Chapter 38 Eli
Eli
“Easy,” I murmur as Walker carries Lia down the hallway. “We’ve got you.”
She threw up her soup. That can’t be good. I think back to all of the times I helped Gloria through her heat. How she didn’t want solid food, just protein shakes and fizzy waters.
Is that what’s happening? Is Lia finally in heat?
Knox clears a path for Walker straight to my room. He lays her down gently while I stand in the hallway with my daughter. Amber leans against me, her head pressed to my stomach, and I rub her back while I watch Walker and Knox get her situated beneath the covers of my bed.
“Did I make her sick, Daddy?”
I hear the guilt in her voice and I crouch down. I crook my finger beneath her chin, making her look at me with those lovely eyes she inherited from her mother. She looks so much like Gloria that some days it aches.
“No, princess,” I say as my thumb slides along her cheek, wiping away a tear, “you didn’t make Lia sick.”
“But she threw up.”
“Yeah,” I say softly. “Sometimes grown-up bodies do weird things when they’re tired.”
It’s the closest explanation I can give without opening up yet another conversation that I don’t think anyone is prepared to have with a nine-year-old right now.
She sniffles. “Promise? Because all I wanted to do was hang out.”
I stand and wrap her up in a big hug. “I promise, sweetheart. This is something else. You didn’t make her sick, and when we can get Lia feeling better, we’ll talk about what happened. Okay?”
Amber tucks into me and I hold her close, wishing she’d stay little forever.
“She smells different,” Walker mumbles as he tucks Lia into bed.
“Sweeter,” Knox offers.
“Stronger,” I say from out in the hallway.
Another waft of Lia’s scent has my Alpha instincts sitting up and taking notice in a way that’s both thrilling and deeply concerning.
I can tell that Walker and Knox are having a hard time controlling themselves as they back away from the bed. Knox has his fists clenched at his sides. Walker’s jaw ticks like he’s trying to grind his teeth down to nubs.
“Come on out here, you guys,” I urge through a voice that’s a little more growly than I’d like. “Let’s give Lia some space.”
Lia lets loose a whine that pierces right through me. Walker’s head snaps back toward my bed, but I put a warning note in my voice.
“Now, you two.”
“Daddy?” Amber asks.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” I say as I tuck her against my side, fixing my voice so it’s softer. “Everything’s okay, you have my word.”
“Can I go get in bed with her if I didn’t make her sick?” Amber asks.
“Yes,” I say immediately. That’ll keep us away from Lia for now, having my daughter in bed with her. “I’m sure Lia could use some cuddles and some company. Go get one of your blankets.”
“And Pickles!” she exclaims before running off. “Pickles! Cuddle time! Come on, boy!”
To be honest, I’m surprised Pickles wasn’t with us every step of the way while we were carrying Lia back to my bedroom. Guess we must be earning the big guy’s trust.
I watch as my daughter and Pickles run past us, practically vaulting themselves into the bed. Lia lets out a raspy giggle as my daughter and her dog tuck themselves on either side of her.
Good. She needs a barricade right now with how mouth-watering she smells.
“Get out here, you two,” I grumble as I yank on Walker and Knox’s shirts.
I close my bedroom door, and the barrier seems to relax all three of us. My hands fall away from their shirts as Knox rolls his shoulders and Walker rolls his head to pop his neck.
“Okay,” Knox says on an exhale, “that escalated fast.”
Walker rubs the back of his neck. “This can’t be just preheat. She has to be close now.”
“I know,” I mumble as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Has she said anything to either of you guys about what she wants to do about her heat?”
The two of them just shake their heads.
I lean back against the hallway wall and scrub a hand down my face. “Way to drop that bomb at the dinner table, by the way.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t the most tactful way to go about things,” Walker says. “You think I overwhelmed her?”
Knox shakes his head. “No, this is definitely something more than that.”
The hope in Walker’s voice is evident when he speaks. “She didn’t immediately turn down the idea, though.”
“Hey,” Knox says as he holds up his hands, “I thought it the instant I walked into your place. You’re not the only one thinking about it.”
“What do you think, Eli?” Walker asks. “Do you think vineyard living is something you and Amber could do?”
I give him question some time in my head. Could I really do that to Amber? Just uproot her from the home I shared with her mother? From the place where her mother’s scent used to reign supreme? Could I really uproot her from the memories—
That I have of her mother.
Amber doesn’t have any memories of her mother in this home. I’m the only one with those. The thought slams into my chest so hard it leaves me breathless. I cup my hand over my eyes, and my throat works around the hard knot forming in my throat.
“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Walker mumbles.
“My grief isn’t your issue,” I say as I look over at Walker. “The truth of the matter is, I think Amber would love vineyard living. I’m the one that’s still overly attached to this house, and it’s an attachment that probably isn’t healthy at this point.”
“It doesn’t have to be any time soon,” Walker says. “I just thought… if Lia was considering a future at all, she might like to know that someone else is considering one as well.”
To say today has been a lot is putting it mildly. I’ve never seen vulnerability like this on Walker’s face before. To be honest, I don’t know where I stand with moving to the vineyard. Mostly because I don’t know where Lia stands on it.
Funny, how so much of me now depends on what Lia wants and needs.
“What are we doing about Amber?” Knox asks.
“At the vineyard?” I ask.
“No,” Knox says with a shake of his head, “during Lia’s heat. She may not want help with it. That may be too much for her right now, but if she does want our help? What are we doing with Amber?”
I stare at the closed bedroom door for a little while. He’s right. We don’t have a clue what Lia is going to want or need for her heat. Some Omegas prefer isolation during that time. Some need their packs relentlessly.
But we’re not pack. Not officially, anyway. There’s no telling what Lia will require of us, if anything.
“I’ll call my parents, if it comes down to it,” I say.
“They’d take her for a few days?” Walker asks.
I snicker at his question. “They’d take her for life, if they were allowed. She’ll be fine, I’m not worried about her. They love any excuse to spoil her.”
“Good,” Knox says with a decisive nod of his head. “I can take a few days off work, too. Ford can survive a week without me.”
Walker nods once. “I’ll clear my schedule at the vineyard, make sure I’ve got managers slotted in where they need to be.”
I just shrug. “I’m sure I can work something out with the school. Principal Lowder is always understanding about these things, being an Omega herself.”
As the three of us stand in the hallway, preparing for how we’re going to take care of Lia if she demands it, I can’t help but smile to myself.
Their certainty in things makes a calm settle throughout my body. The buzz of fear that always rattles the marrow of my bones is gone, replaced with a realization that we’re in the process of building something amazing.
Pack.
The word itself feels so new, but also… right. It doesn’t give me anxiety. It doesn’t give me fear. It doesn’t give me questions. Back in the day, that’s how I knew I was stepping in the right direction with Gloria. Everything with her felt right.
Like how everything feels right with Lia and them now.
But from the other side of the door, a sound emerges. A whine, sharp and high-pitched. Seconds later, her scent slams into all of us.
Walker’s back stiffens. Knox’s fists bunch up at his sides. The hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end. The sharp sweetness of cinnamon rolls and buttery icing barrels through me like a wall of wind, knocking the breath out of me.
And then the door opens.
“Daddy?” Amber asks. “Lia’s really hot. I think something’s wrong.”