Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Yesterday was close to perfect.
Ariana, naked and wet, writhing in my lap as we watched my Beta getting pleasured? Holding her as she trembled through an orgasm?
Amazing. Perfect. A show stopper of a moment.
No notes.
Things got a little awkward over dinner, but it wasn’t too bad. And my girl can cook! She really is an Omega of many talents. How did I ever get so lucky? I met two guys at a party, and now we’re a pack scent matched to an Omega who couldn’t be more perfect for us.
Listening to Derrick and Ariana argue over that cheesy paranormal show was the icing on the cake of the day.
All I could do was imagine them at our dinner table, lobbing half-hearted insults and threats at one another after a long day at work for all of us.
Grant and I would laugh at their antics as the argument got increasingly silly.
Seeing them both regress into angry teenagers was amusing and endearing, and it highlighted why these two fell in love.
When I met Derrick and Ariana, they were already in love.
I was stepping into an established relationship.
Getting to see a glimmer of what it was like at the beginning makes me feel like I’m a part of that love story now, too.
There are so many ways to love someone.
There is a desperate love, where you feel like your life is going to end if you’re not with the object of your affections.
Some people love passionately, dripping with desire and sweeping the other person off their feet. That’s Grant. He’s a true romantic at heart.
Others, like me, show their love through service, whether that is cooking, giving them backrubs, or even making them laugh and cheering them up when they’re a bit blue.
But Derrick? Derrick loves furiously. He’s argumentative and challenging, and he doesn’t let anyone off the hook easily. Arguments between him and Grant, not that they happen often, regularly devolve into a furious fuck fest on the dining room table.
And Ariana went toe to toe with him easily.
They weren’t actually angry at one another. If they had been, their scents would have given it away. Instead, both of them were pumping light, airy pheromones into the air that spoke of humor and nostalgia.
We went to bed after three episodes of the show, when Ariana started to nod off on the couch. She let Derrick guide her to her room and tuck her in, the lucky fucker. He came out preening like a peacock.
I’m cautiously optimistic about how the day is going to go as I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stretch out my stiff body.
The TV on my wall chimes.
“Ivan, good morning!” Bridgette’s perky, smiling face fills the screen. “How did you sleep?”
She’s never appeared only on my screen before. I don’t mean to be short with her, but something in my gut tells me I’m not going to like this conversation. “Fine. What’s up?”
“The producers have been in contact with a FOS specialist, and the specialist has confirmed that we need to reduce Ariana’s exposure to scent matched pheromones to minimize her risk of developing the condition.
Now, we can’t remove you and Derrick from the show, because only Ariana and Grant wouldn’t make for a positive viewing experience for our audience.
We do have to ask either you or Derrick leave the house. ”
My stomach bottoms out.
She’s joking, right?
This is a joke.
We’ve only been here three days.
It’s not time to leave the house. She’s not ready for that. I’m not ready for that. I need more time with her to show her how much I love her. How important she is to me.
We can’t turn back now, not when we finally made some headway yesterday.
“We’ll leave it up to you two to decide who stays and who goes. We’ll unlock the door, and when the decision is made, just head on outside, and we’ll take it from there.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t. My words get stuck in my throat as Bridgette stares at me with a blinding white smile plastered on her face.
I hate her.
After a long pause, I find my voice. “Does Ariana know?”
“She does not. Bradley is informing Derrick right now. Your pack can decide as a group how you’ll tell Ariana. Good luck!”
The screen switches to the logo before I can formulate a response.
“Fuck!”
I collapse onto the bed, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest.
One of us has to leave.
Ideally, both of us would leave to keep Ariana safest, but the show must go on.
How are we going to decide?
I don’t want to leave. I love her, and I need her to realize she loves me, too.
But I’m practically a stranger to her. She knows Derrick, even if she’s pissed at him. She’s heard his voice, seen his face, for years.
And, objectively, he’s more handsome than me. He’d look better on people’s TVs than I do. Better for ratings.
It’s going to have to be me. It makes the most sense.
The door to my room opens as I’m throwing my clothes into my suitcase. I look up from the sloppy pile of t-shirts, and Derrick and Grant are there, both with stricken looks on their faces.
Derrick’s voice is raspy and strained. “Are they fucking with us?”
“I don’t think so. They wouldn’t mess around with something like FOS.” I can’t look at my pack as I continue loading my things into my beaten-up suitcase. “I’m going to finish packing, then we can tell her together what’s going on.”
“You’re going to leave?” Grant’s voice is strangled.
I cross the room and wrap one arm around his waist and cradle the back of his head with my other hand.
I push my forehead against his, breathing in his sweet, orchid scent.
“It needs to be me. Derrick has the most distance to make up with Ariana. I can figure out my relationship with her once all of this is over.”
We may not be romantically involved, but Grant is my Beta. We’re best friends, and we’re platonic lovers. He’s my rock as much as I am his. He exhales sharply, hands shaking as he places them on my chest. “I don’t like this. I don’t want any of us to be separated from her. She needs all of us.”
“This is what’s best for her.”
Her safety comes first. Always.
Derrick is quiet, leaning against the doorframe. I didn’t expect him to volunteer to leave, and wouldn’t want him to. If he can repair his relationship with her, then I should have no problem developing one once they’re out of here.
I hop in the shower, trying to spend as much time as possible in here and drag the day out, but I know it’s a bad idea. It needs to be like ripping a bandage off.
Just one tough pull, and it’s over.
My stomach is twisting like I had bad seafood, but I need to do this now. I’ll lose my nerve if I put this off any longer. I don’t want to stick around for the whole day, knowing that, at the end, I’ll have to leave. It feels dishonest to keep something like this from her all day.
My nervous hands are shaking as I brew coffee. I’m just pouring it into espresso cups when Ariana leaves her room.
She’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
Her hair is slightly frizzy, the waves untamed, and her skin is glowing. Her eyes are sleepy behind her glasses, and she’s wearing a pair of linen pants, a plain white t-shirt, and a single sock.
The Omega of my dreams. What if, once I leave, she never wants to see me again? What if she decides that Grant and Derrick are all she needs, and I don’t add anything to their dynamic?
I don’t want to give up Grant, but I won’t force him to choose between the two of us. I’m going to do right by my Omega and Beta. If it comes down to it, I’ll make the decision for him.
“Coffee?” Her voice is thick as she sits down in the chair I’ve quickly come to think of as hers. “Is there something we need to talk about?”
I chuckle awkwardly. “We’ll wait until the guys get here.”
Her back stiffens as her delicate fingers wrap around the tiny cup. It’s only been a couple of minutes when Derrick and Grant join us, neither smiling. They look like they took quick showers, and Grant’s hair hangs wet and limply around his face.
I can count the number of times he didn’t style his hair after a shower on one hand, and each time he was sick.
They take their places at the table and accept the cups I slide to them.
I take a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
“I got a message from Bridgette when I woke up."
“And Bradley contacted me.” Derrick talks over me and turns his body slightly to face her better. “They said that they consulted with a Foresaken Omega Syndrome specialist about your situation.”
She leans her elbows on the table, and her eyes bounce between us. “And? What did they say?”
I can’t look at her. If I see that she wants me to leave in her eyes, I’m not sure if I’ll ever recover. “In order to give you the best chance of avoiding contracting the illness, either me or Derrick needs to leave the house.”
Grant sniffles, not looking up from his cup. It makes my chest ache.
I’ve imagined the moment we all would be together for so long, and now it feels like my hopes of being a proper pack are being dashed before we even get off the ground.
I drain my coffee. The cup clanks loudly as I place it, too roughly, onto the tabletop.
Now or never.
“I’m going to go, sweetie.”
She doesn’t move.
Doesn’t react.
I don’t know what I expected. Tears? Begging me to reconsider?
Why would she, when she barely knows me?
How is she to know that I’m the one who always loses to her in chess? I can’t help but feel like I’ll never have the chance to tell her.
After a tense silence, I walk around the table and press a kiss to the top of her head. She doesn’t flinch away from me.
I don’t think I would’ve handled it well if she did.
“We’ll talk when this is over.”
No one says anything as I go to my room and grab my bag.
No one reacts as I drag it past the table and through the living room.
I’m steps away from the front door when she jumps to her feet.
“Ivan! Wait.”
I worry that I’ll spook her if I make too many sudden movements, so I’m careful and deliberate as I let go of my suitcase and walk back to the table. She’s wringing her hands together, not looking up from her feet.
A white sock with little pink bows on one foot. Chipped black polish on the other.
“I think you should stay.”
Her soft words have air rushing out of my lungs. “What?”
After too long a beat, she drags her eyes up to meet mine. “I think you should stay.”
“But-”
“Derrick should go.”