Chapter 76 #2
“Come on, big guy… let’s get going.” I bump his shoulder with mine. “We’re good, right?” I pause before making a move to walk away.
“More than good, old man.” Connor grins and playfully drags me backward so that he can race past and beat me to our girl.
There’s a loud, feminine squeal of laughter and protests as he must scoop her up and disappear ahead of me.
When I cross the bedroom, it’s now empty.
Bedsheets are thrown back and rumpled after four of us crashing hard.
I take a quick opportunity to tidy the bed, all while thinking about how it only feels right for this to be a permanent arrangement.
Maybe I need to renovate and get a larger mattress custom-made?
I need to get Wren’s opinion on what she wants.
While I can assume to know her needs during a heat, I still don’t know if she will want to make a four-person pile of bodies the norm when it comes to our regular sleeping arrangements.
She might crave her space. Although I think we’ll all be pouting on the inside if she doesn’t want us in bed with her to cuddle and watch over her at all times.
Ace meets us in the kitchen, pulling his hoodie on as he walks in. As he tugs the hem down and then rearranges the fabric, he gives me and Connor a careful look over, and I feel the heat climb up my neck to land on my cheeks.
Wren has disentangled herself from Connor’s clutches and is almost hugging the coffee machine like a shipwrecked sailor returning to dry land.
“Sweetheart, we’re going to have to hit the road—” I venture a few croaky words, still feeling upended by last night and that kiss and the realization I don’t really want to leave this house at all.
At the sound of my voice, Wren’s head whips around, and she opens her mouth, shuts it, then opens it again.
“Peaches… are you feeling okay?” Ace looks her up and down.
She stumbles over a few noises, not forming actual words, but flaps her hands around.
All that does is set the three of us immediately on edge.
Our Alpha senses are attuned to the moment Wren goes nonverbal, and while I don’t sense anything down our bond that indicates this is a heat situation, I feel her anxiety spike.
She spins in place, looking between us all in the kitchen until finally she shakes her hands out and wets her lips. “Wait…” She shifts her weight from bare foot to bare foot. “Don’t go anywhere. Don’t move.”
Of course, with three Alphas, that’s the equivalent of waving a red rag to a bull.
We each somewhat charge for our girl in the process of reaching for her.
I don’t need to see Connor’s expression because I can faintly detect his emotion through our Wren-centered bond.
His emotions flare in the same pattern as my own.
Ace’s shoulders are tensed with the same worry knotting his muscles.
We’re all convinced something is wrong.
Wren’s baby blues widen, bouncing rapidly, first to me, then Connor, before landing on Ace.
“No no no.” She huffs and decides to abandon her coffee, instead leading us on a chase, the three of us following hot on her heels as she bolts for the living room. “Stop looking at me like I’m about to crumble. I need you three to just stay there for a second.”
“Bambi, you gotta tell us if something is wrong…” Connor extends a big hand to catch her waist, but all that does is make our girl frown.
She has to crane her neck to look at us, and that seems to make a decision for her.
Wren evades his hold and instead delicately hops up onto the couch so that she stands eye to eye.
“Right, okay, that’s better.” She lets out a shaky exhale and tucks her hair over one shoulder, twisting the strands.
That leaves three Alphas standing before her, all of us confused as shit.
“Here goes...” She swallows, wets her lips with a rapid dart of her pink tongue, then twines her fingers together. “I’m in love. I just thought you should hear it from me,” she blurts, a deep shade of red kissing her cheeks.
Our combined slack-jawed expressions greet her. Obviously, being able to feel Wren’s love down our bond isn’t a new experience for me, but to have her lay it out there so openly is a gift that is almost too good to be true.
“Bambi…”
“Peaches…”
The two Alphas flanking me croak in unison.
“I’m stupidly, hopelessly in love. With you three. Obviously,” she growls, and it’s utterly captivating.
It’s safe to say we’re equally as stunned into silence, as Wren is flustered and blushing at the outburst of her declaration.
Connor opens his mouth, but she doesn’t let him get a word out. With catlike reflexes, she pinches his lips together to shush him.
“I want to tell you right now, properly, at this second, before another heat comes along. Not while it’s a sex thing.
I want to tell you with words and a clear head.
Not just the implied sense of a bond, letting you know.
It’s important that I tell you. I had a family I loved who I didn’t say the words to anywhere near enough, and now I’ll be the most annoying Omega you’ll ever have had the misfortune to be with, because I want to tell you every day.
You deserve to hear it, as well as being shown with actions, those words are a big deal. ”
“They’re the most treasured gift ever, baby.
” I somehow manage to keep my voice steady.
“We’re so proud of you, and more in love with you than feels possible to put into words.
But I can’t imagine not reminding you every single day, and we’ll show you that love we share for you, we’ll show you in as many ways, big and small, as possible. ”
Connor mumbles something incoherent, his lips still being squashed together by Wren’s hold. His fingers curl in the hem of the T-shirt she is wearing, the loose fabric hanging at her bare thighs.
Wren gulps back the emotion threatening to rise, pressing that touch more lightly to his mouth now.
“This means everything for me to tell you while I’m fully coherent and not find myself in a daze where you don’t have the real me present, or when I can’t see the look in your eyes with my own.
I want to tell you that you’re my world.
That I love you all individually, together, whatever that looks like for us…
I love everything about our pack, and I love the way our pack loves. ”
As her words grow a little thick with the surge of feeling, her eyes fix on Connor and Ace.
“Sweetheart, you’re more perfect than I could ever dream. I struggle to believe you’re real. And I know it’s a sentiment we all share.” I feel relatively confident speaking for all of us when I say the words out loud.
As I look at her, taking in her beauty, I can’t help the voice in my head that keeps reminding me: we need a plan.
Last night was carefully orchestrated. A calculated risk I took, but I’ll be the first to admit it was more than a little reckless.
There are only so many times I can make sure none of the administrative staff come near the offices after a game.
There is always the possibility someone will need me for something even if I’ve already told them I’m unavailable for the rest of the night.
There are only so many ways I can juggle my responsibilities as the team owner before it starts to look suspicious that I’m missing from the after-match events.
That was a one-off thing, and Wren deserves a permanent solution.
She loves them, all of us, and we’re all so in love with her it would physically wreck each of us if anything were to happen to our girl.
I want everything for her. And I won’t let this pack be torn apart