After

"I'll still have to do this with Ronan at the full moon - ah! - you know."

Dan bit his nipple gently, circling his tongue around it. He ran his hans up Kit's spine, grabbing the nape of his neck and pulling until the younger man arched his back, straddling Dan's lap.

"I'm not sure I'm okay with that. Well...perhaps on one condition."

He unbuttoned Kit's jeans and stroked him through his underwear, his hand almost large enough to envelop his entire cock, grip warm and firm, moving at a steady pace.

Kit moaned, head still bent back. "Wha...What?"

"I'm there too."

"Huh?"

Kit's head snapped up and he steadied himself with his hands on Dan's shoulders, gaze clearing.

"D'you mean...a threesome?"

"I'm not sure whether to be happy about that sparkle in your eyes."

Dan grabbed Kit's arse and flipped them both over, dumping Kit among the covers and leaning over him.

He looked amazing - rumpled curls, unbuttoned jeans, T-shirt pushed up to reveal smooth, coffee-and-cream skin. His plump, pink lips were parted, curling up at the corners in a sensual half-smile.

Dan felt his mind go blank, blood rushing out of his head and straight to his cock. He bent to kiss his mate.

"So the two of you dated, but you never...?" Kit murmured against his lips.

"Yeah?"

"And you're both going to do me? Won't it get awkward?"

"Well, it might get a bit...competitive."

Kit grinned, wrapping his legs around Dan's hips.

"I think I can live with that. Now - grab the whipped cream."

As the next full moon approached, Kit's healing sped up. He wasn't recovered - the bullet wound would take weeks, if not months longer to heal completely and his body remained stiff and sore, though that might have something to do with all the sex they had been having. At least his arm was out of its sling.

Despite that, he insisted that he was well enough to run with the pack.

Dan had spent the time since Kit's release from the hospital pampering him - cooking for him, helping him dress his wounds, rubbing his muscles and worshipping his body. It was a little disconcerting - being treated like something so precious.

He was still getting used to it, and to living with Dan and having a free share in his house and possessions.

Kit didn't ask him about Kosta. Morgan had told him that Ilya was dead, but Kit just didn't want to know if his former teacher had joined him.

On the night of the full moon, they ran together.

Their Omega felt the stirrings of heat deep in his belly but forced it down, clamping down with the new control he had found - Not yet - and they ran.

Kit had never felt anything quite like this - fast paws thudding against frosty ground, fur brushing his flanks, a sense that they were moving together, breathing together, thinking together.

This was not hunting, it was fun. Joyful. Playful. Kit bumped into Justin and sent him stumbling sideways only to have him crash into his flank seconds later, knocking him off the path and into a pile of leaves.

He belonged.

This was the same mountainside he had come down over two months ago, a half-dead fugitive. Where he had first met Dan and Darren.

Only now he was free. Now he was strong. Now he was no longer alone.

But when they reached their destination, a sandstone outcropping that overlooked the clear, star-studded night sky and a wast expanse of woods, grief crashed over him instead.

Kit stood on the edge of the mountain and looked out over their territory and everything finally caught up with him.

The pack noticed his scent changing and Morgan whined.

Devlin is dead. Charlie is dead. Mom is dead. I'm here, but they're not. And I'll never again be the person they knew. I'm changed.

The despair of it filled him, more and more of it until it spilled over and he threw back his head and howled.

It was a desperate, hopeless, painful sound, beautiful and pained. Kit threw himself into it, throwing his grief at the night and the moon and the cold, careless stars.

Then, one by one, voices joined his. A deep, sad howl echoed next to his despairing one - and then an angry, growling one. A lonely, high-pitched, questioning one, weaving together with his and then an answering one, harmonising, loud and abandoning.

Finally a strong, direct, emphatic voice lifted next to Kit and all their voices intermingled, different, complimentary, making a raw, brutal, beautiful dirge.

At last, he could grieve. For his uncle and for his adoptive father. For Devlin Novák.

And all around him, his pack howled. Their voices mixed and rose, eerie harmonies permeating the night air, enveloping Kit.

They howled for their dead, sharing their grief.

They howled for the future - together as one wolf pack. As family.

And as they howled, the first snow began to fall, hesitatingly, slowly, in small fragile flakes, glittering in the silver moonlight.

Slowly Kit's pain subsided, leaving him with the song, for now.

He felt at peace.

By the time the snowfall stopped, sky clearing to reveal the milky way, his Heat was getting harder to contain - Kit was panting, feeling faint.

Just a little bit longer.

It was just like resisting his cravings, and he put his entire arsenal of self-control to the task.

They padded back towards the cars in silence, stopping to change into human form in the narrow limestone cavern where they had left their clothes.

The pack had apparently used it for some time - there were a few wooden boxes with sheepskins and firewood at the back.

Kit shifted into human form and pulled on his jeans and hoodie with shaking hands. He tried to control his breathing and felt a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"You still want to do this?" Dan asked him.

"Yeah," Kit answered faintly, straightening up.

The others were dressed and getting ready to leave, Morgan stifling a yawn.

"Hold up, guys. Just one thing," Dan called.

Kit stepped out in front of him, facing Ronan.

"Alpha," he said.

They atmosphered shifted from easy to loaded, Ronan's eyes narrowing and fixating on Kit, who was holding on to his pheromones with a fraying will. It felt like a muscle, screaming from exertion, shaking and ready to give in.

He pulled down the zipper of his hoodie slowly, revealing the red, fresh scars - and shrugged it off one shoulder.

Ronan's eyes followed his movements, expression unreadable.

"Darren's bite has completely healed, Ronan. What do you think that means?"

Ronan shifted his stance, balancing his weight and crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes slid over Kit's smooth, exposed skin.

"It means one of two things. Either you didn't form a bond with Darren, because you never accepted him as your alpha -"

His eyes roamed down the length of Kit's bare neck, tilted to the side and illuminated in the moonlight shining into the cave's entrance. A thrill shot through the omega when he remembered how affected Ronan had been last full moon, how he had held himself back and ordered Dan to take Kit away.

"Or... there was a bond. One that needs to be renewed every full moon, lest it fade." His voice was lowed now, more like a growl, but he still held himself rigid.

Kit smiled.

"You made me an offer once, Alpha . To become this pack's Omega. You never tried to force me - and now I would like to take you up on that offer, if it still stands."

He pulled the zipper all the way down and let the hoodie slip off his shoulders, falling into the grass at his feet.

"I want to claim that title. And you - my Alpha."

Ronan's mouth fell open. His eyes snapped up past Kit's shoulder - looking at Dan.

"Holy shit," Darren muttered.

"How do you feel about this?" Ronan asked his Beta softly.

"Kit and I have discussed it. My only condition is that I'm there too. But we understand if you don't want to, Ronan."

"You want, " Ronan said slowly, "To have a threesome with your ex, your Alpha - and your mate?"

"You don't want to?"

"I didn't say that. What about them?" Ronan said, nodding at the pack, eyes on Kit's.

"This time...they should go. I won't be able to rein in my pheromones. Maybe some other time we can all play together."

Darren choked. "C'mon, kids," he said to Morgan and Justin who were still staring, slack-jawed.

"Let 'em work it out. Don't want to get caught up in that - trust me." And he herded them out, glancing back once over his shoulder before disappearing among the trees.

That left the three of them. Alpha, Beta, and Omega.

"You sure about this?" Ronan asked, voice rough around the edges, but still soft. "You're still part of the pack - this isn't necessary -"

"That's why I'm sure. Because you're a good Alpha. And I don't just want to be a part of the pack. I want to be its Omega - title and all."

I need Dan to know I want him but also the life he's offering me. I don't want to take him away - I want to join him. His pack, his family, his home, his Alpha. I want to make them mine. Ours.

To carve out a place for myself in you, in all of you, like you have in me.

I never could commit by halves.

"I only need to hear one more thing from you, Ronan."

"What?"

"That you want this. Otherwise - we won't. So if you do... Say it. Say that you want me, Alpha."

"Your scent is intoxicating..." Ronan watched him hungrily.

"I always thought you had excellent self-control."

"I thought so too. Until I met you, Omega." Ronan closed his eyes. "I..." He opened them. "I want you."

Kit smiled a cheshire-cat smile and stalked up to him, tracing a hand up his chest.

"Then take me," he whispered, standing on his toes to pull his Alpha's face down to his.