Chapter 32
Chapter Thirty-Two
“What do you think is going to happen?” I have felt as if I am going to crawl out of my skin since my Omega locked herself in her room.
Grant runs his fingers through his hair, not looking away from her door. “I don’t know. I think it was really shitty of the producers to ask her to do this.”
“It wouldn’t be a grand prize if it were easy.” Bridgette’s voice surprises me. I hadn’t seen her face pop up on the screen or heard the bell sound that precedes her. “You’re not being forced to do it.”
“Even putting that idea out there was unfair. Her worst fear came true, and now you’re asking her to bond with one of us?” It’s not anger that flashes in Grant’s eyes, but devastation. “This could push her away from us for good.”
“I don’t believe that will happen. Everyone can see how much you care about one another. Things will work out. And when it does, I want an invitation to your bonding celebration.”
The TV goes black, with only the logo bouncing around on the screen.
Before we have time to process the interaction, the door to Ariana’s room opens.
“I’ve made my decision.”
When I get her in my sights, my stomach bottoms out. She’s crying, clutching at her chest as if there is a physical ache.
Fuck.
This isn’t good.
If she rejects us now, I worry there will be no second chance. And she’s not ready to bond us.
I would have shown her my neck the moment I first laid eyes on her if it wouldn’t have made her run away screaming. I’m all in. And I know Grant is too. Either of us would let her sink her teeth into us right now.
But to do it for a prize makes it feel cheap.
Forced.
And the last thing I want is to take this decision from her. We’ve hurt her so much with our deception already, I won’t let her do something she’ll regret.
Before I can open my mouth and tell her to forget it, we’re not doing this, she speaks.
“I opened the letter from Calvin when I first got here. And it hurt so much to read. It was like he was sitting there with me. I could hear his voice in my head. Not that it ever left. But he told me not to let his death be the most memorable thing about him. And honestly? It has been. It’s driven every decision I’ve made since I was sixteen.
” She sniffles and wipes the tears off her face, and I want nothing more than to pull her into my arms.
But I won’t. I want her to be able to say her piece before she rejects us.
“Except coming on this show. When I accepted their invite, I wasn’t thinking about Calvin’s death or all the Alphas I’d come into contact with getting here.
It still scared me when I had to make the journey, but that didn’t play into my agreeing to come here.
To meet Sax. I knew that meeting him would make the risk worth it.
That if I was ever going to put myself in danger of meeting a scent match, it would be for him. For you guys.”
Grant reaches out and grabs my hand, squeezing it and seeking reassurance from his Alpha. Ariana is still half a room away from us, and I can’t smell her scent, but somehow I know it’ll be bitter and sour. My Beta’s typically sweet floral scent smells more like the soil an orchid grows in.
“‘I want to be the reason why you take a chance on something. I want to be the reason why you follow your heart. I want to be the reason why you trust yourself enough to fall in love.’” She fists her hips and looks up at the ceiling, but it doesn’t stop the tears that track down her cheeks.
“He wrote that in the letter. One of the things I kind of glossed over. I tried to pretend he hadn’t said it.
He also said he didn’t want to be a ghost that haunts my footsteps, and he has been.
For ten years, his death has followed me everywhere. ”
I can’t help myself anymore. I’m on my feet, crossing the room, and pulling her into my arms. Grant is right behind me, embracing her from behind. A sob cracks her chest, and she melts into our arms.
“My big brother was amazing. He was strong, loving, and brave. And he wanted me to take a chance. To follow my heart. And I owe that much to him. I deserve to have the kind of love he got from his pack.”
My breath catches.
“He said that he knew that they were his pack immediately. He just knew, even without catching their scents and having that confirmation. He knew. And I know. I’ve always known. Whether you’re three people or one, you’re my pack.”
Grant is smothering silent tears against her back, his shoulders bouncing as he wraps his arms tighter around her.
I’m crying, too.
Because she called us her pack.
“I want to bond. Both of you.”
Our Beta loses control of his knees and drops to the ground, arms banding around her knees as his quiet sobs become loud in relief.
“You don’t have to do this,” I tell her, grabbing the back of her neck. “We can wait.”
She tilts her head and presses our foreheads together.
“We could. I’m sure people will judge me, thinking I’m doing this just for the prize, but I’m not.
Why should we wait when we know what we are to one another?
You’re mine, and I’m yours. That won’t change when we leave this house. It will never change.”
Then her lips are on mine, and I am kissing Ariana for the first time.
I’ve heard my entire life that my Omega would change everything for me.
Older family members would grab my hands and tell me the right Omega for me is just waiting to be found.
Even as a kid, our fairy tales and movies make the bond between an Alpha and an Omega seem like the stuff of dreams. And she is.
She didn’t even know who I was until six days ago, and yet she knew I loved her.
She may not have said that she loves me, too, but I don’t need that.
Offering me her bite is the highest honor she could bestow upon me.
Love isn’t everything. But a house is only as strong as its foundation, and it makes a pretty fucking good one.
She pulls away, leaving me panting and chasing her lips. Before I can catch them, white-hot pain in my neck almost brings me to my knees.
The bond rolls through me instantaneously. I can feel her everywhere. Her sweet, cool presence wraps around me, and nothing will ever be the same again. The bond waits for me, and I know that I could reject it, like slamming a door in her face, but I would never.
For the seven years I’ve known her, this is all I ever wanted.
I open my heart and soul to her and let our bond settle right where it belongs behind my heart.
“Ariana,” I whisper as I stroke the back of her head. “Hey, sweetie. I feel you.”
She looks up, face still streaked with tears, but her eyes are bright, and her smile is blinding. “I can feel you, too. You’re happy. You’re actually happy.”
“Happy doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Happy is how you feel on your birthday. It’s laughing with a friend in the park as someone trips over their rollerblades. It’s getting a surprise day off from work.
That’s not what this is.
My soul is singing. The world feels different. Lighter. There is nothing I cannot accomplish with Ariana by my side.
I am not happy.
I am forever changed.
Things are going to be different moving forward, and I am so excited to embrace every change. I wonder how my scent is going to morph now that I’m bonded to her. How will Grant’s? Derrick’s?
My swirling thoughts quiet, and my mind goes blank when she pushes her hips against me.
Pleasure zings through me, swelling my dick, at the softest touch from my Omega.
I’ve heard from people that bonding can make you weepy, or horny, or both.
I assumed we’d be weepy, and this turn of events has taken me by surprise.
It takes her pushing me toward the couch to notice that Grant had stepped back and given us some space. He’s been waiting for us on the arm of the plush sofa, never taking his eyes off of her, when she shoves me onto it and straddles me.
The cameras that dot the room become an afterthought in the pleasure of the moment.
Let them watch.
The producers, the crew, America.
I don’t care.
I’ve got my Omega on my lap and my Beta beside me. All that is missing is my best friend, and our pack would be complete.
Desperate hands plant on my shoulders, heat radiating from them.
Ariana uses them as anchors as she grinds against my cock and makes the sweetest little whining sounds.
I want to pull the front of my basketball shorts down and push into her, knot her, give her everything she wants.
My instincts are going haywire with the need to take care of my Omega.
My voice is thick with arousal as I call to my Beta. “Grant. Help her with her pants.”
A lascivious grin splits his face as he moves behind her and slips his hands under the waistband of her leggings. I pop her butt so she rises onto her knees, and he makes quick work of pulling them down her thighs. As she’s revealed to me, I can feel myself slipping closer into a rut.
It takes some maneuvering for the two of them to get her pants off, but she’s soon bare to me from the waist down.
The scent of her slick is thick in the air.
Creamy vanilla and tart citrus combine in a way that makes me desperate to get my mouth on her.
Grant works her shirt off, and once he undoes her bra and leaves her naked and wanting on my lap, he kisses and nibbles up the side of her neck.
As much as I want to feel her slick heat, to have her squeeze my knot, I am not going to take her virginity on television. She deserves better than that. Something intimate, where she’s not entertainment for a horny crew watching through monitors.
I’ll still take care of my girl, though.
I snake one of my hands between her legs, finding her slick with need, and gently stroke her lips. Her head snaps up, eyes wide as she stares at me in slack-jawed amazement.