Chapter Seventeen
Eden
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Stupid heavy five lb. bag of potatoes. Stupid broken elevator. Stupid weak omega arms unable to hold six bags of groceries at once up four flights of stairs. But taking two trips would be admitting defeat.
It's been a few days since she went to the military base and she still hasn't heard anything. She didn't want to say anything to her mates over the phone, not sure if they'd be upset with her and not wanting to get their hopes up if it was yet another dead end.
She'd never felt as stupid or ineffectual in her life as she had the past few weeks. She'd been trying to keep herself busy, and restocking her kitchen was one of the things that needed doing that could offer a distraction.
When she finally makes it to her floor, Eden's arms are shaking and her breathing is more than a little laboured.
The first thing that notifies her to a problem is when her lock clicks open without a fight and she easily swings her apartment door open.
The next moment she knows there's a problem is when she catches the undeniable scent of alpha on the air in the dark room.
The third is when she sees the bulky figure of a male sitting in her nest illuminated by the glow of the hallway.
If she still had any breath in her lungs, she would've screamed. The only thing that pauses the scream building in her throat is the heaving breaths she can only just catch as she prepares to drop her groceries, about to bolt back down the stairs she'd just climbed.
But then the alpha speaks to her. And she knows that voice. She'd know that voice anywhere. That voice speaks to her every night in her dreams, saying filthy and wonderful and sweet things to her.
"Eden," he says softly. Julius. He's here.
Behind him, she sees the shadows move. And then she smells them. Luke and Tenor. Her mates are all here, sitting in her shabby little nest in her tiny apartment.
She does drop her groceries then, and she launches herself at them. Strong, familiar arms catch her.
She's crying, tears flooding down her face as her chest heaves with great wracking sobs. She has never known relief like this. Is she dreaming? No, even in her dreams, she can never quite get their scents right. The heavy weight of their hands grounds her.
There are three warm rumbling purrs around her, big hands tucking her into her nest while they surround her on all sides.
Since they've been separated, her nests have felt all wrong, always too small or too big. She's attempted to line the sides with extra pillows and blankets to try and emulate the feel of them next to her, but nothing could ever even come close to the real thing.
She melts into their embrace like her body finally knows she's safe. Her alphas are here and they'll take care of everything.
Wait. She freezes. They were here, in her apartment. This was bad. What were they thinking? She fights off the heavy reassuring mass of their arms and it feels like she is taking off her skin with it, it hurts so much to put even an inch of space between them.
They allow her to push them away without a fight, just enough that she can sit up. Their gazes all look concerned and guarded, as if she's about to reject them.
"You can't be here," she says, her voice is frantic. "This is the first place they'll look!"
Their eyebrows pull down in confusion and they share looks between them.
"What do you mean?" Luke's voice is tinged with concern. "Who's going to look for what?"
"Didn't you break out? How are you here right now?"
Julius barks out a startled laugh, as if that was the last thing they were expecting her to say. His reply is wry, but his voice is gentle. "I appreciate your faith in us to think we could pull off a prison break, but we didn't escape. They released us."
That stops her frantic struggling and she feels relief sag inside her. She pauses, needing reassurance, her hand still on his arm. "They—they let you out?"
"The justice system finally decided to actually serve justice today," Tenor grumbles, his hand reaching out to pat her hair as if he can't stop himself.
"Wait. Wait! They—they let you out, like you're saying you're..."
"Free," Luke finishes for her, bringing her hand up to his mouth to kiss each of her fingers. "We have new identities, but we're free."
Tenor continues, his voice heavy with meaning. "It seems someone alerted someone high up in the government to our situation. Once our commanding general heard what was going on, he pulled rank and got us out. Even pulled some strings and got us new IDs so we could start fresh."
She feels tears well up in her eyes, her mind frantically trying to catch up to the relief that's already flooding her body. "So you've... come home? For good? It actually worked?"
"Fuck no," Julius says, his voice turning angry, and she almost jumps at the jarring sound, so unused to hearing it directed towards her.
"And you're in big fucking trouble for not telling us that this was the sort of shithole you were living in, Eden.
No, we're not fucking home. We've packed your stuff and we're getting you out of here.
Tonight. We're going to stay in a hotel until we find something livable to buy. "
Despite the harshness of his words, she feels tears well in her eyes with relief. Her mates were here. They were going to take care of her. They were going to have a home.
She whines a desperate sound. The last time she had seen them, they had been wearing collars. Their need had gnawed at them like savage beasts until they took her hard on the floor until she had bled.
And she'd bled for days.
Fear creeps up her spine and she tenses.
She's never been scared to be with them before.
All those times in prison when they could've been caught by any number of awful people, when her only option had been to fuck them or risk getting torn apart by the feral alphas they were locked in with, she had never been scared of them.
They must smell it or sense it through the bond, because their pawing hands pause and they rumble out soothing purrs that wrap around her like a feather duvet.
"We don't need to do anything right now," Tenor says softly from above her.
But she did need them. She needed them with every fibre of her being.
"We were too rough with you," Julius breathes, dread creeping into his voice. "You're afraid now? After the rut?"
She denies it quickly, almost yelping the word. "No, no I'm not afraid and you weren't too rough. It was... intense. But it's just... it's been a long time..."
Her voice trails off uncertainly. Everything is different now.
Back on her heat suppressants, she doesn't have the gnawing need of a heat spike urging her onto them, or the feral claiming of their rut.
There's no neighbours they need to keep quiet for, no guards they need to listen for, no countdown until they need to go to the mess hall. It's just her and them.
She feels a sudden wave of shyness pass over her, heating her face, which was ridiculous, considering they had seen and touched and tasted and fucked every inch of her body.
"Are you... blushing?" Julius' voice is hoarse and nearly teasing.
"No!" She quickly denies it and her face turns an even deeper shade of red.
"Ohh, sweet baby," Luke rumbles. "Are you shy?"
"No," she squeaks again, wiggling away from him. But he's too fast for her. He pins her to the bed with his body, grinding the hard length of his cock against her.
She falls back with a gasp.
She's surrounded by them, Luke on top of her, Tenor and Julius hovering at her sides. The scents of them fill her nose, flooding her parasympathetic system with soothing familiarity until she feels her body begin to relax.
"I missed you," Tenor breathes against her ear, his hands skimming down the sides of her body and reaching up to cup her breast.
"We need to feed you," Julius grumbles on her other side, nuzzling his face into her hair. She hears him take a deep breath, breathing in her scent like he's trying to memorize it. "You're too skinny."
"My cock has been hard ever since we got here," Luke groans, grinding himself into her harder. "God, Eden," he groans. "You smell so fucking good. I was going to start humping your pillow if you didn't get here soon."
She can't help laughing at that, and her body fully relaxes beneath them. Hands guide her legs higher, gripping her under her knees and spreading her obscenely wide for Luke.
There's a tearing sound, then another, and then they're pawing her clothes off her, pieces falling away like scraps.
"Hey!" Her protest is cut off by Julius' mouth. Those were her favourite jeans, but before she can tell them that, Luke's cock is bumping against her entrance, and she lets out a strangled yelp.
He smiles down at her like the sound is the cutest thing he's ever heard, and then he reaches behind his neck and pulls the plain black tshirt over his head in one easy motion.
He settles on top of her so their chests are pressed together skin to skin, the course hair teasing her nipples, and his mouth hovering just above hers. The intimacy of it settles something inside her.
"Let me in, baby," he purrs, his hips rolling against her. "Put your hand on me, guide me inside. I need to come home."
He always knew what to say, always knew how to settle the jittery omega instincts inside her. She snakes a hand between their bodies, feeling the rough material of his jeans and the metal of his zipper against her hand as she reaches his cock.
It's hard and hot and pulsing in her hand.
Luke was the thickest of the three of them, her hand unable to even fully close around his girth.
She strokes him once, experimenting with how he feels, refamiliarizing herself with his body.
As she lines him up with her opening, she cannot stop the whimper from escaping her throat.