Chapter 25
Iwas too blissed out to pay attention to the panicked energy around me. Madison was cozy in my arms, my knot was buried in her, and she smelled like absolute heaven.
I kissed the curve of her throat and she shivered in my arms, letting out the most perfect whimper. Other sounds blended together, maybe voices, but the only thing I truly perceived right now was her.
My omega.
All my longing and desperate daydreams coalesced into this singular moment.
She was like a bubbling hot tub in my chest: warm, inviting, chaotic.
Her emotions ping-ponged around, flinging wildly from panic to delight.
I was solidly on the side of delight. Maybe she would settle there too if I was steady enough.
Someone tried to nudge me and I drew Madison closer, growling against her skin. Her pussy pulsed around my knot. Soft blankets draped over us and I lay on the carpet with Madison. It was plush and comfortable beneath us, the perfect spot to stay curled around her.
Tiny, cold noses sniffed at us and I surrendered one hand so the cats could rub their faces against it.
I couldn’t make words happen, but second by second, clarity slowly took up residence.
Madison’s raspberry tarts were eventually eclipsed by the scent of enchiladas.
I lifted my foggy head, my vision clearing to see the rest of the pack in the kitchen.
Poppy perked up and headbutted my face. Pepper had wedged herself into Madison’s arms, purring away.
“What—”
“He lives,” Nathan said with a laugh. “Are you two still stuck together?”
I flexed my hips experimentally and Madison shivered. “Yep.”
“Are you going to bite anyone if we go over there?” Nathan asked.
“Bite anyone?” I blinked, trying to drag up memories of why he would ask. Everything was a blur of Madison.
She unwrapped her arm from Pepper—the cat gave me a death glare, as if I had been the one to make that decision—and stroked a soothing hand down my thigh beneath the blanket.
“You okay, Maddie?” Jude carried over two water glasses with bendy straws, offering one to me and tucking the tip of the other straw into Madison’s mouth. She drank it greedily, and I found I did the same when the first drop hit my tongue.
When she finished, she sighed and relaxed. “I’m okay.”
“Did the bond take?” Jude smoothed a hand over her hair, keeping a wary eye on me.
Madison popped up, scaring the shit out of Poppy, who bolted full speed over the couch. “I’m sorry, baby.” She turned to Jude, her nerves churning in my chest. “Bond? Is that…”
I knew all of the words being spoken, but my brain was taking its time parsing the actual meaning. Was Madison actually, officially mine? Was I her first bond? With one bite, had I surrendered to her claim and put myself as a wall of protection between her and the life she’d had before?
“It took,” I replied after a moment, drawing her back down and curling tighter around her.
“How are you so relaxed right now?” Madison whispered, dragging Pepper for another cuddle.
“I have everything I’ve ever wanted. Why wouldn’t I be relaxed?”
She fidgeted. “I don’t know. Tyler never wanted to bond me. Now you’re stuck with me.”
“Tyler was a fucking idiot,” Nathan shouted as he dished up servings of dinner.
“Maybe you’re stuck with me.” I said it lightly, but it was true.
I couldn’t summon up an ounce of panic over what had happened, but the same couldn’t be said for her.
Madison’s anxiety had her heart racing against me.
I flattened my palm against her chest, taking deep breaths until she matched my rhythm, and adding in my purr finally had her calming.
“It feels different than I thought it would,” she whispered.
“How so?” Jude asked.
“Like it should be overwhelming, but instead it’s soft, like my nest. I don’t—” She bit her lip. “I don’t think it would’ve felt like this with Tyler.”
“I bet it’s because Leo is a horse boy.” Nathan set two plates for us on the coffee table before returning with his own, dragging Alve with him. Jude took his own offered plate from Alve’s shaking hand.
“What does being a horse boy have anything to do with it?”
“I mean, they’re prey animals, right?” Nathan began. “You know how to gain their trust, how to make them feel safe when all their natural instincts are designed to keep them on alert. Makes sense to me that the same would kind of apply to omegas. You know how to make Madison feel safe with you.”
She poked Nathan with her toes. “You calling me a horse?”
“Only in the sense that you’re going to get ridden thoroughly and often.”
Madison’s cackle had everyone smiling, and her spark of joy flooded through the bond. Jude helped us sit up and I kept Madison in my lap, not that there was much choice, since my knot was taking its time today.
“Are things actually okay?” Alve asked. Anxiety wafted off him. “A bond is a huge deal, and an accidental one is—”
“I’m not upset about it,” Madison told Alve. “Obviously I wasn’t expecting it, but it feels nice, and panicking won’t change anything, right?”
“I…suppose that makes sense.”
“Come here.” I opened my arm and Alve slid into the empty space next to me.
Maybe Nathan wasn’t so far off. Some members of our pack could definitely benefit from a bit of a gentling.
My purr had both of them settling, and Poppy made herself at home on Alve’s lap to complete his mandatory relaxation.
Nathan and Jude took up the task of making sure the three of us ate.
“These are fucking awesome,” Nathan told me. “Props to the chef.”
He fist bumped me, navigating my hold on Alve.
Pepper sat on Madison’s lap, trying to swat each bite out of the air before it could make it to her mom’s mouth.
Nathan grabbed the naughty paw, feeding Madison between her giggles.
The weight of reality slowly fell off her shoulders, my sweet omega absorbing the safety her pack offered.
My instincts sang. That was how an omega was meant to feel around their alphas.
The others took the entire situation astonishingly in stride. If they were jealous, they certainly didn’t make it known.
“I’m choosing to believe laser tag kept you from going feral on us,” Nathan said as he spooned a bite into my mouth. “Team building for the win.”
“Laser tag?” Madison laughed and turned immediately to Alve. “That sounds like the opposite of your style.”
“It was fun once I stopped being nervous.”
“He did great,” I assured both of them. “Saved our asses a few times.”
Madison leaned hard against me. “Do you think it was a heat flare?”
“Well, you’re not in a full heat right now,” said Nathan, “and the bond took, so that seems like the most likely explanation.”
A bolt of panic shot through me and Madison startled.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re knotted after a heat flare. Should we go to a clinic?”
“Oh.” She relaxed against me once more, oddly peaceful in the bond. “I had birth control for all my heats because Tyler hates kids, so I took steps to make sure I’d never have one with him.”
“Do you want them, though?” Nathan asked. “I don’t give a fuck what Tyler wants right now.”
“I…” She fidgeted, stroking both of the cats. “I made peace with never being a mom.”
“Maddie, that’s still not really an answer.” Jude took one of her hands and kissed the back of it. “What do you want the future to look like?”
“What do you guys wan—”
Nathan cut her off with two fingertips on her lips. “Worry about what you want first. We’ll have a discussion regardless, but this is too important for you to make decisions based on what everyone else wants.”
A cavernous well of agony opened up in the bond a moment before salt tainted the air. “I don’t know how to do that! My whole life has been nothing but worrying about what everyone else wants and no one caring about what I want. How am I supposed to know when no one has ever asked before?”
I gently shushed her, kissing her damp cheek. “It’s okay if you don’t have the answers right now, treasure. We’re asking now, though, and we need to know what sort of future will make you happy.”
Madison hiccuped and leaned into Jude when he cradled her cheek, wiping some of the tears away. “Treasure?”
“An omega soulmate is the greatest treasure I could imagine.” I held her tighter, breathing in her scent. “And even more valuable that it’s you.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Alve hadn’t moved from where he was cuddled next to me, and got even more comfortable, resting his head against mine. “I quite like that title for her.”
Madison shifted, passing Pepper to Jude, then pulling off my cock only to turn in my embrace and sink down so we were plastered chest to chest. “I like being a treasure.”
Having her even closer soothed any building worries. My omega was right where she was supposed to be.
Alve traced his fingertips down Madison’s back. “However long it takes you to come to terms with what you want is fine with me. I’d rather you know for certain than make any rash decisions.”
She tilted to kiss him, and when she drew away she claimed my mouth, then Jude’s, then Nathan’s. “I’ll figure it out. I need some time to sit with it for a bit.”
“Could I interest you in sitting right here while you think?”
Madison snuggled in tighter, wedging her head beneath my chin and locking her arms behind me. “I could be persuaded.”