Chapter 22 Elliot
Elliot
My shits packed, I downloaded my boarding pass on my phone. In a little over four hours, I could be back on an island that I’m far more familiar with.
One that no longer houses Claire S?renson.
I won’t be on this floating city full of nearly feral Alphas and Omegas longing for a pack.
Life would go back to normal, as normal as it could be with me no longer able to pine after Claire.
But I don’t leave my room. I stare at my suitcase and picture a life without Claire. Our families are so intertwined that she wouldn’t disappear from my life, but she would have a pack. I’d continue to be an observer of her life and constantly wonder what if?
With a thick swallow, I call the one person who can help me make this decision.
He answers on the first ring.
“Son? Is everything okay?” my dad asks.
His voice is deep and firm, and I can’t help but to smile. He was a good fucking dad, the best. There isn’t an Alpha I respect more than my father. I’ve followed in his steps in every way I could, continuing the family business with my cousin and just trying to be the man he taught me to be.
“Elliot?” he says my name, shaking me out of my thoughts.
“I’m on a heat cruise,” I say, and there’s a long pause down the line.
He’s also the one who taught me to think before you speak. Too bad I didn’t remember that when I first saw Claire on this godforsaken ship, but since that moment, I’ve chosen my words wisely.
“Yes, I know.”
I groan. “Who told you?”
“Jonah told his mother, who then told your mother who told me,” he tells me honestly and I sigh.
It’s a reminder of how intertwined our families are, and how complicated I could make everything no matter what I choose.
I am shocked, however, that Jonah didn’t reach out to me once he found out I was on the ship with his sister.
“You know, if your mother had fallen for someone else, truly fallen, I’d have followed her anywhere,” my dad states, and I’m taken aback.
Their relationship is an anomaly. They aren’t a pack, just a single Alpha and Omega couple. Maybe it’s because I admire him so much I always considered the same for myself.
“The possessive asshole gene is hereditary, it seems.” My dad laughs, not waiting for me to respond. “I wouldn’t change anything about my life. Your mother has and will always be the best piece of me. But it hasn’t been easy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her heats, making sure she’s always taken care of, taking care of you guys. Like I said, I never wanted a pack, but I can see how a pack can make life easier.”
“But sharing mom?” I question, and the old man growls down the line. “See? She’s already got another Alpha wrapped around her finger. The Beta seems fine, but how would I make that work? How could I possibly handle sharing her with someone else?”
“It’s a big decision, El. I don’t envy you.
If you walked away, could you live with that decision or would you regret not trying?
It’s not for nothing son, I’ve seen the way you look at her.
It’s the same way I looked at your mom when I was protecting her during that tour.
That’s not a feeling that comes around twice,” he says.
I rest my head between my knees, my heart thundering in my chest.
“If you love her, truly love her, Elliot, isn’t it worth finding out if you can work past what makes you uncomfortable?”
“And destroy the family if it doesn’t work out?” I vocalize my biggest fear.
“Elliot, if you think you could break up the friendship your mother and Liv have with one another, you think too highly of yourself. You, Jonah, and Axel are like Irish twins. If it doesn’t work out, it would be uncomfortable at first, sure, but it should definitely not be the thing holding you back. ”
“She’s fucking perfect,” I whisper out, trying to hold back the moisture threatening my eyes.
“Then I think you have your answer.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I say softly.
“Always. Don’t forget to pick your mom up some candy while you’re traveling,” he reminds me and I laugh. “Love you.”
“I won’t. Love you too.”
I cancel my flight and sit there for a long time wondering what the fuck I’m going to say to Claire and if there’s any way she can be patient with me while we navigate this together.
The ship has emptied with people getting off the ship for St. Thomas and I assume Claire has gone off with her…whatever the fuck they are. Thinking of them as a pack pisses me off no matter how much I try to be a bigger man about it.
So I decide it’s better to sulk and think on the pool deck instead of in my windowless little room.
I’m thinking more and more about what I want to say to her.
I don’t want to fuck this up. I also have to consider how to speak with the other Alpha.
Something tells me I won’t have many issues with the Beta.
I’m still not a huge fan of the idea of sharing Claire with either of them.
It’s probably some Alpha dominance bullshit I don’t have any control over, but for Claire, I’m going to have to rein it in.
Most of the packs I know are polyamorous, or at the very least incredible friends. I’m not sure what it looks like when two pack mates merely tolerate each other for their Omega. I’m also not sure if Claire will be okay with her pack mates not particularly getting along either.
The only hope I have is that she has had feelings for me for a while. It can’t be for nothing. She’s only just met these guys, maybe…
I’m fooling myself. I’ve stalked them and seen them together. They’re legit, and I’ll have to figure out where I can squeeze my way into the equation.
There’s a pickleball tournament tomorrow, and I know she’s signed up. Probably because Megan Moyer’s name was at the top of the list. I smile when I think about how vicious Claire can be when she needs to.
Most of the time she’s sweet, maybe a little sassy and blunt. But when she’s pissed off? Fucking hot.
I shouldn’t like it as much as I do. I’m about to head over to the bar, get a beer, and do some more thinking when I scent her before I see her.
She rounds the corner of the bar in this frilly white dress that contrasts against her tan from being on the cruise. When she finally turns in my direction, she stops in her tracks.
I’m dressed for vacation, shorts and a simple summer polo. She blinks those bright blue eyes at me. Meanwhile, the Alpha at her back glares daggers.
Yeah, I bet you were wishing I would have gotten off the ship, huh asshole?
I don’t say it out loud, obviously. I’ve got to be a good, polite Alpha to this prick who’s all but sunken his teeth into my Omega.
“Elliot?” she says my name with so much shock and sweetness.
“Can we talk?”
“You’re not getting off the ship today?” she questions.
“No. I’m not.”
She looks over her shoulder at the Alpha and squeezes his hand. She’s comforting him, and I’m jealous of it. I want her comfort; I want to finally give in to every thought I’ve had about Claire.
The rational side of me that knows I’m being selfish is basically turned off as I look at the woman I’ve loved, but kept my distance from for far too long.
“I’ll meet up with you guys in a little bit, okay?”
The Alpha crosses his arms, looking at me and then back at Claire, like he can’t trust me. I’ve known Claire her entire life, protecting her from a distance for a long time.
I take a deep breath. Be good, I remind myself.
“Message us where you want to meet, sweetheart,” the Beta says with a smile, kissing her cheek.
The Alpha isn’t so subtle, grabbing her cheeks and pressing an ostentatious kiss against her lips. He even goes so far to rub his nose against her hair.
This motherfucker is scent marking on her before she spends time with me.
Claire swallows thickly, her cheeks pink as she clears her throat.
“Maybe this time we go to my suite, it’s a little less stifling,” she says, and leads the way to the elevator.
Her cinnamon apple cake scent is on full display. Maybe it’s because I’m done fighting myself or because there’s a hint of the other Alphas scent on her, but all I want to do is cover her in my scent, claim her. I want this incessant conflict inside me to shut the fuck up.
Claire is quiet as she uses her wristband to call the elevator to us and we head down to her floor. Security checks us both in, and despite how badly I don’t want to be on this cruise, I can appreciate the level of care that’s been taken to keep everyone safe.
When she opens the door, the room is a far cry from the one I’m sleeping in.
The room smells so thick of her fucking that Alpha and I think I’m about to lose my goddamn mind.
“Can we go out on the balcony?” I grate out.
If I have to sit in this room and smell that other Alpha’s scent the whole time, I’m likely to go crazy.
Claire looks over at a crumpled blanket in the corner and gives me a nod.
She opens the door and we both head out. She’s on the side of the ship facing away from the pier and I’m grateful we have some semblance of privacy for this conversation.
The Omega I’ve pined over silently, tormenting myself, watching from afar, crosses her arms and leans against the balcony.
She’s not going to make this easy on me, and it kind of makes my cock hard. She raises a dark eyebrow at me, waiting for me to start.
I take a seat on the lounge chair, and steeple my fingers as I rest my elbows on my knees.
“I don’t know if I’m capable of being in a pack,” I tell her, and her brows furrow.
“It’s why I’ve kept my distance, why I never let you know I felt the same as you have.
You’ve wanted a pack since the moment you designated.
Don’t be mad, but me and Axel saw your vision board when you were sixteen. ”
She gasps and I smirk. She had a photo of me on that vision board, along with an entire k-pop group, two major actors, and three Alphas who were definitely too fucking old to be considered for her vision board.
It had clippings of the nest of her dreams, the pets she wanted, and a house in the mountains.
“You’re an Omega, you deserve a pack and everything that comes along with it.”
“But you don’t think you’re capable?”
“I’m still not sure, but I also can’t fight this anymore, Claire,” I say, standing to my full height and looking into her light blue eyes.
“I’ve watched you flirt with other Alphas, smelled them on you, and every time it ate away at me.
You’ve always been the thing I couldn’t have, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been watching, longing. ”
I push a hair off her shoulder and her eyes close softly as she takes a deep breath, inhaling my scent.
“Why did you really come on the ship?”
“I did really hope that I could bring you home, that we could go back to how things were. You giving me just enough attention that I didn’t crack.
Me watching from the sidelines as you used other Alphas to feel better.
But you never wanted any of them to bond you.
It was nothing but a physical need. It’s what’s always kept me in check. ”
“What changed?” Her voice trembles. We’re so fucking close that I can nearly taste her scent on my tongue.
“When I saw you with him, I knew it was more than just lust. I knew I was going to lose you and it made me rethink everything,” I admit.
“But you’re here, you’re staying?”
“I booked a flight, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make myself leave,” I say, pressing myself closer to her body, her hands gripping the rail of her balcony for purchase.
“Why not?” Her chest is rising and falling so fast as she stares at me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt her scent this thick before. It’s intoxicating.
“Because there’s no one in the world more perfect than you,” I tell her, grabbing her cheeks. “I didn’t want to want you. I wanted to walk away, but I fucking love you, Claire.”
She blinks at me, her throat working with a swallow.
“But you don’t want a pack?”
“Not really, but I want you, and that matters more. For you I’ll try anything.”
The moment the words slip out of my mouth, she’s on me, her arms wrapped around my neck as her lips crash into mine and it’s at that moment that I know without a doubt I made the right choice.
Because now I know what Claire S?rensen’s lips feel like, and they’re heaven.
Her scent is so thick that I don’t have a single thought in my head besides the Omega I’ve fantasized about for years.
“Fuck, Claire,” I groan out, grabbing her ass and kissing down her throat.
I decide then I’ll suffer through pack life if it means I get to kiss her like this for the rest of my life. I’ll suffer through anything for her.