26. Rejection
Rejection
R iver hadn't said a word to me since last night. I watched him sitting in that stupid chair, pointedly ignoring everything that was going on in the room, and wondered what he was thinking. Nothing good, from the looks of it.
After he came back from his little disappearance, he'd disappeared into the bathroom as Kade pummeled me from behind. Seeing me looking at the bathroom door, Kade leaned over me and whispered, "He'll come around."
But I wasn't so sure. His face was stony as I flicked through things on his phone. Even when we'd finished, he didn't seem to look up or show any interest in what was happening. That's when I knew. He'd made a call.
Now, I sank down into the plastic chair next to him, ready to get some answers. It was evening again and the other three guys were asleep. Finally feeling normal for once, I decided to take the opportunity to find out exactly what was going on.
"When do we leave?" I asked quietly.
He glared at me with those dark blue eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"I know you called the ORC when you left," I told him.
His mouth tightened, but he didn't say anything.
"I just need to know how long I have."
"The agent will be here in the morning."
"Agent? You're not taking me?"
"I've been pulled off the mission to recover with my pack," he said stiffly. "The director decided to send someone else. Someone not compromised."
That complicated things. I'd gotten to know River over the past few days and it would be easier to escape him than a new person, I thought. Still, I'd have to make due if that was my future.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know about the heat."
"I know." He leaned his head against the wall and sighed. "I thought I could get you back to the center before things got so out of control."
"Why didn't you knot me?" I asked quietly, glancing at Orion, who was sound asleep on the bed closest to us. "It didn't have to mean anything."
"I didn't want to violate you when you couldn't tell me what you wanted."
"You didn't hear me telling you to knot me?"
"You were completely out of it, delirous."
"So, you would prefer to let me die?" I frowned. "I know you hate me, but that seems kind of extreme."
He turned his head to look at me. "I didn't think it was that bad . . . and if I knotted you and you died, it would have been my fault still. It seemed better that you be treated professionally."
"But no one was there . . . just you, River."
He scowled. "I know."
The firmness of his last response let me know that there would be no further discussion. I got up and went to climb onto the bed with Orion. In his sleep, the massive man spooned me, his arms coming around my middle to hold me tightly against his body.
My slick was starting to dry up, but I still craved a knot. For a brief second, I thought about asking River, but I couldn't handle the rejection, so I just curled into Orion and waited for him to wake up.
Kade stretched on the other bed and his hand hit Archer, making him sit bolt upright, his pale eyes searching the room. When he saw me with Orion, Kade smiled and reached out a hand.
How could I resist? I slipped out of Orion's grasp and headed straight to Kade, who caught me at the edge of the bed and pulled me onto his lap, still sticky with my slick from earlier.
"We need a shower," I told him.
"After I mess you up again," Kade promised, lowering me onto his already stiff member.
I sank down on him, relishing every inch that rubbed against my interior walls.
He'd been inside me four time so far and each time felt better as we both got the hang of things.
Now, he reached down and pressed a finger against my clit, already tuned in to how to take me over the edge as quickly as possible.
"My heat's almost over," I told him quietly. "I think. I'm not feeling the same."
"Your scent has changed, too," he responded, his hands on my ass, urging me to grind harder against him. "I don't care. I could do this forever."
It wouldn't be forever, of course, but for a single moment, I let myself imagine that it could be. That this could be my pack. I'd never wanted alphas before, but right now? I could see it. A future with these three incredible lovers. But River would never let it happen.
As yet another orgasm swept over me, Kade pulled me down hard so his knot popped inside. He let out a satisfied grunt and and started humping up into me, prolonging the orgasm, before he erupted once more.
Orion and Archer had woken up and were now standing near us, waiting until Kade's knot released me to take another turn.
It could have been perfect, if the fourth alpha wasn't sitting in the corner, studiously ignoring us, his head bent over his phone.
I watched as his jaw clenched, his knuckles white where he held his phone.
It was a wonder the thing wasn't cracking under all that pressure.
"Hey, how are you feeling? You smell different," Archer murmured, kissing my neck as I leaned into Kade's chest.
"I'm good. A lot better than before."
"Your heat's almost over, that's why you smell different," Orion said. He rubbed his chin. "One more round with both of us?"
When we'd finished up, Kade carried me past the glaring River to the bathroom where he scrubbed both of us head to toe and then ate me out until I came again, the last gush of slick making me dizzy. He cleaned me once more and gave me a kiss on the lips, looking into my eyes.
"You've changed my mind on omegas," he said seriously. "All these years, I've hated your entire designation because of the actions of an omega back in college. And a few before that."
"What happened? What did they do to you?"
He looked down at me, the steaming water plastering his long white hair to his skin. "I don't know that you want to hear it. I was an idiot, I let some women take advantage of me."
"I want to hear," I said, touching his arm.
Kade leaned over me to turn off the water, grabbed a towel and started drying me off, his face pensive. "It's not . . . not a good story."
"I didn't think it was, not if you hate omegas so much."
"Well, back in high school, when we were first getting our designations, I was a late bloomer.
A lot of the alphas used to tease me, saying I was going to be an omega.
The omegas joined in, treating me like one of them, but in a mean way.
They'd leave bottles of lube in my locker, tuck flowers in my back pocket when I wasn't looking, stupid shit like that. "
"That's definitely not nice, but you didn't want an omega because of that?"
"They were so unpleasant, and I was so upset about the possibility of being an omega.
I was already different, you've probably noticed that I'm not great around people, and that just made me stand out more.
I kind of shut down and just did what I had to do to finish school.
Then, in my last year, I presented as alpha and suddenly all those omegas who had been teasing me for years were begging for my knot.
They'd perfume around me, rub up on me to scentmark me, and all I could think of was how they'd treated me before. "
I nodded. "They were bitches. All of them?"
"Maybe a couple didn't do that, but they were always there, not stopping the others." He frowned and started toweling off my hair. "Then I went to college and I met Amara. And that's when I fell in love for the first time."