Chapter 26
Desmond
The last time I showered this quickly was two weeks ago when Hudson was in heat. I simply need to get clean, wash away the scents from our clients and omega employees, then head to Hudson.
Alex is already in there. I know because there’s a rush of lust pulsing down the bond.
That lust keeps mixing with various other emotions, though, including sorrow and shame. What could possibly make him feel ashamed? We’re here, we left work early to be with him, so I would think that sorrow would be gone.
The shame? I have no idea what the hell could be causing that. But I plan to find out and erase it from his heart and mind.
There is literally nothing Hudson has done that justifies him feeling ashamed. If anyone should feel that way it’s us, Mason for biting and bonding him when they were both lost to their hindbrains and Alex and me for not being able to stop him.
As I round the corner, I stumble a little but right myself before I look like a dork. Hudson is wearing these silky looking black boxers and nothing else.
He’s like every wet dream rolled into one beautiful omega.
Alex is sitting beside him, running his fingertips up and down his legs starting around his ankles, up the inside of his thighs before running them down again.
As I move further into the room, I glance at the TV then do a double take at a middle-aged woman teaching a class of men and women how to give blow jobs using dildos.
“Um…what are you watching?”
My dick is not at the right angle for a boner right now and is straining against the flannel sleep pants I pulled on after my shower. I’m not sure I even fully dried off before getting dressed and hurrying from my room.
“I’m not really watching it,” Hudson blurts out, snatching the remote from the coffee table and clicking onto the guide. “Did you guys want to hang out and watch a movie with me?”
“That’s all we do anymore,” Alex grumbles. “I swear we’re either at work or sitting around the living room watching TV with you.”
Alex isn’t looking at Hudson as he speaks but I am. I see the way the omega’s face falls and sadness enters his eyes the same time it filters through the bond until I’m fighting my own tears.
The moment Alex catches the emotion and realizes what he said, he grabs Hudson by the hips and drags him onto his lap until he’s straddling Alex’s thighs.
“I’m not saying I don’t like hanging out with you. I’m saying we’ve been neglecting you and should have been courting you properly regardless of our arrangement. We promised you affection from the beginning and we’ve hardly been present, mentally or physically, since the day you moved in.”
“You don’t need to court me. That’s for –”
“That’s for you,” I say, cutting him off before he can say anything else.
“I’m not your omega. You’re not trying to convince me to be your omega. You don’t have to court me. I don’t expect that. I just…I would like to spend more time together, though. You don’t have to change your whole lives, but if you could just sleep in the pack bed with me?”
The way he says it like a question makes me feel as though we’ve failed him.
Yes, we took care of him during his cycle. Yes, we’ve ensured he’s comfortable here and have offered to buy him anything he wants. Yes, Mason is still researching vehicles to ensure he finds the safest one in existence.
But none of that does a thing for his emotional state. Omegas are hardwired to crave the attention of their alphas. They need touch. They need their pheromones.
Our pheromones.
Lowering beside Alex, I run my hand up and down his spine, smiling sadly at him when he turns his attention to me.
“From now on, we’ll do what we can to get home earlier a few times a week.
And I’d be honored to sleep in the pack bed beside you.
” I lean closer as though to share a secret even though Alex is right there.
“Let you in on a secret – Alex likes to be the little spoon.”
“Because Alex likes when someone ends up –”
“Alex,” I admonish with a chuckle as my cheeks burst into flames.
I know exactly what he was about to say, and by the way Hudson is grinning with a raised eyebrow, he does too.
“I’m a little small to wrap around you, but I’m more than happy to wake you up with a little backdoor knocking.”
Alex and I stare wide-eyed at Hudson for a few seconds.
“What? Did you think I was strictly a bottom just because I’m an omega. I like to give as much as take, thank you very much.”
Alex breaks first, a surprised bark of laughter lifting on the air. It doesn’t take but a couple seconds for me to join in, as well. Definitely did not expect that to leave Hudson’s lips.
Suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m a switch, where Alex is primarily a bottom with Mason primarily being a top. Makes for a fun relationship, especially when Alex or Mason decides to shake things up.
Mason finally joins us dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts. He looks more like he’s preparing to work out instead of snuggle with our omega.
“What’s so funny?” he asks as he crosses the room and drops onto the couch on the other side of Alex before raising a foot and resting it on the coffee table.
Dude is even wearing socks.
Not that his appearance could ever turn me off, but this whole thing with Hudson is still fairly new – shouldn’t we be doing everything we can to make him want to climb us as often as possible before, during, and after his cycle?
After all, there are those rumors of omegas who conceived outside their heat.
“Nothing. Just talking,” Alex says as he winks at Hudson.
“You guys pick something to watch?”
“I was thinking we could go grab something to eat,” Alex says. “Did you have dinner already? We can do something else if you already ate.”
“It’s after eight,” Mason says.
Alex turns his attention to Mason the same time I scowl at my mate. “And? Not like it’s the middle of the night.”
“We’ve been at work for over twelve hours. We just got home.”
Another wave of sadness fills my chest. Fucking Mason.
Can he not see the rejection written all over Hudson’s face?
Even if he’s completely ignoring the emotions in the bond, Hudson’s scent has turned a little sour and, even though he’s trying to keep his expression neutral, there is so much sadness in his pretty honey-brown eyes.
“And Hudson has been home alone all day,” I say, raising a brow and mentally willing Mason to catch on.
“I thought that was why we left early, so we can spend more time with him.”
How can someone so intelligent be so damn obtuse?
To my surprise, Hudson leans forward and rests his cheek on Alex’s chest while facing Mason. “We can stay here. I don’t mind,” he says.
I stare at the back of his head while sniffing the air around him as nonchalantly as possible. That soured edge to his scent is fading and the sadness isn’t as strong. Maybe he really doesn’t mind staying here as long as we’re with him.
“Are you sure? Alex and I can take you somewhere if Mason wants to stay home like an old man,” I tease.
Technically, we’re all in the middle-aged category and at least twenty years older than Hudson. For some reason, though, I don’t see him as that much younger. Probably because my brain doesn’t recognize the fact I’m pushing fifty. I sure as hell don’t feel it.
Hudson’s head turns until he rests his other cheek on Alex’s chest to look at me. And suddenly, I’m so damn jealous of my mate. I want to be holding our omega. I want his beautiful face pressed against my chest like that.
I want to be covered in his perfume.
“This is perfect,” he says softly, and I don’t miss the way he nuzzles his cheek against Alex as though coating himself with my mate’s pheromones.
“You feel a little warm,” Alex says.
“Oh. Sorry.” Hudson goes to sit up, but Alex bands an arm around the omega’s back to hold him in place.
“I’m not saying that in a bad way. Just making a statement. Are you feeling okay?”
One of Hudson’s shoulders lifts and falls and his lids slowly lower as the sweetest contented sigh leaves his chest. “I feel great now.”
Now?
I frown at Alex. He’s got the same confused look on his face. I know as a fact he’d felt the same sense of rejection coming from Hudson, but was there more than simply the emotional toll of being alone bothering him?
“Were you not feeling well earlier?” Mason asks.
He runs a hand over the top of Hudson’s head to rest on his neck, directly over the place where he’d left his mark.
The tiniest shudder runs through Hudson before he wiggles until he’s fully pressed against Alex as much as he can without literally being inside his skin.
“A little…weak earlier. Kind of out of it. But I forgot to eat lunch so I’m sure I was just hungry.”
All three of us go wide-eyed as we look from one to the other. While I might have done the most research, all three of us have read as much as possible about caring for omegas, their needs, their instincts and impulses…
And what could change when they got pregnant.
Hudson is warm to the touch. His sense of rejection has been growing by the day even though we’re not truly packed with him. And he was physically unwell until we got home and he could soak up our pheromones.
“When is that blood test scheduled for?” I ask as a grin stretches across my face.