Chapter 76
“Holy shit, are your arms ok?” Al slides up beside me and I clamp a hand over his mouth to keep him from waking up the tiny omega I’m currently locked inside of.
She’s snoring softly against my chest, and while it tickles like crazy, I’m not ready to let her go yet.
Not that she could get very far without hurting herself.
We’re still waiting for my knot to go down, but I’m loath to leave this level of intimacy that she’s shared with us.
I knew I enjoyed taking care of my pack, but she’s opened a whole new side to it that I never imagined.
Just being able to hold her, to kiss her.
I know she’s not really mine, but it still feels so right, and I find myself asking the universe what I need to do to keep her with us.
Greg pulls a blanket over her back, and she murmurs into my chest, nuzzling her jaw against me, marking me with more than just her scent.
My hands clutch reflexively, not wanting to let her go, but she quickly settles back down before I can wake her with my fumbling.
Spence stares at the two of us for a moment before carefully swinging his leg over the side of the bed and walking out of the room.
I never paid much attention to my packmate’s bodies, because we all live together and while I’ve seen them both in various states of undress, we’re basically family; you don’t check out your family’s ass.
I have to admit now that it’s easy to tell how much time the big guy spends at the gym.
Even his muscles have muscles, and his ass has got those weird dimples on the sides when he’s walking away.
My mind drifts, thinking of the time we’ve spent with this omega.
We’ve barely known her a week, but she’s already important to us.
..all of us, including Alistair, with his surly attitude.
Something changed in him this week—between meeting her and getting our asses soundly handed to us at Scrabble, I’ve seen him smile more in the last six days than I have in the last six months, even when he and Emily were dating.
Despite his harsh attitude towards her, she just keeps coming back and being a pain in his ass, and I think he needed that. Someone to shock him out of himself.
Spence returns while I’m deep in thought about the future, and I pointedly stare up at the ceiling to avoid seeing his dick swing back and forth, or worse, bob up and down if he’s erect again.
He doesn’t say anything, just takes one of my arms and runs a warm, damp washrag over it, inspecting the scratches she left.
He hums thoughtfully for a moment before dabbing a couple of spots that are bleeding with ointment and putting band-aids over them.
I don’t know how long they’ll last if she does that again, but it’s still sweet of him to try.
After dealing with my arms, he goes over and pulls five bottles of water out of the case I brought up earlier, handing one to Greg and two to me.
Spence crawls back up into the nest, trying to pass a bottle over to Alistair.
The smaller man tries to wave it off, loudly whispering that he doesn’t need anything, and he doesn’t know if she’s going to want him, but I can see in his eyes how nervous he really is.
She’s invited him into her nest, and even told me she wants him too, but he’s not ready to trust that, not with his past. I don’t know if he told Spence, but I badgered him until he admitted what happened with his last pack to me, and the man is terrified of being rejected again.
He hasn’t said it in so many words, but the desperation in his actions earlier is all the confirmation I need.
I’m pretty sure Sarah knows about it too—it took her an awfully long time to come back to the game when she went to retrieve him a couple of nights ago, and while I can’t condone listening in on someone else’s phone conversation, I can understand her impulsive behavior to learn more about our pack.
Especially the one who’s been so closed off.
I doubt he hung up and trotted downstairs as soon as she called him, and she only came back a minute before he arrived.
She also kept throwing guilty glances his way; though if neither of them will talk about it, it doesn’t take an ace detective to figure out something happened.
Thank fuck, because I’m doing good to figure out any mysteries at all as a traffic cop.
In truth, our pack leader looks ready to bolt at any second, and I can’t let that happen.
Regardless of if she decides in the end that she doesn’t want to keep us, she would be devastated if he left now just because he got cold feet.
I saw how confused she looked earlier when she was nesting.
Something was missing, or someone, and I knew exactly who it was.
She calmed down considerably once he donated his clothes to the cause.
Alistair’s voice is low as he talks to Greg, his eyes darting frantically around the room.
The scent of his anxiety is barely discernible over the strawberries and cream heat pheromones that Sarah is pumping out, even in her sleep.
He’s scooting closer and closer to the edge of the nest while we all rest from her first round, and as much as I’m enjoying the peaceful moment, I worry he’s going to run if she doesn’t wake up soon.
For all his bravado, he’s terrified of her and what she could do to him.
Or, more specifically, what her rejection at this time could do to him.
Greg seems to be patiently trying to explain something, and Alistair shakes his head a few times, gesturing towards the door until Spence’s big hand lands on his shoulder.
They’ve mostly been ignoring our gentle giant until now, but he seems determined to talk, and if he decides you need to hear it, he won’t usually give up.
The big guy leans in, shaking Alistair lightly.
His smile is gentle, friendly, as his voice drifts quietly over to me, barely audible over the omega’s snoring.
“Of course she wants you. She invited you in, wanted your clothes and stuff for her nest. I don’t know much about omegas, but I know that means she wants you.
She wouldn’t want your scent in her space if she didn’t like you.
” He pauses for a minute, brow furrowed in thought.
“Even though you’ve been kind of a butthead.
Maybe she got enough of a peek at the real you to see behind all the attitude you’ve been throwing at her. ”
Spence’s grin widens, but he looks even sadder now, and I wonder if he’s thinking about what might happen after her heat.
I know it’s been on my mind ever since we agreed to this.
I know it could hurt, but I have to hope she can see us as potential mates, even if we aren’t fated.
From what I’ve seen this week, anyone would be lucky to have her in their lives, pack or not, and I hope she’ll agree to letting us court her.