15. Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
Wren
H ow many days had passed since I came to in the bathroom, wrapped in Mateo’s arms and sagging against his chest? Two? Three?
I wasn’t sure, but in that time, neither he nor Dean touched me until I asked. There had been a few times I thought they would make me beg before finally helping me find the release my body demanded of me.
I knew my cycle might pass faster if Mateo covered my inner walls with his cum, but I was more than grateful the beta brought condoms for us to use. There was less risk of me getting pregnant before I knew anything more about the pack than their names.
Dean hadn’t done anything more than help me with the toy when they first carried me in or kissed me when I asked him to. As cocky as he seemed in the beginning, I was growing to like him as much as I liked Mateo.
Maybe even growing to trust them both.
The waves of pain and lust had grown further and further apart. Now, I was simply exhausted and in desperate need of a shower. I was covered in my own sweat and slick and assumed I stunk.
Although…there was a small part of me that hated the thought of washing away Mateo’s scent after spending the last few days with him. He’d been so gentle and kind to me from the beginning, and even more so while we were locked in the nest.
I had to admit I was mildly surprised the other three hadn’t demanded they be invited into the small room with us. Maybe they weren’t as bad as I’d originally thought.
At least Winter wasn’t. Yeah. I was still pissed at Raece for using his alpha bark on me, for tearing my flesh without my permission.
And Doran…he hated me. And there was no love lost on my end.
That was fine. He could keep to himself, and I would stay right here in my wing as long as the pack was awake.
My pack. My packmates.
Whether any of us liked it, we were officially a pack now. We’d had a public ceremony, Raece had marked my shoulder, and I’d taken Mateo’s knot. As he and Dean slept on either side of me, I closed my eyes and focused on the bond that had flashed bright in my chest when Mateo had filled me and locked us together.
Dean and Mateo were there but quiet.
Raece was a darker thread, but there was something akin to determination there.
Winter was…sad. It was like I could taste the sorrow through the connection to him.
Reluctantly, I even sought Doran through the bond and was surprised to find a great amount of remorse.
Did he feel badly about how he’d treated me or was there something else going on in the pack? Not like I’d spent any time with any of them, not like I’d left my quarters for any longer than it had taken to find the bottle of ibuprofen the night Doran let me know exactly how he saw my place in the pack.
Well, joke was on him. Because a member of his own pack had made sure there was no chance of me getting knocked up. Dean had made sure there were plenty of condoms available to last us the remainder of my heat.
A thick, heavy arm was draped over my waist. Dean’s leg was between my thighs. I was pinned by the two I felt most comfortable with, but I needed to get up. I really needed to clean up.
And I was starving.
What was the chance anyone left food for us recently? Bottles of water seemed to appear nonstop, but I had no idea whether the alpha or beta had eaten. After that first day, my memories were hazy, mostly filled with pain and release, pain and release, and the feeling of Mateo’s heavy body pressing against me and making me feel as though I was protected from the rest of the world.
As slowly and carefully as possible, I lifted Mateo’s arm and set it gently onto his own stomach. Sitting up, I tried to extricate myself from Dean’s leg, but he groaned, rolled closer, and hugged me to his side.
I tensed, waiting for the sense of fight or flight to kick in.
Instead, I found myself settling into the cushioned floor, savoring the warmth of his hold, and inhaling his autumn scent deep into my lungs.
“I need to get up,” I whispered, unsure whether Dean was awake enough to realize he was holding me down.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his voice rough. He peeked open one eye to look at me as I pushed up onto my elbows.
“Just need to use the restroom. And shower. And I’m starving.”
Eyes still closed, he crawled away. He blinked a few times after opening the door then peered into my room. “There’s food. Go shower and we’ll eat.”
“Don’t you need to shower?” He hadn’t exerted the same energy as Mateo and me, but he’d been locked in here for days without washing off the pheromones, hormones, or even his natural body oils.
“Then I won’t smell like you,” he said, moving back to Mateo’s side and snuggling against the giant alpha.
I wrinkled my nose, but then that wrinkle smoothed as a smile slowly stretched across my face. He wasn’t following me into the bathroom. He wasn’t watching me as I climbed to my feet and wrapped a blanket around my naked body. He’d simply refused to wash off my scent yet and made sure there was food ready for me. For us.
Just as Dean declared, there was a tray of fresh food, drinks, and even three empty mugs and a carafe of coffee waiting for us for when we emerged from the nest. Did that mean someone had delivered trays every day the way Mateo had when I first arrived?
And which of them had it been? My guess would have been either Winter or Raece. Because no way would Doran lower himself to bringing food for the breeder and her studs.
Turning the handle, I started the spray and waited for the water to warm as it hit the tile, filling the room with a comforting white noise.
“Oh man,” I muttered when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
There was an obvious glow to my cheeks after a week of fever, sex, and orgasms. But what made me grimace was the red clump of frizzy, knotted curls that would take a lot of brushing to release so it would resemble human hair instead of a freaking bird’s nest.
Steam filled the room, coating the mirror until I could no longer see my reflection. With a quick glance at the door to make sure I was still alone, I pulled away the blanket, folded it, and set it on the counter before stepping into the glass surround.
It wasn’t until the hot spray hit my skin that I realized how tight and sore my muscles were. Dean and Mateo had only joined me for the last three days of my heat. I couldn’t imagine how I would have felt had all three alphas and both betas actually joined us.
One beta. Doran obviously hated me. I’d done nothing to him, yet he hated me simply for existing.
Whatever. I didn’t want him, either. And I was pissed off enough at Raece that it would be a cold day in hell before I invited him into my room or my nest.
My room. My nest. This was my home. This was my pack. I hadn’t chosen this life, hadn’t chosen my designation.
No matter how hard I fought against it this was my life.
I could stomach it if I only had to deal with Mateo and Dean. They’d shown me nothing but kindness. I hadn’t even felt Dean’s hard length while I’d writhed and begged for release. He hadn’t touched me because I hadn’t asked him to. He’d retrieved condoms so I wouldn’t be bred during my first heat with them.
And Mateo hadn’t lost his mind to rut and hurt me. So many things we’d been taught at the Center were turning out to be untrue.
What else was a complete lie? Other than Raece using his bark so he could mark me and Doran’s cruel words, this pack was nothing like what we’d been prepared for during all our years of training.
Maybe that was one of the reasons it had taken so long for a pack to choose me, because the headmistress had hoped to mold me into a submissive, weak-minded omega she could sell to a high-powered pack, a pretty little omega a pack could have on their arm during public functions.
It was obvious by the house and the way the guys had furnished my room and nest they were financially comfortable. Meaning they had good jobs.
So why the hell did they need me? Yeah, they couldn’t register their pack officially, but they’d done just fine without that official stamp of government approval.
“Stop procrastinating,” I muttered to myself when I realized I’d stayed under the spray far too long while pondering over so many aspects of my current life.
Time to wash my hair. Maybe if I slathered it in conditioner, I could brush through it easier. I probably should have brought the brush in with me and used it in here.
“Need help?” Dean’s voice said from the other side of the glass door, pulling a startled squeak from my throat.
It didn’t make a lick of sense, but I threw my arms up and attempted to cover my boobs and the apex of my thighs as though he hadn’t seen every inch of me for the past three days.
“What are you doing?” I asked, turning to the side a little.
“Had to pee. And you looked like you were struggling to wash your hair. Your arms sore? I could wash it for you. I wash Mateo’s sometimes.”
Why did the image of the two men sharing a shower send heat through my limbs and a fresh wave of slick to my core?
“It’s tangled,” I said, pointing to my head while still attempting to cover myself.
Dean stepped closer and raised a brow at my arms. “What are you trying to hide? You know I’ve seen you naked.”
And he was currently standing outside the glass enclosure in nothing but his birthday suit. His thick cock hung between his thighs and, it could be my imagination, but it sure looked like he was growing harder the longer he stood there.
“Let me help,” he said. But he didn’t step in. He was waiting for my permission.
A smile quirked at the corners of my lips, and I finally dropped my arms, nodding my head for him to join me.
“Besides,” he said, stepping under one of the rainfall shower heads, “we can save water if we shower at the same time.”
The small smile spread as I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He was a flirt. He’d teased me when I’d come to in the bathtub, pretending he was looking away while making a show of taking peeks at my naked body as Mateo stood with me held against his chest. Then, he’d brought sex toys to help me through and even aided me in finding my release faster.
And the memory of his lips wrapped around Mateo’s thick cock…
Damn it . I was trying to shower but my body was growing warm again, slick coating my thighs at the memory of seeing Dean blowing Mateo while I’d laid there watching.
“Here. Turn around. And, unlike Mateo, I won’t even make you kneel on the ground so I can reach your head.”
Was that the only reason Mateo knelt for Dean? And yep, fantasies of seeing the two of them together again made me bite the inside of my cheek to prevent the needy whimper from falling from my lips.
“Because I’m so short?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice even.
“Exactly.” His muscular arm appeared in my periphery as he reached for the bottle of shampoo. “Your hair is really pretty,” he said as he lathered up my curls.
“Thank you?”
“That sounded more like a question.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile. “Not a question.”
“Do you not like it?”
His fingers felt divine as they massaged my scalp. “I’ve always wanted to cut it a little. Not too much. Don’t want to look like little orphan Annie, but…sometimes it’s too much.” Like after spending a week locked away with two amazing men.
“So cut it. Do you want me to set an appointment for you? We have a friend who’s an amazing hairstylist.”
“You don’t go to a barber?” I asked.
“Turn around and tilt your head,” he said.
I did as he said and blushed when he stepped close enough for me to feel his erection brush my stomach while he cupped his hands around my forehead to keep the suds from running into my eyes.
“With locks like mine, why would I go to a barber? Besides, the beta who cuts my hair is hot. Like, smoking ass hot and almost as muscular as Mateo.”
I chuckled. Of course, Dean would go to a hair stylist because they were hot and not because of their skill.
“Turn again,” he ordered gently. He reached for the conditioner and worked it through my hair from mid-length to the ends. He really must have washed Mateo’s hair a few times to know exactly how to use the products. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Do you want me to schedule an appointment for you? I can take you. Or Mateo. Or, you know, both of us.”
“Because you want to ogle the stylist?” I said around a chuckle.
We hadn’t really spoken much during my heat. But the time we’d shared in the bathroom and the nest made me truly feel like I might have made a friend in the pack.
Make that two . Because Mateo had been sweet to me from day one.
“Sweetheart, that would give me the chance to ogle the sexy stylist and my sexy omega.”
And there went the heat coursing through my body again.
What would Dean think if I asked him to touch me? More importantly, did I have the courage to ask for that? I hadn’t wanted any of them in my space, but now, I regretted the fact I hadn’t had the chance to make love to Dean, to feel his hands on me, to feel him pumping inside of me until…
“Are you thinking about hot betas, too? Because, damn, sweetheart. Your perfume is making me crazy.”
Dammmn it! There was no way for me to hide my arousal if every time I even contemplated anything sexual my scent exploded from me.
And, yeah, I was definitely thinking about hot betas. Just not the same one he was discussing.
“You guys really wouldn’t mind?” I asked to change the subject instead of confessing I was contemplating asking him to take me against the shower wall.
“I literally just said I would take you. I haven’t seen Marcus in way too long. I would love to take you out and show you off.”
I bristled a little but had to remember he didn’t mean he wanted to show me off as his newly acquired omega, but rather show off his beautiful new woman.
“I mean, you wouldn’t mind if my hair wasn’t down to my butt?”
“Turn,” he said, gently guiding me by my shoulders. And yep, his cock brushed against me again and there was no way to hide the cloud of perfume that exploded from me at the silky hardness I’d seen in my nest but hadn’t actually felt yet. “Why the hell would I mind? You could shave your head and you’d still be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Hell, you’d probably be sexy as hell in a badass kind of way with a bald head.”
A girly giggle burst from my lips as the water rinsed the conditioner from my hair.
“I don’t think there’s anything I could do that would make me look badass.” I hadn’t even been able to secure my own freedom by the time I was pushing thirty. “How old are you?”
I don’t know why I blurted it. Except Dean looked younger than the others. And I couldn’t help but wonder if I was older than every member of the pack.
“You worried you’re robbing the cradle?” he teased. “You can’t turn back now.”
I pushed my hand along my hair, wiping water and my hair away from my face.
“Twenty-nine,” he said. “I’m the second youngest in the pack. Doran is only twenty-two. Mateo, Raece, and Winter are over thirty.”
Well, at least I was only older than one of the pack, and it happened to be the one who wanted nothing to do with me. I guessed that made it a little better, even if I did feel a bit like a spinster.
Most omegas were courted by the time they turned twenty and bonded within a week of their twenty-first birthday. And then there was me, looked over by pack after pack until Raece and his guys had looked at my file and saw something they liked.
Honestly, I still didn’t know what that something could possibly be, especially since I was fully aware the headmistress had more than likely put a few less than kind words in there about me.
Dean reached around me and ended the spray, then grabbed the towel from the door and started drying me off before tending to himself.
“So what do you think? Want to put in a visit with Marcus?”
I ran my fingers through my hair and marveled at the fact I could actually get them through the curls without snagging on any knots or snarls. The beta knew how to take care of long hair.
“Yeah. I think I would.” I assumed that meant it would be a few weeks since most stylists had full schedules.
I hadn’t expected Dean to lounge on the bed watching me dress as he typed out a text then got an immediate reaction. “Okay. He can get us in in two hours. Let’s get some food in your belly, then we’ll head out. Want to go shopping after? I’m sure you’re probably tired of wearing crap Raece picked out for you.”
Holy crap. Not only was I getting out of the house, but Dean had managed to get me into a stylist within a few hours and he’d just offered to take me out to pick out clothes I wanted to wear.
Definitely nothing like the packs we were trained to please.