Chapter 3
Charity
I glanced at each of the alphas individually, realizing that even though they all seemed very similar, they were actually quite different.
They all had varying degrees of darkness to their hair, with Marcel having a lighter brown color, and Atticus having the darkest color.
Xander had ocean blue eyes, which looked similar to Atticus's gray eyes.
Zade had hazel eyes and Marcel had amber eyes, while Matthias had green eyes.
I still couldn't identify their individual scents, but combined, they filled the room with the most delectable scent I'd ever smelled.
"Charity," Atticus said, his deep voice quiet but still somehow filling the room.
"We must go back to work, but I will leave Matthias, my second-in-command, with you.
The others will see you at sporadic times throughout the day.
You are more than welcome to ransack our rooms and dig our clothes up, but please clean up after yourself if you do.
You are not allowed downstairs under any circumstances.
If I see or hear of you being down there, you will not like the consequences.
Your other alphas can attest to the fact that I take rule-following very seriously.
" I swallowed roughly, a little sad that I wouldn't be with all of them all day, but the hairs on the back of my neck raised at his threat.
But it didn't feel like he would actually hurt me.
While his words were bone-chilling, my omega told me to just trust him and do as he said.
"Yes, sir," I said softly, not sure how else to appropriately tell him I understood what he meant.
He stiffened, his fist clenching around the bedpost he was holding onto. The other guys shifted uncomfortably, but I didn't understand why. Atticus cleared his throat. "You can call me Atticus for now." His sentence trailed off oddly, like he was going to call me something but decided not to.
I nodded, and he left the room with Xander, Zade, and Marcel. Matthias moved closer to me on the bed, and I smiled softly at him, a deep blush creeping onto my cheeks--he made my omega want to curl up in a tight little ball and settle at his feet.
"Do you think you can stand?" He asked, standing from the bed and offering me a hand.
"I'd like to show you around this place and hopefully get you in some of our clothes.
" I nodded, weakly pulling the covers back and placing my feet on the floor.
He gripped my forearms and helped me stand upright.
Slowly, he removed his hands, allowing me to adjust to being vertical.
I nodded again and took a step, holding onto his arm for support.
"Good girl," he whispered, and my omega rolled around in giddiness. My cheeks heated even more, and I focused on taking steps. "If it gets to be too much, let me know, and we can figure something out."
"Thank you," I said, smiling up at him.
"Of course, sweetheart." He led me out of the room, and we began our tour.
"We put you in our guest room. This isn't our actual home, but we do have a bedroom here for us in case we have a late night.
" He stopped us at an intricately carved wooden door that had been painted black.
He opened it and I was met with the biggest bedroom I'd ever seen.
But then I realized that this was the only bedroom here apart from the guest room.
"D-Do you guys all share this room?" I asked.
He chuckled. "We do. We're quite comfortable with each other, in fact.
" He led me inside and pointed to another black wooden door.
"That's the nesting room. It's for emergencies and is much smaller than the one you'll have at our home.
Next to it is our closet. If you'd like, we can pick out some clothes for you to wear. "
I nodded eagerly. "I'd like that very much.
" I had just then realized what his scent was: cookies fresh out of the oven, a fireplace, clean sheets; he smelled like all things home.
As we walked into the giant closet, I noticed how neatly their clothes were organized.
No wonder they wanted me to clean up after my supposed ransacking.
He picked out a pair of boxers and a shirt, both ginormous.
"The boxers are Xander's, and the shirt belongs to Atticus," he said.
"I figured you wouldn't be seeing them as much as the rest of us, so I want you to be exposed to their scent as much as possible.
I'm going to leave these here, and you can change.
If you need any help, please knock on the door.
" He places the clothes on a bench by the shoes and walks out, closing the door behind him.
I paused for a moment before carefully stepping through the room, running my fingers along every article of hung up clothing.
I didn't know which section belonged to who, but this way I was able to get an idea of every scent.
I picked up the boxers and sniffed them deeply.
They smelled like ashes, like a campfire you would roast s'mores by.
I found Xander's corner almost immediately, looking over the graphic tees and wife-beaters filling his space.
I swapped my jeans for the boxers, glad they had an elastic band as I pulled them on.
I folded the jeans and put them on the floor by Xander's sector of the closet before walking back to the bench and grabbing the shirt.
This apparently belonged to Atticus. I held it to my nose and inhaled its scent.
Mint, wintertime, an addicting coolness.
I found his part of the closet and took note of all his dress shirts and pants.
He had almost no casual wear, whereas Xander had almost all casual wear.
I took my sweater and bra off, the feeling of it amplifying the aching in my chest, and put on his shirt. I folded my sweater and bra and placed them on the floor by his sector. His shirt hung off one of my shoulders, and it was so long that it covered the boxers entirely.
After taking a glance in the full length mirror, I turned and moved to the door, opening it and stepping out.
"You look wonderful, Charity," Matthias said, offering an arm for me to hold onto.
"And you did it all by yourself." He genuinely sounded proud of me, and it made my heart warm.
My omega was cozily nestled by his words, and a calm excitement washed over me at the fact that I'd made him happy.
For some reason, with him and Atticus, all I wanted was to make them happy.
I wanted to do everything in my power to please them.
"What are we gonna do now?" I asked, not sure what he had planned for us.
"Are you hungry?" I nodded, realizing how much my stomach was growling. "Well, since you can't handle solid food quite yet, I can make you a smoothie and you can try to keep that down. How does that sound?"
"That sounds good," I answered shyly, not used to having someone so willing to take care of me.
He nodded and walked us to the kitchen on the other side of the hallway.
I sat on one of the barstools and watched as he quickly got out a blender, frozen berries, and protein powder.
After he made the smoothie, he put a straw in it and placed it on the counter before me.
I took a sip and nodded, surprised at how good it was, even with the protein powder in it.
"Do you like it?" he asked, beginning to clean everything up.
"I do. I like it a lot," I said, sipping eagerly.
"I'm glad," he responded, satisfied. After he finished putting everything away, he walked over to me and loosely wrapped a hand around my neck before softly kissing me on the head.
I froze. While I couldn't lie that my omega preened in his presence, he had never touched me in such a way before. But I liked it, loved it--craved it.
He quickly stepped away from me, realizing how forward that action was. A moment of thick silence passed between us until he realized that my scent hadn't turned sour at all. In fact, it had turned sweeter than usual, my pheromones pushing out more of my scent than they typically did.
He placed a firm hand on my shoulder, dipping his head so his mouth was by my ear. "Did you like that, sweet girl?"
I nodded, swallowing roughly as my body engulfed in a heat it wasn't used to.
The hand on my shoulder squeezed, becoming more assertive than decorative. Something in my instincts told me I had to respond with words, and I opened my mouth, my breath hot.
"Y-yes..." I trailed off, not sure if I needed to call him something, since calling him Matthias felt too casual and carefree.
"Such a good girl," he whispered, his breath curling around my ear.
He kissed my temple and straightened, removing his hand from my shoulder.
I looked at him curiously, like I needed him to tell me exactly what to do, like I was at his beck and call and relied solely on him.
"Finish your smoothie," he said, and without hesitation, I brought the straw to my lips, obeying him.
He sat on the barstool next to mine and watched me adoringly. I quickly finished the smoothie, surprised at how calm my stomach felt. He grabbed the cup and brought it to the sink, beginning to wash it. "Better?" He asked.
"Yes. Much better," I said. "Thank you. You really didn't have to do that." He said nothing and finished washing the cup, leaving us in silence.
He placed the cup on the drying and rack and turned to face me, his face cold as ice as he crossed his arms. "You're my omega. Of course I did."
I blushed, and a weird sensation filled me. I somehow felt guilty and also cared for. I nodded shakily.
"Don't feel bad, sweet girl," he said. "You just need to get used to having five alphas." He smiled at me before walking over to me and helping me off of the stool. "Now it's time for you to rest." He placed a chaste kiss on my forehead before leading us back to the master bedroom.
He helped me climb under the covers, and then got in with me.
The sheets were probably the most comfortable sheets I'd ever laid in.
I spread out my limbs like a snow angel, trying to feel the maximum comfort of the bed.
Matthias chuckled softly and laid on his side, bringing his arm up to rest his head in his palm.
"What can I do to get you to fall asleep?" he asked, an amused smile adorning his face, fit for the cover of a magazine.
I hummed and giggled. "Hmm, why don't you tell me about yourself? And the pack?" He looked up, as if pondering what he was going to tell me. I scooted closer to him, and turned onto my side to face him. I grabbed his other hand and held it to my chest, playing with his rings.
"All right...what do you want to know?" His bright green eyes bore into mine, and I found myself getting flustered at the level of prolonged eye contact.
"Atticus said you're his second-in-command. What does that mean?" He nodded, dissecting his thoughts and forming what he wanted to say.
"Do you know what a mafia is?" he asked, and my eyebrows knit together in confusion. He couldn't really mean a mafiamafia...right?
"Y-yes...?" I looked skeptically up at him, unsure if he was bullshitting me or not.
"Well, I imagine it's similar to what you think," he began.
"Except we're more on the good side of things.
Atticus was brought up to be a ruthless king, to own cartels and sex trafficking rings, but he didn't want that.
So now he uncovers cartels and sex trafficking rings and brings those survivors to justice.
But it doesn't dispute the way he was raised.
Atticus is the way he is because of his upbringing, and you'll learn more about his personality as you get to know him, but you'll soon understand what I mean. " I nodded.
"So if he's the head of your mafia and the head pack alpha, then what do the rest of you do?"
"Well, I'm his second-in-command. I manage his schedule, help him make decisions, and inform him of things happening.
Marcel is our head of security. He has a room of monitors and has an earpiece that he talks to all the bodyguards through.
He also informs Atticus or myself of any security breaches.
Zade is our appearances guy. He's the face of our brand and name.
Whenever people hear the name Hartwick, they think of him.
And Xander is our hitman. He gets information out of people and finds them when they don't want to be found.
He typically leads rescue missions and teams up with Marcel to keep us safe.
" I listened intently as he spoke. The sound of his voice was so addicting that he could probably read the dictionary and I'd still be utterly captivated by him.
"Thank you for telling me that. I figure if I'm now living with all of you, it might be good to know those things."
"Of course," he said. "If you ever want to know more about us, you need only ask.
" I nodded, and he began purring, the sound engulfing my senses.
It instantly made my entire body calm down.
I relaxed muscles I didn't even know I was tensing.
My eyelids grew heavy, and before I knew it, I was fast asleep, my head cradled into his chest, his purr vibrating against my cheek as I inhaled his warm, homey scent.