17. Meadow
Chapter 17
Meadow
W rong. Everything was so, so wrong. He was mine . My vision tinged black on the edges as I lost my grip on reality and lunged at him, taking us both to the floor, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt and yanking with all my strength.
“Get them off!” I hissed.
Tears flooded down my cheeks, and I knew it was irrational as hell, but I couldn’t stop them. He was covered in omega scents, and my brain kept screaming, That’s why he abandoned you . And he hadn’t. I was the one who ran out without leaving any contact information. I knew that, but the screaming in my head was so loud.
“Shit,” Hendrix whispered. “I’m sorry. So, so fucking sorry. I meant to shower before coming out, but I didn’t know you were on the bus, and I was just trying to get away before someone else needed something.”
He whipped his shirt off and tossed it away, but those scents had sunk down to his skin, which was an absolute no for my instincts. I growled, following the compulsion to lean forward and plaster myself against him, swiping my cheek over his jaw and anywhere else I could reach until enough of those scents had been covered with mine that I could draw breath again.
I sat up, my head spinning and my chest heaving, fingers digging into him while he lay frozen beneath me, staring at me with blown pupils and his cock tenting his pants between my thighs.
“You okay there, sweets?” Phineas asked. “Is it safe to approach?”
As the instinctual freakout receded, embarrassing clarity took its place. “Oh god. That was…”
“Hot as hell?” Arlo suggested.
Beckett passed me a bottle of water, and I took a few sips, still immobile above Hendrix, my body unwilling to move, and he seemed unwilling to make a peep, in case I threw myself at him again.
“I’m so sorry,” I eventually said to Hendrix, not quite able to make myself look at him.
“Don’t even worry about it,” Beckett replied for him. “Between the omega instincts, the pregnancy hormones, and Hendrix coming in smelling like a bunch of groupies, I’m surprised you didn’t bite the shit out of him. He’d have deserved it.”
“Need help up, princess?” Arlo asked. “Or would you rather sit on Henny for a while?”
I sucked back a pout and reached my arms out to him, letting Arlo and Phin get me back to my feet while Beckett offered a hand to Hendrix. Awkwardness swept over me, so strong I couldn’t even raise my eyes from the floor. My instincts had never driven me to do that before. Beckett was probably right—the combination of factors was simply more than I could handle—but that didn’t make me feel any better. Right mind or not, I had gone feral on my bond-mate baby daddy.
I curled myself against Arlo, burying my face against his chest, and his arm immediately came around my shoulders. “I hate this.”
His kiss on the top of my head relaxed me a little, but not enough to chance looking at Hendrix.
“Hen, go shower,” Beckett ordered. “I’ll grab you some fresh clothes.”
Arlo held me closer while Hendrix sidled past. It kept me from catching a whiff of any scents still stuck to him, but my shoulders were tight up against my ears, tension making my muscles burn. Arlo’s purr rumbled to life, and that sweet primal sound worked overtime to dissolve my anxiety.
“Want me to burn his shirt?” Phin asked.
I did, but it felt so silly to say that out loud.
“She got super tense again,” Arlo told him. “Torch that sucker.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phin collect a lighter, a mini bottle of vodka, and Hendrix’s shirt from the floor before taking it outside to flambé it.
“This is so dumb,” I whined against Arlo’s chest.
“Not dumb if it makes you happy,” he insisted.
It didn’t exactly make me happy , but it did eliminate a source of stress, so that was close enough, I supposed.
Phin returned with a smile on his face. “You should drink more water. Stress is dehydrating.”
“I already have to pee a hundred times a day.”
“Well, let’s make it a hundred and one.”
I begrudgingly accepted the water and sipped at it. I didn’t make a single move away from Arlo, because even though it was weird to be snuggled up with a stranger I had very recently fucked, his scent was soothing, and it had the added benefit of me not having to look at anybody else.
“You’re so fucking cute right now,” Arlo told me. “Why don’t we sit down and wait for Hendrix?”
“Okay,” I said quietly. Arlo settled me on the couch and Phin sat on my other side, Beckett across from us.
“Would you like us to leave, so the two of you can talk for a while?” Beckett asked.
“Um, I don’t know how rational I’m going to be with him, so it’s probably best if you guys stick around.”
Beckett nodded. “Have you eaten recently? We could order something.”
“I could eat. Maybe some soup?”
“You don’t want something more substantial, princess?”
“Oh, I guess I could. I’m so used to accommodating the nausea, but that’s mostly gone right now.”
Arlo beamed at me.
“We can order soup as a backup,” Beckett told me. “What would you eat if you weren’t worried about nausea?”
“Kind of craving pineapple and fried rice, oh, and meatballs.”
“Do those even go together?” Beckett asked.
“Fuck yeah, they do,” Phin replied. “Find a Thai restaurant to order the beef fried rice with pineapple. Maybe have them take out the chilies, though.”
My phone buzzed and I checked the message.
Clover:
How’s it going?
Do you need backup?
Meadow:
OK at the moment
Mostly
Clover:
MOSTLY???
Meadow:
I’ll explain later, but I promise I’m fine
“Is that your scary friend?” Arlo asked.
“I wouldn’t call her scary, but since she’s the only person in my life you’ve ever met and it can’t be anyone else, yes, that’s her.”
“I like her. Even if she gave me the shovel talk equivalent just by looking at me.”
I barked a laugh. “That sounds like Clover.”
I froze when I heard the water turn off and a bunch of rustling around that led to Hendrix emerging with a towel wrapped around his waist, his golden hair in delicate waves that dripped down his chest, gliding over every defined ridge of his torso. Sweet mother…He looked just as edible as the last time I had been in this bus with him.
Arlo dipped his nose and inhaled deeply, brushing it along the column of my throat. “You’re perfuming, princess.”
The declaration probably would’ve immediately halted said perfuming out of embarrassment, if not for the fact that he groaned in my ear and nipped the lobe before sitting up again.
Every single one of them was staring at me like they wanted to eat me for a snack, and that only made the perfuming worse. “All of you, stop looking at me right now .”
They all adorably averted their gazes, and Hendrix disappeared briefly into the bedroom, returning fully dressed in black sweatpants and a matching tank top that showed off all the lean muscles in his arms.
“Is it safe for me to come closer?” Hendrix asked.
“No urge to pounce,” I promised.
He still moved carefully, settling down across from Arlo, Phin, and me. “Hi.” His voice was so fucking soft, such a far cry from the alpha I remembered taking me to bed.
“Hi,” I squeaked back.
“So,” Arlo piped up, “what the fuck do we do now?”