33. Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
Wren
T he most delicious smelling weighted blanket covered me from head to toe. Literally, from the top of my head down to my toes, even stretching beyond.
Lips feathered across my forehead, urging my lids up. Sweet, sticky whipped cream filled my senses a second before I tilted my chin up and looked into Doran’s stormy gray eyes.
At some point, Matteo had pulled away from me and Doran had taken his place, lending me his strength and body heat. Something about my pack pressing me into the couch with their weight in a nonsexual way helped me think more clearly.
Even as the sleep drifted from my brain, the memories of why I ended up beneath Matteo then Doran was clear as day. The government was putting yet more bullshit laws in place to remind my designation of how little we mattered to society.
I’d only had one heat cycle with my pack and Matteo had used a condom for my peace of mind. And now, the government was demanding I be returned to the Center for further testing.
How many of the omegas who hadn’t conceived yet had found a way to sneak birth control into their systems without their alphas’ knowledge? How many of the packs were like mine and were giving their omegas time to decide when they wanted to carry children instead of forcing them to carry a child against their will?
Another question was bothering me – Was the Center knowingly pawning off omegas with infertility issues? We all went through the same testing, the same training, the same discipline.
Though some of us were definitely punished more than the others.
Wouldn’t that mean if there were some obvious issues with an omega’s reproductive system they would have been aware?
I had no doubt they would still try to get top dollar for the product they spent so much time and resources on. And, honestly, I didn’t believe every single pack who purchased an omega did so specifically for children.
My pack was exactly one of those. They’d added me to the pack so they could register Pack Stryder legally and open a legitimate business, or at least the facade of one so they could continue their side business and subsequent sales of black-market items when they rescued and relocated omegas from shitty situations.
Doran’s lips continued to feather across my forehead, his fingers lazily trailing through my hair and gently working out any knots or snarls in my curls. By the time I sat up, my hair would be a big frizz ball.
“You awake?” he asked in that deep voice of his.
I hummed but wrapped my arms around his middle to hug him tighter to me.
Matteo had held a majority of his weight on his forearms and knees, but Doran was pressed more firmly against me. He was still heavy, but not quite as big as Matteo.
Honestly, I didn’t care at that moment if all five of them piled on top of and around me, engulfing me with their scents and body heat. Might have been hard to breathe, but I would rather suffocate beneath the men who’d claimed my heart than be subjected to more of the bullshit at the Center’s hands.
When Doran began to push away from me, I tightened my arms then hooked my legs around his, keeping him in place.
“Not yet,” I whispered.
His body shook as he chuckled lightly.
He pulled his face back and looked down into mine. “You feeling better?” His voice was soft, but there was tension in the lines around his eyes.
“Eh,” I said, awkwardly lifting one shoulder in a half shrug. “Can we just stay like this forever?”
Another chuckle shook the entire couch. When he raised his upper half on his hands, his obviously hard cock nestled against my core, I was tempted to let him distract me from my inner thoughts and fears in a different way.
But when the rest of the pack began to pile into the room, I sighed and unhooked my feet, letting Doran fully sit up.
As much as I wanted him to continue squishing me, I was sure it wasn’t an overly comfortable position to lie in for an extended period of time.
Pushing to a sitting position, I pulled my knees to my chest with my arms wrapped around them and looked from face to face.
Raece and Dean…they both sported cuts and bruises. Which explained the raised voices and crashes and thuds that came from the room when Dean went to calm the pack lead down.
Everyone wore similar expressions of anger and determination.
“Something new happen?”
Winter shook his head and lowered to sit beside me, draping an arm around my shoulders and hugging me tightly to his side. His lips pressed to my hair, and I huffed a laugh when he pulled back and a few strands stuck to the stubble peppering his chin. No one had bothered shaving in a few days, and I had to admit…I really liked the rougher look on all of them. They were already gorgeous with their sharp, masculine features, but the facial hair made them look rugged. Like they were my own personal bad boys.
I lifted a hand and disentangled my frizz from his cheek then smiled up at him. “Sorry. Hair has a mind of its own.”
The elastic I’d used to tie it back in a bun when I’d sought them this morning was missing. It had probably ended up buried in the couch cushions when I was carried into the living room then perfectly squished under my alpha’s weight.
Winter didn’t seem to mind because he leaned over and nuzzled against me, scent marking me and pressing kisses to my forehead, temple, and the top of my head.
Matteo shoved Doran out of the way and took a spot on the other side of me. “My turn,” he grumbled when Doran protested.
“You were with her for over an hour,” Doran whined.
“So were you,” Matteo shot back.
“Doesn’t that make it my turn? Except…can we snuggle naked? With my face buried between your thighs?” Dean teased.
I hated the stress my pack was under solely because they were trying to protect me, but I loved that Dean refused to let it affect him. Or at least not so much that he stopped being my flirty, sex-obsessed beta.
Raece cuffed the back of his head, but Dean continued to smirk at me.
“Just saying. What better way to snuggle and distract you?”
“Raincheck?” I teased back.
He jabbed a finger in my direction. “I have witnesses. Can’t back out now.”
“Can you focus on something other than sex for five minutes?” Doran said, but I didn’t miss the twitch of his lips.
“Is there something to focus on other than the fact a bunch of assholes will be touching my–”
A loud growl erupted from Matteo and cut off anything I might have said. He gripped me by the hips and pulled me out from under Winter’s arm and onto his lap, his own big, strong arms wrapping possessively around me as though he could shield me from the world.
“We’re not taking you back to the Center,” Raece declared, and was met with nods from the rest of the pack.
“But the governor–”
“Can kiss our fucking asses. You’re marked and claimed. You’re ours. There is absolutely no guarantee you would have gotten pregnant during your first heat even if Matteo hadn’t worn a rubber. And it’s our business whether or not we choose to have a family. Therefore, it’s none of their fucking business whether or not you – or any one of us – is infertile,” Raece said, his tone leaving absolutely no room for doubt.
“But what if–”
Matteo’s arms tightened around me, and he growled again. “We’re not allowing anyone to put you in a situation that hurts you or even makes you fucking uncomfortable.”
“Yeah. Raece and Doran did enough of that in the beginning,” Dean said, earning a middle finger from Doran and a glare from our pack lead.
“I mean, you kind of did,” I said, rolling my lips into my mouth to hide the smile when both men looked in my direction. “Just kidding.”
Matteo’s long hair tickled my neck as he nuzzled his cheek against mine over and over, his thighs firm and warm beneath my butt and legs.
The growl was gone. Now, a rusty purr rumbled from his chest and helped chase away the rising anxiety. Because even though my pack was determined to keep the Center away from me, they couldn’t exactly fight the entire government. If the authorities wanted, they could simply bust down the door and drag me out of here kicking and screaming. And while I knew my pack would fight to their last breath, they would be outnumbered. They would get hurt.
They could get killed.
Then…what would be the point of my existence?
More importantly, when did I center my entire universe around these five men watching me so closely?
We might not have had decades together, or even months for that matter. But in the short time since I’d accepted my position in their pack, since I’d realized I could trust them and began to let them past the tall barriers I’d built around my heart, I could barely remember my life before them, as though they were meant to be mine from the beginning.
“They’re eventually going to want a check-in. We knew that from the get-go,” I said, resting my head against Matteo’s shoulder and inhaling his spring scent deep into my lungs, letting his hormones, his warmth, his purr center me so I wouldn’t spiral out of control again.
“I’ll handle it,” Raece said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his eyes on my face.
They were all looking at me, except Matteo who was affectively trying to wrap himself around me as much as possible.
“What’s the deadline?” I asked after a few minutes of staring off into space and chewing on my bottom lip.
“What do you mean?” Winter asked.
Since Matteo had pulled me away from him, he’d scooted closer so he could pull one of my hands into his lap and toy with my fingers. He always tended to hold my hand, gently rubbing circles on the back of my hand, or running the tip of his finger along each of mine as though he was memorizing every inch of my hand. Mine looked so small next to his.
Hell, I was tiny next to all my guys, but especially Matteo who was a few inches and quite a few pounds of muscle bigger than the rest of the pack.
“They’re giving packs a month to set an appointment with their local Omega Centers across the state,” Raece answered.
“So we have a month to figure out a way to avoid all this? Or we have a month for me to come to terms with it?”
“I said we’re not–”
I lunged from Matteo’s arms, cutting off Raece’s words.
My big alpha growled and groaned in frustration at the same time, but I paced across the room to put space between myself and my guys. I needed to think clearly and couldn’t do that when they were all using their alpha superpowers to keep me compliant and docile with their intoxicating scents and purrs.
“What are the consequences? I want to know all of it,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“We’ll take care of it, Wren. I promise,” Dean said. He smiled softly, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“You guys realize I’ll find out one way or another. You can either be honest with me – and keep that trust intact – or you can continue to hide shit from me, things that affect my life as much as yours, maybe even more, and I’ll just wait until you’re all asleep and do some digging of my own.”
“Not if I put passwords on all the computers,” Raece said, sitting back against the cushions, his knees splayed, his thick arms crossed over his chest.
“Way to keep her trust, dumbass,” Dean muttered.
Raece and I glared at each other so long I began to wonder whether either of us was willing to back down. I was more than willing to die on this hill. I wanted to know all of it. Yeah, I was their omega. Yeah, they would suffer if I suffered…but they would never suffer in the same way.
I would never tell them all the gory details, but mainly because I had no desire to relive any of it. I wasn’t the kind of person who got over my issues by rehashing them.
They’d heard enough. And they’d deduced the rest from the tidbits I’d given them. But they would never truly know the full extent of what every single omega who was delivered to the Omega Center endured, and all in the name of training us for future packs, for alphas who might or might not give a shit about anything more than our bodies.
“What are the consequences for not delivering us for testing?” I asked again when Raece refused to drop his glare or answer me.
“Prison time,” Winter answered, earning a warning growl from Raece. “Shut the fuck up. She deserves to know all of it. It’s just as much about her as it is us. Possibly more,” he said, practically mirroring my thoughts from moments ago.
“Okay. So, either you five follow the governor’s orders and make an appointment for my…examination.” I almost gagged on the word. “Or you get locked up.”
“Which would then leave you unprotected,” Doran said.
“They’re also threatening to reassign any omegas whose packs don’t follow the new laws,” Doran added.
“Mother fuck ,” Raece growled out, lunging to his feet and storming from the room.
Last time he did that, it sounded like he was tearing his room apart. And he and Dean both sported battle wounds.
Nope. Not only would I not allow him to walk out when we needed to have this conversation, but I wouldn’t let him shut himself in and hurt himself again. Or any of the rest of the pack.
“Hey,” I called out, jogging to keep up with his long strides. “Raece.”
When he didn’t stop, I sprinted forward and launched myself at his back like a rabid squirrel, successfully knocking him off balance until we tumbled to the ground.
Raece caught the brunt, his elbows and knees slamming against the floor before he reached back to make sure I wasn’t tossed head over heels and onto the floor.
“What the hell are you doing?!”
“You don’t get to shut down. I did enough of that for both of us already,” I yelled.
“Eh. You’re both doing a great job of that today,” Dean said from the mouth of the hallway. “They’re fine. She knocked him on his ass,” I heard him say as he wandered back to the living room.
Technically, I knocked him off balance, but the way Dean said it made me sound stronger and almost a little badass.
I was still on Raece’s back, so I took a page from them and sprawled along his back, my lips near his ear. “Stop running away. Stop punching holes in stuff. You don’t get to be unhinged. I get you guys are scared of losing me, but guess what? I’m fucking scared of losing you. Worse, I’m scared of you guys getting locked up while I’m sent away to some bastards who could…” My breath hitched as the panic threatened to drown me again.
Raece moved so quickly I squeaked. One minute, I was pretending I could actually hold my alpha down, the next, I was on my back, my hands held over my head, his big body cradled between my thighs.
“There’s not a chance in fucking hell I will let anyone touch you. Do you understand me?” he growled down at me, his warm nutmeg, clove, and cranberry scent landing on my tongue.
“Do you see any other way around this? Because I don’t. Either we go through with it, I let them test me to make sure my pack can knock me up, or we risk losing each other forever.”
Tears burned the backs of my eyes, and I didn’t have the strength to fight them.
The thought of returning to that place, of having strangers strap me naked to a gurney, of hands touching me, needles poking into my skin to draw blood…it scared me. My stomach turned as the memories tried to break free from the box I kept them locked in.
But that fear, even the memories of my time there was nothing compared to the absolute agony and terror I felt slashing through my chest at the thought of never seeing my pack again, of never feeling my alphas under my hands, of never feeling my sweet betas snuggles, of hearing their deep grumbling voices, Dean’s teases, Doran’s sweet lips…
Raece’s mouth crashed down onto mine in a bruising kiss, his tongue spearing past my lips, tasting, devouring…claiming.
My hands shook as I reached for his pants and pushed the front of his sweats down, wrapping my fingers around his thick shaft. It didn’t matter that we were on the floor in the middle of the hallway. It didn’t matter that our packmates were mere feet away and could easily round the corner and see us.
In fact, the more the merrier. I felt this feral need for them to each lay their claim on me again, mark my skin everywhere with their teeth, suck hard on my skin until they left dark hickeys. I wanted to be smothered in their scents, to feel so lost in their touch I didn’t know where I stopped and they began.
Raece’s hands smoothed over my hair, down my throat to my breasts, then down to my leggings. He shoved them as far down as he could reach, hooking a foot in them to shove them the rest of the way off.
With my hand still wrapped around his shaft, I guided him to my opening, throwing my head back with a moan when he entered me with one hard thrust.
“Fuck,” he ground out, his jaw clenched, a vein bulging in his throat as though he was keeping himself from pounding into me.
But I didn’t want him to hold back. I wanted to feel him. All of him. I wanted to feel his passion, his hips slapping against mine. I wanted his pleasure, to feel his hot cum filling me, his knot stretching me.
“Raece. Please,” I whined, lifting my hips to meet his when he started to move, urging him to go faster, deeper, harder.
We had a month before I walked back through the doors of the place that had been the star of my nightmares for so many years.
Until that day, I planned to enjoy every minute with my pack, to wring every drop of pleasure from them as possible.
And to give them every piece of me I could.