STORY EXCERPT

“I’m going to kill you, Marcus. Can’t you just let this go?”

Marcus stared into the eyes of Zane, both males across from each other, Nathan beside them, wishing like all hell they would stop being morons.

“No fucking way. He’s challenged me one too many times, and I’m going to make sure that he knows I am not to be fucked with.”

That was the dumbest thing Nathan had ever heard.

Zane shrugged, as though it didn’t matter to him one way or the other. “If he wants to embarrass himself in front of you, then I’m fine with that.”

“Of course you are, because you’re playing into his stupid game.”

Marcus held out his hand, his eyes burning red. “Are you going to make this happen yet or what? You’re not about to turn into a chicken shifter on me. are you?”

Zane slammed his elbow onto the table, grabbing Marcus by his hand, gripping tight.

“I’m going to make you beg for mercy.”

Nathan shook his head. “I hate the both of you right now for this. This is so stupid.”

Marcus shook his head right back at him. “No, no, you just don’t understand. This is just a friendly match.”

“Yeah, whatever. You assholes are competing over me. You are competing over who gets to fuck me next. That’s kind of messed up.”

Zane rolled his shoulders. He didn’t take his eyes off of Marcus. “You know that an alpha can’t keep his pride in check without the occasional fight. This is better. One arm wrestle and it’s settled. No blood. No going to bed angry.”

“I might go to bed angry.”

He didn’t know how to make them see that he wasn’t entirely enjoying this.

Oh, there was something about being the prize in their dumb little game, but he didn’t want them hurting themselves over it either.

“Aren’t there better ways to settle this?”

“None that I can think of,” Marcus said. “After this, you stop calling me a beta.”

“Literally, you are a beta.”

“Yeah, but it’s different when you say it.”

Nathan had to agree with his first mate on this one. “He’s right, you know. You do say it like you think you’re pulling one over him.”

“I do not. Are we doing this or not?”

Marcus wiggled eagerly. “You’re on. Nathan, count down from three for us.”

“I hate you both so much right now.”

Still, because he felt like he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, he did as he was told, putting both of his hands over their joined ones, and feeling the strength that was right beneath the surface as they prepared each other to fight over him.

Maybe he really was lucky it was only an arm wrestle. It could be worse.

“On your mark, get set—”

“Wait, I said count down from three.”

“Go!”

Nathan released their hands, and it didn’t matter how they were supposed to start, the game was officially on.

It suddenly didn’t matter what stupid thing they were competing over. The moment Nathan pulled his hands back, he was as invested in the game as both men were.

Marcus put up an amazing fight, actually. He was clearly struggling to keep it from showing, but there was a vein that popped at his brow, the color of his face slowly changing to a deep shade of red as his shoulders trembled with the effort to pull Zane’s hand down.

Zane, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be having as much of a struggle.

He did fight with Marcus a great deal, and he was clearly having more trouble than he wanted to admit to.

The guy was playing it cool, but Nathan caught the way he pressed his lips together, using his free hand to quickly brush some of his blond hair out of his eyes.

Nathan shook his head. “You’re both ridiculous. This is stupid.”

“Not as stupid as he’s going to feel when I beat him,” Marcus said, his voice sounding almost as though he were struggling to get the words out.

“You’re going to be eating those words in a minute,” Zane said, a tremor in his tone.

They didn’t want to admit it, but they were each struggling with each other.

Nathan was never going to breathe this out loud, but he was kind of shocked that Marcus was lasting as long as he was against Zane.

He was a strong male, betas weren’t exactly fragile creatures, but a beta shouldn’t have brought this much trouble to any alpha.

Not unless it was an exceptional beta.

The thought warmed Nathan from the inside out.

Of course Marcus was an exceptional beta. He trained his body every day in case of an emergency when he needed to fight. He didn’t slack off and he ran with the best of them.

Nathan couldn’t have been more proud to have him as one of his mates.

“You can do it, Marcus! Come on!”

Zane looked at him, those dark blue eyes wide with horror and sadness. “Hey, what? Why are you cheering for him?”

Marcus grinned through a panting breath. “Because I’m his favorite, that’s why.”

“Just for that, I’m cheering for Zane now.”

ADULT EXCERPT

His cock had started to feel as though it was being crushed under the pressure of his clothes. The sweet, blissful relief that came with having his jeans pulled down his hips didn’t last two seconds before his dick started to feel constrained again.

Pulsing in his own skin, that’s what it felt like to have this happen to him. As though he was going to implode under the stress of his own orgasm, itching to burst free.

“I think you’re a little more eager than you were wanting to let on,” Zane said. “Marcus, what do you think? I think he liked seeing us go to war over him.”

“It was just an arm wrestle. Don’t get too full of yourself,” Nathan said.

But even as he said it, that didn’t stop him from thinking about it, about how their muscles had trembled as they struggled to best each other, how they’d bared their teeth and growled as they worked to win the match.

He wouldn’t mind seeing that again, but Nathan would rather die than admit that to either man.

It was way too humiliating.

Of course that meant both men immediately took note of it, and they weren’t shy about rubbing it in his face either.

“You did like that,” Marcus said. “I should keep training. The day I beat him in a match will be the day you come while watching us.”

Nathan felt himself being grabbed, pulled up against Zane’s chest while Marcus sank to his knees.

“I’d rather watch you do this.”

“Clever, you can admit your brain is scrambled right now. I don’t mind.”

Marcus stroked Nathan’s dick while smiling up at him. Nathan swore he was going to lose all control over himself after this. It wasn’t possible to hold out for long when his mate teased him like that.

“I hate you so much right now.”

Zane took both of Nathan’s nipples in his fingers, gently pinching and twisting them, and he had to know that he was making everything so much worse, definitely more difficult for him to hold back.

Nathan groaned, his dick practically jumping in Marcus’s hand.

“Do that again, Zane. I think he liked it.” As though to test the theory, when Zane did as he was asked, Marcus pressed his tongue to the underside of Nathan’s cock head.

The rush of sensation, the sizzling intensity that gripped his body refused to let go.

He didn’t know how it was possible that he didn’t come when both of his mates teased him so mercilessly, but there it was.

“Look at him, Marcus, isn’t he fucking beautiful?”

Now they were just flattering him.

That was so embarrassing, especially as he was exposed like this, but everything they did felt too good, turned the thinking side of his brain to slop, so how could he fight them on that?

“He is. There’s never been anything or anyone better than him.” Marcus briefly let his wet lips slide around the head of Nathan’s dick, just for a second, as though he were popping a lollipop in and out of his mouth. “I want to put my tongue all over his body while you fuck into him. Nathan? I’m going to taste every inch of you.”

“P-Pretty sure you…oh fuck…already did that.”

“I want to do it again,” Marcus said, leaning in, licking Nathan’s cock from root to tip, slowly, as though savoring him before he let the entirety of Nathan’s prick slide into his mouth, vanishing from sight.

Nathan moaned. He couldn’t stop the sound from coming out even if he wanted to.

And he didn’t want to.

Marcus had told him once how much he enjoyed it whenever he heard Nathan making noises like that, and Nathan was nothing if not eager to please his mates.

Zane, on the other hand, seemed content with adding another hickey to Nathan’s throat, pinching at his nipples while thrusting his hard cock between Nathan’s cheeks.

Zane still had clothes on, so Nathan could only feel the outline of it as Zane’s prick thrummed with need, but that didn’t stop Nathan from being commanded by it, from wanting it inside him, filling him up.

He reached back, letting his palm find the heat of Zane’s shaft. Nathan stroked it beneath the man’s jeans, and even though he was giving his mate pleasure here, it was as though that pleasure was still coming into himself.

Not just because his dick was still in Marcus’s mouth, either.

“Are you ready for me, baby?” Zane asked, his voice a pleasant rumble in Nathan’s ear.

Nathan moaned and nodded, helpless to do anything but agree to anything and everything the other male wanted.

“Tell me. Tell me you want my dick inside you.”

Nathan clenched his teeth, but he did as he was told anyway. “I want…I want your dick inside me.”