Chapter 45
I felt like I had been run over. In a good way, if there was a good way for that to happen. Every muscle ached deliciously and my pussy throbbed. My skin was decorated with bondbites and fingerprint bruises, some places rubbed pink by stubble that had grown in through the heat with no time for body maintenance.
Miles noticed I was awake and abandoned the lasagna he was eating. None of them had gone far, all of my alphas relaxing in the bed in the penthouse and eating while I had worked my way back toward consciousness.
“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”
“For what?” I stretched, groaning as my muscles protested the movement.
“I didn’t get to say I loved you before I bonded you, and I did that without permission. I didn’t mean to.”
I tugged him until he stretched out next to me so I could snuggle into his arms and rest my head on his chest. “You can’t help a rut.”
“I know, but I should’ve told you I wanted to bond you before all this happened. I got too anxious and the words wouldn’t come out.”
“I like having a bond with you.” I tapped his chest. “You don’t feel anxious to me.”
Miles chuckled. “Hard to be anxious about something when I can feel all that love coming from you.”
I purred happily. “You don’t need to worry about not telling me the words. I feel them.”
Miles hooked his fingers under my chin and tilted my face up. “I’m saying them anyway. You deserve to have my honesty, and I love you so fucking much. I used to think people were ridiculous when they talked about the instant bond they felt with their scent-matched omega, but I don’t anymore. You were everything we needed, and I hope we’re everything you need, too.”
I brought his wrist to my lips and kissed the bite mark that was still healing there. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I love you too, Miles. I’m really glad you lost control and now we’re all together forever.”
He gave a broken laugh and the others gathered around us.
“You need to eat,” insisted Amir.
“Chewing feels like work,” I lamented.
Diego chuckled. “That’s probably because you spent a long-ass time trying to suck Miles’s soul out his cock. Any jaw would be tired after that.”
I burst into giggles and my alphas helped me sit, Amir sliding a straw between my lips.
“Drink,” he ordered.
It was thick and chocolatey, with a slight aftertaste of protein powder.
“No chewing required,” Kai said as he pressed a kiss to my hair.
I sucked down the entire concoction, ravenous the moment the liquid touched my tongue. I lounged like true royalty while they plied me with drinks and blended soup to help restore my energy.
Once I’d inhaled a bit of food and water, they let me sleep, which I did, like the dead, for about sixteen hours. When I woke, I felt like the raisin version of myself and gratefully accepted a bottle of fruit punch electrolytes from Amir to plump me back up.
Not a moment passed where I wasn’t being touched by at least one of my alphas. Between naps and meals provided by the hotel, I barely had to move during my three days of recovery post-heat.
A knock at the door had me drowsily turning my attention toward it, and Kai pulled on a robe to answer. “Hey, Luke. What’s up?”
“All the funds are cleared, and management wanted me to give you these.” He passed over some manila envelopes.
“Contract dissolutions?” Kai asked.
“You bet.” He glanced past Kai toward me, where I was luxuriously draped with a super soft blanket. “How are you holding up, little lady?”
I lifted a hand to give him a thumbs-up.
Luke laughed. “Are you guys going to go ahead with the new company now that you have the money?”
“We have to talk about it more,” said Kai, “but that was the plan if we hit this threshold.”
“Kickass.” Luke beamed. “Hit me up as soon as you’re ready.”
“We absolutely will,” Kai promised.
When Luke departed, Kai retreated back to us.
“I feel like I missed key details.”
“In fairness, you’ve been sleeping a lot.” Kai dropped a quick kiss on my mouth. “We cleared a half million between our pay and the tips.”
I bolted upright. “Holy shit! Really?”
“Yep. And these—” He tapped the envelopes. “—are our freedom in print.”
I swiveled my head toward Miles. “Are you still going to work for them?”
“For a while. I can double shift it while we get set up, and I can make sure we don’t touch too much of our nest egg.”
If I weren’t so exhausted, I would have wanted to start work on everything right now, but I stayed quiet knowing my pack wouldn’t let me even if I were up for it. They were very serious about rest.
As comfortable as the penthouse was, I was eager to be back in our own home. I peeked over the edge of my blankets and nudged Diego with my toes. “Nest?”
“Ready to head home, precious?”
“Yes, please.”
Home with all my alphas sounded like the best thing in the world.
Two months later
“Why does three minutes feel like it’s taking a million years?” Diego sighed.
“Because we’re waiting for the best news ever?” Kai replied.
Diego laughed. “That was mostly rhetorical.”
We were all waiting in a room at the omega clinic. I was curled up on Miles’s lap, my fingers locked with Amir’s while Kai and Diego paced.
The timer we had set up went off, but the doctor didn’t return.
Diego slumped onto one of the empty chairs. “This is torture.”
“Exterior torture for you. I’m the one waiting to see what’s going on in there.” I patted my stomach. My scent had just started to come in, though I could have guessed something was going on even without that. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt different .
Everyone straightened when the door opened after a quick knock. “Sorry to keep you waiting. We had some anomalous results.”
“Anomalous how?” Kai asked.
“Callie’s levels are exceptionally high for what we would expect this early in the pregnancy. It’s a good indication she’s got twins in there.”
My heart cranked into gear.
Pregnant.
With twins .
Holy shit.
My pack erupted with excitement, four alphas hugging me tightly.
“Congratulations.” The doctor grinned at our exuberance. “If you’d like to know which alpha markers showed up to indicate parentage, I have those in here.”
Kai accepted the envelope. “Does that mean fraternal twins if there’s more than one marker?”
“It does, yes. It’s unlikely that there are more than two babies, but we’ll check on that right now if you’d all like to follow me for the ultrasound.”
We trailed after the doctor and she got us set up with a tech. The gel was heated and warm on my belly while the tech glided the device over my skin. “Here’s baby number one.” She showed the pocket on the screen with a little dot nestled on the side of it before moving the device over to show the second on the screen as well. “And baby number two.”
I pawed excitedly at Kai. “Look at them!”
“I’m looking,” he said with a soft chuckle.
The rest of the pack was staring at the screen as well, a mix of awe, anxiety, and elation flitting over their faces. The tech checked the babies from every angle and the doctor assured us everything seemed healthy at this phase.
“Callie, I’ll get you a schedule of all your appointments, but you’re absolutely free to call us with any questions or come in at any time on top of those dates.”
“Thank you.”
The alphas were blissfully excited on the way home from the clinic.
“We should move into a place with more bedrooms,” said Amir.
“Or we could renovate,” Diego offered.
“Already looking at the market,” replied Miles. “Probably cheaper to move than to renovate.” He turned his tablet toward me, showing a gorgeous two-story home very similar in design to our current pack house, but listed as having ten bedrooms.
“Ten?!”
Miles shrugged. “You’ve got four alphas and only two babies in there. Do you think we’re not going to compete until everyone has put a baby in you?”
I laughed, leaning into Diego, who already had a hand protectively laid over my belly. “Let me grow the first two before we start worrying about the next ones. What’s the extra bedroom for?”
“Office, probably. Or playroom.”
“Ten just seems like a ridiculous number.”
“There are pack houses twice that size,” Amir pointed out.
“Exactly,” said Kai, who was left out of the looking since he was our driver. “If we plan ahead, we can enjoy some extra space and then we won’t have to move again once that gorgeous body of yours is all done having babies.”
I couldn’t help my grin. These kids were going to have so much love they wouldn’t even know what to do with all of it. I couldn’t imagine how different my life would be if I had grown up with four devoted fathers and a mother who desperately wanted me. A rational person probably would’ve been nervous at the prospect of twins, but I wasn’t at all. I was so fucking happy.
“You’re going to hurt your cheeks smiling that hard.” Amir laced his fingers with mine and kissed the back of my hand.
“How am I not supposed to smile when you guys are this cute?”
“Fair point.” Amir laughed and turned my face to his for a kiss. “Did you want to know who fathered the twins? Or should we see who they take after once they’re born?”
“I can’t decide. You guys vote.”
“I bet Miles is one of them,” said Diego. “That rut was wild.”
Miles flushed pink.
“I can’t disagree with that. Kai probably has a kid in there, too,” added Amir. “He was first knot.”
Diego buried his face against my skin, inhaling deeply. “Precious, how am I supposed to sniff out who put a baby in you when you smell like all of us?”
Amir tucked against me as well, the two of them sniffing around exaggeratedly like bloodhounds, making me giggle. “You guys are ridiculous.”
“Don’t make me pull this car over,” Kai warned, humor bright in his voice.
“Drive home faster so we can all have omega time,” Diego told him.
They discussed the potential parentage the entire way home, placing bets on each other. They were all pretty sure Miles was the father of one of the twins, but were split between Kai and Diego for the other. I had no preference, nor any real idea of which of them had a better chance than the others.
Once we were in the nest, Amir held the envelope aloft. “Bets are in. Let’s see who’s right and who’s going to have an empty wallet.”
I waited in a pile with my other alphas while Amir perused the document the doctor had given us.
“Well, we were definitely all right about Miles.”
Kai and Diego whooped with joy, jostling Miles around and congratulating him on his virility while my shy alpha blushed red as a beet. Miles kissed me until my toes curled, his hand settling on my belly, soft affection sliding through the bond from him.
“Who’s number two?” Kai asked.
“So impatient,” Amir tutted. “Maybe you should just wait a while.”
“Or we could toss you in the pool and read the name ourselves,” Diego said with a laugh.
Amir rolled his eyes. “Don’t be like that when you and I are the bet winners.”
“Shut up!” Diego sat bolt upright. “Are you serious?”
“Mhmm.” Amir held out the paper and Diego grabbed it, staring at the words printed there like he couldn’t believe it.
“Holy shit.” He turned to me, his eyes wide and full of reverence, pure delight cascading through the bond. “Precious, you’re having my baby.”
“You bet your ass I am.” I grinned. “Now show me how happy you are about it.”
Diego practically jumped on me, peppering my face with kisses while I shrieked with laughter. All the alphas curled around me. There was a hint of disappointment from Kai, but it was mostly eclipsed by genuine happiness. The twins would have all of them as fathers regardless of biological parentage, and I knew they’d all love the babies no matter what.
Kai’s kiss was softer than the others, a quiet sweetness, and then he whispered against my lips, “You’re going to be the most beautiful mother, little dove.”
I beamed at him.
Amir caught my gaze, steady contentment thrumming down the bond from him. “Everyone quit hogging. I need to kiss our omega.”
Between all of their joy and my own, I was floating on cloud nine. We had babies on the way, I had a pack that adored me, and I’d never felt this much love in my entire life.
My phone rang, startling all of us, and the LAPD flashed across my screen. I answered. “Hello?”
“Hello, this is Detective Jones. I’m looking for Miss Price?”
“That’s me.” I confirmed my full name and birthday for him.
“I’m calling to inform you that arrests were made on two cases pertaining to you.”
I sat up sharply. “Oh?”
“Mr. Jerry McIntosh has been taken into custody for bank fraud, in addition to multiple other crimes that were reported to us by an investigator working for your pack. And Katrina Winston has been taken into custody for identity theft.”
Oh, shit. “Thank you so much for telling me. Do I have to do anything?”
“Not at this time. This is a courtesy call only.”
I was vibrating by the time we hung up and immediately spilled the news to my pack.
“Good riddance to both of them,” Amir snapped. “Those two deserved each other.”
The rest of the pack murmured agreements. I hadn’t necessarily wanted either of them to be arrested, but it sounded like Jerry had been up to no good outside of fucking me over. Probably better for the world that he wasn’t allowed to run free.
The mail slot squeaked, and Amir got up to fetch whatever we’d gotten. He held up an envelope when he walked back into the nest. “Callie, you have a letter from your bank.”
I reached out for it and ripped it open, freezing as I read the words. “Oh my god. OH MY GOD!”
“What is it?” Kai leaned over to read it, the rest of the pack hovering around me.
“They released the account! That’s another sixty thousand for the business.” I opened up the app and immediately transferred over the daily limit to my personal account. It would take a while to get everything out of there, but Jerry was in no position to take anything else from me ever again. I wiggled excitedly, throwing my hands in the air. “Best day ever!”
My pack crowded around me, Amir nuzzling my cheek. “Best day ever so far .”