Chapter 60
chapter
sixty
The panties tuckedinto my suit jacket are red.
They barely have enough material to make a single fold, but this is the pair I took off my omega this morning after coffee, and I’ve gotten oddly sentimental about wearing whatever she provides. Even if they still smell faintly of her pre-heat perfume.
My Alpha isn’t sure whether we love having it on us or hate that any other person in the entire universe might notice. Impulses tick under my skin,flying too fast for me to nail any of them down.
My instincts have been worse ever since Remi’s symptoms ramped up. The sharper and sweeter her perfume gets, the more we are on edge. There have even been a few pissing matches among ourselves; all of us jockeying for position the second she expresses even the slightest interest in sex. Last night, I swore Cass was going to rip Damon’s throat out for trying to steal the Big Spoon position in bed after he had already gotten to take a shower with her.
Hopefully, none of this shit will be an issue for her next heat. Archer gave me a comprehensive run-down of exactly what to expect, including all of our Alphas getting more and more territorial. As soon as we bond, those impulses will settle. Allegedly.
It’s hard for me to picture that when I’m borderline-feral. I haven’t gotten any work done all day, too busy imagining what it will finally feel like to sink my teeth into her neck.
I’m nervous. Archer recommended waiting until the end of her heat to bond with her so she’ll be lucid. I’m fairly certain I can handle holding off… until I scent her slicing sweetness, swirling around the house. Or from my jacket pocket.
Fuck. This is not going to be easy.
Irene and Julian insist that the only thing I need to be a good alpha during my omega’s heat is to pay attention to my instincts. I’ve been practicing; zeroing in on all the minute nudges I’ve spent years silencing.
Maybe that’s why I notice the way the back of my neck prickles while I loop a tie around my neck. I pause with it halfway tied, listening to Remi’s quiet singing voice.
Is that an ABBA song?
My feet carry me down the hall faster than they normally would. I knock on Remi’s cracked bedroom door, pushing it open to find her standing at the foot of her bed. There’s a pile of sheets on the floor beside her. And she only has half of her clothes on.
Goddamn, she looks good. White heeled sandals and a tight teal mini-skirt make her legs long and lean. The white lacy bra molded to her breasts contrasts with her pretty skin. Her hair is half-curled, the top portion still clipped up on top of her head like she rushed out of the bathroom mid-style to…
…strip our bed?
Oh fuck. The scents. On the sheets.
She’s nesting.
Stepping into the room, I pitch my voice low, going for soft and affectionate. “Hi, angel. Time to get these sheets into the nest?”
Remi turns, her eyes unfocused. “I—um—I—no. No. I can wait. We have the playoff game tonight. We have to—um—go? We have to go!”
I approach her slowly, reaching over to smooth my hands down her arms. My purr wants to kick up, so I let it. “We don’t have to go,” I soothe, flexing a solid bit of dominance, layered with lust to soften its blow. “Let’s get in your nest. I want you.”
Poor baby. She’s shaking and burning up. I’d be shocked if she wasn’t in pain already. I bet she’s been suppressing it all week, trying to force her Omega into submission so she doesn’t fuck things up for the guys.
She doesn’t know that we’ve all discussed it over and over, only to come to the same conclusion every time: she comes first. And this heat means everything to us.
Between tips from the Ash pack alphas and my classes, I feel completely prepared. As I step up and pull Remi into my chest, I slide my phone out of my pocket and shoot off the round of texts I’ve had prepped for weeks, along with a two-hour grocery order I’ve refreshed daily.
Satisfied that everything we need will be here soon, I pull my loose tie off and nuzzle my face into Remi’s hair. My hands already seem to have minds of their own—one skims up her back, and the other dips below the hem of her skirt, cupping her ass to draw her body into mine.
Hot skin sears me through my dress shirt, her rounded cheek burning against my sternum. She tries to scent-mark me through the material. It must chafe because she whines, the sound distressed.
“It’s time, omega,” I murmur. “Let me take care of everything.”
“But I’m not ready!” she cries, tears squeezing out of her eyes. “I haven’t cleaned the downstairs or ordered our meals or gathered up everyone’s stuff. And the game! I can’t take the guys out this week?—”
I kiss her forehead, enveloping her in my arms. “I’ve already taken care of all of that. I did the vacuuming and emptied the dishwasher while you were in the shower. The food is on its way. As soon as the guys see their phones, they’ll be on their way, too.”
My purr gets louder. “Aren’t these bright lights hurting your eyes, petal? Come on. Let’s go where it’s nice and dark.”
The rattle in my chest unwinds some of the tension in Remi’s shoulders. She sways on her feet, leaning more heavily on me. When I catch a look at her face, I see that her pupils have eclipsed their blue-gold irises.
It’s coming on fast, then. No time to waste.
The next words out of her mouth barely sound lucid. “They’ll be mad,” she mumbles, hiding against my lapel. “They won’t want me anymore. They’ll send me away.”
Control.
I yank on my internal leash, smothering the snarl that wants to rip from my throat. My rage is entirely directed at myself—she doesn’t need to deal with it right now.
I hate myself for ever letting her think that any of us could ever send her away or stop wanting her. But none of this is about me. She needs reassurance, and I need to give it to her.
“No one will ever send you away again,” I vow, picking her up. “I’m never leaving you. And soon you’ll be able to feel how much I mean that.”
The way she surrenders to my care gives me indescribable satisfaction. Before, she might have tried to fight the urge to let me take over, but she trusts me completely now. I feel it in the way her body goes lax in my arms while I carry her to her nest.
God, it really is beautiful in here. All the colors of sunrise glow with the soft twilight seeping through the skylight strips. Knowing it will soon be dark, I set to work, stripping her out of her skirt and heels, shucking my own clothes in the process.
She whines when I have to leave her briefly to gather supplies. The helpless whimpers slash at my heels until I’m running through the house, stacking shit into the laundry basket we’ve used to collect gently worn clothes for the last two weeks.
Our sheets are the last thing I scoop up, charging back into the nest with piles of fabric, bottles of water, protein shakes, and her toiletry bag. I drop it all by the door and go straight back to where she’s curled into a ball at the center of the floor mattress.
“Come here, baby.” I pull her into my lap and scent-mark her face. “Does it hurt? Do you want my knot?”
She cuddles into my chest. “I want—my alphas. All of you.”
I smile into her hair. Irene warned me about this, in so many words. Specifically, she said, “Don’t be a jealous knot-brained alpha-hole when your omega wants your packmates as much as she wants you. And don’t even mention it when she starts to lose lucidity and can’t remember meaningless specifics like names. She needs your knot, not your name, got it?”
Got it.
“The others are coming as fast as they can,” I reassure her. “I’m going to get you settled and help you build this beautiful nest for us.”
She nods, rubbing her lips over my Adam’s apple. My cock jerks under her ass. I blow a steady stream of air out of my nose and maneuver Remi to the edge of the recessed mattress, propping her against the cushioned, circular wall.
Snatching her hairbrush, makeup wipes, and a protein shake with a straw, I bend to meet her eyes and send a small pulse of alpha power. “You’re going to drink this. The whole thing, omega. Now.”
She’s already starting to get an attitude about food, which is why it’s essential that I get as much energy into her as I can. Her nose wrinkles, but she takes the bottle from me. As she sucks on the straw, I set to work brushing her hair out and removing all of her makeup.
When she’s beautifully bare-faced and her curls are woven into a loose coil, I take the empty protein shake from her and replace it with a bottle of water. She sips it tentatively, watching while I haul all of her nesting supplies over for her.
Do we have enough? There are three sheets, the comforter, Cassian’s hoodie and four pairs of his sweats, six of Damon’s T-shirts. Two weeks’ worth of my boxers…
“Alpha?”
I turn to find her staring at me with wide, vulnerable eyes. Our Remi’s still in there, for now, but she isn’t 100 percent in control. Whatever she wants to say must be something she and her Omega agree on. “Yes, angel?”
Her lower lip quivers while she smiles at me. “You’re the best alpha ever.”
Just five words.
But they’re everything I ever wanted.
And Remi? She’s everything I’ll ever need.