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"It's not my fault he picked me first!" Valentino hissed back, a nervous dart in his eyes. "I'm just as surprised as you are, and I thought we agreed that he was ours. My success is our success. You should be happy for me."

Altair snarled at that, feet stamping, feathers fluffed up in outrage. "Not if he's favouring you, and just you! It's so not fucking fair, I don't want to be linked up to your pleasure, feeling you fuck him when we should be fucking him together. He should pick all three of us! Not one! This isn't some fucked up love monogamous love triangle bullshit! We come as a package fucking deal, did you tell him that? Did you even think about offering him that? Three or none? Seven or zero? We're pack!"

Valentino blinked and then had the fucking audacity to look surprised. And Altair almost screamed, fingers rushing through his hair, rage fluttering through his chest. Gods, he didn't know why he was so fucking mad, but he was fucking mad.

Halcyon blew his nose, eyes lidded with pearly tears, puppy eyes that he turned Valentino's way like the devil. "We all fucked up the same way, apologised to him the same way. How could you be the one to come out of this as a winner? What the fuck did you do? Did you buy him food? Did you give him something? Please, Valentino."

Altair's eyes twitched. "It was the dream, wasn't it? Did you jump him in his dreams? Sucked his cock?"

Halcyon's voice pitched at that into a whiney begging lull. "But he saw me masturbating right after! Surely, it can't be that good—"

Valentino had the nerve to look sheepish, fingers curling hair behind an ear, losing to Halcyon's eyes and Altair's accusation. "I'll put in a good word for you two, I swear. Besides, you both know if it turns out good for me, then he'll join our pack as ours—"

"You'll fuck it all up. You need us, you need your mates to seduce him," Altair growled, eyes pinned to his soulmate. "If you fuck it up once, you fuck it up forever. With us? You have three goddamn tries. Three times to fuck up. And don't avoid the goddamn question."

"Rue's from the countryside, you know it takes them a while to get used to things. It's good that he picked me, I can slowly convince him that you are a good lover too. And then from there, we can—"

Altair gritted his teeth. "What did you fucking do?"

Valentino spun then to fix them both a glare. "Maybe I'm just his type?"

Altair barked out a chuckle. Fucker. It must be the dreams, Valentino had been quiet all morning. And Altair had woken sticky eye to the sight of his naked back, Valentino sitting at the edge of their bed deep in thought. And the eros rarely woke up early unless he wanted a blow job or a sleepy fuck. The eros was literally always the last to wake up for classes. Motherfucker. Altair should have gifted Rue his jizz. "We're both eros."

Valentino shrugged. "Rue and I have a history together—"

Halcyon interrupted with a growl. "We do too. And I wasn't a pervert like you were. I was a sweet little rabbit that Rue protected. I was prey. Alphas like prey, Alphas want prey. And I'm Rue's roommate, the one person he should be able to trust. He sleeps in my bed—"

"There's an inch between that bed."

"Still mine. My territory."

Valentino raised his hands then. "I guess we're just closer because we talked."

Altair snapped at that. "About what?"

"Things." Valentino darted to their door then, pushing it open, entering the apartment which was quiet only because of the barriers Kieran must have erected to keep the sounds and smells to a minimum. "Look, go ahead and ask Rue if you're so curious. But really, we just talked. I got his trust, and that was it."

"That's fucking bullshit," Altair snorted, ignoring the heady waft of Rut and Heats twirling in the air from their mates' needs.

He groaned, swallowed down the tingle in his claiming bite and the pleasurable warmth that grew in his lower belly—a telltale sign of a mate in Rut. It'd be difficult to ignore, and Altair was sure that he would have an angry, fuck fest with Halcyon right after just to get through it. He'd just yet to decide if Valentino would be joining in today.

"Trust? You'd blackmail him first, you little shit. I know you." And Altair did, felt him twisting in his gut. His eros' emotions were on fire, running up and down, fluttering loose like a stampede. Valentino was scared, and Altair had dug too close, had hit a nail on the head. They were aphrodite and eros, and there was nothing Valentino could hide from Altair. "Was it the size of his cock? What secret did you uncover? His powers? His soul mark?"

"Nothing," Valentino snapped then, eyes hard, jaw ticking. "Don't fuck this up for me too, Altair."

His eyes were sharp, not the doll-pretty, lust-heavy baby boy Altair knew, but the monster that he could be—lacking all colour, primordial, endless, deepening voids that could swallow him whole. Valentino's aura grew, tails spiked, whizzing sharp as his Alpha stepped forward and nosed at Altair's Alpha beckoning for submission.

Altair sighed, a growl tearing out of his mouth. He stormed towards their dorm room, nose wrinkling at the taunt of pheromones in the air. And then something oddly sweet laced the air, soft and whispery, like the tendrils of wonderful smells from a bakery in the cesspool of the urine-drenched city. But he stopped, head turned towards Halcyon, who was just about to push open his door where Rue must lie waiting.

And suddenly Altair didn't want Halcyon alone in the room with Rue, talking.

If his intuition was right, at the rate they were going, Altair was on the losing end. Hewas going to be the last to get into Rue's pants and swap spit with the little Alpha. And Altair fucking hated losing, especially if it meant a day longer waiting to impale himself on Rue's little cock.

Altair wanted Rue so bad, he wanted to fondle him, touch and tease, and then fuck.

"Wait," Altair snapped, paused at the door. "You know what? Let's ask Rue."

"Ask him what?" Halcyon said eyes turned back, hand hovering over the knob.

"Ask him why he likes Valentino," Altair answered, stomping forward. "Why he'd kiss him instead of us."

Valentino sighed, moving with him, arms out. "Leave Rue alone, it's been a long day."

"Come on," Altair beamed, all nectarine sweet. "Won't hurt. Besides, I love seeing the annoyance on Rue's face. It's fucking funny when he starts snapping at us like a little chihuahua." And Altair shoved against his eros, crashing through Halcyon's door, stepping into what must be the doorway to heaven.