a good night and warned her to not try and cross the hall to visit Jeff before the big day began. Shauna had nodded and run herself a bath and let her tears fall into the scalding water. She deserved all of this, she knew, wiping at her red and swollen eyes with her pruned fingers in the cold water, hours later. She had a pup with Jeff, while she was out in the Wilderness, a pup who had survived the harshest winter and fiercest summer and was whimpering in upset at staying with Mrs Taylor for the night.
Shauna hadn’t meant to steal Jackie’s life. Not exactly. She and Jackie had had their fight, and Jackie had slept outside, and Shauna had dragged her back in, wordless and moody, and curled up on the other side of the cabin to sleep, and that was how their relationship had stayed. Sleeping apart, but always waiting up to be sure the other was sleeping safely. Jackie’s rut had hit while they were out there, the blonde Alpha whiny and growling and curled in a corner of the cabin until the air reeked with her, and Shauna, who had always helped Jackie through her ruts, stepped towards her former friend, only for Jackie to snarl at her and glare at her baby bump, until Misty fucking Quigley, of all fucking people, presented as an Omega and Jackie had agreed to help, and the two had left for the plane wreck together, Jackie making sure Shauna had watched her leave. When Misty and Jackie had come back, Shauna had scanned every strip of skin she could see around their necks and shoulders and only turned away once she was sure they weren’t mated.
Jackie and Shauna had avoided each other all spring and summer, though Jackie had taken an unofficial job as babysitter, the Alpha spending almost as much time with Shauna’s pup as she did, but Jackie liked to make a point of handing him back to Tai to give to Shauna, rather than giving the pup back to Shauna herself. Jackie had kept invading that space, the space that should have been Shauna’s, teaching the baby to swim, holding his hand when he took his first steps, mushing up berries once he could handle real food, avoiding Shauna all the while, only stopping when an Omega hit their heat, leaving Shauna to watch as Jackie left with Misty and Mari and Gen and even Robin, even though there were two other Alphas there. Whenever Shauna grit her teeth and growled at the sight, Tai had reminded her that Van wasn’t up for sharing and Lottie couldn’t control her Alpha, and the Betas that made up the rest of the team weren’t going to do anything for an Omega in heat. Shauna’s only response had been going to butcher some more meat, feeling bones and tendons and blood beneath her nails and imagining it was whoever Jackie was helping with their heat now.
And then the second winter came, and Mari had drawn the queen card, and Jackie had offered herself up instead, overcome with the Alpha instinct to protect her Omega, and Shauna had thrown herself over her best friend and snarled that anyone who wanted Jackie had to kill her first, and no one would dare to touch their butcher, their antler queen, their Wilderness incarnate who had given the pack a pup. They’d redrawn, and Shauna still felt a little guilty as she butchered Gen, but not nearly as much as she should have, even though Jackie refused to eat it and wouldn’t look at Shauna as she offered her son, a year old and firmly on solids, a bite. The rescuers had arrived before they were done with Gen, and Shauna had felt nauseous seeing all of the good food go to waste.
Getting back to Wiskayok was the real crash, though. Mari, of all fucking people, clung to Shauna like a rash, offering babysitting and extra food and whatever else she thought might win her Shauna’s favour, even as Jackie had refused to look at either of them. Jackie, Shauna had thought, would have the easiest time settling back in, but all she’d heard from Mari was that she’d fought with her parents and run away to Rutgers. Then, on cue, the Taylors had shown up on Shauna’s doorstep, offering condolences for her mother passing away the year before, leaving Shauna alone in that house that always seemed small but now felt far too big, and offering to babysit her and Jeff’s bastard child whenever she needed. Shauna saw it for what it was. A girl without parents, and parents without a child, and she knew she should slam the door in their faces, but she was so fucking tired of fighting against everything, and Jackie wasn’t going to come back for the parents she fled or the best friend she loathed, and really, the life that Jackie hated was exactly what Shauna deserved, after everything she’d done to her.
Which was how she ended up in the bridal suite of the nicest hotel in town, wrapped in a silk robe that was far too soft, her son two rooms away with his stand-in grandma, her future husband across the hall, and Mrs Taylor’s wedding dress hanging over the mirror, ready for Shauna to wear in the morning, when she went through with the wedding the Taylors had planned for Jackie and were paying for for Shauna, a drug to make Jeff’s Beta bite mate her properly already in her system.
Her underwear for tomorrow still had the tags on, and she wasn’t sure her bra would fit, but she figured she had time to send someone to the nearest Target if she checked now, and the least she needed for tomorrow was for her boobs to stay in place, so she untied the white robe, dropping it on the plush red carpet, the tacky stitching that read ‘bride’ glaring up at her from the floor, and picked up her lingerie, putting it on.
It would have to do. The strap of the bra was a little tight, a symptom of having access to food again that Mrs Taylor had assured her would be fixed as soon as she could get Shauna on a diet, but the white lace cups held her chest in place, and her underwear covered what it was supposed to. She stared softly at her stretch marks, at the cellulite on her thighs and the dip of her hips, remembering Mrs Taylor’s words and Jeff’s assurances that he didn’t mind them too much, and thought again of the little boy that caused them, the best thing that came out of this mess. He needed a father, and tomorrow, he would officially have one.
Shauna reaches for her slip, too, wanting the full effect, wanting to cover the parts of herself that her future husband was willing to overlook, and studies herself again. Her hair is longer, and in the time without the sun beaming down on it, it’s faded to something a little lighter than it used to be, but a little darker than the red she had out in the Wilderness. The scar from the crash still sits, high and proud on the bridge of her nose. Her neck, her arms, her legs, are all miraculously unmarked despite everything, and with the slip offering some compression, she’s closer to an hourglass sort of shape that she’s never really had naturally. She forces herself to take a deep breath, inhaling through her nose, then parting her lips in a small o shape to release it.
She can do this. She has to do this. Her son needs a father, and the Taylors need a daughter, and she needs someone to take care of her so things stop hurting just for a minute. The Taylors have already thrown Jeff a bone, offering him their furniture store, one of their middle of the road earners, secure enough for him to not fuck it up completely and well paying enough for him and Shauna and their son to have a comfortable middle class life. Shauna’s trying not to think of it as a dowry, like she’s being traded. They’ll get married, honeymoon in Niagara Falls like good little tourists, he’ll work at the store and she’ll look after their son, and in a few years they’ll probably have another one and Shauna won’t need to worry about a career or a degree or anything else that feels like way too much right now.
Shauna’s thoughts are interrupted by a pounding at the door.
It’s too heavy for Mrs Taylor, too rapid for Mrs Sadecki, too urgent for Jeff, and too desperate for Tai or Mari, her bridesmaids staying in the next room. When Shauna opens the door, the person on the other side practically falls into it, dropping to all fours and sniffing at the hem of her slip. Shauna staggers back from the figure, reaching for the nearest heavy object, a bottle of champagne, and raises it, ready to swing. The person on the floor is caked in mud and dirt, twigs falling from their hair and blood dripping onto the carpet from their scraped up hands and knees.
‘What the fuck?’ Shauna blurts, and then the figure looks up.
Jackie’s eyes are wide and wet, the hazel turned gold beneath the bright lights of the hotel room. Her face is streaked with dirt, her clothes covered with it, her teeth gleaming white and canines elongated into fangs, stark against the streak of blood trailing down her cheek as she pants up at her, ‘Shauna.’
‘Jackie?’ Shauna asks, though she’d know her best friend anywhere, she just doesn’t know how she got here or how she got into the state that she’s in now.
Jackie advances, crawling across the carpet towards her, mud flaking from her clothes, leaves falling from her hair. ‘Shauna,’ she growls, and once she’s closer, her fingernails brushing Shauna’s bare feet, she says, ‘need you,’ and leans forward again, sniffing at Shauna’s skirt.
‘What the fuck?’ Shauna repeats, eyes wide, chest flushed. Jackie looks like she did out there, dirty and desperate, clinging to Shauna like she used to cling to survival. ‘What are you doing here? How did you get here? Why are you covered in-’ Shauna’s words are interrupted by Jackie’s growl and another deep sniff, Jackie’s nose pressed to her knee, dirt smearing on Shauna’s white slip. Mrs Taylor would be furious when she saw.
‘Shauna,’ Jackie says, and Shauna’s eyes settle on her water jug, and she steps backwards, hip bumping her vanity, to pour Jackie a glass. Jackie follows her, still on her hands and knees, and Shauna pulls her up to a kneel and places the glass in her hand.
‘Drink,’ Shauna says, because beneath the smears of stuff on her skin, her face is flushed and sweaty. Jackie stares up at her, like she wants Shauna to watch as she obeys, chugging the glass. Shauna reaches for the jug, ready to pour her another, but Jackie takes the jug itself, tilting it towards her and placing her hands over Shauna’s, staining Shauna’s manicured nails with blood and mud as she takes greedy gulps from the waterjug. ‘Do you want a… shower?’ Shauna isn’t sure if a bath would help Jackie right now, even though Jackie always preferred them. She can only imagine Jackie settling in the water like a brown and grey bath bomb, turning the water the same shade as the muck all over her.
‘Want you,’ Jackie mumbles when the waterjug is empty, shaking her head and leaning into Shauna’s legs, pushing the jug away to wrap her arms around Shauna’s knees, ‘Shauna.’
Shauna thinks the drugs might have had some kind of psychotic effect, making her hallucinate everything happening right now, right down to Jackie Taylor appearing covered in the Wilderness and saying her name. Jackie Taylor would never do any of this. Jackie Taylor hadn’t even said her name since their fight.
‘Jackie,’ Shauna tries, and Jackie keeps her eyes on Shauna, no thoughts flickering in them, so Shauna tries, ‘Alpha.’
Jackie blinks, and Shauna isn’t sure when Jackie last did, and when her eyes reopen there’s a spark of thought in there. She licks her lips and says, her tone slow and reverent, ‘Omega.’
‘How did you get here?’ Shauna asks.
‘Ran,’ Jackie replies, fingers flexing against the back of Shauna’s knees.
‘Ran?’ Shauna repeats, and Jackie nods, so Shauna asks, ‘from Rutgers?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s forty miles. How long have you been running?’
‘Forty-five.’
‘Minutes?’
‘Miles.’
Shauna scoffs, and, knowing her slip was ruined, anyway, kneels, and Jackie takes the opportunity to wrap her arms around Shauna’s waist and bury her face in the swell of her stomach. ‘Jackie, you can’t have run that far,’ she reasons, though Jackie absolutely looks like she has run that far without stopping.
‘Smelled you,’ Jackie grunts, nuzzling at Shauna’s stomach. ‘Omega.’
‘What?’ Shauna’s face pales, and her blood freezes, because if Jackie could smell her from forty-five miles away, then every Alpha in the tri-state area would be bursting through her door any second.
‘Smelled my mate,’ Jackie says, holding Shauna tighter, ‘don’t be scared.’
Shauna tenses for an entirely different reason, and says, ‘I’m not your mate, Jackie. I’m not your Omega. You don’t get to tell me what to do or boss me around because I’m not yours.’
Jackie growls, and squeezes her waist, ‘mine.’
‘No.’
‘My mate. My Omega,’ Jackie insists, pressing closer to Shauna, suddenly frantic and pleading.
‘Jackie, stop,’ Shauna says, and she does. ‘Let go,’ Shauna orders, and Jackie is far more reluctant to do that, but she does, tearing her arms from Shauna like it pains her and shrinking back to sit on the carpet. Her fingers are twitching and her eyes are wet, and she’s pouting up at Shauna like a kicked puppy, beyond fucking pitiful, and Shauna feels something in her pull towards the girl on the floor. She sighs and says, ‘take your clothes off,’ and Jackie looks up at her hopefully, but Shauna is getting married in the morning so she adds, ‘you need a shower.’
Jackie’s clothes hit the floor with a thwack and a splatter of mud, and her shoes practically fall off her feet. Shauna pulls Jackie to her feet from where she’s splayed on the floor, her skin aggressively clean beneath the fabric, and tugs her to the shower, fiddling with the knobs and stepping aside to let Jackie stand beneath the spray. Jackie won’t go, though, unwilling to let so much as a shower curtain separate her from Shauna, so Shauna washes Jackie’s hair, standing an arm’s length away to keep her overpriced lingerie out of the spray, and then runs a washcloth over Jackie’s face, not nearly as careful as she should have been on the cuts and scraps on Jackie’s cheek, her chin, her forehead.
‘Okay,’ Shauna says, unnecessarily, ‘all clean,’ even though Jackie isn’t clean. There’s still dirt under her fingernails, still cuts scattered across her hands and face, still little splinters of wood in her hair, but she’s clean enough. Shauna keeps one hand on Jackie’s bare shoulder, determined to not look any lower, and the other reaches around to turn the shower off. When her arms are spread open, Jackie takes it as an invitation, stepping into Shauna and hugging her, soaking her slip. Jackie’s nose is against Shauna’s neck now, and her lips graze Shauna’s pulse point. She inhales deeply, and sighs.
‘Omega,’ Jackie whispers, though it sounds more like a whimper when she says it, ‘my Omega.’
‘Stop that,’ Shauna snaps, and Jackie flinches away. Shauna looks down at her slip and groans, ‘seriously?’ and she peels it away, off and over her head, hanging it over the shower rail and leaving herself in her bra and panties.
Jackie doesn’t have the same care for Shauna’s modesty as Shauna does for hers, and her eyes immediately drop. Her tongue darts out and licks her lips. ‘Shauna,’ she says.
‘Jackie,’ Shauna says, ‘go sit down.’ Jackie doesn’t move again, standing on the dirty shower floor, staring at Shauna’s exposed skin, so Shauna reaches for the word that made her listen earlier, ‘Alpha. Sit.’
Jackie sits on the floor of the shower immediately.
Shauna rolls her eyes, and hands Jackie a clean white towel, ‘put this on, and go sit out there.’
Jackie puts the towel around her hair, leaving the rest of her body bare, and leaves the shower, but Shauna doesn’t hear the door move and feels eyes on her, which tells her that Jackie has only gone as far as the rest of the bathroom. She groans and exits the shower stall, and finds Jackie perched on the edge of the tub. She walks back into the bedroom, trusting Jackie will follow, which she does, and she picks up the robe she dropped earlier and ties it securely around herself, ignoring Jackie’s pout. She sits, slow and decisive and waiting for Jackie to copy, on the bed, and Jackie does, sitting across from her.
‘Jackie, are you with me?’ Shauna asks.
Jackie blinks, then says, happily, ‘yeah.’
‘How did you get here?’
Jackie frowns, ‘I told you. I ran.’
‘Why? When?’
‘I smelled you. I was…’ the words are coming easier to Jackie now, but she’s still mulling them over, letting them roll around her tongue before she releases them, ‘I was in my dorm. And then I smelled you. And I started running.’
‘How long ago was that?’
Jackie blinks, then squints at the clock on the bedside table. ‘It was five when I left.’
‘It’s almost eleven. You ran forty-five miles in five hours?’
‘I wanted to see you,’ Jackie says.
‘Why?’ Shauna asks.
Jackie’s moving again, and now she’s leaning forward, and Shauna is trying really hard to ignore that Jackie’s cock is erect against her stomach as Jackie inhales, eyes fluttering closed, ‘you smell amazing.’
‘I had to take a pill,’ Shauna says.
Jackie’s eyes are wide open again as she asks, ‘what pill? Are you okay? Are you sick?’
Shauna shakes her head, and looks away, and mutters, ‘it’s so Jeff can mate me tomorrow.’
‘What?’ Jackie’s voice is sharp now, the sharpest it’s been towards Shauna since they fought nearly two years ago.
‘We’re getting married in the morning,’ Shauna says, and that makes Jackie look around, at the white shoes, the silk robe with bride scrawled across it, and-
‘Is that my mom’s dress?’ Jackie asks.
‘Yeah,’ Shauna tells her, ‘your and Jeff’s moms arranged everything. She even gave me the pill.’
‘So you could mate someone else?’
‘I’m sorry but-’ Shauna pauses, ‘someone else?’
Jackie turns fully towards Shauna, lip curled in a snarl, fangs flashing, ‘you wanted to mate someone else?’
‘Don’t say someone else like you were an option,’ Shauna scoffs, her own teeth itching. She runs her tongue over her canines to soothe the sensation.
‘Why wasn’t I?’ Jackie asks, defensive.
‘Jackie, this is the most we’ve spoken in two years,’ Shauna says, then continues, ‘you ran off to Rutgers and I’ve just been… here.’
‘So you knew where I was and you didn’t come and see me?’
‘How the fuck was I meant to do that? I have a baby,’ Shauna shouldn’t be as defensive as she is, because Jackie is being completely unreasonable, but she still feels that instinct, the one that tells her to buck and kick against the blonde, to match her blow for blow.
But Jackie deflates, the Alpha posture placed to the side as she slumps on the bed beside Shauna, still nude. ‘How is he?’ Jackie asks, thoroughly disarmed by the mention of Shauna’s son.
‘Good,’ Shauna says, holding back what she really wants to say until it spills from her, anyway, ‘missing you.’
‘Really?’ Jackie asks, voice soft.
‘Yeah,’ Shauna admits, ‘he asks about you all the time.’
‘He’s, what… twenty months?’
Shauna shrugs, ‘the doctors think it’s somewhere past that. Twenty-two, maybe.’
‘He should be figuring out short phrases now, right?’ Jackie asks.
Shauna frowns at her, ‘how the fuck do you know that?’
Jackie looks away and mutters, ‘I took a couple classes in child development.’
‘Right,’ Shauna says, then, bitterly, asks, ‘how is Rutgers?’
Jackie doesn’t pick up on the bitterness, on the edge behind Shauna’s question and the jealousy that Alphas were able to just go wherever and that Shauna couldn’t just pick up and move with her son to attend Brown. Jackie just says, tone flat, ‘lonely.’
Shauna doesn’t believe her. ‘Why did you run?’
Jackie shakes her head, and curls in on herself, and says, ‘I didn’t want to.’
‘So why did you?’
‘They-’ Jackie begins, and the clip to her tone is enough to tell Shauna that she’s talking about her parents, ‘they knew what I did out there. How I helped the others. They… they wanted me to marry some Beta they knew. A guy. I couldn’t… I ran.’
‘You didn’t even say goodbye.’
‘Didn’t think you’d want to hear it.’
‘I wouldn’t have,’ Shauna says, settling back against the headboard, noting how Jackie shifts closer and tilts her head towards her, nose twitching. ‘What are you smelling?’
‘Lavender,’ Jackie says, then exhales, ‘and sea salt, and honey and lemon.’
‘Honey doesn’t smell.’
‘It does on you.’
‘You smelt it from Rutgers?’
‘You smell amazing,’ Jackie repeats, leaning closer, her nose brushing Shauna’s hair. ‘Like fresh baked cookies.’
‘Weird hipster cookies,’ Shauna mutters, and Jackie snickers.
‘Shauna,’ Jackie tries again, her voice sweet and smooth, ‘please let me touch you.’
‘How did you know it was me?’ Shauna asks.
‘I knew it was my mate,’ Jackie says, inhaling, ‘like those stories when we were kids. The ones about soulmates. Please, Shauna.’
‘I’m getting married in the morning.’ Shauna’s reply is flat, blunt, by rote.
‘Still?’ Jackie pouts.
Shauna glares, ‘yeah, Jackie, my life doesn’t stop because you show up.’
‘No,’ Jackie says, turning towards Shauna, pleading.
‘Yeah, Jackie, I’m engaged. He’s literally across the hall. We’re getting married in,’ Shauna pauses to check her clock, ‘nine hours.’
‘Shauna,’ Jackie says, ‘please.’
Shauna hesitates, and then opens her arms with a gruff, ‘come here.’
Jackie launches herself into Shauna’s embrace, her nose fixed to Shauna’s pulse point, her arms winding around the brunette, her fingers flexing against her. Shauna holds her back, and feels her eyes start to sting. Her first tears fall against Jackie’s ear, landing on the scar tissue from where Misty had to cut a frostbitten chunk of it off. Shauna bends her neck, and the next one lands in Jackie’s hair, the towel falling off and landing on the pillow beside them.
Jackie squeezes Shauna tighter, ‘my Omega,’ her words are slipping away from her again, overcome by the same base instinct that carried her across the miles to Shauna’s bridal suite.
‘My son needs his father,’ Shauna says, ignoring how her own arms tighten around Jackie in turn.
‘My pup,’ Jackie growls, nuzzling her neck.
‘What are we meant to do, Jackie? Go live in your dorm?’
‘I’ll get a… family room,’ Jackie mutters, breath hot and wet against Shauna’s skin.
‘You can’t just show up and… demand me.’
‘Should’ve done it already,’ Jackie says, kissing Shauna’s neck, feeling the Omega’s breath hitch, ‘my mate.’
‘Not yours.’
‘Yes, mine. My mate. My Omega. My Shauna.’
‘Alpha,’ Shauna whines, and then, ‘stop.’
Jackie does, pulling her face away but keeping her arms locked around Shauna, her pupils blown as she asks, ‘do you love me?’
Shauna looks away. ‘Don’t ask me that.’
‘I love you,’ Jackie offers, and it makes Shauna look back.
‘What?’ Shauna’s voice is barely a whisper.
‘I love you,’ Jackie repeats.
‘Jackie, don’t say-’
‘I love you.’
‘Stop-’
‘My love,’ Jackie promises, leaning into Shauna again, ‘my mate, my Omega, my Shauna. Please, Shipman, I love you.’
‘You’re only saying it because of the scent or whatever.’
‘I love you, Shauna,’ Jackie insists, ‘please, just let me.’
‘Let you what?’ Shauna shakes her head, ‘use me and then leave me again?’
‘Never again,’ Jackie says, nose to nose with Shauna, now, ‘marry me.’
‘What?’
‘Marry me,’ Jackie repeats. ‘Be my wife. Me and you and our pup. Please, Shauna.’
‘Jackie,’ Shauna breathes, ‘I can’t.’
‘Why not?’ Jackie asks.
‘Because I’m getting married in the morning.’
‘Not if you’re mated already,’ Jackie says.
‘You don’t want me, just like you didn’t want me back in high school. You want to feel good so you’re going to take what you want and then go back to your life,’ Shauna says, shaking her head, ‘you just want to get back at me for what I did.’
‘I want you,’ she insists. ‘I love you, Shauna. Even without this. Before Jeff. Before the crash. Before everything got fucked up. I love you, always. I’m sorry it’s like this.’
‘I’m sorry, too,’ Shauna admits, another tear running down her cheek. Jackie licks it away.
‘Shauna,’ Jackie whines, ‘let me have you.’
‘You really want me?’
Jackie licks her lips, and says, ‘more than anything.’
Shauna swallows, and then says, ‘let me bite you first.’
Shauna is expecting Jackie to bail, to tear herself from Shauna’s embrace and back away, panicked, but Jackie’s lips part in a sigh, and her eyes well up, and she looks at Shauna like she just parted the heavens themselves, and she stutters out a, ‘please,’ and bares her neck.
Alphas weren’t meant to do that. Alphas don’t get bitten first. Alphas can mate as many Omegas as they want, as long as none of them bite back, because bites are dangerous for Alphas. Bites can kill Alphas, if they’re not around their Omega enough to keep the bite nurtured, which is why so many Alphas don’t do it. Jackie was a few bites short of building herself a harem out in the Wilderness, and Shauna was sure that as soon as the question left her lips, Jackie would be racing out of the suite, naked as the day she was born, in her haste to get away from the Omega who wanted to lock her down into a mating.
Instead, the tanned and still somewhat dirty column of Jackie’s throat was exposed entirely to Shauna, the Alpha offering herself, without hesitation or fear, to the Omega who nearly killed her once already.
Shauna bites.
Her fangs extend, shorter than Jackie’s but sharper, too, after her canines have already pierced Jackie’s skin, the fangs anchoring her in place. Jackie’s blood is bitter and metallic, and it coats Shauna’s mouth quickly, eagerly. Jackie goes limp in her arms, beautiful and pliant.
For Shauna to say she hadn’t realised how much she missed Jackie would be a lie. She knew how much she missed Jackie every time she slept or ate or breathed, every time she felt alone in a crowded room, which was most of the time, or every time she remembered what it used to be like, when she was wild and free and feral, and she could be with whoever she wanted except for the one person she wanted more than anything. Shauna missed Jackie every moment of every day, until it ached, and then pressed down on it so it ached some more. What she hadn’t realised she missed was Jackie submitting to her. The big, strong Alpha, who developed before Shauna had, who always talked about how jealous she was of Shauna’s status even though no one was jealous of Omegas, who had searched for excuses to grab possessively at Shauna’s chest and hips and waist from the moment she developed, was in her arms, with Shauna’s teeth in her neck, utterly compliant. Shauna knew as well as Jackie, that if she didn’t let Jackie bite her, Jackie would die, because Alphas can’t live without a matching bite like Omegas can, and Jackie trusted Shauna enough, loved Shauna enough, to take that risk.
Jackie’s leg twitches, and she groans, and Shauna withdraws her teeth to lick and suck at the fresh bite. One thought is rattling through Shauna’s head right now, one phrase that she needs to say, so she whispers in Jackie’s ear, ‘my Alpha.’
Jackie grunts and spasms, and something wet lands between Jackie’s stomach and Shauna’s robe, and when she’s stopped twitching, she blushes, the rush of blood to her face sending dribbles of it down her neck, and mutters, ‘sorry.’
Shauna nudges Jackie off, and groans at the splatter on white silk, ‘ew,’ she wrinkles her nose, ‘warn me next time.’ Shauna tugs gingerly at the tie of her robe, until it loosens, and then pulls the entire garment off, dropping it back on the floor.
‘Sorry,’ Jackie repeats, sheepish, but distracted by sniffing Shauna.
‘I’m probably going to stink until you bite me back,’ Shauna says.
Jackie moans in assent, nosing closer.
‘Come on, then,’ Shauna says, baring her own neck, ‘if it means you can focus.’
Jackie doesn’t need any more of an invitation, scrambling on top of Shauna and sinking her teeth into Shauna’s skin. It doesn’t hurt as much as Shauna thought a mating bite would. It doesn’t feel much different, truthfully, to a hickey, and Shauna has had plenty of those, from both Jackie and her fiance. What Shauna wasn’t expecting is the jolt of heat it sends straight through her body, making her gasp, and rub her thighs together, and reach for Jackie, nails digging into the Alpha’s neck.
‘God,’ Shauna mutters as Jackie starts to pepper kisses over the spot.
‘Are you sure you want this?’ Jackie asks against her ear.
‘Too late, now,’ Shauna replies, and Jackie whimpers, so Shauna reaches for her, embracing her, and says, ‘yeah, I want this.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Jackie says into her skin, ‘for everything.’
‘Me, too,’ Shauna replies, and it’s not enough, not really, but it has to be enough for now, now they’re mated and in love and stuck with each other.
‘I love you, Shauna,’ Jackie says, nuzzling her new mating bite, her leg slotting between Shauna’s, and Shauna wraps both of her legs around it and both of her arms around Jackie’s shoulders, holding her tightly. Jackie looks at Shauna fondly, reaching up to brush Shauna’s hair back from her face, and then asks, ‘what now?’
Shauna smiles and says, ‘I think we should have sex.’
‘Right,’ Jackie says, bright red and desperate. Then she balks, and says, ‘wait,’ and Shauna frowns as Jackie adds, ‘I don’t have a…’ and with a voice full of pain she says, ‘condom.’
Shauna considers, but only for a second, ‘let’s risk it.’
‘Shauna!’
‘What? We can get a morning after pill when we flee my wedding later,’ she says, and when Jackie frowns, Shauna pouts and bats her lashes and says, saccharinely sweet, ‘please, Alpha? Your Omega needs to feel you.’
‘Fuck,’ Jackie whispers.
‘That’s the plan, yeah.’
‘Say it again.’
Shauna parts her lips and shuffles backwards, until the white of her lingerie and the light tan left on her skin shine against the white of the pillows and blanket, and says, ‘please Alpha, your Omega needs to feel you.’
Jackie didn’t know her refractory period could be so short, but she’s hard again, standing at attention as she gazes down at Shauna. Shauna stares straight back, and she’d always been aware of Jackie’s body, of her broad shoulders and narrow waist and flat stomach and pert breasts, but the part she’s never really let herself pay attention to before now is the part that’s intimidating her most, because Jackie has a bigger dick than she thought. Admittedly, Shauna had only seen two, including the one in front of her and the one across the hall, but Jackie, as an Alpha, is much longer than Jeff, and much wider. Shauna reaches for her, wrapping her manicured hand around it, and finds that her fingers don’t quite meet.
‘Were you this big in high school?’ She asks.
Jackie says, ‘I’m taller, too.’
‘Cool,’ Shauna says, ‘now eat me out.’
Jackie drops to the mattress so quickly her hair flies up, and Shauna takes the opportunity to gather it into a messy bun, reaching for a hair tie that she was sure she put on the nightstand. When it isn’t there, she frowns, but keeps hold of Jackie’s hair as Jackie eases Shauna’s underwear down her legs.
‘Give me those,’ Shauna says, and Jackie places the white lace bikini briefs into her hand without a fight, so Shauna rewards her by using them instead of the errant hair tie, holding Jackie’s hair in place with it. Jackie moans into the air in front of Shauna, eyes fixed on her glistening flesh and nose positive that Shauna’s panties are holding back her hair.
‘You shaved,’ Jackie says, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
‘For the wedding,’ Shauna says, tacitly admitting it’s for Jeff.
‘Jesus, Shipman,’ Jackie mutters, ‘a wax, a mani, any other surprises?’
‘Not yet,’ she says, then adds, conversationally, ‘but I was thinking about getting my nipples pierced.’
‘God,’ Jackie groans.
‘You’d like that?’
‘I’d like you, however you looked,’ Jackie says, pressing her nose into the crease of Shauna’s thighs and inhaling, ‘you’re always so pretty, baby. My pretty Omega. All mine.’ Her breath washes over Shauna’s core before she asks, ‘can I eat you now?’
‘God, yes,’ Shauna says, and then she isn’t saying anything, her head thrown back against the pillow, her eyes open, her lips parted, moans spilling from them.
Jackie’s face is buried between Shauna’s thighs, her eyes closed as she loses herself in Shauna’s taste. She’s sucking and licking and nibbling, taking as much of Shauna as she can in her mouth. Her teeth graze Shauna’s clit, and then her lips purse around it, and then her tongue flicks over it, and when Shauna’s hips buck, Jackie throws one arm over her to keep her down before she licks into Shauna’s core. She groans, and it sends vibrations through Shauna’s cunt, and Shauna gasps.
Shauna isn’t going to last. The truth is stark and humiliating and hot, because Jackie is shockingly good with her mouth, and Shauna hadn’t realised how pent up she was until now, with Jackie’s nose grinding against her clit and her tongue buried in her cunt and her lips and chin pressed against just about everything else. She can feel heat coiling low in her stomach, winding into a tight ball, plied with pressure until it reaches a boiling point.
‘Jackie,’ she gasps, ‘I’m gonna-’ and then she’s gone, that white heat bursting from her, making her fall back against the mattress. Jackie doesn’t stop, licking every drop she can reach, taking as much of Shauna as she can with her tongue until Shauna whimpers, ‘Jackie, stop,’ and she does. ‘Alpha,’ Shauna breathes, and Jackie’s eyes darken, ‘come up here,’ she says, and Jackie does, letting her thigh fall between Shauna’s as she crawls to be level with her face. ‘Take this off,’ Shauna says, plucking at the shoulder strap of her bra, and Jackie’s fingers only shake a little as she reaches behind Shauna to unhook it, then pull it off and drop it on the carpet.
‘Shauna,’ Jackie breathes, ‘you’re so fucking beautiful.’
‘Just touch me,’ Shauna says.
‘Just… look at those. Wowza,’ she says.
‘Jackie,’ Shauna says, waiting for Jackie’s eyes to find her, ‘just touch them.’
Shauna’s tits are the exact right size for Jackie’s hands. They fit exactly into her, like they were made for Jackie to hold them. Shauna’s hard nipples are pressing against the bottoms of Jackie’s middle and pointer fingers, and when Jackie gives an experimental squeeze, Shauna gasps, pressing her chest up towards Jackie’s hands. Jackie releases Shauna just enough to graze her thumbs over the peaks of Shauna’s nipples, and Shauna moans, high pitched and breathy in a way Jackie has never heard before and Jackie’s pupils widen and she leans down and says, ‘no one deserves this except me.’
Shauna doesn’t argue, doesn’t question, just keeps her eyes closed as she grinds against Jackie’s thigh and says, ‘just you.’
‘Say that again,’ Jackie begs as she lowers her mouth to take one of Shauna’s nipples between her teeth and suck.
‘Just you, Jax,’ Shauna says, and Jackie nibbles the skin in her mouth because she hasn’t heard that nickname in a couple of years, and Shauna keeps talking, ‘only you, only ever you. You’re my Alpha. You’re my mate. You’re my Jackie and I lo-’ Shauna cuts herself off as Jackie nips at her neck and her clit catches just right on the muscle of Jackie’s thigh, and her legs lock around Jackie’s as her entire body goes rigid and a fresh wave of wetness hits Jackie’s skin. Shauna catches her breath in enough time to pant, ‘Jackie, need you.’
Jackie painstakingly pulls away from Shauna to ask, ‘where?’
‘Your dick, please, Jackie, fuck me, Alpha.’
Shauna isn’t sure if it’s the words or the pheromones radiating from her, but Jackie’s reaction is immediate and all-consuming. She’s reduced to the state she arrived in, grunting and panting and chanting, ‘mine’ and ‘Omega’ and ‘Shauna’ and ‘please’ as she lines her cock up with Shauna’s soaked entrance and slots herself in immediately. Her face stays where it is, sucking at Shauna’s breast, releasing it to speak or place a kiss on her ribs, breathing in through her nose so she can smell Shauna some more.
‘Alpha,’ Shauna pleads, ‘breed me.’
Jackie grunts, and pulls out to push back in, quickly establishing a fast pace, her large cock burrowing deeply into Shauna as her teeth catch Shauna’s breasts, ‘Omega,’ she sighs.
‘Alpha,’ Shauna returns, ‘I want your knot.’
‘Knot,’ Jackie grunts, breathing heavy, ‘mate. Breed.’
Shauna echoes, ‘fuck, yes, breed me,’ and she clutches at Jackie’s back, manicured nails flecked with grime sinking into Jackie’s skin.
‘Mine.’ Jackie pants. She can't stop thinking about it, about Shauna, round and perfect, out in the cabin, or how she glowed when she fed her baby, or how motherhood suits her perfectly. She wants it all. A house and kids and a wife to come home to, and she doesn't want, could never want, it with anyone but the woman beneath her. Shauna is her Omega. Shauna is hers. Shauna is the mother of her children, her future wife, her mate. Jackie is going to spend the rest of her life with Shauna, because a life without her is never going to really be living. Any home she would build would be empty, any job she worked would be a chore, any move she made would be hollow, if Shauna wasn't there every step of the way.
‘Yours,’ Shauna promises, then gasps again as Jackie changes her angle and starts to press against her clit with every thrust, ‘just… just fucking fill me. Please, Alpha.’
Jackie’s knot pops and settles in Shauna immediately, and Shauna screams and pulls Jackie even closer, tilting her head up for a kiss, open mouthed and sloppy. Jackie’s breathing evens as the kiss stops and her mouth lines back up with Shauna’s mating bite. When she can feel her brain again, she says, ‘I didn’t know I could knot without a heat.’
‘I didn’t know you could, either,’ Shauna says.
‘You didn’t cum that time,’ Jackie realises, jolting in Shauna’s arms.
‘I’m already one ahead, it’s fine,’ Shauna dismisses.
‘No,’ Jackie says, pushing herself up onto her elbows, careful not to disturb the knot, ‘not fair,’ and then one of her hands is slinking down, trailing over Shauna’s ribs, her stomach, her hips, slow and reverent. Her hand reaches Shauna’s stretch marks, and the brunette tenses beneath her fingers, but Jackie traces them delicately, mapping out the spiderweb of lines over her torso before saying, ‘I’m so… God, Shauna, I can’t believe you’re mine.’
‘And you’re mine,’ Shauna says, reaching up to pull Jackie’s hair free of the panties that are already falling out of it, ‘my Alpha.’
‘So here’s the pitch,’ Jackie says, the hand on Shauna’s stomach lowering to find her clit, and she starts to trace around either side, changing the amount of pressure and speed of her movements until she finds something that makes Shauna gasp. Her other hand settles on Shauna’s breast, sacrificing the massage in favour of tweaking and pinching and pulling one of her nipples. ‘Come to Newark. I’ll get a bigger place. You can figure out what you want to do and once I adopt him we can use the Rutgers childcare that they have pamphlets for everywhere. We can move if you find something you want to move for, and coast off the plane crash money until we’re settled. It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s something.’
‘One question,’ Shauna says, and inhales sharply, ‘harder and on the left,’ and Jackie does, and then Shauna asks, ‘how do we get out of here?’
That makes Jackie pause, and Shauna whines and wriggles her hips and Jackie moves again, saying, ‘we could fake a kidnapping.’
Shauna giggles, ‘how about a bomb threat?’
‘Okay, OShauna Bin Laden,’ Jackie scoffs, ‘how about you decided to join the circus?’
‘And took my toddler with me?’
‘He could sell peanuts.’
‘I’m nearly there,’ Shauna offers, and Jackie smirks.
‘I can feel it, baby,’ Jackie coos, ‘you’re getting so tight around me.’
‘Oh, god, Jax, right there,’ Shauna pleads.
Jackie makes her movements neater, operating solely in the space Shauna instructed, and muses, ‘what if we knock on my mother’s door, tell her she’s a controlling psychopath who we never want to see again, and hop in your truck before the band arrives?’
Shauna bites her lip, and arches her back, and moans, loud and deep, as she orgasms. Jackie steers her through it, playing with Shauna’s clit, thumbing at her nipple, dropping kisses on her neck and shoulder, sucking gently on her mating bite.
When the crest is over, and Shauna’s whole body is pleasantly warm, she hums and nuzzles against Jackie’s temple before she mumbles something.
‘What?’ Jackie asks.
‘Truck’s gone,’ Shauna says.
Jackie gasps, ‘Kevin Carnold?’
‘Died while we were out there,’ Shauna’s even more miserable talking about this than she was talking about the wedding. ‘I got a new one with the insurance money.’
‘Okay, then we get in your shiny new truck and-’
‘Not a truck,’ Shauna says, and Jackie frowns as she says, ‘your mom helped me pick it out.’
Jackie’s eyes widen, ‘oh god, not a-’
‘It’s a minivan.’
‘No! The pickup was so sexy!’
‘Apparently trucks aren’t child-friendly,’ Shauna pouts, ‘and it did kind of help with the car seat.’
Jackie considers for a moment, then tilts her head, ‘I mean, a minivan could work, I guess. In like a… hottest mom on the playground way.’
Shauna chuckles, and opens her arms, waiting for Jackie to crawl back into them, which she does, laying her head against Shauna’s chest, ‘so,’ Shauna asks, ‘me, you, the pup, the minivan?’
‘And maybe another pup or two? When we’re ready?’ Jackie kisses the side of Shauna’s breast, and Shauna mewls.
‘Maybe,’ Shauna allows, stroking Jackie’s hair, ‘once I have a plan for my life.’
‘No rush, baby,’ Jackie offers, ‘but when you know, let me know, because I’ll do whatever you want.’
Shauna snorts, ‘some Alpha you are. What happened to Alphas being all bossy?’
‘I’m learning from my mistakes,’ Jackie tells her, words and eyes sincere, ‘and I’ll do whatever my Omega wants, because I love you.’
Shauna hasn’t said it back yet. She hasn’t had the words. They’re sitting on her tongue, weighing it down, pushing against the back of her teeth. She holds Jackie tighter, and kisses the top of her head. ‘Thank you,’ she offers instead.
Jackie smirks knowingly, and kisses one of the hickeys she left on Shauna’s breast earlier, and prods, ‘you don’t need to thank me, Shauna. I love you. I’m so happy I’m your Alpha. I’ve been in love with you for years.’
‘You really mean that, don’t you?’ Shauna’s tone is curious, cautious, and Jackie picks it up immediately.
‘Yeah,’ Jackie smiles, ‘I really do. I love you. I love our pup. I want a life with you, because I love you, Shauna. Even when we were fighting, when I was at Rutgers, it’s always been you. I love you,’ she repeats, kissing Shauna’s collarbone, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you.’
The words spill over Shauna’s lips, unbidden and defiant, ‘I love you, Jackie.’
‘I love you, too, Shauna.’ Jackie’s softened, so she pulls out of Shauna slowly, gently, and tries not to whine as her cum slips out alongside her. 'This was just how I pictured it.'
'Pictured what?'
'Us, doing this.'
'What was it you pictured?' Shauna snorts, 'me getting married in the morning, or your mother down the hall?'
Jackie answers honestly, 'you being a bride when we did it. Of course, I figured you'd be marrying me.'
Shauna hums and reaches for Jackie again, pulling her closer so Shauna can nip at her mating bite. ‘My Alpha,’ she hums.
‘My Omega,’ Jackie returns, turning her head to kiss Shauna’s jaw.
‘Get some sleep, Alpha,’ Shauna says, ‘you’re going to feel every one of those forty-five fucking miles you ran when you wake up, and you have to stop my wedding on top of it.’
‘Why can’t you stop your wedding?’ Jackie grumbles, wrapping her arms around Shauna.
‘Because it’s your mother,’ Shauna tells her.
‘She likes you more.’
‘She won’t when she hears we’re running off to Newark together.’
‘Don’t pretend you don’t want to dump Jeff to his face,’ Jackie snorts.
‘Yeah,’ Shauna sighs, ‘that’s going to be fun. You know he hasn’t changed one diaper in, like a year?’
Jackie cuddles closer, ‘that’s because he sucks. I’ll change all the diapers.’
Shauna hums, and says, ‘he’s just started potty training.’
Jackie sighs, and presses further into her, ‘I’ve missed so much time.’
‘You can make up for it,’ Shauna assures her, ‘and he does miss you.’
Jackie sniffs, inhaling Omega, and says, ‘good, because he’s gonna be sick of me once I adopt him. I’m not letting that sweet little face go an hour without seeing me ever again.’
‘Good,’ Shauna says, ‘because I don’t want to go an hour without seeing you ever again, either.’
‘You won’t,’ Jackie promises, ‘I love you both so fucking much, Shauna. Just… wait,’ and with that Jackie is moving, rolling off Shauna and towards the edge of the bed, reaching down for her muddy sweatpants, fumbling around until she’s holding up a keychain. There’s something plastic dangling from it, and Shauna reaches for it, eyes stinging as she sees what she’s holding.
It’s clear plastic, and it holds two photos. The side facing her is a picture of her little boy, wearing a beanie with fuzzy bear ears and a plaid onesie that Mari had bought as a joke, and she’d shared the photo with Mari, meaning Mari probably shared it with Jackie. On the other side is a picture of Shauna, from a day she only kind of remembers happening right before the crash, that had ended with Jackie pulling her into a photobooth and kissing her cheek as the camera flashed. Shauna’s shocked smile takes up the entire frame.
‘You’ve just been carrying these around?’ Shauna asks.
Jackie nods, ‘I wanted you with me.’
‘Even when we were fighting?’
‘Even more when we’re fighting. I always want both of you with me all the time.’
Shauna settles back against the pillows with a smile, and says, ‘remember that tomorrow morning, when your mother is hunting us for sport.’
‘Maybe I should talk to her,’ Jackie hums, ‘you can keep the minivan running.’
‘Bit of a boring getaway car.’
‘But the best driver in the world,’ Jackie coos.
Shauna rolls her eyes, ‘is that what this was? Some elaborate con to be my passenger princess again?’
Jackie kisses her, ‘for the rest of my life.’
‘Til death do us part.’