Chapter 31
Noelle
I lean my head back on the side of the hot tub, gazing up at a star-kissed night as I close my eyes, waiting for my Alpha.
Frost disappears beneath the bubbling water next, slipping his tongue between my pussy lips. I squeeze my eyes tight shut, curling my fingers and toes as he slowly massages me. When his tongue piercing finds my clit next, I release a strangled moan, watching as my breath fogs the air.
I just dared him to hold his breath underwater, and the Alpha didn’t disappoint.
He manages to eat me out for a while, too, before he breaches the water again, gasping and panting for air. Now I bite my lip as I watch the way the water drips in rivulets down his chest, running over the tattoo of a black widow on his collarbone.
Carefully, I move my hand across, brushing my finger over a Christmas tree between his pecs.
A champagne cork pops next, and I jump, looking across at Robin. He pours me another glass as he places it on the shelf beside me.
Shepard relaxes on the other side of the hot tub, gazing up at the stars. They’re beautiful out here, and you don’t get a night sky like this in NYC.
My mind goes back to the Christmas tree tattoo on Frost’s chest. A laugh escapes me. “And here I was, thinking you hated Christmas trees.”
We just spent the evening decorating a tree in the living room of the private heat cabin, and I guess it has become my heat cabin now. Frost didn’t participate, of course, but he did play his guitar for us as he sat on his window bench again.
“Why don’t you tell her, Frost?” Shepard mutters next, closing his eyes.
The Alpha before me sighs, meeting my gaze. “Look at the tree again, Noelle.”
So, I look again. That’s when I notice it’s covered in a dusting of… frost. There’s a robin perched beside it, and a man with a shepherd’s hook.
“It’s…” I begin to say.
Frost nods. “The bird is for Robin, the frost is for me, and the shepherd is for Shepard…”
“And the tree is for Noelle,” I finish.
“That’s right,” Frost replies. “It’s us. Our pack. What we could have been… what we still can be.”
Tears prick my eyes as I fight to keep them back. I have no idea what to say. Even after all these years, he never forgot about me.
Frost shrugs. “I guess I never really stopped believing in us. I wished every day that you would come back into our lives… I swear, Noelle, that I will make it up to you. And not just for the next ten years… but for the rest of our lives...”
Now the tears pour in earnest. Frost wipes them away, purring softly. Then he wraps his hand around my face and kisses me. “We were idiots, Noelle. We never should have let you go.”
I nod, pressing my forehead against Frost’s, and we stay that way for a while as the water bubbles around us.
“He’s right,” Robin announces next. “We were stupid kids.”
“Very stupid kids,” Shepard chimes in.
Now a smile takes over my face as I look at each one of them. I knew this was the right choice.
Christmas is just two days away, but I am with my Alphas, spending the night in a hot tub beneath the light of a thousand stars.
I will be seeing Nana on Christmas Day, as we all agreed to go to hers for dinner. My other dads, Joel and Bernard, will be coming up from New York, and for the first time in years… My heart will be truly full.
My phone buzzes next, and I reach across to the shelf beside me, wondering who the hell would be messaging me now. Mom knows I am with the pack, so she wouldn’t bother me.
Unless… It’s about Nana...
“Everything all right?” Robin asks when he spies the expression on my face.
My hand trembles as I check the message, breathing a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it’s not Mom messaging me about Nana.
It’s just Duke.
Fuck. Duke…
How could I have forgotten about him? I hope he isn’t still planning on coming up for the New Year.
I guess that ship sailed the moment I spent my heat with the guys.
It seems Duke and I are truly over. Not that we ever began in the first place. We were just dating at most. Even then, we were just friends. Perhaps even mutual acquaintances.
Everything was always just so formal between us. It was boring.
Yet, it appears that I already broke up with him. There’s a message that I don’t even remember typing. I suppose I had been out of it these past few days, yet I swear I didn’t type this message.
In the text message, I am telling Duke that I want to see other people. That I found someone else…
My vision reddens as I grip the phone tighter.
Robin regards me now. “Noelle?”
Shepard is too blissed out to notice the energy shift. It’s only when I spy the guilty look on Frost’s face that I realize.
“You…”
Frost sighs, rubbing between his eyes. “Fuck…”
I shake my head. “You looked inside my phone? At my private messages?”
Shepard and Robin gaze back and forth between the two of us. “What is she talking about?” Robin asks
I step out of the tub buck naked. I’ve had enough. Perhaps I should go back to Nana’s for Christmas Day after all.
Frost follows me out of the hot tub. “Noelle.”
I whirl on him now, freezing my tits off. Damn, it’s cold. “You had no right!”
My shout echoes through the woods and into the mountains beyond. The guys fall silent.
Meanwhile, I can’t look away from Frost. I have never been so pissed.
“Do you love him?” he asks suddenly.
I blink. “What? I don’t think that’s—”
He rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. “If you love this bastard, Noelle, then I will step back. I won’t get in your way. If you want to return to him, then I will make peace with that. But only if you tell me that you love him…”
The red turns into a blazing inferno now as I grab my clothes. “I’m calling a cab.”
“But you didn’t answer me,” Frost seethes through gritted teeth.
“Frost, drop it. You’ve done enough,” Shepard growls in warning.
But I am already stepping into my pants, moving toward the door as I grab my coat.
“Where are you going?” Frost calls after me.
“Back to my Nana’s. I can’t look at you now. I can’t look at any of you. I am so pissed. You don’t get to decide who I date. I do!”
None of them follows me as I dial a cab. Nor do they come after me as I slam the door to the cabin shut, getting into the back of a waiting car.
Tears stream down my face as I resist the urge to scream. Just as I thought things could be different, Frost has to go and pull a stunt like that.
Forget them. I don’t need them. I have my Nana.
And I’ll be damned if they get in the way of my happiness. This Christmas will be all about her now.
No one else.