Page 169 of Specter Bred

Something in my voice made his protest die before it ever reached his mouth.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Maeve—”

“Now,” I barked, forcing him to move.

Sammy sighed like a man accepting his inevitable fate, but his feet were already carrying him toward the bed.

When his thighs brushed the edge of the mattress, I rose onto my knees in front of him. Nolan remained sprawled beside us, watching with that quiet, assessing interest he always seemed to have when Sammy and I were together.

I looked up at Sammy and gave him my best pout. “Don’t you want to be mine, Sammy?” My hands slipped beneath the hem of his shirt, settling against his waist. “Don’t you want to please your alpha?”

“That is an incredibly unfair way to phrase the question.”

I smiled and reached for his belt, slowly working it free but stopping there. For all my teasing, I wasn’t going to make this decision for him.

“This will bring us closer,” Nolan said from beside us. His voice was calm, carrying none of the playful manipulation mine did. “It won’t affect a beta the same way a mark between an alpha and omega would, but it’ll still mean something. Strengthen the connection between the three of us.” He paused. “It’s good for the unit.”

Sammy paused halfway onto the mattress and looked from me to Nolan.

“You’re going to bite me too, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

The immediate answer made Sammy stare at him.

Nolan shrugged. “But I’ll stay away from your dick.”

Sammy blinked.

Nolan tipped his chin toward me. “Can’t say the same for Maeve.”

Sammy stared at him for a second before looking back down at me.

“You two really know how to gang up on a guy.”

“You can say no,” I reminded him.

His expression softened. Then Sammy sighed, grabbed the back of his shirt, and pulled it over his head.

“I know.”

He tossed it aside and climbed onto the mattress with us.

“I’m blaming both of you when this hurts like a bitch.”

I chose Sammy’s hip, on the same side where my little horse sat.

Sammy loved that tattoo. On quiet nights, when neither of us had anywhere to be, his fingers always seemed to find it, tracing the mare over and over without even realizing he was doing it. Something about giving him a mark in the same place felt right, like I was taking this small thing he loved about me and mirroring it on him.

I brushed my thumb over the spot before looking up at him. “Here.”

His expression softened immediately, like he understood without me having to explain why.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I like that.”

I kissed his hip first, then sank my teeth into him.

Sammy hissed through his teeth, his hand immediately finding my hair as the pain hit. I stayed close afterward, distracting him with my attention while Nolan shifted into position behind him.