Chapter 8
CHAPTER 8
Ax
“ D id you know she could dance?” I asked Cyrus as we hurried to Cyrus’s office where Enzo, Issa, and the omega waited for us.
“How would I know that? I’m still surprised we even got her out of the house. And how the hell did you convince her to wear that dress?”
We had all taken plenty of time filling her closet and drawers with new clothing after she’d agreed to stay with us.
Issa hadn’t been given the opportunity to live her own life because of her fucked up parents, who had been killed by Enzo’s brother and his pack, and that apparently included being allowed the luxury of a full closet. She wore whatever they deemed appropriate, or what her piece of shit alpha, whom she’d been forced to bond with, wanted to see her in.
Neither Issa nor her sister Corazon seemed the least bit phased their parents were dead, but they still had a lasting effect on both women … especially in the way they saw themselves when they lo oked in the mirror. Issa was beautiful and majestic, yet we could tell even though she tried to hide it that she didn’t believe she was worthy of true affection from anyone.
I knew I wasn’t the only one struggling to restrain myself around the gorgeous beta. We were constantly visiting each other’s rooms on a regular basis. From the moment the gorgeous dark-haired beta filled our home with her soft, clean scent, I’d walked around with a chubby.
But she needed time to heal. The last thing I or the others wanted was to make her uncomfortable by pawing at her or for her to think she owed us a damn thing.
As far as I was concerned, she was already ours, whether she carried our mark or not, whether she ever allowed us into her bed or her body or not.
“You know they fucked on your desk, right?” I teased as we pushed through the crowd of dancers. A few people patted me on my shoulder or back and told me I’d done a good job on stage. And yep – I ate that shit up. I would never deny I was a bit of an attention whore, but I also really loved to dance.
And might have intentionally asked Issa to watch me rehearse a few times under the guise of needing her opinion when really…I was hoping to make her want me.
Enzo had texted us letting us know where he’d found Issa and with who and that they’d both appeared as though they’d had the fucking of their lives. Arousal and jealousy crashed through me. But if this omega was half as tempting as Enzo had declared through our group text, then there would hopefully be a time – hopefully sooner rather than later – that I would get the chance to feel him under my hands. And if we could talk Issa into joining us? All the better.
From the corner of my eye, I caught Cyrus adjusting himself as we neared the door. I knew the feeling; I’d been hard as stone since I’d watched Issa shower like a fucking voyeur.
I don’t know why I kept flirting with her. Nah. I totally knew why – I was hoping to get her to see me as more than the guy she lived with, more than the alpha who’d helped her after she’d escaped her abuser. I wanted her to see me as her packmate, as her alpha .
As we neared the closed office door, the heady, sweet smell of chocolate and strawberries tickled my senses and sent blood rushing straight to my cock.
“Damn,” I muttered under my breath.
Cyrus punched in the code then pushed open the door. Enzo was seated in a chair across from the desk, Issa sat on the edge, her thighs clenched together tightly, and her arms wrapped around her middle. And the omega…
“Wow,” Cyrus said under his breath as I closed the door behind us. Clearing his throat, he stepped forward, extending a hand. “I’m Cyrus. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us.”
“Are you kidding?” the omega said, pushing a hand through his thick mane of curly hair. He was masculine yet there was a softness to his eyes, the perfect specimen of an omega.
He wasn’t petite or dainty, yet his lips were full and pillowy, and I had to fight from picturing those lips around my cock…or on Issa’s body.
The beta in question was having a hard time making eye contact with us.
“Tonight was a blast. Your beta is…sorry, girl, but you are hands down the sexiest woman I’ve ever met.”
Issa smiled and ducked her gaze as her olive complected cheeks blushed bright red.
“And you move like a cat. I swear you had every single person in the room purring or perfuming,” he said to me as he shook Cyrus’s hand.
“Does that mean you’re down to letting us court you?” I asked.
“As long as this little vixen is part of the package, you can court me ‘til you’re blue in the face.”
Issa’s cheeks went even brighter as she fidgeted with the short hem of her dress. She smelled heavily of chocolate covered strawberries and her clean sheets dried in the sun scent. We had cameras in here, and I didn’t give a fuck if it made me a perv, but I had every intention of reviewing the footage from their time in here the second I could wrap my fist around my cock .
“She’s pack. She’s definitely part of the package,” Enzo said, winking at Issa.
Cyrus was the only one who didn’t outright flirt and throw out sexual innuendos at Issa. But no matter how much we teased and flirted with her, she acted as though she wasn’t interested. It was so much harder with a beta because her scent wouldn’t give her away; we wouldn’t be able to smell her arousal like we would an omega, wouldn’t scent her slick.
I wanted to bristle at the thought there was a woman out there who didn’t find me irresistible, but I supposed I would remain content as long as she stayed under the same roof with us. She might never want us romantically, but we could still keep her part of the family and keep her safe.
“Then I’m down with you courting me,” Amir said.
We hadn’t bothered telling Issa anything about the omega, hadn’t told her Amir was a man. We hadn’t wanted to influence her one way or another, although I could tell she’d become insecure the moment we’d told her we were meeting with someone tonight and wanted her approval. Because if she hadn’t gotten along with Amir, if the two of them hadn’t clicked, the whole thing would have been off. Issa came first, whether she realized it or not.
Amir turned to Issa. “As long as you’re okay with that.”
She blinked a few times, her attention roaming to each of us as though surprised she had a say in this.
“You have the deciding vote, beta,” Enzo said, leaning back in the chair until the two front legs came off the ground.
“I…what?”
Amir closed the small distance between them and took her hands into his, bending at the knee to look into her eye. The three of us were several inches over six feet, but Amir wasn’t small and delicate. He looked as though he stood somewhere close to five-foot-nine or ten and towered over our sweet beta who’d taken months to come out of her shell.
“This is your pack, Habibi . I would never come between you and your alphas.” A sexy soft smile quirked up one side of his full lips. “Although, I would ask that I get the chance to continue seeing you.”
Issa’s head twitched like she’d been shocked, and her eyes went wide. “You would still want to see me? Without them?”
“Well…yeah.” He released one of her hands to push the hair from his face. “I mean, I would love to be a member of your pack someday, but you were the one who caught my attention first. Your alphas are just a bonus.”
“Damn. That stings,” I muttered but couldn’t wipe the smile from my face.
Issa glanced at me and rolled her eyes with a smile. “Yeah,” she finally said.
“Yes? You’re okay with the four of you courting me?”
“Betas don’t–”
“Nope. Stop with the rule bullshit. We’ve already discussed this,” Enzo said, cutting her off before she could spout more nonsense she’d been fed by her fathers growing up.
She looked to Enzo, and I tried my best to decipher the look she shot his way. She looked equal parts confused and overjoyed.
“Then, yes. I’m more than okay with them – us courting you.”
“Fuck yes,” I said, pumping my fist in the air like a complete douche.
But the smile on Issa’s face made my excitement grow even more. It had taken weeks for her to stop asking permission for simple things like eating food from the fridge or pantry. Weeks for her to stop asking permission to do mundane things. Weeks for her to accept the little gifts we bestowed on her – although to me, they were all necessities. She’d come with nothing but clothes her sister had loaned her. We’d had to buy her a whole new wardrobe, along with all the toiletries and beauty products women loved.
It had taken even longer to get her comfortable with leaving the house and that was only if at least one of us with her, even if she was simply being driven to her sister’s to visit for the day.
But here she was decked out and looking like a fucking goddess, her skin glowing from her time with Amir, and finally allowing herself to admit she was not only a member of our pack but had a say in what happened in our lives.
We’d never sat down and had some heart-to-heart conversation about her place with us; to me, it had all felt natural, from the moment I’d laid eyes on her slumped in her wrecked car to the moment she’d agreed to stay with us. Although, I think in her mind, she’d thought we’d meant temporarily.
We hadn’t had a conversation with her, but the three of us – me, Enzo, and Cyrus – all agreed she belonged in our lives. And my packmates were falling as hard for her as I was. I was sure there were ways we could have won her over, some romantic gestures that would have helped her to see us as her alphas rather than alphas she lived with, but…none of us really had a clue what the fuck we were doing.
Even this whole courting thing with the omega was new to us. We’d wanted an omega, sure. Most packs of alphas wanted an omega in the mix. But we’d wanted things to be right, especially after bringing Issa into our lives. Whoever joined the family had to love her as much as we did. They had to accept her as much as they accepted us, cherish her the way she deserved.
“Now that we got that out of the way, would you prefer to stay at your own home during the process or with us? We have plenty of room. Don’t we, Issa?” Enzo said, turning a flirtatious smirk toward our beta and making her blush again.
Damn. We had seen her in nearly every state except sexual. We’d all seen her naked at one point or another, but none of us had yet to actually touch her. None of us had heard the sounds she would make while being pleasured nor how she would sound when she got off.
Oh, but I absolutely would hear those sounds the moment we got home and I was in my bedroom. And I had every intention of rubbing one off while watching the sexy ass beta fucked by the equally sexy omega right there on Cyrus’s desk.