Chapter 13 – Killian Adler
Killian Adler
T he two giggly receptionists are officially on my last nerve. Have I ever found air-headedness attractive? Fuck no. Based on the way they whisper and point, I'd say they recognize me.
I'm sitting in the waiting room of one of those lady doctors. More specifically an omega-only lady doctor. Christ. How did I get roped into this?
It's Riley. I'd do just about any-fucking-thing for her and her girls.
Apparently even listen to the office staff snicker about how big I am.
"He's just like the right amount of feral, you know what I mean?" one of the women says, loud enough for me to hear every word.
What the hell is wrong with people?
"God, I know. Ride of your life, am-I-right?" the other replies.
Shaking my head, I frown at my lap. If that was an invitation it's one I won't be pursuing. I yank out my phone and call my mom to check in on the kids. Mom assures me all is fine. As we're about to disconnect Cove asks to talk to me.
"Hey Kiki, whatcha doing?" Cove asks. She talks a little too loudly into the phone. I find myself grinning like a fool. She's adorable with very little effort.
I raise my voice enough that the chatty women will hear every word. Let them assume what they will.
"Hey sweetheart, mommy is in her appointment, but just as soon as we get done, we'll be headed to pick you up. How's your sister?"
"She's eating a bottle," Cove says. "Fefe made me chocolate chip cookies. I have to go."
I laugh at that. Fefe? Seriously? God, I bet my mom is eating that up.
"Bye, sweetheart. Be good for Fefe." I snicker behind my fist.
"Okay, see you later," Cove says, chewing loudly. I'd say she's already got hands on those cookies.
"Sir, are you here with Riley Thomas?" a nurse asks as soon as I disconnect the call.
"Yes," I say, pushing out of my chair.
"Riley's asking for you," the nurse says, frowning.
"Is something wrong?" I ask, a jolt of panic running down my spine. I follow her down the hallway.
"She overheard a couple of the girls chatting about a celebrity in the waiting room and she got quite anxious, but she asked us to get you." She gives me a look of utter confusion. "She walked back into the room and won't come out without you," the nurse says, nodding to the door.
"Thanks," I grumble, pushing it open.
Riley is sitting on a chair, holding a bag of papers to her chest.
"What's wrong?" I ask, squatting down in front of her.
"Did you see a big guy out there?" she asks. Her eyes are huge and she's chewing at her lower lip. "Big like you?"
"No, sweetheart," I say, brushing my hand over her pale cheek. "I didn't."
Riley swallows thickly. "Okay, then we should go."
"What happened?" I ask.
"They were talking about…" She pales even further. She shakes her head and continues. "It doesn't matter. Let's go."
I pull her up off the chair and wrap my arm around her shoulder. I hate that she's afraid. I'm pretty sure she thinks her ex is here, but I think they were talking about me.
I like that she doesn't know who I am. Women only show interest in me for two reasons. Neither of which do I want Riley aware of. She looks to me for safety. I couldn't stand it if she feared me.
"You were done?" I ask.
Riley gives a nod.
"You never have to be afraid of anything when I'm with you," I tell her. My eyes stare into hers. I have to fight the urge to bend down and kiss her.
"I know," she whispers. "That's why I asked them to get you."
My stomach does an unnatural somersault and I nearly miss a step as we head out of the office.
Christ. That next-level honesty gets me every damn time.
* * *
"There's something I should probably warn you guys about," Riley says later that evening. Her cheeks are bright red and she's fidgeting.
"Okay," Cannon says, stretching back into the couch. "What's up?"
"The girls are asleep?" Sunde asks before Riley can reply.
"Yep, they passed right out," Riley says, taking a seat on the end of the chaise lounge. She's got the baby monitor with her and she sets it off to the side.
It's a solid bit of time later and Riley's still busy staring at her lap. She's avoiding eye contact with all of us and it's making me really fucking unsettled.
"It's pretty obvious I'm an unbonded omega," Riley says, clearing her throat. "I went to the doctor today. I've tried to take suppressants before, a few different kinds actually, but they made me violently sick. Nausea, vomiting, headaches…” She pauses. "Hair loss. It was awful."
"Right," Sunde says. "So obviously don't fucking take them."
"Yeah, that's kind of the problem," Riley says, frowning. "The doctor said I'll likely have a heat sometime in the next three months. I don't have a pack. She wanted to refer me to OPA to be matched."
No way is Riley being matched with an alpha pack. Not one other than the one in this room. Especially not through the Omega Protection Authority.
I growl. That is absolutelynot happening.
"Agreed," Sunde says, pointing at me with a tattooed finger.
"I didn't much care for that idea either," Riley whispers, blanching. Her eyes bounce between me and Sunde. She's absolutely avoiding looking in Cannon's direction. "I may have led my doctor to believe I have a pack that's courting me. I'm so sorry." Her hands fly to her face.
"What?" Cannon chokes out a laugh. "Us?"
"I'll fix it. I promise." Riley grimaces, pulling her hands down enough to look over at him. She's peeking at him from between her fingers and it's cute as hell.
I shake my head trying to wipe away the silly grin.
"It's fine," Sunde says, smiling like a lunatic. His face turns more serious, and he goes on. "Fuck them. If an omega doesn't want to be matched, that should be enough for them to back off."
"I agree," I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
"What exactly do you need from us?" Cannon asks. "I don't like the idea of anyone trying to force matches, but we also need to know what to expect."
"Nothing," Riley says, fidgeting in her seat. "Okay, almost nothing. They asked me to provide your names and I have a follow up in three months. She kind of insinuated that she expects at least one of my alphas to be there."
"It's no problem," Sunde says, pushing himself off the couch and settling next to Riley on the chaise lounge. "I'll be happy to accompany you to your doctor's appointment."
Riley nods. "Thank you, Finn," she whispers as her eyes meet his.
"Put it out of your mind," Sunde says, brushing his fingers over her cheek.
Riley gives us all a tentative nod and scrambles off the couch, bolting from the room.
Once her bedroom door closes, Sunderland chuckles.
"What an absolutely wonderful surprise," Sunde says with a clap. "This is my favorite winter of all the winters."
"Christ," Cannon says as Sunde exits the room. "What the hell is she going to do if she has a heat without a pack?"
"Didn't you hear? We're her pack for now at least. That means we do what we have to do to get her through," I say, swiping a hand over my face.
A throbbing ache settles in my dick at the thought. Fuck, I'm a bastard. She's alone in the world and I'm thinking about getting laid?
My head hangs as I shake away those thoughts. Riley needs support and friendship. Maybe throwing a little romance and love in the mix wouldn't hurt though right?
* * *
"Kiki I'm scared." The small voice wakes me out of a dead sleep.
Cove's small body climbs up the bed and then she's peering over my chest. My hand wraps around her back. My bed is high, she could get hurt if she slips off the edge.
"What's wrong?" I mumble trying to wake up.
"Mommy's gone. I think feeding Lily. I was tryin' a find her, but I got scared." Cove lies her head on my chest.
"Okay, let's go see what we can find," I say, pulling her over me and settling her deeper in the bed.
"Let me just find my pants," I grumble to myself.
"You just got on underwears?" Cove asks, tilting her head.
"Yeah," I grumble, finding my jeans from yesterday and hopping into them. Zipped and buttoned, I spin back to grab Cove. She's not being left behind, she tosses herself at my middle.
"You're reckless, child, I could have dropped you if you timed that wrong," I tell her. My tone is gentle, but I was asleep thirty seconds ago.
My damn heart races at the thought of her getting hurt.
"You had me," Cove says, popping her thumb in her mouth.
Good Lord. I'm starting to feel like the Grinch whenever she's around. My heart just keeps growing and growing.
I head across the hall and into Riley's open door.
"Let's wait for mommy in here," I grumble, lying down on the bed.
I position Cove in the middle and she blinks up at me.
"Don't leave me," she whispers. Her small hand finds mine and I realize I'm in real trouble. Is it possible to lose your heart to more than one person at a time? It absolutely has to be.
How could anyone be faced with the unfaltering love of a child and walk away? That bastard must not have three brain cells to rub together.
My head leans back against the headboard and it isn't long before I'm nodding off.
* * *
Waking up the next morning, I immediately realize two things. One, I'm not in my bed. Two, there's a very soft bundle of omega curled up to my side.
My eyes pop open frantically searching for Cove. She's on Riley's other side.
Thank God. I was afraid I lost her for a minute.
Riley's head rests in the crook of my shoulder. Long blonde lashes fan over her cheeks. She's got a thigh thrown over my leg and I'm well and truly trapped. Don't mind one single bit either.
A ragged purr starts in my chest, and I squeeze Riley's hip tighter. Her soft hand that rests on my chest starts rubbing circles over my skin. My heart thumps rapidly against my ribs.
These ladies are definitely dangerous to a man's heart. My mom always said my indifference to the opposite sex would end one day. Right around the time I got whacked in the heart like a Mac truck going sixty.
The older I get, the more I realize… My mom is very rarely wrong about anything important.
Felicity claims she's 5'4". She is absolutely not, but those are the unimportant things you ignore. If my mom wants to claim she's two inches taller than she is, my dads and I have all silently agreed to ignore the fact she's delusional.
Very few people know that Felicity is not actually my biological mother. I'm sure some people wonder, I mean I literally look nothing like her. For the most part they assume I must look like my father, which I do to a point.
My father had a relationship with my birth mother before meeting his pack.
He was still doing the professional fighting circuit.
Eventually, she decided she didn't want to leave her family on the reservation, and they broke up.
They stayed friendly and shared custody.
My mother passed away in a car accident a few months after I was born.
My father's pack was just starting to form, but they immediately took me in.
No one expected them to be matched to an omega barely four months later.
None of them believed an omega would willingly bond with a pack of men busy trying to raise a baby on their own. But Felicity is like no other. She fell in love on day one and the rest is history. She jokes that I was the one who she fell for first and my dads don't mind a bit.
Growing up the way I did, and knowing Felicity isn't my biological mother is why I know it's possible to love someone else's child like they're your own.
I've seen it, I've lived it. Biology doesn't necessarily make a family.
Giving love, being there no matter what, putting up with those terrible teenage years despite the kid's shitty attitude…
All those things are what defines a parent.
It's not a secret that Felicity wanted more kids.
It's why she runs the daycare. Felicity was never able to have any kids.
It's extremely rare for an omega to have fertility issues, but my mom took it in stride.
Saying that's just another sign she was meant to be with us. I got damn lucky having her in my life.
I'll never understand why some people who genuinely love children are unable to have them while questionable parents manage to breed like rabbits. It's a big fat cosmic mystery on how that works out.
Felicity is loving every second of having Cove and Lily around. She already told Sunde and I that she's going to take every penny of child care Riley pays and set up a savings account for the girls.
No one had the heart to tell Riley that my mom almost never charges for watching kids. Even if we did, I doubt she'd believe it. She needs some independence and to prove to herself that she can do it on her own. That's alright too. It's a trait I highly respect.
Lily starts to wiggle and fuss, and I carefully extricate myself from Riley. Before I'm fully out of the bed, her sleep mussed face pops up.
"I've got her," I whisper, leaning over and kissing her temple. "Get a little more rest."
Riley's eyes widen comically. She grins, giving me a nod before collapsing back into bed.
Pure fucking danger ahead for my heart. Knowing that, I can't seem to stop myself.
I'm already in the thick of it with these girls who came out of nowhere and changed everything .