Chapter 41 Thirty-seven
Thirty-seven
Brooks
My parents had many faults. Judgmental, close-minded, stuck-up.
They weren’t crazy about the fact I’d chosen to bond not one, but two men.
The few times we’d visited them before they moved internationally, they’d been polite enough to Lin and Caine, but I’d seen the looks they exchanged when they thought we weren’t paying attention.
For all that, though, they’d taught me everything I knew about how to be a good partner. Alice and Markus Henning were, if nothing else, a solid unit. Watching them my entire childhood had shown me how I wanted my future marriage—or, as it turned out, pack—to be.
Caine and Taryn returned home late that night, and all of us sat in a tense, awkward circle in the living room.
I reached out for Brea’s hand on my right and Taryn’s on my left.
“My dad told me once that when he and my mom ever argued, they’d hold hands.
” I met Lin’s pained gaze, then Caine’s, Taryn’s, Brea’s.
“He said it’s a lot harder to be angry when you’re touching. ”
Lin swallowed, but he reached for Caine’s hand and Taryn’s. Caine linked with Brea.
No one spoke. At least on my end, I didn’t even know where or how to start.
We’d kept secrets. We’d exchanged heated words. We’d acted rashly. We’d endangered ourselves and each other.
Caine was the first to speak. He looked at Taryn. “I read through your journal,” he said in a thick voice. “Weeks ago. That’s how I knew where you were tonight.”
She blinked a few times, her hand in mine tightening a little. “Oh.”
“You’ve been scaring the shit out of me since we got back,” he continued. “It’s not an excuse. I probably should’ve done something different. I’m sorry.”
Taryn shifted in her seat. “I get why you did,” she said at last. “I wasn’t exactly open about…anything.”
“Still, though,” Brea interjected, “that was a boundary crossed.”
Caine nodded, a touch of red staining his cheeks. He looked up through his lashes at Taryn, the picture of contrition. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. She nodded.
With a squeeze to her hand, I pulled it out in front of us. “He’s the one you should be touching now, sweetness,” I said with a smile as I released her fingers.
She rolled her eyes and stood, going to wrap her arms around Caine’s neck. “I’m sorry I scared you,” she whispered just loudly enough we could hear it. “And I’m sorry you got arrested instead of me.”
He crushed her to his chest, his face screwing up with emotion. After a moment, he pulled her away and framed her face with his hands. “I’d endure far worse to keep you safe.”
Already he'd proven the truth of that statement.
She nodded again before diving into another hug. A moment later, she withdrew only to immediately throw herself at me. “I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry. I shouldn’t have hidden everything from you. I didn't want to involve you in something that could risk your license and career and—”
“Deep breath, sweetness,” I said. Taryn knelt before me, and I held both her hands in mine. “I wouldn’t have helped you if I hadn’t wanted to.”
Tears filled her eyes. “All I’ve done since we got back is screw up.”
I kissed the knuckles on one hand, then the other. “This is something that affects you more than any of us. You have such a big heart anyway, and with all the bullshit that’s happened…I don’t blame you, not a little bit.”
Lin cleared his throat.
“Okay, yes, we should have brought it to the group,” I said. “That’s on both of us, though. So I get half the blame on that one.”
Lin stood from his seat to take the spot Taryn had vacated, stealing one of her hands from me. “You, Taryn Maddox,” he said in his silken voice, “are one of the four most important people in my life. It just so happens that one of the other four is a rather poor influence on you.”
I rolled my eyes and kissed him on the cheek. He ignored me entirely, though the bond warmed just a little.
“I…I haven’t acted much like a pack leader, either,” he continued. “You’re not the only one who didn’t open up when they should have.” He met my eye then, and Brea’s, and Caine’s. “I’m sorry.”
Taryn all but fell onto both of our laps, wrapping one arm around each of our necks.
Brea dove in then, wrapping her arms around us.
Caine settled on Lin’s other side, and then we were a tangled, ten-armed creature, all of us murmuring sweet words and teary apologies and I love yous to all the others.
This wasn't the first round of confessions and apologies among us in recent weeks.
This one, though, felt different. We'd each been fighting an army's battle on our own.
At the bottom of this hug-pile, I felt deep in my soul that the distance between us all had closed.
We'd finally found each other on the battlefield and, at last, stood united.
Caine's and Lin's bonds thrummed with raw love for me, for Taryn and Brea. Through them, I felt the barest echoes of my omega. We as a group had never been more connected. In that moment, though, my two missing connections were unacceptable.
I sat up and looked to Brea. “Bite me.”
Lin shot me with a quizzical look. “You may need to reread the room, Brooks.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, like, I want to bond you. Now.”
“But—” She looked to Taryn, to the other men. She shook her head. “We all still have bonds to trade. Shouldn’t we…I mean…”
“We’re the only two who haven’t bridged the packs, so to speak,” I said. “You can talk with Caine and Lin about when and how you want to bond. As for me and Taryn”—I smiled at our omega—“all her alphas bonded her in heat. I plan to do the same.
“But you, Brea.” I turned my attention back to her. “We went through our own version of hell together, you and I. You are my friend and my alpha as much as the others. And I don’t want to wait to make it official.”
A drum beat behind my chest as Brea exchanged looked with the others. “Well? How do you all feel about it?”
Lin shrugged. “He didn’t ask us. He asked you.”
“Yes, but—”
“We are pack, Brea,” Lin cut her off. “Even if you never bonded me, you’d be my pack. I’m not worried about the when and how. So talk with your beta”—He nodded to me—“and you two decide your when and how.”
Brea met my eye then. Lovely Brea, with her greasy red hair twisted atop her head. Dried tear tracks staining her face from a day of petrified worry. An oversized sweatshirt that smelled like Caine.
My best friend. My voice of reason. My alpha.
Finally, after an eternity, she nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Let’s do it. Now.”
I dive-bombed her, locking my arms around her neck as I tackled her to the ground in an ecstatic hug.
“Brooks, baby, let your alpha breathe,” she joked as she rolled me off her. Laying on our sides, she grinned at me before mussing my curls. “Bad beta.”
“Ooh, yeah, Alpha,” I said in a faux-sultry voice. “Call me a bad boy. Spank me. Tell me—”
“Brooks,” Lin sang, “hon, focus.”
I sat up, donning a halfway serious expression. “Okay. Yes. Bonding. Us. Here. So…”
Red painted her cheeks. She held her hand out before her. “You spent two horrible weeks holding my hand. That’s where I want your scar.”
Fuck, who was cutting onions in the apartment at a time like this?
Utterly inappropriate.
I wiped my eyes and crossed my legs to mirror Brea. “I want yours right here,” I said as I pointed to the top of my bicep. “You’d fall asleep right here. Sitting there while you slept, not moving so I wouldn’t wake you up…it centered me, somehow. Like meditation in the middle of a sandstorm.”
Taryn, Lin, and Caine sat behind us on the sofa, still tangled together. Orange, blackberry, and sweet cream—a gorgeous medley.
A tear formed at the corner of Brea’s eye, and I caught it on my thumb before it would add to the stripes already sketched down her face. My thumb brushed over the apple of her cheek, and she turned to kiss my palm.
Heart full, I grabbed her hand and brought it toward my mouth as Brea adjusted so that she could roll up my t-shirt sleeve to reach my outer bicep.
Caine spoke up from the couch. “Count of three?” he asked. We both nodded, eyes on only each other.
“One…two…three.”
Brief, searing pain as he teeth tore through my skin. Tangy taste of iron on my tongue as mine tore through hers. Then a swell of emotion so strong it knocked the breath out of me like a giant wave. It was love, and joy, and grief, and relief, and on top of it all, hope.
She pulled back so we could look at each other. I grinned, my chest tight with my own emotions and the brand new ones now filtering to me through all three of my alphas.
Brea scrunched up her face in a chuckle. “Ew, you look like a cannibal.”
I could imagine. She’d wiped my blood from her lips and teeth, but I hadn’t gotten to that quite yet. Now, I was glad for it.
“Ah, see, you’ve done it now,” I said in a somber tone. “I’ve had the taste of human flesh. Now I must have more.” I dove for her again, trying to kiss her with my bloody lips while she squealed and pushed me away.
“Oh, no worries,” Taryn said from the couch. “You’ll get at least one more taste in your lifetime.”
Grinning like a fool, I stood, abandoning one quarry for another. Taryn leapt from the couch, running and laughing as I chased her with my bloody cannibal mouth.
We had battles ahead—some would be silly, some would be brutal.
After months of pushing what felt like a whole damn planet up a hill so steep it was basically a wall, it felt like we’d finally reached a crest. Maybe not the crest. But we’d continue on.
Keep pushing. When one or more of us grew too tired, the others would pick up the slack until we could rejoin them.
A mini-climax, I guessed?
Though, if I had my way, a mega climax was definitely on the horizon.