Chapter Thirty-Six – Raeka
My body is sore as hell when I come to, and I’m not going to lie, I’m also groggy and starving. Now that the fever pitch has waned, I can think straight again, and everything the guys and I did comes tumbling back in my mind.
All the sex. All those orgasms. No bonding bites.
I don’t know why, but it surprises me that my neck is free of fresh bites.
A part of me thought Pax and Gideon would lose control and clamp their fangs down into my skin, mark me and bond us together even though I didn’t want them to.
I mean, who was Colter to try to stop them?
Just a beta, a beta who could never realistically overpower either alpha.
But there’s no marks on me. Maybe a bruise or two from a hickey, but I’ll take those any day.
I groan, sitting up and holding my head. When my eyes finally focus on the area around me, I realize I’m alone in Colter’s room, on the mess of a nest that definitely saw a lot of things the past few days.
It’s crazy, but I don’t know that I would’ve been able to get through that heat without the guys’ help. I managed to make it through my first natural heat with my fake knot, but… this time it would’ve been impossible. Being in a house with them, having them so near, made everything more real.
I have no idea where the guys are, which is fine.
It lets me get to my feet and wander to the nearest bathroom.
Colter’s. I don’t even care that I don’t have my soap or my shampoo in his shower; I use all of his stuff while I rinse off, cleaning myself of the layers of sweat and sex still lingering on my flesh.
I wander down to my room after I shower and toss on some clean clothes, and then I head down to find the guys in the kitchen.
Gideon is in the process of making homemade French fries, while Pax and Colter are working on seasoning a few slices of chicken breast and cutting up green beans.
The sight of all three guys working together makes me smile.
They each perk up when I enter the room, before they turn their gazes to me and see me. The mere smell of me puts them on high alert.
“So,” I say, leaning on the counter a few feet from them. “Made it through, thank God. For a while there, it was touch and go.”
Pax’s green eyes twinkle, and the alpha smirks as he says, “Wasn’t that touch and go, as soon as you let Colter come get us. We told you we could help you through it.”
“Oh, yeah,” I deadpan. “You really helped.” And by helped, I mean fucked.
Their knots definitely hit something in me that silicone knot couldn’t.
Even now, the thought of my alphas, totally naked, ready to be of service to me fills me with a fire that shouldn’t have enough energy behind it to even materialize.
I should be exhausted—and I am—but I should be so exhausted that sex should be the very last thing on my mind.
These guys just bring it out of me, apparently.
The chicken, now perfectly sliced and seasoned on a pan, goes into the oven.
Gideon tells Pax to set a timer, and Pax dutifully does so.
That leaves Gideon with the potatoes and Colter with the green beans; I can tell Colter’s not used to chopping anything.
He’s slow, and he only cuts one bean at a time.
Pax gets me a vitamin-enhanced water from the refrigerator and brings it to me. “You weren’t complaining at all when you were full of my knot, you know.” His voice is low, growly, and it sends a shiver down my spine.
I fight that shiver, but it’s a battle I could never win, so I play my body’s reaction off as I unscrew the water bottle’s cap and take a long swig. Only when I drink half of the whole thing do I say, “Oh, sorry. I thought you were going to go on and on about that special dick of yours.”
The über alpha moves so he stands in front of me, one arm on either side of me, boxing me in against the counter. His tall frame bends as he buries his nose in the crook of my neck, nuzzling against me as he murmurs, “Joke all you want, Raeka, but you were damn near begging for it.”
“Pax,” Gideon says, “don’t get her all worked up again.”
“Right.” The alpha pulls his face away from me, towering over me as he straightens out once again. “The four of us are going to sit down, have a nice, huge dinner to refuel… and discuss what comes next.”
My heart does a little flip in my chest when he says that. Discussing what comes next. I don’t need to be a fortune teller to know what this talk will entail. Us. All four of us. Our future. Something I never imagined willingly talking about with one alpha, let alone two and a beta.
The old me would have tried to argue with him, but all I say is, “Do you guys need any help in here?”
“No,” Gideon says. “Go watch some TV in the living room or something. Colter, you can go with her. No offense, but I can finish the green beans a lot faster.” The alpha has finished cutting up the potatoes before Colter got halfway through his mound of green beans.
Colter signs something to him, and all his uncle says is, “Yes, I know you’re not a cook. Thank you for trying to help, anyway.”
With a shrug, Colter comes to me. He slips his hand into mine and leads me to the living room, where we sit on the couch together and find something mindless to watch as I finish drinking the water. Once the water is done, I cuddle into him and sigh out a sound of contentment.
As much as I hate to admit it, this is nice. A girl could get used to this.
He sets an arm around me when I curl into his side, his finger tracing shapes onto my upper arm. For once, he doesn’t wear a hoodie; just a shirt, and the lack of thick fabric between us is definitely something I can get used to.
I don’t say anything. We just sit there together, in a comfortable silence.
It’s nice. I may or may not doze off a little, because before I know it, Colter is taking me by the hand once again and leading me to the dining room table, where our dinner is already set and the two alphas are waiting for us.
Cajun-spiced chicken with homemade French fries and seasoned green beans, complete with a batch of fluffy bread rolls.
Oh, my God. I don’t think I’ve ever laid eyes on a meal that looked more delicious.
I take my usual seat, and Colter sits beside me, while the two alphas sit across from us. “This looks really good,” I say. “Smells good, too.” I don’t wait for the guys to respond; I’m starving, so I dig in.
And ooh, boy, does it taste ten times better than it looks. This might just be the best meal I’ve ever eaten.
It’s a minute or two before I realize I’m the only one eating—and by that, I mean I’m the only one stuffing my mouth so full I have chipmunk cheeks. With my mouth full, I say, “What?” Good thing my mom isn’t here to scold me for being so unladylike.
Gideon and Pax glance at each other, and it’s Pax who finally speaks, “It’s time we stop dancing around the subject and talk about what comes next.”
I work on chewing and swallowing all of the food in my mouth before I question, “Do we really have to?”
“Yes,” Gideon says, his dark blue gaze twinkling behind his glasses. “We’ve discussed it, but we have not yet discussed it with you. We’d like to officially form a pack.”
I knew this moment was coming for a while now, but hearing him say it still makes the butterflies in my stomach go off.
If we officially form a pack, that means there will be paperwork, but it also means it won’t matter if I go out in public smelling like Pax and Gideon, and not just the latter.
And Colter—bringing him into a pack would make it more socially acceptable for him to have an omega.
Still, the doubt in my mind nags at me and forces me to ask, “Are you sure? I know I’m not the best omega. All of you could—”
“If you say we could do better, I’m going to come over there, pull you onto my lap, and punish you for even suggesting it,” Pax warns, a growl reverberating from his wide, muscular chest. It’s not the first time he’s threatened to punish me, and maybe I’m just a feisty bitch, but the thought perks me up like no other.
Maybe I’d like that.
Then again, maybe he knows that.
“There is no one better than you,” the über alpha goes on, over-enunciating each word to further nail it in. “No one better for us. You belong to us. You’re ours.”
With a nod, Gideon adds, “And we are yours.”
Beside me, Colter nods along with them, watching me with silent, amber eyes.
A pack. Here I am faced with the one thing I swore up and down I never wanted, with not one but two alphas—and yet…
yet it’s the strangest thing. The two alphas sitting across from me, the beta beside me, I’d trust them with my life.
A ridiculous thing to admit, since I barely trust myself with my own life.
But I do. I trust them. I like them a lot. I might even love them.
My normally chatty self has a hard time surfacing under the weight of all their stares, under the weight of this conversation, so I say a single word: “Okay.”
“Okay?” Pax echoes. “We’ll need more than that, omega.” And just like that, he knew exactly what to say to get my chatty self back.
“What do you want me to say, Mr. Alpha? That I want to be in a pack with you three? That I can’t imagine my life without you three in it? That I’ve been shown the error of my ways, that I finally see the light, that I need you more than the air I breathe? Well… there you go.”
“There I go what?” he prods.
“I just said it.”
“No, you asked a lot of questions in a snippy tone. If you want it, say it without the attitude.”
Ugh, of course he’s going to make me say it again. I wrestle with my rapidly-beating heart, breathing slowly as I gather my nerves and say, “I want to be in a pack with you. I need all of you in my life. I was stupid, and I really can’t imagine going back to the way things were before.”
Beside me, Colter grabs my hand and squeezes, while the two alphas across from us watch me with what must be gazes full of acceptance.
Pax abruptly stands, his chair scraping along the tiled floor.
He walks around the table, toward me, and Colter lets go of my hand right when the alpha kneels on my other side.
He grabs me by the back of the neck, colliding his forehead with mine.
His body shudders as he lets out a long, harsh, uneven breath, and it blooms hot across my face.
“It feels like I’ve waited an eternity to hear you say that,” he murmurs, his chest practically purring in approval. “You’ve been mine since the first moment I saw you. I love you, Raeka Whittenhall—or should I say, Raeka Chase?”
I don’t know what chokes me up harder, the declaration of love or the fact that he called me Raeka Chase.
I’m not quite ready to say that L-word back, so I instead focus on, “Chase?”
“There’s already a pack Alabaster.” Pax pulls his forehead off mine and glances to Gideon and then Colter. “We should be pack Chase.” He kisses me, drawing the air out of my lungs as if he needs it to survive.
By the time Pax pulls his mouth off mine, Gideon stands next to us, ready to take his place. Once the über lets me go and stands to step aside, Gideon falls to his knees and takes both my hands in his. The way those blue eyes bear into me, as if seeing straight into my soul, make me lean into him.
“Not that it’s a competition, but you pulled me in the moment we first met, too,” Gideon tells me, his nose brushing up against mine.
“In the beginning, my intentions were pure, but you became so much more to me than I ever thought possible. I love you more than life itself, and I can’t wait to announce to the world that you belong to us.
” He ends that declaration in a kiss, though his lips are gentler than Pax’s.
When he lets me go and both alphas return to their spots across from us, Colter grabs my hand and squeezes once again, and I turn my head to look at him.
The beta studies me intently, a small smile on his lips.
He leans over to me and kisses me sweetly, backing up everything the two alphas said without a single word.
My head is spinning by the time we return to the meal, absolutely spinning out of control.
I have a pack. I have three guys, three mates.
Shit.
My mom and my sister are never going to let me live this down.