36. Seraphina
36
SERAPHINA
W hen the four of us walked through the doors of the gym in Merchant Village, we captured the attention of the usually subdued Sunday-night crowd. This place was owned by Derrick’s best friends, and it was where I’d spent the last two-plus years training with Dylan as I worked to get some muscle on my little omega bones.
I was a familiar face here, but my bonded Alphas, who exuded both sex and danger from their pores, were not.
Kade, the big Alpha who was the boss around here and also looked like he’d just disembarked from a mythical Norse ship, glanced up from his spot at the reception desk. I gave him a cheery wave, which he returned, all the while keeping a wary eye on my boys. Barron, another of Derrick’s friends and also a giant Alpha male, stopped what he was doing—organizing the kettlebells, it looked like—to puff up his chest. Pheromones began to seep into the air, the sharp bite of Alpha dominance burning my nostrils.
“Damn it,” I said, waving a hand in front of my nose, “I cannot take you three anywhere.”
Loki’s vanilla daggers swirled around me. “It’s just the usual Alpha shit, Lamb. Don’t worry about it.”
“They’re obviously with me, Kade!” I shouted at him.
He laughed. “So they are. You know we have to roll out the welcome mat anyway, Sera.”
Blaze eyed Kade suspiciously, and then he grabbed my hand. “Why are we here, exactly, querida?”
I pointed across the way to where Austin and Cam were sparring on one of the large mats while Seth appeared to just be shamelessly watching Dylan as she performed a set of squats under a loaded barbell.
“I need to chat with Cam,” I replied innocently.
Austin and Cam ceased beating on each other and turned to face us. Even Seth managed to peel his eyes off Dylan’s ass, turning to watch us approach with an uncharacteristic intensity in his expression.
“Ah,” Loki said, the aggression pumping from him with abandon now. “Is our appointment with your brothers?”
My grin was evil. “I realized I wouldn’t be able to kick the three of you in the nuts hard enough to punish you for your lies, seeing as how I’m very partial to your genitals.” I gestured at Austin and Seth, who were now standing on the mat, their hard gazes pinned to my boys. They’d lost Cameron, who now stood off to the side with an arm around a fidgety Dylan, but they’d gained a third Alpha. Derrick had appeared from who knew where, and he trotted onto the mat, looking very bloodthirsty. “But those three will have no such qualms.”
“Seraphina,” Austin growled as we approached, “are those fucking bite marks on your neck?”
I sighed the world’s most put-upon sigh. “Not you too. Since when do you care about the whole waiting-for-graduation thing?”
“I care that you’ve only known these assholes for like, two months, and they misled you nearly the entire time. And yet, here you are, bonded to them less than twenty-four hours after you learned their real fucking names.” He moved his Alpha stare over my shoulder to Loki. “Did you pressure her, Montgomery?”
Loki’s displeased growl reverberated around the gym. “We absolutely fucking did not.”
“It’s like you don’t even know your sister,” Blaze said, a taunting lilt in his voice. “No one can make Seraphina do something she doesn’t want to do.”
Seth glared at him. “It was still too fast, and you know it, Cruz.”
Dylan cleared her throat from the sidelines. “We bonded almost that fast, too, Seth.”
His face softened as he glanced at his omega. “That was different, love. We are a scent match.”
“And Blossom demanded the bond, with a clear head, outside of her heat,” Cam added with a sly smile. “Just as I’m sure our Sere-bear did.”
I pointed at him. “Thank you, Cameron. I came here to talk to you , anyway. Getting to watch these three get all hot and violent in the ring is an added bonus.”
Hawk slung a tattooed arm around me as he eyed my brothers and Derrick. He wore his usual soft smile, those big brown eyes blinking innocently behind his glasses. This was how he lured other Alphas into complacency, looking all sweet when he very much was not. “Who’s that, Little Flame?” he asked, jerking his chin at Derrick. “Did you pick up an extra overprotective brother?”
“In fact, I did,” I replied. “That’s Derrick. He’s Dylan’s twin, and he’s been beating on handsy courting Alphas at the big mixers on campus for a few years now.”
Derrick gave them a shitty little finger wave. “So these are the rich dicks from up north?” he asked me. “Not what I expected.”
“Me neither,” I replied. “As it turns out, they are also the bikers I screwed over the summer in a cliche act of rebellion.”
Austin cracked his neck. “Can we not talk about that part of this whole thing, please? I am attempting to rein in the aggression enough to have a civil conversation before I punch Montgomery in his smug fucking face for deceiving my sister for weeks and then bonding her way too fucking quickly.”
“You’re not reining in anything,” I retorted. “It smells like a soupy Alpha locker room in here.”
Loki kissed my head. “Let me go put your brother out of his misery, Lamb.”
He stepped in front of me and onto the mat. Hawk and Blaze followed, and the three of them squared up to their challengers.
I practically skipped over to stand with Cam and Dylan.
“How are you not anxious?” Dylan asked me. “I hate it when they whale on each other. And you know Derrick in particular is not going to pull punches.”
“Sere-bear has confidence in her Alphas,” Cam said, “and she knows this is going to be an excellent show.”
“They deserve it, a little,” I said, “and we know they all just need to get this over with so they can move onto being best friends. You guys had to have it out with Derrick a few times for the same reason.”
“Mmm, we did,” Cam agreed. He released Dylan long enough to pull me into a hug. “Congratulations on the bonding, Sera. Those idiots will come around and be super happy for you in a few.”
Dylan joined our hug. “I knew you’d do it. No time like the present to take what’s yours.”
The big scary boys out on the mats finished sizing one another up, and then the tension in the air snapped like a twig.
Austin lunged at Loki. Seth threw a punch at Blaze. Derrick and Hawk began to circle each other, and it only took about three seconds before Hawk’s angelic smile pissed Derrick off enough for him to throw his entire weight behind an uppercut.
I winced as my guys took their licks with those first moves. Loki had a rapidly darkening bruise on his perfect cheekbone. Blaze wiped a trickle of blood from his nose. Hawk winced and held his right side where Derrick had nailed him in the ribs.
“Cam,” I said. “How would you feel about a contract assignment with Sentinel on a quick little project up in Fort Wayne?”
Loki landed a punch to Austin’s face and then kicked him in the thigh. Austin growled and tackled him to the ground, where they began to grapple.
“I’m up for anything, Sere-bear,” Cam replied. “Does Sentinel need to bolster their ranks with some operatives of superior skill?”
Seth had Blaze pinned to the mat, but Blaze weaseled his way out quickly and rolled, putting Seth in a headlock.
“We actually need betas with those skills for this particular mission,” I told Cam. “And I’d prefer to work with people I am comfortable with and trust.”
Hawk dodged another vicious blow from Derrick, blocked his follow-up punch, then buried a fist in Derrick’s stomach.
“I see,” Cam said. “Do tell.”
As all six of the guys rolled around on the mat, grunting and punching one another, I explained what we’d planned out earlier this afternoon regarding the institute’s donor gala next weekend. Dylan and Cam were both grim as they absorbed the implications of the institute’s activities.
“Fuck,” Dylan said, looking thoroughly disgusted. “I really hope this plan works and you bust them.”
“It will,” I said confidently. It had to.
“Are you going to call D—” Dylan paused as Derrick danced over to our side of the mat after narrowly avoiding another blow from Hawk. She lowered her voice. “Are you going to call in one of our friends from New Mexico?”
I grinned. “Yes, if she’s up for it.”
“Good.”
We settled in to watch the show. My brothers and Derrick were excellent fighters, but my Alphas were holding their own, as I’d known they would. I fell even more in love as I watched their muscles flex and their bodies move with brutal efficiency, earning my brothers’ respect with every well-placed hit.
I let them go for another five minutes before I gave Kade the signal. He marched onto the mat with his little bullhorn and blew it in two quick bursts.
“It’s over, gentlemen,” he declared. “Break it up, and clean your blood off my mats.”
The guys didn’t need to be told twice. They ceased beating on their respective opponents and broke apart. Austin and Loki rolled off each other while Seth shoved Blaze to the ground and then promptly sat down next to him. Derrick bent down and grabbed Hawk’s glasses from the side of the mat and handed them over. Hawk accepted them graciously before lifting his shirt and using the hem to wipe the blood from his nose.
Cam whistled. “That is a body. I do love a decorated torso.”
“Cameron,” Seth growled.
“It is nice, isn't it?” I said dreamily. “You should see Blaze’s dragon.”
Dylan crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Austin. “Are you satisfied now, big man?”
He grinned sheepishly at her. “Yeah. Sorry, Firecracker, I know you hate this stuff.”
Loki leaned back on his hands, every delicious muscle in his arms tensing with the movement. His chest rose and fell as he caught his breath. “We love her, you know,” he said to Austin after a minute. “We’ll care for her and support her in all things.”
Austin sighed, his face softening as he met Loki’s stare. “I do know, and we’re grateful for that. I’m not thrilled my baby sister is going to continue running around shooting people with her pack’s support, but I can also acknowledge that makes me a hypocrite, given my own omega is often doing exactly that.”
“Did you think I was joking all the times I said I wanted to be like Dylan when I grow up?” I asked him tersely.
“You say a lot of shit,” he shot back.
Blaze quirked a dark brow at Seth. “It really does smack you right in the face to meet an omega like that—the kind of omega we’re taught shouldn’t exist. For guys like us, there isn’t any going back.”
Seth nodded. “I can’t argue with you there.”
Hawk and Derrick were engaged in their own conversation, Hawk showing Derrick something on his phone. At least my bonus brother didn’t feel the need to be a dick.
“Well, I think we’re finished here,” I announced. I glanced at Cam. “You’ll come in for a full briefing this week?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I hugged him and Dylan one more time, then I marched out onto the mat, where the guys had all managed to crawl to their feet. I received a fist bump and an actual grin from Derrick before I tossed myself into Hawk’s arms.
“Are you okay?” I asked into the warm skin of his neck.
“Definitely,” he replied, squeezing me. “That was fun, Little Flame. It’s rare we get a quality fight like that from our peers.”
I watched over Hawk’s shoulder as Seth and Blaze exchanged a bro-hug and Austin shook Loki’s hand.
“Welcome again to the family,” Austin said. “Keep my sister happy, and we won’t have to kill you.”
Loki chuckled. “You enjoying making those threats instead of receiving them? Derrick’s kind of a beast.”
Derrick grunted, acknowledging the compliment.
“I sure am,” Austin replied. “And I’ll be able to keep an eye on you guys, since I hear we might be neighbors soon.”
“What!” Dylan shrieked. She bounced on her toes. “Seriously?”
Hawk set me down so I could bounce with Dylan. “Yes! They want to get a condo in your tower!”
After Dylan and I finished our girly squealing, Loki scooped me up, and I attached myself to him like a barnacle. He inhaled my scent, his nose pressed right up against his bond mark, and he took a relaxing breath. “Let’s go, Lamb. You need clothes, we need to shower, and then I need to be in your nest with you for the rest of the night.”
Blaze pressed against my back and kissed me behind my ear. “What he said, Princesa.”
As Loki began his march for the door, refusing to put me down, I waved at my brothers and Dylan. “Bye! Love you!”
They all wore some form of a satisfied smirk as I was carried away. They could pretend all they wanted, but my brothers liked my Alphas and were thrilled I was bonded to them. Maybe it was because they could see how happy I was. Maybe they really had been afraid I’d run away after graduation.
But probably, at the very least, it was because I was someone else’s problem now.