Chapter 48
forty-eight
brIAR
With every passing moment, I feel the truth settle deeper into my bones.
These alphas are my mates.
And I think I’m going to let them try to prove themselves.
Or, in Dane’s case, I am letting him try.
The fact that he’s already found my kryptonite probably doesn’t bode well for me. This forgotten little bookstore is exactly the sort of thing I used to daydream about when I was a girl, reading about heroines who had stacks upon stacks of books like these.
The rambling collection contains everything from travel to dark romance.
All stuffed onto ramshackle shelves that stretch from the creaky wood floor to the painted eaves of the low ceiling.
A college-aged clerk sits at the register.
She glances up from her phone lazily when we walk in, but otherwise the place is deserted on a weekday morning.
Dane diligently follows me through the tiny shop, never once complaining when I add books to the growing stack in his arms. So far, we’re at eleven, although this store’s selection of smut is even less impressive than Rhys’s.
The sudden urge to tease him is almost as shocking as the realization that I can, now. Thanks to him.
My silver-blond alpha has come knocking three times since our first sleepover last night.
Once to drop off a pile of books, another to sheepishly leave some of his worn shirts so my Omega could have his scent in the nest. Then, right before Dane and I left, Rhys arrived with a brand-new iPhone in his hands.
It even had a lace-patterned black case on it.
Just like the books and his music, he offered the cell without trying to touch me or get one of his jabs in.
While I blinked at the screen in shock—My own phone?
The ability to call for help or an Uber?
Social media and videos and—he explained that Cillian had okayed his purchase and asked that Dane show me where all of their names were saved.
Swallowing, I pull the new device out of my skirt’s back pocket and swipe it open, staring at the blank thread where Rhys had shown me I could text him.
Dane glances over my shoulder, then immediately pretends to look busy, furrowing his brow and leaning closer to the shelf of books at his eye level.
So fucking cute, this man.
I think back to how terrifying he seemed the day we met. What if I hadn’t gotten to see this side of him? Does Rhys have any facets he’s hiding under all his poison? My thumbs hover over the screen.
Briar
Hey, venom
If I buy some books, can I keep them in the library? Or do you only store boring, prude nonsense in there?
His bubble appears immediately, bouncing as he replies.
Rhys
Maybe you just don’t know where to look, viper.
I could show you.
If you want.
His tone could be construed as clipped—but for some reason, I keep picturing the earnest look on his face as he hovered in my doorway today. And I think that maybe, what I’m reading is Rhys being unsure of himself.
Briar
You could… maybe when we have our night together?
Rhys
Oh no, baby.
When it’s my turn, I’m taking you out for a night of epic groveling.
Followed by you hopefully sitting on my face until neither of us can breathe.
Respectfully.
So… not that unsure of himself, then.
My perfume swells around me, slick wetting my fishnet-covered thighs. Dane coughs over an instinctive growl. I blink at my screen.
Briar
Don’t tempt me. I might enjoy smothering you.
Rhys
I’m counting on it, viper.
Dane is clearly reading the messages, but I don’t blame him. When I toss a smirk over my shoulder, he blushes around his mask.
“Sorry, omega. I’ll let you guys talk and, uh, go set these on the register. So I can carry more.”
I stretch up and kiss the titanium covering his cheek. Dane shivers, the prominent ridge along his inseam stretching longer against his thigh. I rub a scent-mark along the neck of his Henley, smiling at him. “Okay. I’ll be here.”
Rhys sends another message, asking which books I’m buying. At first I roll my eyes, sure I’m about to get book-shamed by Mr. Highbrow. But when I purposefully send some of the more outrageous titles, he shoots back a screenshot of matching digital downloads in his eReader app.
Rhys
So I can read along.
And see what sorts of ideas are in that pretty head of yours.
If you’ll have me.
Oh.
My.
God.
I’m so busy mooning over that one stupid offer, I don’t notice footfall approaching from another direction. A tall, thick-chested man appears at the end of the aisle.
He’s striking—a white linen button-down and khaki pants highlighting the warmth of his flawless brown skin. Glasses sit askew on his nose, giving him an air of distraction. But a powerful alpha scent strikes me sideways, bitter and dark.
I step back on instinct, my spine protesting as I try to flatten myself into the shelves. The alpha scowls at me, his entire face morphing into a look of pure disgust.
I’m not sure why I feel so powerfully afraid of him. But he can tell—a knowing flash streaks across his face before he opens his mouth, advancing.
A vicious snarl sounds from behind me as Dane reappears. The other alpha is tall, but nowhere near Dane’s hulking brawn. My alpha sends him back a step, his distaste morphing into disdain.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” my big man demands.
Almost as if they… know each other?
When he catches my startled glance, Dane sighs, pulling my body into his side and muttering, “This is Atlas. Gideon’s packmate.”
Sure enough, the too-handsome alpha himself rounds the corner as Dane says his name, bringing his muted toastiness with him.
My fierce masked man stiffens. His grip on my arm goes from reassuring to protective. “What the fuck do you want?” he spits, shifting to put his body in front of mine.
Gideon smiles, the expression full of conceit. “A second look,” he chips back.
Dane’s chest rumbles ominously. “How the hell did you know—”
“—where she was?” Gideon finishes. His grin sharpens. “I’d say lucky guess, but you know that’s horseshit.”
The sharp gleam in his eye says this is anything but coincidental. A shiver runs down my back and Dane’s hand flattens over my hip, his thumb rubbing a soothing circle under the waistband of my skirt.
Gideon’s clipped packmate snaps, “We followed you here. Obviously.”
“Briar and I barely got to speak the other night,” Gideon goes on. “She ran off before I could finish explaining the finer points of your business dealings to her.”
Atlas’s focus flies to where Dane touches me and fresh fear rocks my middle. Shit. Aren’t we supposed to act indifferent around them? Not like mates?
My big man seems to remember the same second I do, standing straighter and letting his hand fall into a fist at his side. Atlas tracks the motion with interest that feels all too keen.
“She doesn’t need an explanation from you,” Dane growls. “So fuck off. Or I’ll call Cillian.”
The mention of my husband definitely cools his cousin’s confidence a bit. “I’m not here to see you,” he replies flatly, pretty gray eyes flickering to mine. “Briar can decide if she wants to come with us and talk or stay here with you. Can’t you, Briar?”
Dane freezes. His underlying rumble cuts off. “Of course she can,” he grits, looking over at me. Those gold irises seethe before softening on my features. His voice drops into a murmur. “She can do whatever she wants.”
I think he really means that. If I walked out of here, away from him… I believe he would let me. Cillian, on the other hand…
Well, he might allow it.
But there’d be no guarantees about not following me.
Gideon’s hard bark of laughter breaks our stare. Dane ducks his head, deliberately stepping to the side and backing up. Showing me that I truly do have a choice.
I could really leave.
He keeps his neck bent, looking down at this combat boots while I make my decision.
I pivot to the handsome alpha and his equally attractive packmate, folding my arms over my chest. Feeling the warm metal heart slip into the space between my breasts.
Remembering the moment my husband locked it into place.
Gideon arches his brows. “What do you say, Mrs. Blackwood? Want to come with us? Get away from these assholes?”
Dane stifles another growl. A text from Rhys vibrates in my hand.
And—GODDAMN IT—my head shakes.
“No,” I say, realizing how very much I mean it. “No, I don’t.”
“Come here.”
In all the time I’ve known my giant, masked alpha, he’s never been quite so scary. The intensity radiating from his taut, muscled frame is enough to flip my stomach inside out… and send fresh slick leaking into my tights.
After I told Gideon and Atlas to fuck off, Dane stood motionless at the end of the aisle, looming like the Grim Reaper himself until the others slunk out of the store.
Now he has that same furious expression on his face… only it’s aimed at me?
Maybe not, though. Because the fingers wrapped around my wrist are still undeniably gentle, even though his grip feels as insistent as the gold chain looped around my neck.
He uses his leverage to steer me to the back of the shop, as far from the blank, uninterested gaze of the sole clerk as he can get. Not that it matters—when she hears the other alphas shuffle out, she pulls a pack of cigarettes from her bag and follows them.
Leaving us alone.
Uh-oh.
With a final twirl, Dane cages me in with his arms and practically tackles me into the shelves.
Lord, for someone so big, he’s fast. One second I’m blinking up at him, and the next he’s unclasped the top buckle on his mask. It falls, the remaining strap dangling around his neck as he bends forward and sweeps me into a devouring kiss.
I squeak, clinging to his wide shoulders as he groans under his breath, the sound just desperate enough to tighten everything between my hips.
His scent swells, the dark, wooden musk washing over me in a warm wave that somehow gives me goosebumps.
My breasts peak in their lacy cups, the textured fabric rubbing at the sensitive points until I perfume.
Dane’s ragged snarl tingles on my tongue before he breaks away, panting, “I can’t believe you didn’t leave with them.”
I peer up into his molten eyes, a confession wrenching its way from my soul. “I couldn’t,” I admit. “I didn’t want to.”
Dane’s breath quivers. “Briar… are you really giving us a chance?”
To stay with them.
That’s what he’s asking. If I’d actually consider making us into a real pack after all the shit that brought us here. Being bound to these beasts, in body and soul. Forever.
It’s terrifying.
It makes me wet.
And it has my heart aching.
“I don’t know,” I whisper, looking up at him. Opening myself up to his penetrating gaze. “But I don’t want you to stop trying.”
From the first day we met, this alpha has understood me in ways no one else ever has. Not even Cillian. Or Violet—or myself.
Tenderness and hope burn in his ocher eyes, holding my stare. He rests his forehead against mine and nods slowly, agreeing and scent-marking me simultaneously.
“I won’t stop.”
He’s returning the words I gave him the morning we discovered his touch starvation. Maybe because he’s discovered that touch isn’t the only thing my Omega and I crave so fiercely.
I also need this—the devotion softening his scarred, rugged features; the near-silent reassurance reverberating in his chest. It melts the last of my resistance, pulling more perfume from my body as it sags between his and the bookshelves.
Dane kisses me with more intent, sliding his hands down my sides. When I whimper, my hips automatically bucking into his, his raspy voice drops into a soothing murmur. “Does this pretty pussy need my mouth?”
I bite my lip to stem the eager whine my Omega produces. “Shouldn’t we wait?” I ask, glancing around.
Dane flashes his rare smile, this time edged in wickedness. His fingers find the hem of my skirt and slip past it as he shakes his head.
“Good little girls don’t have to wait.”
His knees hit the floor, making good on his word as he ducks his head under my skirt. I start to squirm away, not sure if I’ll be able to focus, but he curses under his breath. The exhale hits my bare, wet skin.
Oh, right. These fishnets don’t work with underwear… so I don’t have any on.
That discovery spikes his scent. Fresh slick dribbles out of me.
I expect him to tear my tights or reach for the waistband, but the big alpha shocks me again. Instead, he opens his mouth and licks me right through the textured weave.
I choke on a moan, feeling his wet, languid tongue rubbing the rough scratch of the fishnets into my clit. Lapping into the holes and licking me directly.
My knees buckle, but his wide hands span my waist, holding me up. Letting him dip between my thighs and ram his tongue through the black netting, into my gushing pussy.
He teases me there, stroking a firm circle around the place that aches for a knot. Until my clit is buzzing, begging for even the smallest—
Ah!
A cool stream of air flutters over the slick nub. It pulses harder, so primed to burst the second he lays his thick tongue flat against it and works in a slow, sinuous lap.
I keen, my body sagging as relief and ecstasy explode from my core. Dane groans, sucking up all the slick that spills from me as my hips buck.
My vision is still blurry when he lumbers back to his feet. Grinning.
The big man leans close, nipping my ear as he murmurs, “Next time, you’ll keep quiet. Or I’ll have to loan you my mask.”