Chapter 45
Mirabelle
“All done!” Roxie says, gently patting the waterproof bandage cover she put over my shoulder.
Apparently, the cut only needed a couple of butterfly bandages. I’m glad. It could’ve been so much worse.
“Thank you,” I say, nodding my head. She’s sweet. She reminds me of an older version of Gwen.
I wonder how the girls are doing?
Rowan mentioned they all got rescued. I don’t know by who, but I hope it was by good people.
“I’m surprised your alphas haven’t kicked this door down to get to you,” she says, chuckling softly under her breath before she turns off the faucets. “Especially after your crazy escape? They’ve got a lot of self-control.”
“They do. The handlers at the farm all thought they’d hurt me, but they never did, even when they were forced to take a lot of drugs.”
“Yeah, the booster does nasty work, I’ve seen some fighters at some fighting rings I pick up shifts at act bat shit insane,” She offers me a soft smile. “I think you’ve got a good bunch. I’ve met a lot of alphas in my line of work.”
I return her smile with a bright one of my own.
“They are awesome. I’m super lucky to have all of them, including Rowan.”
“If you ever need anything omega-related, just tell Griffin to call me, okay?”
“Okay!”
She unlocks the door and pushes it open.
“Okay, boys, care instruction time. Mirabelle’s gotta keep her wound dry until it scabs over and Rowan has to have his wound repacked every twenty-four hours for the next couple of days. Then it can move to forty-eight.”
“Thanks Roxie,” Griffin nods, standing and pulling out a few bills from the wad of cash Rowan gave him earlier and handing them to her. “Will you be able to swing by and help us again? Not sure if any of us really know how to repack a wound like that.”
“Sure,” Roxie nods. “It’ll have to be earlier in the day, most nights I’ve got shifts to catch.”
“Yeah, whatever schedule works for you is great, we’re just grateful for the help.”
“Thanks, Roxie,” Rowan says softly from the bed, his words slurred from the painkillers.
“Ah, that reminds me,” She says, pulling out an unmarked orange bottle of pills. “These are for Rowan.”
“Where’d you get these?”
Roxie lifts an eyebrow before she shakes her head with a laugh. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“Got it,” Griffin nods.
“I already told Mirabelle if she needs anything to get you to call me. Dunno how much cash you have, but it’s important to take care of her after the stress of everything going on.
Cuddles and proximity. Soft things and nesting materials.
Good food, that sort of thing. Plus, I know she looks hot in the lingerie she’s in, but she’s gotta be in more comfy clothes. ”
Ash stands from where he’s perched on the other bed and starts digging through the pile of clothes.
“Hi,” I say, shifting my weight from foot to foot as his eyes trail up my body. It’s like he’s trying to memorize the sight of me in the lingerie I’m wearing.
“Can she take a shower?” Ash growls. He’s talking to Roxie, but his eyes are locked onto me the entire time.
“With the waterproof bandages, yeah,” Roxie says, slowly. She eyes Ash knowingly. “Don’t be rough with her. She still can’t move her arm around that much.”
“Noted,” Ash drawls.
The air between us thickens with tension. It’s hard to breathe. Ash has seen me in a lot less than the lingerie I’m wearing right now, but under the intensity of his gaze, I feel more exposed than ever.
“Do you guys know what you’re doing for money?” Roxie asks, clearing her throat as she gathers the rest of her things.
“We’re gonna fight. Ash and I. Got all the contacts from my dad. Should be easy enough.”
“Good enough idea as any. As long as you’re able to take care of Mirabelle.”
“We will,” Griffin nods. “Thanks, Roxie.”
“Bye, Roxie! See you later!” I say, leaning to the side past Ash’s large frame and waving.
She smiles at me, flashing me a quick wave before Griffin shuts the door.
“Here’s how things are gonna go,” Ash growls, taking a step closer to me and invading my personal space.
He’s so close that my hard nipples, barely hidden by the lace, brush up against his silly t-shirt every time I breathe.
He grips my chin and urges my gaze up to meet his.
“You listening to me, Shortcake?”
“What? Yeah, sorry,” I say, shaking my head.
He lets out a soft chuckle under his breath, leaning down and brushing his nose up the column of my neck.
“Rage’s got something for you. You’re gonna talk with him, and then you’re gonna come with me, and we’ll be the ones behind a locked bathroom door, got that?”
I swallow hard and nod like a bobble head.
“Yeah,” I breathe out.
“Good girl.”
My lower belly does a somersault, and my strawberry shortcake perfume sweetens in the air around us.
His hands rest on my shoulders before he spins me to face Rage, who’s perched on the edge of the bed, eyeing the two of us intensely.
“Hi,” I say, flashing him a smile despite my flushed cheeks.
Rage widens his legs and nods towards me. Like a moth to a flame, I walk towards him, standing between his massive thighs.
His intense gaze drops to his lap, and he shifts his weight nervously. It’s shocking, the way someone so massive and powerful can almost seem childlike in his mannerisms.
“You have something for me?” I prompt gently, reaching out and brushing my fingertips against his bare shoulder.
He nods and opens the palm of his hand, revealing a slightly crumpled, folded piece of paper.
“Oh?” I pick it up and unfold it, revealing a note.
Scrawled across a piece of lined paper is Rage’s handwriting.
Mirabelle
Thank you for talking to me.
You make me feel like I’m not a monster.
I’m yours.
Be mine. Please.
My free hand flies up to my mouth to stifle my gasp.
“You wrote this for me?” I whisper, my bottom lip trembling.
He offers me a single nod, still not meeting my eyes.
“Of course I’ll be yours!” I throw my arms around him and bury my face in his neck, soaking in his intense scent of leather and iron. “You don’t have to thank me for talking to you. And you’re not a monster.”
His arms band around my slight frame, holding me like he never wants to let go. Clinging to me like I’m his lifeline.
“I’m so glad to hear that you’re mine,” I whisper. “I know the whole bonding thing with my last heat must bother you a little bit, but I choose you, too.”
He leans back and grabs something off the bed. I pull away from the hug to see him scrawling something else on a notepad.
You’ll wear my bite too?
“Of course I will,” I nod. “I think we’ll have to wait until my next heat, but it’s going to happen, I promise!”
His lips quirk upwards, and I freeze in his lap, tentatively reaching out to brush my fingertips against the corner of his mouth. My fingers drift up a little higher to brush against his scar before cupping the side of his face.
“I like it when you smile. You have a pretty one.”
He shakes his head before lowering it and scrawling something else on the notepad.
I’m not pretty. You are.
I flash a bright smile at him, biting my lower lip.
“You think I’m pretty?” I giggle.
“Rage’s got a fucked up eye, but he’s not blind,” Ash huffs from behind me. His arms are crossed over his chest, and he’s wearing a satisfied smirk of his own on his face. Like he’s happy to see Rage and me talk.
Well, I guess technically I talk to Rage and Rage writes to me.
“You guys are so sweet,” I say, shaking my head. “I feel gross, though. I want to learn how to do my makeup like Roxie one day. I’ve never had the opportunity to learn.”
“We’ll buy you all the makeup you want when we earn some more money,” Griffin says, glancing up from his phone.
“We’ll get you everything you could ever want,” Rowan murmurs softly.
I glance over at him and see that his eyes are closed.
“You guys don’t have to, I have everything I need,” I say.
“That just makes us want to spoil you more,” Griffin says, flashing me a toothy smile.
I would be lying if I said that didn’t make my inner omega preen. I know because of the way I was raised in that facility that my understanding of what freedom in the real world even entails is just the start. We’re free.
The idea honestly makes me terrified. What are the rules now?
“I’m gonna rest for a bit,” Rowan sighs. “Wake me up when the pizza gets here.”
“Pizza?” I ask, drawn from my thoughts at the mention of food. “I like pizza.”
“You’ll like the ones we ordered even more, Sugar,” Rowan murmurs softly. “Pizza delivery doesn’t compete with the cheap frozen pizzas I had.”
“Before that, though,” Ash says, his voice pitched low as he steps up behind me and wraps an arm around my waist. “We should get you all cleaned up. You said you feel gross, right?”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” I say before leaning down and brushing a soft kiss against Rage’s lips. “I’ll be back, okay? Then we can talk more! I’m so excited that we have a way to communicate now.”
He offers me one of his signature nods before Ash pulls me away, walking me to the bathroom.
“Don’t take too long in there, man,” Griffin calls out. “Mirabelle needs her rest.”
“Fuck off and let me have my time with her,” Ash snarls over his shoulder.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I say, resting a hand against his chest and trying to soothe him.
His sharp gaze jerks towards me and where I’m touching him through his silly t-shirt. His free hand tightens around the pile of clothes he’s carrying for me.
“Fine,” he growls, walking me backwards into the bathroom.
The moment the door shuts behind us, his lips are on mine. The kiss is intense. All-consuming. It’s like he’s trying to claim and mark my entire body from that one point of contact alone.
He breaks the kiss, leaving me gasping for breath. Then he whips off his t-shirt, tugging it one-handed over his shoulder, his forearms flexing with the motion. Then he stands there in front of me, planes of rippling muscle on display.
Wow.
My breath catches in my throat. Ash hasn’t exactly worn a lot of clothes around me before, so I don’t think I understood the power of watching someone take off their clothes.
I don’t even think he was trying to do it in a sexy way.
But the jerky movement was a testament to the strength he keeps just bubbling under the surface.
And I’ve seen him shirtless plenty of times before.
But right now feels different.
It feels even more intense than when he kissed me for the first time.
“Like what you see?” He teases, his lips tugging up in a smirk that’s just as sharp as the rest of his features.
“Wh—huh?” I blink up at him, shaking myself to focus on his face instead of his body.
The low chuckle that leaves his chest vibrates through my own. My perfume swirls around in the surrounding air, thickening in the small confines of the bathroom.
“Fucking hell,” he growls, dipping his head to rest in the crook of my neck along my uninjured side.
Then he licks me.
His tongue is flat against my skin, dragging against the column of my neck, sending a shudder down my spine. An embarrassing whine leaves my throat.
His matching growl has me freezing in place as he tugs me against his body, teeth scraping against the delicate skin he just licked.
“Careful, shortcake,” he growls against my skin.
“Wh—why do you want me to be careful?” I whisper, clinging to his shoulders.
“Because you’re driving me insane, and I don’t think you can handle what I’d want from you.”
“What do you want from me? And what makes you think I can’t handle it?” My voice is barely above a whisper. It’s shaky and uncertain, but I know what I’m doing by asking the question.
It seems to have the intended effect because Ash spins me around so my back is to his front. His movements are rough, but it’s obvious to me he’s incredibly aware of my injured shoulder. I think it just speaks to the control he has.
Which only makes me even more aware of the slick soaking into the thin fabric of the lingerie I’m still wearing.
He walks me forward until I’m standing in front of the sink. In front of the mirror. His hand rests against the bottom of my jaw, not squeezing, but there, as he guides my head so I’m forced to look at us. At myself.
“I don’t think you get what you do to us,” he growls, lowering his head to the crook of my neck again.
His hand doesn’t move. It keeps me in place as I watch him lay kisses that only grow more possessive along my skin.
And then his hips shift forward.
I feel him. All of him. The sweatpants he’s wearing don’t hide the throbbing of his hard length at all.
Oh wow.
I guess he’s been careful to keep this away from me up until now, because there’s no way I would’ve missed this while he was pressing me up against him earlier.
Even though Ash has an intensity that’s almost overwhelming sometimes, he cares. Him being loud and angry doesn’t mean he’s not noting everything around him.
I wonder when things changed between us. We have more clothing on than the first time we met, but that felt nothing like it does now.
Or maybe things were always this intense and I was just too unaware to notice.
“I’m obviously not doing my fucking job with your mind racing like it is,” he chuckles against my skin.
“Your job? What—“
My words are cut off when Ash smacks my ass. It’s not hard, but the impact ripples through my body, shooting straight between my legs. Ash pauses, watching my every reaction.
My hands fly to the edge of the sink and I push myself back against him.
“Oh, so the pretty little omega likes it a little rough,” Ash growls, the hand resting against my neck flexing ever so slightly as he grips my ass, rubbing along the warm skin he just spanked.
“Maybe,” I breathe out.
I can see the fire in his eyes at my words, reflected back at me in the mirror.
“Maybe? So you don’t know?” I swear, there’s a light sparking behind Ash’s silver eyes right now.
“No,” I say, swallowing hard, my throat pressing against his rough, calloused hand with the motion.
His answering grin is more teeth than smile.
“Yeah, I didn’t think the beta kid or new guy had what it takes to really take you.” He grinds his hips into me, making me brace myself against the sink. “Bet they were so fucking sweet to you, huh?”
“They were,” I gasp, my eyes fluttering shut as I try to rub my legs together to give myself some sort of relief. All this teasing is driving me crazy.
“Look at me,” Ash commands.
Like always, my eyes fly open instantly.
“Good girl. Always so fucking obedient.”
He kicks my leg apart and a whine leaves my throat.
“I was—“
“I know what you were doing,” he says into my ear as his hand drifts around my waist and down between my legs. “You were playing with what’s mine.”
“But it’s my—my body,” I pant out.
“Sure it is, but right now? It fucking belongs to me,” he growls.