Chapter 14
Fourteen
KIERAN
The sight before me stops me cold. I watch for a few seconds as Elias’s face is buried between Francine’s legs as she’s hanging upside down, her legs spread wide open for him.
My nostrils flare instantly, taking in her sweet cherry blossom scent mixed with the husky scent of her arousal. My cock hardens painfully against my zipper, shocked to see how brazen my brother is being.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I manage to spit out.
Elias slowly lifts his head, turning to face me with Francine’s slick glistening obscenely on his mouth and chin. There’s no shame in his eyes, only challenge and fire in his eyes.
“Exactly what it looks like,” he says with infuriating calm. “I’m tasting our omega.”
My hands curl into tight fists at my sides as I struggle to maintain control, even though my dick is dancing in my pants, wanting her too.
“She is not our omega,” I growl, each word precise and dangerous. “She’s Nora’s nanny.”
Francine makes a strangled sound of mortification, finally scrambling to right herself from her compromising position.
Her face is flushed bright red as she tugs frantically at her blouse, trying to cover herself.
I catch glimpses of her creamy thighs, the slick still glistening on her inner legs, and my mouth waters involuntarily.
The scent of her arousal fills the room, so thick I can practically taste it.
Fuck, she smells incredible. Like ripe cherries and sweet nectar.
My cock throbs harder, demanding to give in too. She wants us to rut her. She’s chosen us.
Blocking out my alpha wolf’s thoughts, I force my gaze away from her, fixing instead on Elias, who’s now standing, straightening his clothes with casual indifference as if I hadn’t just caught him with his face between the nanny’s thighs.
“Kieran, I’m so sorry,” Francine blurts out, her voice trembling as she stands before me. Tears glisten in her green eyes. “I didn’t mean for this to get out of control. It won’t happen again.”
“This is beyond inappropriate,” I say, holding up a hand trying to block out her powerful scent. I’m losing control the longer I stay in this room, trapped with her.
Elias steps in front of her, blocking my view and my path to her. His amber eyes behind those rectangular glasses are blazing with an intensity I’ve rarely seen in my normally composed brother.
“Move,” I order him, my voice dropping to a dangerous register. “I need to speak with our employee.”
“No,” he growls with absolute finality. “She’s not just an employee.”
I take a step forward, looming over him despite our minimal height difference. “This doesn’t concern you, Elias. Step aside.”
“It absolutely concerns me,” he counters, not budging an inch. “Everything about her concerns me now.”
Another wave of her scent hits me, stronger this time, and I realize it’s not just Elias’s scent mingled with hers. I catch traces of Drake and Rowan, too. Their distinctive cinnamon and lemon scents are barely perceptible beneath the overwhelming cherry blossom of her arousal.
The realization suddenly hits me.
“All three of you?” I snarl, my vision momentarily blurring with rage. “It’s her first fucking day!”
Elias’s expression shifts, a small, triumphant smile playing at his lips. “We’re all drawn to her. You know why.”
I do know why. Because she’s an omega in her prime, fertile and unclaimed, with a scent so potent it’s impossible to resist. Because our pack has been incomplete for too long, functioning without a heart. Because my brothers are desperate for the balance and harmony only an omega can bring.
But that wasn’t the fucking plan. Not yet. Not now. Not her.
“Meet me in the library,” I say, my voice deadly quiet. “Bring Drake and Rowan so we can discuss her termination.”
“Kieran, please,” Francine steps out from behind Elias, her face tear-streaked but determined. “I promise, please, this won’t happen again…”
“Stay here until we come to an agreement,” I snap at her, harsher than I intended. Her flinch makes me immediately regret my tone, but I can’t soften now. I’m barely hanging onto my control.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Elias says firmly, placing a protective arm around her shoulders. “And this isn’t her fault.”
“Library. Five minutes,” I repeat, already backing toward the door, desperate to escape the intoxicating cloud of her scent before I do something I’ll regret, like shoving Elias aside and taking what every cell in my body is screaming is mine.
I storm down the hallway, taking the stairs two at a time, my breath coming in harsh pants as I try to clear my head of her scent. I try to clear the image of her pussy from my mind. I pass Drake coming up the stairs, and the knowing smirk on his face tells me everything I need to know.
“Library. Now,” I bark at him before he can speak.
His eyebrows rise, but he turns to follow me without question. We find Rowan in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in his hands. When he sees my expression, he sets the mug down immediately, his golden-brown eyes alert.
“What happened?” he asks, straightening.
“Pack meeting. Library. Now.” I’m beyond full sentences at this point, my control fraying with each passing second.
The library doors close behind us with a solid thunk. I pace the length of the room, trying to burn off some of the aggressive energy coursing through me. My brothers watch silently, waiting for the explosion they know is coming.
“What’s up with you?” says Drake, breaking the silence.
“What the fuck is wrong with all of you?” I finally demand, whirling to face them. “It’s her first day- her first fucking day—and you couldn’t keep your hands to yourselves for even twenty-four hours?”
Drake leans casually against one of the bookshelves, a smirk still playing on his lips. “Come on, Kieran. You’ve smelled her. You can’t tell me you’re not affected.”
“That’s not the point!” I slam my fist down on my desk, the impact sending a satisfying shock of pain up my arm. “She’s here to take care of Nora, not to be your fucking plaything!”
“She’s an omega,” Rowan says quietly from where he stands near the window. “The first one in our home in years. Did you really expect us to ignore that fact?”
“I expected you to show some goddamn restraint!” I shout, my voice echoing off the high ceiling. “She’s an employee, for fuck’s sake. A professional we hired to help with Nora.”
Elias enters the library, closing the doors carefully behind him. His mouth is set in a tight line, eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “She’s more than that, and you know it.”
“No,” I insist, resuming my pacing. “She’s not. She’s Nora’s nanny. That’s it.”
“Bullshit,” Drake pushes off from the bookshelf, his easy demeanor slipping to reveal the anger beneath. “You’re lying to yourself, Kieran. She’s the perfect omega for us. Maybe the most compatible omega I’ve ever scented. You feel it too. I can see it in your eyes right now.”
I turn away, unable to deny the truth in his words. Of course, I feel it. The moment I caught her scent in the study, my body recognized what she could be to us.
My mate. Our pack omega. The mother of our pups.
“What we need,” I say through gritted teeth, “is for Nora to have stability. For our pack to focus on business. For life to continue as it has been.”
“Do you expect us to live forever without an omega? What the fuck is your actual problem, Kieran?” says Rowan, getting angry at me now, too.
I spin to face him, my alpha instincts roaring at the challenge. “My problem is that you can’t control yourselves! You’re acting like animals in rut, thinking with your knots instead of your brains!”
“Maybe because we’re tired of denying our nature,” Rowan interjects, his normally quiet voice carrying easily in the tense room. “We’re alphas without an omega. Our pack is incomplete. Don’t you feel how empty our pack is?”
“She fills that void,” Elias adds, stepping closer. “She’s pack queen.”
“By what? Spreading her legs for all of you on her first day?” The words taste sour in my mouth, unfair even as I say them. “That doesn’t make her pack queen. It makes her—”
“Don’t,” Drake warns, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Don’t you dare fucking finish that sentence.”
My jaw clenches so hard I hear my teeth creak. They’re all against me on this. All captivated by her scent and her smile. Fuck, I can’t blame them, and I can’t make them hate her.
Every second I spend around her is a disaster waiting to happen.
“If you can’t keep it professional,” I say finally, my voice low. “She’s gone. I will fire her tomorrow.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Elias challenges.
“Try me.” I meet his gaze steadily. “Nora needs stability, not three alphas fighting over who gets to fuck her nanny next. So either you all back off, or she’s out.”
Francine
The hallway is quiet as I slip out of my room, my footsteps muffled by the thick carpet.
I follow the echo of raised voices, my heart pounding harder with each step.
They’re in the library. I can hear their voices growing clearer as I approach the imposing double doors.
I press my ear against the polished wood, holding my breath to better hear what’s being said.
I had taken a quick shower and changed into a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
“She fills that void,” Elias adds, and something warm unfurls in my chest at his words. “She’s pack queen.”
“By what? Spreading her legs for all of you on her first day?” Kieran’s response is cruel, cutting. “That doesn’t make her pack queen. It makes her—”
“Don’t,” Drake interrupts. “Don’t you dare finish that sentence.”
Tears prick at the corners of my eyes. Is that what Kieran thinks of me? That I’m some kind of slut for responding to his brothers? Shame burns through me, hot and suffocating.
I literally want to die.
“If you can’t keep it professional,” Kieran says, his voice dropping to an icy calm that’s somehow more frightening than his shouting, “she’s gone. I will fire her tomorrow.”
My stomach drops.