Chapter Text
"Smoking hot," Gideon said, leaning on the doorframe of the bathroom.
"I was aiming for professional." Harrow inspected her face carefully in the mirror.
"Brilliant and gorgeous," Gideon corrected.
Harrow smiled slightly and began to put her collection of make-up bottles and brushes away. "It seems a waste to purchase new clothing to wear only once," she commented.
"We can always invent another occasion if you'd like, but you deserve it. And your tits look fantastic,” Gideon said enthusiastically.
After having Aro it had taken only about two and a half months for her body to mostly return to its original appearance. Her breasts had gotten a little bigger and her nipples had stayed a bit larger and darker than they were originally, but otherwise, Harrow thought she had looked almost the same as before, a collection of bones, sinew, skin, and odd angles. This time, more than four months on she probably weighed less in net than she had before she got pregnant because she was still trying to build back what little muscle she had once had in her legs and buttocks, but she had retained some fat around her stomach and hips, and her breasts had gotten so much larger she thought she might be obliged to begin routinely wearing a bra. The potential inconvenience of bra-wearing aside, Harrow had never been one to become overly preoccupied with such matters. Her mate, however, was obviously enjoying these changes far too much, burrowing her face into Harrow’s stomach and nuzzling her breasts whenever possible.
"I always aim to please," Harrow said sarcastically. "Are we ready to leave?"
"Yup. Everyone has been wrangled. We depart on your command."
Harrow tucked a few items into a small bag in case she needed a touch-up, fended off Gideon's attempt to kiss her, and turned away from the bathroom sink.
"You nervous?" Gideon asked as Harrow grabbed her shoulder bag from their bed. The bags and bags of puppy stuff were already in the van. They had so rarely taken Aro anywhere besides the pediatrician when she was an infant Harrow had totally forgotten how much stuff was required to leave the pack house for a few hours. Happily, there were many hands to handle these things.
"Naturally," Harrow said. Her stomach was in knots; of course it was. This was it; the public culmination of more than five years of work, and besides that it was the first time she had to return to the professional, public-facing side of herself in many months. Preparing for her defense Harrow had felt near tears more than once, trying to remember how she had been the person who had done all these things and written them out when her thoughts felt so thick and sluggish. There had been moments when she was filled with an irrational terror that she would never be able to think again and regarded herself with disgust for what she had allowed herself to become. But more often, she had been blissfully uncaring with her new pups held close against her skin, feeling her good fortune in everything. Most of the time Harrow cared for her pups and her pack cared for her, allowing her to drift peacefully in an isolated bubble of hazy sleep-deprived contentment. Today she had to drag herself back towards the appearance of a functional human being with intelligent thoughts and opinions, as opposed to a (marginally) ambulatory milk dispenser.
"Well, you don't look it," Gideon said encouragingly.
They all piled into Pack Rho's two vehicles. Harrow, Palamedes, and the twins with Gideon in the truck, the rest of her pack and their new foster pup in the van.
In the end, Pack Ashtfall had made things exceptionally easy. When Vallerie had to go back to school without Aro on Monday, Kade had confronted her immediately, blaming her and Aro for beating he had gotten from his pack leader and the one his dame had received from his sire, saying that he was going to try the same with her. Since he did this in the doorway to the classroom at the start of class this time, the teacher was paying attention and when they went to the principal this time he called Vallerie's case manager instead. She went to another family that night, but a month later she had joined Pack Rho, hopefully for good.
The truck was quiet the whole ride to the university. Harrow stared out the window in anxious silence, wishing she could review her notes one more time, but not wanting to get carsick. Against what felt like all odds, Harrow’s month of careful scheduling paid off when they arrived suitably early at the university and her pups were willing to feed. At least forty-five percent of her anxiety was about what would happen if they started to cry during the public part of her defense. If they fed now, they would probably sleep through it and Harrow could get through her presentation without distraction. If they could make it to the scheduled break in the middle of the private portion of her defense, she would consider herself inordinately blessed, but a slightly earlier disruption of that portion would not be the end of the world. The other members of her pack milled about in the grass at the edge of the parking lot. Aro looked very pretty in her nice clothes, her hair tied back in a French braid that Vallerie had done for her. Harrow tried to let the flux of relaxing hormones calm her, but she was really too anxious to properly enjoy it. Gideon leaned outside the truck door, casually obscuring her from the world’s view and smiling reassuringly. She looked nice too in a dark green short-sleeved button-up shirt, because of course it would be impossible for her not to show off her biceps at all times, and tan slacks. Some attempt had been made to slick her thick, short hair back and just a tendril fell charmingly into her face. Really, she was so handsome it should be quite illegal.
Gideon beckoned Aronui over and asked her “Can you ask Paul where we put the..uh…” She tried to illustrate her request with a gesture.
“Burping cloths,” Harrow clarified. “Thank you Aronui.”
“Yes, that. Actually, can you just get him to come over here and help when your mom is done?” Gideon amended, passing a hand over her eyes.
“Thank you Aronui,” Harrow said.
Aro nodded, smiling, and ran off.
When her pups were done nursing and Gideon and Paul had taken them, Harrow straightened her clothes and slid down carefully to the asphalt. A few minutes later they were ready to go, and her pack surrounded her as they headed en masse to the anthropology building. Harrow hadn’t set foot on the university grounds for over a year now and she usually came from the bus stop, so she felt briefly disoriented as they made their way across campus. It felt strange to be returning now.
The room reserved for her defense was a familiar lecture hall down a long stretch of familiar corridor. Of her pack only Camilla had been inside before, picking up books that Dr. Gaius had loaned to her and clearing out her office a few months ago, though they had all been on campus before to attend her undergraduate graduation. Her pack chattered amongst themselves looking at the posters and the specimen display cases on the walls. Inside the room four people milled around near the front: Dr. Gaius, fiddling with the projector; Dr. Nemalesku who had become a co-author as a result of the dig, engaged in conversation with a tall woman with long greying hair she didn’t recognize but suspected might be her external committee member; and Dr. Wethers, another one of her committee members. Harrow put on her game face and led her pack up the center aisle of the room.
When Dr. Gaius looked up at the sound of their approach, a series of expressions passed across his amiable features; shock first amongst them, confusion, possibly panic and then quickly back to pleasant mildness. Harrow had no idea what could have provoked it but he was a man of many largely boring mysteries. He strode forward and clasped Harrow’s hand in both of his. “Harrowhark! Long time no see! I’m so glad we were able to make this work out for today. I can’t wait to see what you have come up with. I wish you the best of luck today.”
Harrow refrained from rolling her eyes. He certainly already knew what she had come up with, as he had read the draft of her thesis. “Thank you, professor. I am glad the university was able to accommodate me.”
“Please, introduce me to your family,” her advisor requested.
“Dr. Gaius, allow me to introduce my mate, Gideon Nav,” Harrow indicated.
Gideon shook his hand. “Good to meet you,” she said. Harrow knew that her mate had heard too many of Harrow’s complaints about her advisor’s weird combination of benign neglect and overfamiliar behavior to actually be that pleased, but it was good that she was playing nice.
“I’ve never been able to convince her to call me John,” her advisor said apologetically. “Nav is an interesting name. Where is it from?” He then swapped to te reo and said “Harrowhark mentioned before that you are Maori, like us.”
Harrow kicked herself for not expecting this and preventing it. It was exactly the sort of thing Dr. Gaius would do, and she saw that Gideon was embarrassed as she answered in perfectly understandable te reo, which she was nonetheless ashamed to speak in public because she wasn’t entirely fluent. Harrow wasn’t perfectly fluent either; even if she had more vocabulary than Gideon, her accent would always give her away as having started to learn late in life, but she was proud of them both for trying, and proud that Aronui spoke better than either of them.
“It was from the nuns at the orphanage being too lazy to think of more than three letters,” Gideon joked awkwardly.
“I see. You didn’t know your sire then?”
“No. Didn’t know my dame either, but at least I know who she was.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.” Dr. Gaius nodded, like he had understood something important, and then moved on.
Harrow introduced her pups and then the rest of her pack to her advisor, and then to the other professors in the room. She was introduced to the tall middle-aged beta who was, in fact, her external committee member. It was strange, the merging of her two worlds in this final instant. The caring, enthusiastic people of her pack did not fit in this environment, except perhaps Palamedes who could have easily excelled in formal education but had preferred informal. Amongst them, Harrow’s priorities were unique, but they had encouraged her to be here, had supported her every step of the way. Harrow’s peers, and her professors, came from different types of packs. They came from suburban packs primarily, in the sprawling neighborhoods surrounding cities like this one with their manicured lawns and regulated shared green spaces. Their pack leaders and at least one of their parents were usually educated; they arrived knowing the rules. They lived on campus or nearby and worked from their campus offices. Most of them were betas, some of them were alphas.
It was traditional that if a pack could afford to send multiple members to university they would send their betas first, then their alphas, and then omegas. The other omegas in her classes during her undergraduate degree generally fit into three categories: the wealthy ones whose packs could afford to send all their young adults to university if they were interested, the gold diggers whose packs hoped university would put them in the path of better mates, and the mature students; mated omegas in their late-thirties or beyond who were done having pups and were likely having their tuition paid by their mate individually rather than their pack. In Harrow’s department, the only other two omegas in the graduate program, since the last time she had been on campus at least, both belonged to the latter category.
Harrow was here because her pack didn’t know or care how any of this was supposed to work.
She was here, yes, because she wanted to be very badly, because she was smart and she had worked hard, but in isolation those inclinations got her nowhere. She was here because of Pyrrha and Camilla, two consecutive pack leaders who had decided against all convention that their pack’s only breeding omega could also be its most educated member. They had signed her application letters and her registration forms and made her tuition payments for the last ten years. Pash, who in the end had typed up virtually all of her thesis. Her mate, who had always assumed Harrow could do anything she wanted to do, and been the first to try to think of ways to make it happen. Everyone who had watched Aronui when she was at school and Gideon was at work, everyone who had taken up the slack when she had gotten too busy to do her share of household tasks, everyone who had helped her through the agonizing time she was in bed and the months while she recovered. In another eight months or so she would be allowed to look for work and she could finally be able to start paying her pack back. She couldn’t wait to prove their faith in her well-founded. She was quite as proud of them as they had always been of her.
As the room began to fill she was hugged by all the members of her pack and wished good luck; she took a last fortifying sniff of all of her pups, and Pack Rho took their seats. Gideon gave her a thumbs up from her seat nearest the side door, Kākarauri tucked against her chest and probably slobbering on her nice shirt. Aronui imitated her, swinging her legs excitedly and inadvertently giving one of Vallerie’s crutches a kick, which caused it to clatter to the floor. She ducked, embarrassed, and tucked it back between their seats.
When Dr. Gaius stepped forward to introduce her, he talked about a person she barely recognized. He had seen the research she had produced but never understood the why. He didn’t understand her. And how could he when he had never met her pack or seen the person she was when she was with her family?
When she stepped up to the podium, opting to stand more beside it than behind it lest she look like she was hiding, her heart was hammering in her chest, but she let no hint of fear or timidity show in her expression as she looked out at her audience; her pack, professors, graduate students and a handful of the kind of overachieving undergraduate she had never had the time to be. She took a deep breath and began.
--
The next part of the afternoon passed in an adrenaline-laced blur. Harrow remembered nothing of her presentation, though she remembered the questions she was asked afterwards and how she answered them. She remembered shaking hands with a lot of people. Her committee asked more difficult questions. She answered them. She spent the most time defending her interpretation of the results of her last dig. Dr. Gaius, the bastard, undermined her by bringing up things she might have thought to try if she had ever had the chance to examine the artifacts herself, as if he could not have brought these ideas up at the time. She made it to the scheduled break and, for the first time ever, struggled to let down. Camilla went and talked to Dr. Gaius and they gave her more time. Gideon stroked her back in comforting silence, let Harrow lean against her chest and breath her in, and Harrow made herself relax just enough. She went back in and answered more questions. Afterwards she waited in the hall with just Gideon and Camilla. She felt very nearly out of bravery and wanted to climb into her alpha’s lap, but she restrained herself.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for her committee to deliberate. She was called back into the room, and when she left it again her whole pack had reassembled outside, and she was reintroduced to them as Dr. Nonagesimus. Gideon picked her up and spun her around and the relief was so intense she barely avoided peeing herself.
After many more handshakes and hugs and a trip to the washroom, they finally exited the building. The bottomless blue of the late afternoon sky was disorienting, and she felt disjointed and giddy as Gideon picked her up and spun her around some more yelling, "Dr. Nonagesimus!"
After she was set down and hugged, again, by several other members of her pack, Gideon said, "Look what we found!"
Aronui and Nona held the twins up in front of her. They had been changed from the black outfits they had been wearing before into onesies in the university colors with the logo on the chest. Underneath one said, "Honorary graduate" and the other said, "Along for the ride."
"Why does this exist?" Harrow groaned.
"I think that's pretty self-explanatory. They also come with tiny graduation caps for when you walk. They're in Paul's bag." Gideon said grinning.
"That is incredibly tacky. We will not be doing that." Harrow took Kākarauri from Nona and nuzzled her head.
Neither of her pups had grown hair until nearly a month ago and Harrow was secretly delighted to have gotten her little red-head. Strangely, Kākarauri, who was red-haired, had been born with black fur, while Haeata, whose hair was black, had been born with red fur. Gideon joked that people would think they had mixed them up, calling the red-head dusk and the black haired one dawn, but Harrow knew she hadn’t. She could tell them apart by scent and she knew she would never have forgotten when she smelled each of them for the first time, when she had licked their tiny muzzles and beheld their wolf forms for the first and last time for a few years. Harrow knew objectively it would be a nightmare for presentient pups to be able to phase, but she missed them. Some primordial part of herself missed their puppy-soft fur and short little snouts and if she was in wolf form and heard her human pups cry she instinctively knew how it would feel to have those tiny muzzles rooting around against her belly for a teat.
"Oh, you're no fun. Besides, this was really the least weird option," Gideon said.
"I appreciate your self-restraint and I do not wish to know," Harrow replied, feeling decidedly more normal, just tired now with the adrenaline beginning to fade.
"Did you never go into the bookstore the whole seven years you were here?" Nona asked.
"I purchased textbooks. I never browsed the spirit merchandise," Harrow said.
"On account of the school colours are not black and black," Gideon said.
"Because I do not require any souvenirs beyond my diplomas," Harrow clarified.
"There were loads of different options, but most of them made reference to both parents being students. Or referred to class assignments, or group work...and you weren't in any classes this year, so this was the best choice," Nona said.
"Please do not tell me any of them," Harrow said quickly.
"Oh babe, but some of them were really funny..." Gideon said.
"No."
"What is Maslow by the way?" Nona asked.
"Maslow Hall? The tan tower we passed on the way in? It's one of the mated dorms. I've never been in," Harrow said.
"Ok. That makes sense. ‘Made in Maslow' was one of the options, but we didn't know what it was referring to," Nona said.
"Some people have no shame," Harrow sniffed.
"So if we'd caught you a few months ago you'd have thought it was cool?" Gideon asked.
"No."
"I distinctly remember being told that you had no shame anymore at least six times. Followed by statements like 'I would give birth on national television, everyone has seen my butthole it's too late for me, why do I need to put on a shirt,' and 'there are bats in my vagina.'"
"I did not say that last one," Harrow said, affronted.
"Paraphrasing slightly, but you did."
"I refuse to believe you."
"Do you need to say goodbye to anyone else or are we ready to head out?" Camilla asked.
"I have spoken to everyone I need to," Harrow said. "We can depart."
"Onwards to potatohead pub!" Pash announced as they started walking back towards the vehicles. Harrow gave just one glance back at her department building as they went.
"What?" Harrow asked.
"We're going to that place you like," Gideon said, taking Haeata from Aronui.
"I know, but what did Pash just call it?" Harrow said menacingly.
Gideon looked over at Pash and then at Harrow and her face went red. "Paaaaash," she groaned.
Pash wiggled her eyebrows.
"You told her," Harrow accused.
"Like ten years ago. She's the immature one who's still making jokes about it," Gideon complained.
"Why did you tell her?" Harrow demanded.
"It's a core memory!"
"You're such a knothead. If I weren't holding our pup I would throttle you,” Harrow complained.
"And alas I could not defend myself because I am also holding our pup," Gideon said with some melodrama.
They looked at each other and both snorted.
"You're really incredible. I love you so goddamn much," Gideon said, and they stopped and Gideon leaned down to kiss her.
She pulled away with a little of Harrow's lipstick on her. Harrow didn't tell her.
"Dr. Nonagesimus!" a voice called out from behind them.
Harrow turned to see Coren waving and approaching quickly. She had been mildly surprised to see him in the back of the room during her defense, but then he had contributed to the work, and of course, had been appropriately credited.
He stopped in front of them, saying, "Don't want to hold you all up. I just wanted to say congratulations, doubly."
"Thank you," Harrow said stiffly.
"I'm glad your pups are alright. I thought about you....but then it wasn't my business."
"Yes. I am fortunate they are quite perfect. I thank you for your help in a difficult time. I see you are to be congratulated as well," Harrow said, gesturing with her head to the fresh scarring of a very new mating bite peeking out from the neck of his sports T-shirt.
He grinned broadly, "Thanks! In a weird way, I owe it to you guys."
"Ahh. Did you seduce him or her with your knowledge of bones?" Gideon asked.
He laughed, "Afraid not. He's an electrical engineer." That gave Harrow pause, she would have thought he wouldn't be the type to want an omega who outearned him, though perhaps he expected to inherit a pack and wasn't planning on full-time work himself, she hadn’t ever asked. "I was drinking with friends at MacTire’s and I made a comment about your, ahh, parting advice. I was making a joke of it, just being an ass, and then this smoking hot omega appears out of nowhere and puts his hand on my shoulder and was like, 'Oh honey, and what would you do if I told you that is all we want.' Anyway, we went home together. Later on, he tells me he wasn't really one of the protesters, but some of his friends are, and he thought it'd make a good story and humiliate me in front of my friends. So basically, we're both assholes, but we had such a good time together that we started going out, and now we're mated."
Harrow was sure she was missing a lot of information somehow. Gideon looked positively delighted, "That's fucking ridiculous. How in the hell did that work? I am honored."
“I am pleased you have found someone with whom you are compatible, and I wish you the best with your studies,” Harrow said neutrally.
Coren smiled, with seeming sincerity. “Good luck to you too.”
Once he was gone and they had resumed walking, Harrow asked her mate, “What, pray-tell was he talking about?”
“Harrow, can I take a picture of you now with the university sign? We’ll take loads when you walk, but you look really pretty,” Nona asked, interrupting.
“I don’t want loads of pictures,” Harrow complained.
“I do,” Gideon said.
“You should,” Paul added.
“You all should,” Pyrrha confirmed.
Harrow grudgingly consented to take photos, until Haeata started crying and gave them cause to disband. Gideon carried the crying pup as they made their way back to the vehicles, in a rare instance of luck she hadn’t triggered her sister as well, holding her against her cheek and singing You Are My Sunshine under her breath.
Pack Rho walked now at the pace of Vallerie’s crutches softly clicking against the uneven paving of the university mall. Harrow was oddly grateful to the little girl for her sudden appearance in their midst. She was good for Aro, a good influence, a good friend, and a good distraction while Harrow’s focus was with her infants. She was also a good ego check for Pash because even a ten-year-old who was almost depressingly well-behaved needed things more frequently than the attic-lurking omega had probably anticipated. Harrow took some small vindictive pleasure in watching her have to get serious for the first time in her fucking life. And she liked Vallerie. She was smart and she asked good questions; she had probably been saving them up for a long time. She talked to the omegas and betas of Pack Rho with increasing confidence but was still very shy of the alphas. Harrow knew her mate wanted so badly to show that little girl she was loved, but for now, that meant respectful distance.
Harrow hoped so hard it hurt that Vallerie would be a beta. Her anxieties she might hope to overcome with time and the positive influence of Pack Rho’s three wonderful alphas. But Harrow now knew since Pack Rho had inherited her medical records that the malformation in her leg extended up to the growth plates in her pelvis. Her limp would only get worse, and her pelvis would be increasingly misshapen on one side. Harrow would not wish upon her worst enemy what it felt like to ache inside for what could only hurt you. Harrow herself didn’t want any more pups, the thought of it made her whole body ice over with terror. She would have had both her and Gideon sterilized if she could, but she was too young for at least four more years and if Gideon did it then she would no longer be eligible for any contraceptive coverage herself. As much as Harrow had no intention of passing any of her future heats with anyone other than her own mate, and as much as she trusted Gideon completely, Harrow knew in her heart that she could not feel truly safe unless it was her own body that was protected, and it would be the worst thing in the universe to feel less than completely safe with Gideon inside of her. So Harrow would get an implant, and maybe it really would help with her moods, or maybe she would be terrified the first time her heat came back: only time would tell. And despite all this, every time her infant pups passed some milestone, the joy of their healthy and normal development was shadowed, just a bit, by an aching sorrow that this would be the last time she would get to experience it. Every time she placed a tiny outgrown outfit in the to-donate box there was a small pitiful part of her that didn’t understand and was hurting. And she knew without a doubt that once her heats came back, another likely two decades' worth of heats, she would be afflicted each time with the overwhelming aching need for what she definitely did not want. Vallerie’s life had been hard already. Harrow wished for her that from now on it would be easy, safe, and uncomplicated. Let her be a beta and find a beta to mate; let her decisions be guided by heart and mind alone.
As they pulled out of the parking lot, Harrow looked back at the towers of the university for what might be the last time. Today was an ending, but it felt more like a reawakening. Today had provided a peek through the fog, a glimpse ahead to a time when she would care about things that weren't the unending schedule of puppy care again, and she would feel excited about and able to return to the pursuit of her intellectual interests. It wasn't now, it didn't need to be now, but it would be there for her when she was ready.
--
It wasn’t until they had made it home that evening that Harrow remembered the strange interaction she’d had with her former research assistant. The twins were sleeping and Aro and Vallerie had both taken the day off school for her defense so they were doing the worksheets they had been given to take home at the kitchen table. Harrow was lying face-down on the couch, about the greatest reward for a job well done that could be imagined at this stage of her life. Well… except maybe lying facedown on her bed with her mate’s thick cock inside of her, filling her up and making her cum over and over again without Harrow having to do anything. She had never been a lie-there-and-do-nothing kind of omega before, but she estimated that her mate owed her about three hundred and sixty orgasms and she was simply too tired to recoup them any other way. She knew Gideon was probably only marginally less tired than she was. Gideon at least could sleep through their pups crying if she was in another room, something she could at least do during the daytime, whereas Harrow could probably go to the goddamn moon and still hear them, but they were on the same schedule at night. So there was a perverse sort of power in being able to order her mate to pound her into the mattress while she did shit all, because that’s what alphas were good for, and Harrow was a fucking model omega and deserved a treat. And her Griddle was so good and obliging. She’d eat Harrow out for a little while, and then maybe Harrow would roll onto her stomach and Gideon would put a coaxing hand under her hip to get a better angle, murmuring “Let me take care of you, sweet thing. Don’t you worry about anything honey. I’m gonna make you feel so good,” while burying herself deep in Harrow’s cunt, resting just enough weight on her for Harrow to feel totally comfortable and safe. Harrow had been lying there hoping her mate would come back from whatever she was doing in the kitchen and maybe pick her up and carry her off, but when Gideon did come through the door, Harrow suddenly remembered.
She rolled onto her side and asked, “Griddle, what the hell was Coren talking about today?”
Gideon snorted. “Oh, yeah. Remember when he was complaining about the omeganists being a pain in the ass over email and I made that really funny joke?” Gideon said.
“It wasn’t funny, but yes, vaguely.”
“Well, when I copied your response, I sent it to him. I said I was looking at your emails because you couldn’t get to the computer and thought he needed to be set straight. So, basically he was in public going-” she got a bit closer and lowered her voice to prevent Aro or Val from hearing, put on a melodramatic voice and mimed looking around hopefully, “'Oh, what a shame it would be if there were omegas who wanted to fuck me in the ass.' And lo and behold someone turns up. What a dork,” Gideon says cheerfully.
“So, what you’re saying,” Harrow said in a deadly voice, “Is that you used my university email account to sexually harass a student.”
“What? No, I didn’t harass him. I just made a joke,” Gideon said, soundly startled.
“You sent sexually charged content to a person who was working under me using my work email! You could have gotten me put under investigation!” Harrow snarled, sitting up.
“I mean, I said it was me,” Gideon said nervously.
“Gideon Nav, you fucking asshole! And you have default access to all my accounts by law! Who thinks alphas can be trusted?! What a fucking joke! I trusted you! I trusted you and the first thing you do is take advantage to make an asinine joke! I was confined to bed with your goddamn pups and that is how you thank me?! By jeopardizing my whole career!?” Harrow shouted, now on her feet.
“Fuck, Harrow, I didn’t realize, I’m sorry,” Gideon said, putting her hands up in front of her and looking shocked.
Harrow glared at her mate. Then she ducked and charged. Gideon was hard to take down normally, being so much larger, but she wasn’t expecting it when Harrow headbutted her in the stomach and grabbed the back of her knee, tackling her to the carpet. Gideon instinctually rolled to pin Harrow beneath her, grabbing her wrists and snarling, but then she stopped and rolled slowly onto her back. She was trying to be nice, to be gentle on Harrow’s still recovering body. This pissed Harrow off even more. She scrambled up and sat on her alpha’s chest, pressing down on her windpipe.
“Nothing to say for yourself? Just going to lie there and take it?” Harrow taunted.
She was slightly crushing Gideon’s trachea so she could not respond, but shook her head no.
Harrow let the pressure off, tilting Gideon’s chin up with fingers digging into the soft underside of her jaw. “What do you say, alpha?” she snarled.
“Harrow, I’m so sorry. It totally didn’t occur to me that it could make a problem for you. I promise I’ll keep away from your accounts. I’m so fucking sorry.” She looked genuinely contrite at least. Harrow imagined she probably was sorry; her mate wasn’t malicious after all, just a fucking idiot. A handsome piece of alpha muscle with no brain at all.
Harrow put pressure on her throat again and Gideon groaned quietly. Unfortunately, this sound had too many alternative associations and Harrow was embarrassed by the way her body responded to it. “Sorry isn’t good enough,” she growled.
“Harrow,” Palamedes said plaintively from somewhere behind her. “Must you do this in the living room?” Harrow had forgotten he was in the room.
“Can you please save this for the bedroom?” Pyrrha said. “There are pups in the next room.”
“It’s occupied,” Gideon muttered, and Harrow pressed down on her throat again so she made a little “Nnngh” noise.
“She compromised my professional reputation,” Harrow snarled. “She used my professional email to send puerile humor to my subordinate!”
“Well, I agree that was a very poor choice on Gideon’s part,” Palamedes said. “But you should probably punish her in a way she’ll enjoy less.”
Gideon whined in the back of her throat, her hands grasping Harrow’s waist.
“You’d better not be enjoying this, you brainless sack of alpha meat!” Harrow spat.
“Yeah, tell me how you really feel,” Gideon rasped.
Harrow closed both hands around her throat, “I feel like I’m going to fucking smother you, you stupid asshole!” she snarled, digging her knees into Gideon’s ribs.
Gideon stared back at her with a raised brow, no longer particularly apologetic. Harrow glared.
Gideon gave her no warning when she flipped them. No finesse, all she had to do was roll and pull Harrow’s fingers away from her throat by brute force. Harrow bit her and jabbed her in the ribs. She didn’t have to put her hands around Harrow’s throat to take her breath either, just lay her full weight on top of her. This had the dual effects of crushing her lungs flat and sending a jolt of arousal through her, both from the delicious scenario of being fully pinned beneath double her own body mass of muscular alpha and from the ridge of her mate’s stiffening cock poking into her stomach.
Gideon laid casually on top of her while Harrow wriggled beneath her, hovering her face above Harrow’s. “Call me all the names you want Dr. Fancypants. Everyone knows that you like brainless alpha meat just fine.”
"For the love of God you two. If you can't take it to your bedroom, at least take it outside," Pyrrha complained.
Their eyes met and they nodded in agreement. Gideon got up at once, offering her a hand to get to her feet. They stared at each other for a moment and then raced to the door, colliding as they tried to pass through at the same time.
They discarded their clothes at random on the porch and launched themselves into the cool blue of the evening, streaking out across the grass. Gideon turned once she reached the tree line and waited for her, pouncing once Harrow caught up. Harrow had once been a fast runner, her speed and agility making up for her lack of size, but her weak hind legs made her slow and clumsy. It made her furious. Being accommodated and patronized and all her natural disadvantages piling up on top of her fanned the flames. But she was free to feel her anger and act on it, to let it burn through her, to seek resolution in a flurry of flesh and teeth and fur, until it burnt out. This is how things were between them. Harrow needed a fight, and Gideon would give it to her as best she could. The way Gideon did it was natural, the result of long practice in play-fighting with their pup, though she could be rougher with Harrow of course; she wouldn't ever draw blood with Aronui. Gideon accommodated her even as Harrow's teeth sunk into her alpha's flank, and Gideon's sunk into her shoulder. Harrow snarled and latched on. They tumbled in the dry leaves and Harrow's blood sang with the momentum of their tumult. She twisted and rolled, and got in a few good bites. Gideon toyed with her, not until she won by force, only prolonging the fight until Harrow submitted, raising her tail and spreading her hind legs to let her alpha know what she wanted.
She whined half in feigned protest, half in startled pleasure when Gideon mounted her. In wolf form Gideon was so massive she didn't so much mount as walk over top of Harrow and penetrate, her cock angling downwards and putting delicious pressure on her front wall. Her alpha was briefly cautious; this was only the second time they'd had sex in wolf form since the twins were born. It was riskier, more uncompromising, but Harrow was fully ready for it now. She pressed herself back into her alpha, whining and needy, and was rewarded by a pleasure that punched the air out of her lungs: twelve and three-eighth inches of unyielding alpha cock buried fully inside her. She yipped and wined and wriggled as that overwhelming length moved inside of her. She could feel and hear Gideon's panting breaths against her face. If this had truly been all that her stupid beautiful alpha was good for Harrow would have been hard-pressed to give it up. All her senses thrilled with how completely full she was and how perfectly Gideon fucked her.
The pleasure was a tidal wave, vicious and overwhelming. Harrow came quickly and forcefully and howled her climax to the world. Gideon's thrusts became fast and urgent, and Harrow whined in anticipation of the release that would fill her.
But then she heard it. She wasn't sure if it was actually a sound or just a feeling, a vibration in some deep part of her that oriented itself with utter certainty in only one direction. Gideon slowed briefly, feeling Harrow's sudden distraction beneath her. With a growl like a sigh, Harrow separated herself from her mate, squeezing out from beneath her like a darting lizard.
Gideon growled in protest, but Harrow was already loping away across the grass. Gideon growled more loudly and then howled after her as she reached the porch. Oh, her alpha was pissed. It took Harrow thirty seconds to dress haphazardly. Once inside the house, she could actually hear her pups crying.
"Nona's gone up," Palamedes told her as she passed by the door to the living room. "What on Earth did you do to Gideon?" Her mate's yowling was also dimly audible inside the house.
"Nothing she doesn't deserve," Harrow retorted, heading for the stairs.
"That could potentially cover a lot of territory," Palamedes called back.
Crashing noises and muted swearing filtered in through an open window as Gideon, she imagined, attempted to dress and crashed into the porch furniture. Harrow paid it no mind.
Nona was in their room and had Haeata on the changing mat, something Harrow didn't love, but accepted as the cost of much-appreciated help while the twins were still staying with them. Harrow went to get her other pup as Nona finished up.
“Here, swap you,” Nona said, and they switched pups in a maneuver that was now second nature after doing it dozens of times per day. She sat down in the rocking chair Pyrrha had refurbished and settled the U-shaped pillow Gideon had bought her in the lap. She tucked her shirt up and snuggled Haeata into position, enjoying the half reduction in sound as she found Harrow’s nipple and attached herself. With Aronui, once she had gotten the hang of it, she’d been able to wander around the house, or sit and do some task one-handed while she nursed, but with two, at least until they got a bit better at holding their heads up, she was obliged to sit with both hands occupied. She’d been given the chair so that when she was upstairs she could at least sit with her legs hanging, which was better for her recovery, given how much time she spent doing it.
Harrow was warned of her mate’s approach by the usual elephant-like sounds of her coming up the stairs. “Now I know you three are conspiring against me,” she complained as she entered the room. “Thanks, Nons, I got it,” she added.
“Nearly done,” Nona replied cheerfully. “Blue-balled again?”
"They’re so blue," Gideon said emphatically, taking Kākarauri from Nona. Gideon kissed the crying pup on her scrunched-up forehead and brought her to Harrow. Then she sat down on the floor at Harrow's feet. "I accept my punishment. I know I fucked up. You couldn't still get in trouble, could you?"
"If he didn't report it at the time, it's unlikely it will ever come to light," Harrow admitted. "But it was a breach of trust. You are not to touch any of my accounts again," Harrow said severely. She got Kākarauri settled on her breast and leaned back in the chair.
"I understand," Gideon said meekly. "I didn't think it through. I thought it was just like sticking two separate letters in the same envelope."
"Good to know. You're not allowed to touch my mail either."
Gideon rested her forehead on Harrow's knee. "I'm so sorry Harrow," she whispered.
"Good luck groveling Gideon," Nona called out, before rapidly departing.
"What can I do?" Gideon asked when she was gone.
"The groveling helps. You can keep that up," Harrow said snidely.
“I apologize, my angel, my precious omega,” Gideon said quite sincerely to her knee. “I promise I won’t look at any of your accounts again.”
“And you won’t tell sex jokes to any of my future colleagues or subordinates,” Harrow prompted, in the hope that someday she would have a job where the promise would be needed.
“I promise, I won’t,” Gideon agreed, kissing the side of her knee.
“And if you think this is all your punishment, you’ve got another thing coming for you.”
Gideon looked up with interest and Harrow smirked at her.
“Go ahead. You can touch yourself. But if you cum I won’t let you get off for a week,” Harrow commanded.
“Oh,” Gideon grinned, “Will I get to cum later?”
“You might. Stay just like that and keep your head down, wouldn’t want you to form any unsuitable associations.”
Gideon nodded, and Harrow didn’t have a full view, but she knew Gideon was doing as she was told, reaching into her shorts and stroking herself back to full hardness.
“Can I take it out?” Gideon asked.
“Go ahead. Just tell me when you are getting close.”
Gideon shifted into a more comfortable position and freed her cock from her loose shorts, stroking it in a casual fashion with both hands. Her breath was warm against Harrow’s knee.
By the time her pups were finished feeding Gideon had stopped and restarted three times, her breath stuttering in her throat as she teased her length. When Harrow put a hand silently on her shoulder, she pulled her shorts up and took one half-sleeping pup against her shoulder, red-cheeked and sporting a massive erection but uncomplaining as she rocked their daughter to sleep. Harrow knew her good fortune. She could never have done everything on her own, not with two pups, and not when it had taken two months before she could even trust herself to stand up from a seated position while holding one of them. She could have leaned on the others in her pack more, she leaned on them a lot already, but she gained privacy by having a mate who was so willing to go beyond what was considered normal alpha involvement. Harrow suspected that Gideon enjoyed infant pups particularly in part because they were needy, and their needs were simple. Her alpha’s deep need to be useful, and to demonstrate her love in concrete ways, saved Harrow from hardly ever having to change diapers.
In a stroke of luck, it took a finite amount of time for both twins to fall asleep and they successfully transferred them to their cribs without waking them again. Harrow got up, got a glass of water and a sleeve of biscuits and they started over. This time Harrow removed her shirt completely and let Gideon look at her as she had her drink and snack. Then she spread her legs and slipped her hand into her own pants to touch her clit to the sight of her alpha sitting cross-legged on the floor at her feet, torturing her magnificent cock for Harrow’s enjoyment. She traced her toes lightly along the top of Gideon’s thigh but did not reach out to touch her, drinking in the sight of her handsome alpha exactly where she belonged.
The intervals where Gideon touched herself got shorter and the intervals between got longer. Pitiful whines began to escape her lips as she pleasured herself with no end in sight. Pre-cum leaked abundantly from the tip of Gideon’s cock and her hips twitched, pressing herself upward into her hands. Harrow crooked her fingers inside herself and came twice to this glorious sight.
“How are you feeling?” she demanded quietly.
“Horny,” Gideon muttered, “Fuck, so hard.”
“Do you like waiting for my word? Do you like knowing I get to determine if you cum?” Harrow murmured.
“It’s amazing. You’re literally perfect. I could watch you forever. I’m yours to command,” Gideon said, breathtakingly earnest, as always.
Harrow lazily brought herself off twice more as Gideon’s face and cock got more and more red. Her alpha had to take long breaks, trembling with her cock sticking up, untouched and so needy between her hands on her thighs. Her alpha suffered so beautifully.
For all her good intentions Gideon was not able to just watch forever. All at once her self-control broke and she started to beg, pressing her face desperately into Harrow’s thigh. “Fuck Harrow, I need to – it feels so good,” she whimpered. “It hurts – I need to cum – I can’t. I can’t – Please, Harrow. Please, baby. I need to cum so bad!”
Harrow twisted her fingers into Gideon’s hair and pulled on her head, oriented her face to watch where Harrow’s fingers moved inside herself, beneath the thin cloth of her pants.
Tears squeezed from Gideon’s eyes as she pleaded, “I’ll do anything. Please Harrow, I need to cum. I can’t take it anymore. Please let me cum.”
Harrow lifted her alpha’s head up by the hair and beheld it. So pathetic and desperate. So handsome. She wanted to hump against that panting mouth, knowing how good Gideon’s tongue could make her feel, but not today, not now.
“Alright then,” Harrow commanded causally, “Cum.”
With a relieved gasp Gideon took hold of her cock. Harrow realized her mistake almost too late. With both hands on her cock Gideon couldn’t cover her mouth and there was no way she was going to be able to remember to stay quiet, she was barely accomplishing it now. Harrow leaned forward to cover Gideon’s mouth with her own hand, but in her urgency she tipped forward in the rocking chair and her legs didn’t take her weight when her feet hit the floor.
Gideon came like a fucking geyser and the first spurt caught Harrow in the face. The second and third flooded the space between their bodies as Harrow tipped into Gideon’s lap and trapped her cock between them; Gideon had let go to catch her, but her orgasm couldn’t be stopped as she wailed into Harrow’s palm and released her hot seed against Harrow’s chest.
There were two beats of tense silence as they waited to see if their pups had been woken by the muffled sound. “Um, hi,” Gideon said breathlessly. “Holy shit.” She laughed shakily. “Damn. That was an insane nut.”
“It is in my sinuses,” Harrow growled.
“Um. Sorry?”
“It fucking burns.”
“Shit. Should you like, pour some orange juice in there?” Gideon whispered urgently.
Harrow looked incredulously at her mate, feeling a bit ridiculous as cum dripped out of her nose and from her chin like blood.
“You know, neutralize the base with some acid. I remember elementary school science.”
“I don’t understand how your brain works at all,” Harrow complained.
Gideon reached around and handed her her shirt and she blew her nose in it. “Do you reckon if I came directly in your nose it would go straight into your brain?”
Harrow snorted into the shirt and more cum came out. Disgusting. “Is that what happened to you? Did you have a mishap sucking your own dick as a teenager?” Harrow accused.
“That would explain why scientists can’t distinguish between my head and my nutsack,” Gideon joked. “What can I do to help?”
“I’ll try to rinse it out in the shower. We should go get cleaned up.”
Gideon nodded and stood up, lifting Harrow with her in her arms. She was folded gently over her alpha’s shoulder, leaving her a view of Gideon’s ass as she shuffled her shorts up and walked over to the cribs. Then she patted Harrow affectionately on the bottom, to Harrow’s spluttering protest, and carried her away.