25. Seraphina
25
SERAPHINA
T he sound of a phone buzzing against the nightstand jerked me awake too soon the next morning.
“Fucking shit,” Blaze groaned. His words reverberated against the back of my neck, where his face had been buried while we slept.
“Just answer it, or he’ll never stop calling,” Hawk mumbled into my chest. He’d stolen me from Loki somehow during the night and had fallen asleep with his face burrowed into my boobs.
Loki was passed out on his stomach on Hawk’s other side, their legs intertwined.
With one lingering kiss to my neck, Blaze released me and rolled out of bed. He grabbed his phone and stomped out into the hall. “Yes? …. I’m aware. We had a late fucking night, and you know that….” His voice faded as he went downstairs.
“Is everything okay?” I mumbled, my voice drenched with sleep.
“It’s just our handler,” Hawk replied. “We owe our bosses a major debriefing on last night’s activities.”
“Shit, yeah,” I said, groaning a little as I stretched. “Hart’s dead .”
“He’s missing ,” Hawk clarified. “It’s nothing for you to worry about, Little Flame. Our team will deal with it.”
“I don’t envy you,” I replied. “I guess my consulting role is over, anyhow. Hart was your connection to the OFS. You won’t need to be there anymore.”
An ache formed in my chest at the thought. Clarity, which had been elusive last night, I had in abundance this morning.
Lines had been crossed because of my missteps. The flirting, the casual touching, that one time with Loki in the car—none of that could compare to getting myself thrown into a surprise heat and having these Alphas knot my brains out for hours.
And yet, though I scraped, I still couldn’t find an ounce of remorse within me over what happened between me and the guys. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Hawk pulled his sleepy face from my chest. He peered down at me, his head propped in his hand and his curls all rumpled and adorable. “We’ll keep you updated, Sera. You’ve been just as much a part of this investigation as we have, and there may still be a role for you to play.”
Loki’s face appeared. He rested his chin on Hawk’s shoulder, those light-blue eyes raking over me as he studied me like he always did. “Lamb, are you feeling okay? No lingering weirdness from the drug?”
I took inventory of my body. Still naked, of course. Some residual aches from the scrapes on my legs and in my thigh at the injection site. A delicious soreness in my core from the tender care of these men.
“I feel fine,” I replied honestly. I met Hawk’s curious gaze, then Loki’s more intense one. “And, um, thank you for last night. I know it certainly wasn’t a hardship for any of us, but it was unexpected. This case is important, and we’ve all been trying to keep this thing between us professional?—”
Hawk snorted, and Loki smacked his thigh.
“—and I went and messed it all up by letting Hart get the drop on me.”
“Lamb—”
“Little Flame?—”
“—but I just wanted to say that I don’t regret what we did last night, just as I don’t regret what we did the first night we met. You guys were amazing.”
There. Honest—sort of—and appreciative. I didn’t want any weird feelings or worries on their part that they’d taken advantage of me.
But I also didn’t want to suddenly seem… clingy.
Loki exchanged a look with Hawk, and then he blew out a breath. “Sera?—”
Blaze reappeared at the door, interrupting him. “We’re being called in. Our handler says if we don’t have our asses to local HQ in fifteen minutes, they’ll bench us for the rest of the investigation. We have to update our client and start digging through the files in Hart’s briefcase.”
That was my cue. I gently disentangled my limbs from Hawk’s and slipped from the bed. Where were my damn clothes?
“I should get going too,” I said casually. I located my shorts and my bra folded neatly on the dresser and pulled them on. “I need to head to Dylan’s store to check on Paige. She did not have as enjoyable of an end to the evening as I did.”
All three of their stares were heavy on my skin as I crept over to the bed to steal a T-shirt from the pile making up the little nest Loki had fucked me in last night. It was heather gray, baby soft, and smelled like a crackling woodsy fire, which meant it belonged to Blaze.
I slipped it over my head, and then I locked eyes with Blaze. He leaned against the doorframe, his dark hair unruly and mussed, those hazel eyes drinking me in. His Alpha hindbrain would be loving a post-heat omega wearing his shirt.
“Promise me something,” I said to him.
He snapped out of his daze. “Anything, Princesa.”
“You’ll destroy Hart’s samples in that briefcase. I want you to destroy all of the samples of the drug that can put an omega into an extra bullshit heat for breeding, but I understand that whatever Hart hasn’t altered is your client’s property. But please get rid of Hart’s. Omegas don’t need that kind of thing… floating around.”
He nodded, as serious as I’d ever seen him. “We will.”
“Okay then.” I located my phone on the dresser and snatched it up. “I’ll just grab a rideshare back to the OFS so I can get my car. Call me when you have an update on the case?”
Loki and Hawk were sitting on the edge of the bed now, both clad in their tight boxer briefs. I sucked in a calming breath. I would not go rub myself all over those muscular thighs.
“Lamb, we can take you back,” Loki said, frowning at me.
“You’re going to be late to your debrief if you do that, Loki. I know how that goes.” Because I’m a professional killer, just like you—not usually a writhing, mindless mess of pheromones and slick. “I’ll be fine.”
Blaze pouted at me as I scooted past him, brushing against his—gorgeous, shirtless, carved—chest as I went. I spied my boots sitting in the hallway outside the bathroom door.
I slipped them onto my feet as I clicked into my rideshare app to order a car, with an explicit request for a beta driver. I smelled like Blaze and sex, so other Alphas were a no-go.
Blaze watched me from the doorway. “I don’t like it, Princesa, but you’re right. We need to get moving.” He cast a chastising look at Loki and Hawk, who grumbled as they stood up and began hunting for their work clothes.
Hawk tossed his pants on the bed, then stuck his nose in Loki’s neck. He took a big whiff and let out a pained groan. “And we all should probably, uh, shower. We smell like we just rutted the world’s sweetest omega through a heat.”
Loki sighed. “Fuck. You’re right.”
“Just call me when you can,” I said with a cheerful little wave to pretend my chest didn’t feel like it was being carved in half. “Good luck.”
No one returned my wave. They just watched me leave, wearing identical frustrated frowns on their handsome faces.
I kept my chin up as I left the house. I still had a hurricane headed my way after the stunt I’d pulled at the steakhouse. It felt as though that’d happened a week ago and not last night. Jere had warned me that my respite would be ending soon, and I needed to be on my toes.
With Hart gone, that was one foe slain. A pack of rich boys from out of town who thought they could buy me from my parents with their pedigree and connections was next on the list.
It was early enough on a Sunday morning that I made it from the gates of the OFS to my dorm without encountering a soul. It was quite the walk of no shame for me, with my wild, unbrushed hair, Blaze’s T-shirt, and no panties under my dirty shorts. Anyone who passed downwind would’ve gotten a faceful of Alpha sex smells.
On the walk, I finally listened to the five voicemails that had been left for me over the course of last night.
Dad : *harsh exhale* “Seraphina. I truly cannot understand this. I am so embarrassed. These people—this pack and their families—are our friends. They are not evil, and they are doing YOU a favor by coming down here with an open mind. They do not deserve to be treated like this. And I will remind you, for the fiftieth time, that they are also your last hope for an acceptable courtship and bonding before your time is up. You’re acting like a petulant child, and I’m finished entertaining it. Your mother is mortified. You will call me back immediately or the consequences will be severe.”
Hard pass. Thanks, Dad.
Pop : “Livid, Seraphina. Livid. This behavior stops now. I know you think you don’t need a pack. You think you can take care of yourself. You’re a brilliant, capable young woman, but unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. You can’t ignore the law, and you can’t ignore what you are and the burdens and blessings that come with it. We are trying to HELP you, sweetheart. I was trying my best to navigate this for all of us in a way that was as gentle as we could make it, but we’re past that now. I love you, and I’m sorry it’s come to this.”
Foreboding, Pop. Were they going to kidnap me next time? Jere probably hadn’t mentioned to the others that he’d given me extensive training in freeing myself from restraints and locked rooms.
Jere : “ We are going to discuss where you got that drone. It is no longer in working order, so if whoever lent it to you wants it returned, the cost is coming out of your paycheck. You will be working for me for free for the next two years of your life. ”
We’d just see about that. I wasn’t the one who put a bullet in it and exploded it into shrapnel. He could take that up with whoever was in charge of this sort of thing at Sentinel.
Mom : “SERAPHINA brYCE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW INSANE THIS IS? We are lucky that our entire extended family is not banned from every restaurant in the Palisades after that! Jericho had to get his GUN out, for God’s sake! It is not too much to ask that you spare one hour of your life to just MEET these boys. Every omega needs a pack, Seraphina. Your fathers are doing this because they love you and want you to be SAFE and CARED FOR. This is not a war. Stop treating us like we’re the enemy.”
Beg to differ there, Mom.
Henri : “Hey, you. You’ll never believe where I am right now. I was dragged off the couch by an emergency call from my BOSS, and I’m now standing in the parking lot of the nicest steakhouse in the entire city, supervising the cleanup of a very dead drone. I’ve also been tasked with assisting Andrew in smoothing over the complete fiasco this drone made of not just your little party but the entire restaurant this evening. This will push the limits of even my substantial ability to charm. I know, I know—even I have to admit my weaknesses on occasion. How about you give me a call when you get this and let me know where you ran off to? You’re sure missing out on some FUN here.”
I chuckled as I let myself into my room and locked the door. I was almost sad I’d missed my betrotheds’ faces as I ruined their scheduled viewing of me and caused my dad to snipe a drone in the middle of a mall parking lot with the rifle he kept in his Jeep.
After I’d removed Blaze’s T-shirt and placed it lovingly in the center of the pile of pillows I slept with, I took a shower and threw on an old Palisades Prep T-shirt and yoga pants. I’d just grabbed my purse and my car keys off my desk and was headed for the door, phone in hand to call Dylan on the way, when the door to the bathroom opened.
Paige stepped into my room. She wore a purple St. James & Co. T-shirt and soft white pants with flowers on them that had probably belonged to Daisy when she was about fourteen.
Her dark hair was in a messy braid, and she had bags under her eyes that said she’d slept about as much as I had last night, but she strode on into my room with the usual bounce in her step and her head held high.
I gaped at her. “I was just about to come get you.”
She waved a dismissive hand. “Dylan’s tall, dark, and broody Alpha brother dropped me off a few minutes ago. I sent Dylan and Cameron home to their mates after I came through the heat at about four in the morning. They’d done enough.”
I dropped my purse and keys on the floor and rushed her. I threw my arms around her tiny, delicate shoulders and squeezed. “Paige, I am so sorry that happened to you. So, so sorry that someone you admired and respected abused your trust like that.”
She sniffed, returning my hug for a few seconds, and then she gently pulled away. “I’m okay, Seraphina. I… I feel stupid for letting this happen to me, but I know I’m not to blame. He took advantage of me, and I’m thankful you and your brothers’ pack were able to get me out of there.”
I didn’t correct her assumption that I’d only been working with my brothers and not the trio of hot Alphas I’d been secretly running around with and had also sort of slept with a few times now. In the moment, I almost confided in her that Hart had gotten me, too, so she shouldn’t feel stupid at all, but I held my tongue.
While she’d been suffering last night, I’d been knotted within an inch of my life and had many orgasms. Best to keep that to myself.
Paige sat down on the edge of my bed. I joined her. We were quiet for a moment, both of us watching through my large window as the sun rose higher over the rolling green hills to our west.
“They told me he’s dead,” she whispered.
Austin and Seth must have updated Cam and Dylan as soon as they left the scene with Jere.
“He is,” I confirmed. “I saw it happen.”
After another minute of silence, she spoke again. “Good.”
She stood up, tossed her braid over her shoulder, and marched toward the bathroom that connected our rooms. She paused with her hand on the doorknob, turning to glance at me over her shoulder. “I’m going to read for Senior Seminar then take a nap,” she announced brightly. “Do you want to get sushi later?”
If she needed to just turn the dial back to normal, falling into our routine like she hadn’t just experienced a horrible trauma last night, then that was what we’d do.
“Sure,” I replied. “I can regale you with the tale of how I unleashed a drone on my courting dinner and escaped through the sunroof of Pop’s Porsche. Or how I pulled a knife on a courting Alpha at the campus party afterward.”
She blinked. “Right. I’ll look forward to that, then.”
She disappeared into her room with a soft snick of the bathroom door, and I was left to wonder if, between the two of us, I was the one whose head was more fucked up about the things that went down last night.