Eric paused when his knot bumped against the outside of Ollie’s hole.
Ollie cracked his eyes open. “Please don’t pull out.”
Eric studied him. “You trust me, after that bastard hurt you?”
“Yeah.” Ollie smiled, and Eric relaxed.
Slowly, Eric eased his growing knot inside Ollie, his breath hitching when Ollie opened around him. Ollie groaned, his muscles stretching. Eric’s knot always felt good, like he was meant to be there.
Eric gave a sigh when Olivier’s body enveloped him. Then he leaned in close, kissing Ollie on the chin. “You really do promise to stop lying.”
Olivier’s ass prickled. “I’ll try.”
Eric looked pointedly at him. “Ollie.”
“I know, I know.” Ollie squirmed. “But... you’re more important than what I want.”
Eric snorted. “I don’t care about whether I’m important. You hid the most critical things from me, Ollie. I would’ve given anything to hear you say ‘I love you’ back then—you know that.”
Olivier swallowed hard, looking away. “Yeah. I do. And you would’ve been kicked out of the family, Eric. Or we could’ve been sent to jail—me, at least.”
Eric growled. “They wouldn’t send you to jail.”
“I think your mom might’ve. She’s threatened me with it before. And... and I don’t know if you remembered when I presented as omega? You sniffed my wrist, Eric. Dad saw. He said people go to jail for incest.”
“We’re stepbrothers. This isn’t actual incest.”
Olivier tipped his head back, the threat of his family’s ire heavy on his chest. “I know the difference now. You were underage, though.”
Eric narrowed his eyes. “Sixteen is the age of consent. I was sixteen. So it wouldn’t have mattered if we’d fucked then.”
“I don’t know.” Ollie shrugged uneasily. “I still think your mom would’ve found a way to put me in jail.”
Eric’s lips thinned. Ollie could tell he was remembering the encounter with his mom, when Wendy had disparaged Olivier.
“Look, I love you, and you love me,” Eric said. “That’s what matters, right?”
Ollie’s heart fluttered. He still couldn’t believe Eric loved him. “Are you sure? I mean, about what you feel.”
Eric paused, touching his own heart. “Yeah. Took me a while to find my feelings. I have them back now, though. I love you.”
Ollie’s chest tightened. “Oh.”
And Eric leaned in, meshing their lips together. “Mine,” he whispered, stroking down to Olivier’s belly. “Gonna say hi to the baby when my knot recedes.”
Olivier swallowed hard, his chest full. “You really want that baby.”
Eric kissed him fervently, rocking his knot deeper into Ollie. “Yeah, I do. You’re all mine.”
Ollie groaned. Eric dragged his wrists down Ollie’s face, his neck, brushing across his shoulders. Then he marked Ollie’s arms, his sides, his back, until Ollie smelled like cedar all over, like he was Eric’s.
Olivier’s heart swelled. Eric did love him.
“Can I... Can I mark you again?” Eric whispered, thumbing Ollie’s wrist, right over his scent gland. “A bonding mark.”
Ollie hesitated. That seemed a little too permanent. What if Eric was wrong about his feelings?
“Maybe later,” Ollie said, even though his heart ached for Eric’s mark on both his wrists.
Eric’s smile fell.
Feeling guilty, Olivier thought about saying I love you, like he always meant to. Eric knew what Ollie felt. But Ollie hadn’t the guts to voice it.
You’ll drag him down with you, Eric’s mom had said.
What if Eric’s mom was wrong?
“I...” Olivier began.
“You...?”
“I—I love you,” Ollie mumbled, his cheeks warming. It felt so strange, finally admitting it to Eric.
Eric’s eyes shone with delight. “Yeah? You love me?”
“I do.”
Eric nuzzled Ollie’s cheek, his smile so bright that Ollie’s chest ached.
“Maybe you can mark me,” Ollie blurted, raising his right hand. “Just—just one wrist.”
Eric’s breath caught. He wrapped his fingers gently around Ollie’s arm, sniffing to find the spot that smelled most strongly of carnation. “Really? Are you sure?”
Olivier nodded before he could second-guess himself. “Yeah.”
Eric nuzzled Ollie’s wrist. “So beautiful,” he whispered, raking his eyes over Ollie.
Then he dragged his teeth over Ollie’s wrist. With his hands gentle, Eric sank his teeth into Ollie’s scent gland, breaking skin.
Like before, pain and pleasure twisted down Olivier’s nerves. He panted, his entire body tingling, his eyes fluttering shut.
Eric had marked him again.
Somehow, that felt like liberation, and it also felt like shackles closing around his wrists.
Olivier swallowed hard, savoring Eric’s weight on him, Eric kissing the pain away.
It drew a soft laugh from his lips. “I taught you that a long time ago.”
Eric brushed a kiss across the broken skin. “Taught me what?”
“Kissing your hurts.” Ollie gave a bittersweet smile. “I learned it from my mom.”
Eric smiled faintly. “I wish I could meet her. Your mom. So I can tell her how amazing her son grew up to be.”
Olivier blushed, his heart aching with loss. It had been years since his mother died, but some days, he remembered her singing, remembered her arms around him. “I wish she could meet you, too,” he said. “She’d love you.”
Eric cracked a smile. He tickled Ollie lightly on the ribs, so Ollie yelped and shoved at him.
“Eric!”
“Gonna tickle you harder,” Eric growled, sweeping his fingers up Ollie’s chest. Ollie shrieked, and Eric blew a raspberry on his cheek.
The baby monitor crackled. Jenn’s wail blared through the speakers, slightly tinny. Eric stopped immediately, looking over.
On the tiny screen, Jenn squirmed, her cheeks flushed as she cried. Ollie’s playfulness faded. They needed to go to her.
Eric sighed, burying his face in Ollie’s shoulder. “That didn’t last long.”
“We’re still knotted together,” Olivier said.
“So you wanna wait, or you wanna... somehow make your way there?”
Jenn wailed. Ollie’s instincts rattled. He wasn’t going to leave her crying. She needed them. “We go to her.”
“Okay.”
Slowly, they fumbled around, Ollie somehow turning himself around on Eric’s knot. Some grunts and bumps later, they clambered off the bed, Eric grabbing a towel so he could wrap it around their waists. It barely covered Ollie’s cock.
“We need a bigger towel,” Ollie mumbled, shuffling with Eric out of the room.
It was awkward, walking with your alpha’s knot inside you. Eric’s feet bumped into his, and when Ollie took too large a step, Eric’s knot tugged, sending
