Chapter 27
“ I think I love her.” Dylan flopped back over the couch between Eduardo and me.
“You barely know her,” I pointed out. “You can’t love her yet.”
“I can do anything I put my mind to. She’s flawless."
“She comes as a package,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, the whole package.” Dylan beamed at me. “I’m not stupid. I know she’s got kids. I like them, too.”
Liking all of them wasn’t the problem. Charlotte had been hurt, and she needed partners to step up while being terrified to let them do that. “We have to approach this differently. Her wanting us is not the problem. It’s everything else.”
“Are we in the same school district as her?” Eduardo asked.
“Fuck if I know.”
“I’ll look it up.” Eduardo was already on his phone. “On the edge of it. Her kids wouldn’t have to switch schools…”
“Were you planning on her moving in with us? That’s kind of something you should run by everyone.”
“Not with us directly,” Eduardo replied. “The Martinez pack next door is moving out now that they have their second baby on the way. It’s a four bedroom with a proper nest. I think we should pitch the idea to her about moving in there.”
My alpha instincts were extremely happy with the idea that Charlotte might be just next door. It wasn’t quite as good as having her right in my bed, but she was worth doing baby steps for. Letting her have her own space she was in control of would probably make her a million times more comfortable, and it being so close meant we could help with a lot more.
“I agree. When are they moving out?”
“As soon as possible,” said Eduardo. “They haven’t told the building management yet since they just got the news that Carmen was expecting again.”
“They’re okay with you sharing that news?”
Carmen played our Queen Guinevere, so we’d have to plan for her being off work as soon as she wanted to take leave. She could do other jobs when she began to show, but we wouldn’t be integrating a royal baby storyline.
“I wouldn’t have brought it up if they didn’t want you to know,” replied Eduardo. “I bet if we asked, they would delay saying anything to the building management for a few days and we would have time to get Charlotte in to see the place, figure out how she feels about it.”
Now that the seed had been planted, I was fully on board with the idea. Hopefully Charlotte would feel the same. Having her cry in my arms over all the shitty turns her life had taken had nearly ripped me in two. If we could do something, anything , to alleviate some of her burden, I was happy to do it.
“Talk to the Martinezes and make sure it’s a possibility before we talk to Charlotte.”
“Yes!” Dylan thrust his hands into the air, the movement having him slide right off the couch from his precarious position. He grinned up at me from the floor. “We’re gonna have so many sleepovers.”
That was certainly the hope. Having the possibility of Charlotte in our lives made me feel hopeful about a lot of things. Dylan had updated me on their discussions of hosting horse camps. The idea seemed too good to be true. People would pay to take care of our horses just for the privilege of being around them and receiving a short lesson. Charlotte was happy to teach, and Dylan could do that right along with her. It had the potential to bring in decent money with lower expenses since we had to pay for everything in the arena anyway. It wasn’t money like tickets to the show, but it would be a lot fewer people to pay out if it was just Charlotte and Dylan managing things.
Charlotte’s other match, Beau, had gone through all the fine details with me, all our plans to get Night of Knights profitable again. He was sharp as a tack with a good eye for business. Our industries didn’t really intersect, but we both ran our own companies and he had more experience with that than I did, so I didn’t mind tapping his expertise.
“What are the odds of her agreeing to be in the show for her birthday?” I asked my packmates.
“She doesn’t seem very showy,” said Dylan, “but then I never thought she’d wanna be fucked in a stable, so who’s to say? What did you have in mind?”
I explained the idea that had been floating around in my head.
“Fuck yes. We should definitely do that.”
“And see if we can arrange an overnight babysitter,” added Eduardo. “I’d rather she not have to disappear immediately to put the boys to bed.”
I pulled my phone out to message Charlotte.
Chico:
When’s your birthday?
Charlotte:
The 23rd. Why?
That only gave us a week.
Chico:
Would you be available to spend it with us?
Charlotte:
Friends already invited me to dinner.
Chico:
Would they be interested in free tickets to Night of Knights instead? Bring everyone.
Charlotte:
I’ll ask.
At least the plan had been partially set in motion.
I tried to focus on the rest of my day, but all I wanted was to go see her… Why couldn’t I?
Chico:
Are you busy right now?
Can I take you out for lunch?
Charlotte:
I could do lunch.
Give me some time to shower first, though. I’ve been scrubbing floors. Text me the address?
I picked a place that was super close for her and sent over the address before quickly getting ready.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Eduardo asked.
“I have a date.”
“Since when?” Dylan tilted his head, examining me. “It had better be one with Charlotte.”
“It is, and as of about two minutes ago.”
“You’re going without us?” Dylan pouted.
“Just this once. I want to talk to her and you’re a distraction. Plus it’ll give Eduardo time to talk to our neighbors.”
“I’m going.” Eduardo hoisted himself off the couch and took himself next door while I disappeared to the car.
The butterflies in my stomach were doing an Irish jig, nerves spiking the closer I got to Charlotte. I settled in to wait at the little Vietnamese restaurant when I arrived, staring at the door for her arrival. The moment she stepped inside, it was like she brought the sun with her.
I rose to my feet, moving toward her as if I were magnetized. Her lips met mine eagerly, and I swept her into my arms, breathing deeply of her lemon meringue sweetness until my feet were on solid ground once more.
“Hello there,” she said with a laugh. “You’re going to make me think you missed me.”
“I did miss you. All of us did.” I drew her back to our table and a server took our orders quickly. “Thank you for meeting me.”
“You’re welcome. Thanks for inviting me out. I talked to my friends,” she said. “They’re happy to do Night of Knights instead, but they’re insisting on paying full price. And they offered to take the boys for a sleepover afterward.”
Bless every single one of them for thinking that so I didn’t have to ask for it. “Could we entice you to have a sleepover of our own after?”
Her cheeks flushed, scent bursting. “I could be persuaded.”
The server arrived with our drinks, and Charlotte took a long drink of her iced water.
“Nervous or thirsty?”
“It’s the first time we’ve been out just the two of us, since…”
“Since you panicked and bailed on me in the middle of the night?”
She swallowed hard. “Yeah. That. I’m so?—”
“Don’t apologize. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I know you better now. I know you’re scared, and that’s okay. It wasn’t your choice to come back to us, not really, but I’m glad you did.”
Charlotte chewed her lip. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“I don’t think any of us do. I’ve thought a lot about what you told me, and not a single one of us wants you or your kids to get hurt. It’s new for everyone, and I know it must be terrifying to think about giving us a chance.”
“Understatement of the century,” she said with a small laugh.
“The only way we’re ever going to be able to prove to you that it can work is to let us try. Obviously we’re happy to respect any boundaries you have, but you’re our scent match. There was no one else for us before you and there won’t be anyone after you. You’re it.”
She stared at me with wide eyes, and I could see her process each of my words. “My kids have to come first.”
“Of course they do. Your kids are great. We all understand you’re a mother first, and we don’t want that to change. We’re just asking for a little space at your table.”
“My table doesn’t have that much room.” Charlotte fidgeted with her napkin.
“Then we’ll build a bigger one.” She let me lace my fingers with hers and draw her knuckles to my lips. “We want to make you happy.”
Her lip wobbled, fear bright in her eyes, but she held on tighter. “I want to be happy. I need patience.”
“And you have it. Whatever you need, we’ll do our best to make it happen.”
We moved on to lighter topics when the food arrived. Getting her to talk about horses was easy and she told me all about the ones she had partnered with through her life. She’d had a gorgeous dappled gray Thoroughbred named Misty Mornings that saw her through years of competition before she finally sold her under pressure from her ex-husband.
Her mood dipped again and she poked at the remnants of her noodles. “You have to know if you’re with me I can’t give any of you biological children.”
“We don’t need them.” Well, I didn’t need them. I wasn’t entirely certain what Dylan and Eduardo thought about it.
“You can’t just say that. You have to be sure. I needed them, and I went through years of interventions to be able to have the ones I do. I didn’t get dealt the cards an omega should have in that regard. Even if I wanted to put myself through that very particular hell again, I’ll be forty-three soon and I haven’t had a heat in three years, so it wouldn’t matter anyway.”
I absorbed each word, turning them over in my head. “I’m sorry you couldn’t have as many children as you wanted. You’re enough for me, though, and if you wanted me to be your alpha, I would do everything for Sammy and Ollie as if they were my own. I know you can’t believe that for me just saying it, but I’m saying it anyway. You love them, and if we’re going to love you, we’re going to love them too.”
Charlotte nodded, taking my hand in hers again as if she needed the anchor of my touch. “I wish I could have more, but I’ve tried to make my peace with it. I love my boys. Ever since I was little, I imagined myself with a half dozen little ones running around. I’m a failed omega. If I could, I?—”
I slid over to her side of the booth and pulled her onto my lap, holding her tightly. “You’re enough. You are not a failed omega. Your purpose in this world isn’t to have children. It’s just to live.”
She sobbed in my arms, breaking my heart all over again. In stuttered words and gasping breaths, she told me bits and pieces of how her ex had taunted her with those words. Failed omega. How often she had faced his derision when year after year passed with no children.
I held her like she was the most precious thing in the world, because she was. “If that man wasn’t already in prison, I would put him in the ground.”
She let out a shaky laugh. “I forget sometimes how much he hurt me. I buried so much of it, but it keeps sneaking up on me.”
Charlotte continued on, picking through a few of the horrors her ex-husband had inflicted upon her: putting her on suppressants so that her heats could neatly align between his business trips even though heat leave was legally mandated, forcing her on blockers, denying her a proper nest. I didn’t make a peep that all those things had probably contributed to her difficulty with conceiving. He had done his best to strip down her omega nature to suit his needs and still expected everything to work out.
My omega deserved so much better from the world.
Maybe Dylan was being hasty in declaring his love for her already, but with her in my arms, with her trusting me to know all these vulnerable bits of herself, I sure as fuck felt those words sitting on my tongue.