Chapter 52
chapter
fifty-two
Split lips are one thing, but have you ever had a split eyelid?
Shit hurts like a bitch.
By the time I park the Mustang in our garage, I’ve taken off my tank top and have it balled at the bleeding corner of my left eye. I sit there for a second, wondering how I’m going to hide my face from our omega if I sleep in her bed.
Our bed.
I’m pissed it’s so late. I wanted to get home in time to hav e her ride my fucked-up face. I can’t think of anything better for the bruises that will be all over it tomorrow.
Now it’s midnight, and when I wake up tomorrow, I have to get serious about saving up my Alpha’s energy for the fight this weekend.
Serena’s being a cute little tease about my self-imposed celibacy, promising she’ll make it as hard as possible for me to stick to my guns.
When I strung together a lame-ass apology for needing us to take a break so close to her heat, she just shrugged and slanted me one of those gorgeous, cock-teasing smirks. “I have three other cocks to play with, Menace. Not even sure I’ll miss yours. It’s not like it’s special or anything…”
Considering just the memory of that taunt makes me hard enough to drive nails, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be a rabid beast by Friday night.
Ha .
It’s funny because I already am one.
Stepping off the elevator, I walk into a wall of my kitten’s lush brightness and Jonah’s toasted smell. Their scents are tangled up and all over the counter, which means I missed a helluva time at dinner.
Growling under my breath, I start to trudge to the stairs, but the light in Spencer’s study stops me.
I’ve never asked him to stitch me up before, but fixing my own eye is going to be a clusterfuck. And now I have someone who has to look at me for the rest of eternity, so.
“Hey, teach.”
I push the door open and find Spencer lying on his lounge chair, holding a sheaf of papers over his face while our omega snuggles into his chest.
She’s fast asleep, but I clock the way his shirt hangs open and her hands rest against his sternum.
When he follows my eyes. I expect him to snarl at me or pull his us ual icicle act, but instead he sighs. “It’s easier when I’m awake and she’s asleep. Less chance I’ll be surprised.”
That makes sense. He’s got to get used to her touching him before her heat.
“I know she’s worried about it,” I admit, scratching the back of my head with the hand not holding my bloody shirt to my eye.
Spencer looks down at her face, watching the way her eyelashes twitch. The quiet purr rattling under her cheek ramps up.
“It’s not her fault,” he murmurs, snapping his intense eyes up to mine. “Tris and Jonah are always giving me space, so I can’t ask them this—but if I start to have an issue during her heat and I need my ass kicked…”
A smile cracks the half-healed cut in my lower lip. “I’ll trade you. You fix my eye, and I’ll kick your ass.”
Spencer actually smirks. “Deal. Here, hold her while I fetch the first aid kit.”
We get Serena settled into my lap and he strides off. Watching her curl up against my bare, inked-up chest brings my own purr out. The rusty roar isn’t nearly as smooth as Spence’s, though, and our girl stirs, nuzzling into the white claw marks branded over my heart.
Bleary green eyes blink up at me, big and beautiful and mine. Especially when they flare with that sharp, teasing warmth. “Mm. Should have known. You steal me from my professor, Menace?”
I smile, bending to kiss her forehead. “Little bit.”
She gives another sleepy hum, hunkering down against my pecs. “Did your training run late?”
The truth is, it started late. “I had to fill out all sorts of bullshit paperwork. They wanted my title and my entrance song and all that stupid shit.”
“Hmm.” She scent-marks my skin. “If you had a trainer, I bet they’d do all that for you.”
She’s not wrong. I grumble quietly, remembering what I marked on my papers. “The Ghost works alone. ”
Her pout is especially adorable, with her nose wrinkled and her eyes shut. “I don’t want you to be a ghost,” she complains, half out of it. Talking nonsense.
Only.
Maybe not.
I look down at her soft features, the long sweep of her gorgeous hair. All snuggled in Jonah’s T-shirt, soaked in Spencer’s scent. Cuddled up with me like I’m not the monster I know I am.
Fuck .
Maybe I don’t want me to be a ghost, either.
Is that name even true anymore? I hear those two pussies from the gym, whispering behind my back. “ They call him the Ghost.”
Because I fought like I didn’t have anything to lose—like I was already dead.
I look down at Serena’s face and know, down to the bottom of my shitty, ripped-up soul. “I’m not, kitten. Not anymore.”
Mollified, she makes a content sound and huddles even closer. By the time Spence walks in, she’s back to sleep.
He opens the first aid kit and examines my eye, wincing at the cut. “Was this strictly necessary? You could have lost your eye.”
I snort. “Then you’d have one less thing to worry about.”
He glares. “I’m serious, Avery. This is the reason I’ve never been able to stomach coming to your matches. What if you’re seriously injured one day and?—”
He keeps talking, but I can’t focus. My brain skips over what he’s said, replaying it.
“Wait, wait,” I huff, scowling as he presses an alcohol swab to my split skin. “That’s why you’ve never come to a fight? You’re, like…”
Worried about me?
Spencer pauses long enough to parse out the words I don’t say. His answering nod is brusque. “Of course. You think I want to watch my packmate get hurt? My Alpha practically climbs the walls every time I even consider it.”
Fuck . And here I thought he’d been avoiding the matches becaus e he couldn’t stand being linked to something so crude and repulsive.
Who knew the guy actually cared about keeping me in one piece?
Using a butterfly bandage and some sterile skin glue, he meticulously seals the cut while I stare at the side of his face, my jaw ticking.
Ah, hell .
“It would be cool,” I finally force out. “If you’d come watch sometime.”
Spencer sways back, blinking at me as he wipes his hands on a fresh sanitizing wipe. “It didn’t occur to me that you ever noticed either way. But if you’d like me to come, of course I’ll be there.”
I bob my head, swallowing. “Okay.”
He clears his throat and looks away. “That’s settled, then.”
“Cool.”
Serena nestles closer to me, her lips twitching ever-so-slightly.
Just enough for me to know my brilliant little omega had this in mind all along.