Chapter 23
Later
Raff
"Am I interrupting?" I ask as I breeze into the study.
Cliff is standing at the window, his back to the door, looking out at the dark backyard. His head turns at the sound of my voice, letting me know he's listening.
"Are you still taking the Caddy back tonight?" I drop into the chair across from the desk and stretch my legs out.
"Yes." He moves to me. "I told Odette I'd have it back tonight, and I meant it." He leans against the edge of the desk. I don’t know why we have the damn thing. We never work in here, but Adam insisted that a proper study needed a desk.
"Do you need me to follow you in the car?"
"No.” Cliff shakes his head. “Perrin is gonna follow me."
“Hey.” Adam appears in the doorway.
And he's actually smiling.
It’s loose and easy, the kind of smile that makes him look nineteen instead of twenty-six.
"What are you so happy about?" I ask.
Adam comes up next to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. "Cliff said he'd take me to Sweet Treats on the way home."
I look at Cliff.
The pack alpha shrugs one shoulder. "They have decent cookies."
"Their snickerdoodles are otherworldly." Adam’s eyes go wide as he presses a hand to his stomach. It’s the most animated he's been all evening.
I lean toward him and grin. I can't help it.
After the day this pack has had, Adam looking genuinely delighted about cookies feels like the first clean breath of air in twenty-four hours.
“Hey.” Perrin materializes behind his brother a second later. He looks between Cliff and me. "Are we leaving?"
"In a minute," Cliff says.
Perrin looks at his brother. "You riding with me or Cliff?"
Adam doesn't even hesitate. "Caddy."
"Of course." Perrin smiles as he rolls his eyes.
Cliff pushes off the desk and reaches into his pocket, pulling out the keys. He holds them out to Adam. "Go warm her up. I'll be right there."
Adam happily takes them, then he points at me on his way out. "Don't keep Cliff too long. The bakery closes at ten, and I will not be robbed of their sugary goodness."
"Yes, sir," I say with a smile.
“Elowen’s taking a bath.” Perrin points up at the ceiling. “I got her some towels and clean clothes.”
“Thank you, Perrin,” Cliff says. “I really appreciate it.”
"I'll be outside." Then the beta follows, pulling the study door halfway closed behind them. A second later, the front door opens and shuts.
The second the house settles into quiet, something shifts in the set of Cliff's jaw.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
Cliff doesn't answer right away. He straightens off the desk and moves to the door, pushing it fully closed with a quiet click. He stands there for a second, head slightly tilted, listening.
Above us, through the ceiling, the faint sound of water running carries through the house.
Then the water stops, and everything goes quiet.
Cliff turns back to face me. "I heard you ask Elowen to sleep in your room tonight."
"Yes.” I straighten my back, happy he brought it up. “And before you say anything, I meant what I said to her. I'm not trying to fuck her." I look right into my pack alpha’s eyes so he knows I mean it. "I’m concerned about her. It's not good for omegas to sleep alone. I’m not trying to—”
"Raff."
I stop.
"I'm not telling you no," he says simply as he crosses back toward me. "Her health is our priority. If she needs you tonight, you have my permission."
My brows lift, and I can’t help but be impressed. He has every right to be pissed that I asked her without discussing it with him. “I am sorry I didn’t ask you first,” I say. “It kind of jumped out of my mouth. I fully understand that you have first rights to establish a bond with her.”
"She and I are mated,” he says. “You can’t get much more bonded than that.” He smiles, but the tension in his shoulders tells me there’s something more going on here.
I glance back at the door, then lower my voice. "Is everything okay?"
Cliff exhales and his smile fades. "I’m really worried about her.
” His eyes narrow as if he’s trying to focus on something in the distance.
“I can feel everything she's feeling through our bond, and she's bouncing between emotions so fast I can barely keep track.
Happy, then scared, then guilty, and worried.
And underneath all of it, something that sits heavier than the rest."
"What?”
"I think it’s grief," he says, like he’s not quite sure. "It’s a gut-deep, painful emotion. The kind that's been there a long time." He looks down at the hardwood floors. "And all I can think is that she said she had no family."
"Yeah. I remember that too." I clasp my hands together and squeeze, thinking about when I held Elowen in the kitchen. Her eyes were glassy and her voice was so small. “I simply asked her how she was doing, and she immediately started to cry.” I look up at Cliff. “It’s like she hasn’t had any meaningful contact in years.”
Cliff nods slowly.
"Take care of her tonight," he says. "However she needs. If that's only sleeping, then sleep. If it's more—" He meets my eyes. "Use your judgment."
"And you trust my judgment?" I smile, trying to make a joke.
"I trust you with everything," he says so firmly I can’t help but love him a little more.
"And Adam?" I ask.
"I've got our sweet beta." The sharp line of Cliff's shoulders relaxes slightly. "Cookies and the Caddy, and a night in the big bed with the two of us. I think it's what he needs right now. He’ll have to adjust to Elowen in our bed soon, but not tonight.”
"You know.” I rub the back of my neck. “I thought he'd be excited about adding an omega into our pack. Perrin is."
"Perrin is a pretty traditional beta." Cliff's voice stays quiet but something firms underneath it.
"And Adam already has a full-time job managing his health.
He doesn't have the privilege of getting to focus on someone else.” He crosses his arms, the muscles in his forearms shifting.
“It’s important he's not made to feel like he's falling short of some ideal of a perfect beta.”
"I completely agree," I say. "Besides, there probably won't be much left for Adam to do with Perrin around.” I stand up. “I give it a week before Perrin is home every day, following Elowen around like a goddamn golden retriever. I'm pretty sure I'm losing a damn good mechanic."
Cliff laughs, then he places one hand on my shoulder. He squeezes, pulling me in and kissing me on the lips.
"I'm going to lock up," he says. "Be good."
“Tell Ma I said hi.”
Cliff promises, and then he's gone.
I wait until I hear the front door close, then I move, making my way through the house and up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Elowen is still in the bath. I can hear the soft slosh of water through the bathroom door as I pass.
Then I push into my room and take a fast inventory of the mess.
The floor is covered in clothes, weights, and shoes. The bed is made, at least, but the nightstand has three empty water bottles on it, a small stack of books, and enough loose bandages and blister packs that it looks like a pharmacy exploded.
On the dresser are a pile of two half-dismantled carburetors and a socket wrench set.
I pick up a pair of my running shoes when I hear the low gurgle of water draining from the tub.
Shit.
I move fast, grabbing everything within arm's reach.
The clothes, car parts, tools, and every single thing on my nightstand gets scooped up in one armload and dumped onto the closet floor. Then I push the door shut without a second thought.
Once the floor is clean, I turn on the small dresser lamp, then crack the window an inch to let the room breathe.
“Blankets,” I say as I scan the room. All I have is one thin comforter and two very flat pillows. “Omegas need blankets.”
My eyes drift down the hall toward Adam's room.
He has that pile in the corner. The reading nook with the chunky knit throw and the velvet cushion and the weighted blanket. Soft things stacked on soft things, exactly what an omega would want.
I think about it for approximately two seconds.
Then I shut that thought down completely, because stripping Adam's room to make Elowen comfortable would be genuinely cruel, and I am not that kind of asshole.
Instead, I go straight for Perrin's room.
I push the beta’s door open, and I make quick work of the bed. The comforter comes first, bundled up in my arms. Then the pillows, all four of them, including the flat one he guards like it's a family heirloom. I snatch a green knitted throw balled up on the floor last.
He'll survive one night without them.
I step back into my room, arms full, then freeze in the doorway.
Elowen is standing at the foot of my bed with a towel in her hands, working it through her damp hair. She's wearing another oversized T-shirt that hits her mid-thigh, her bare feet against the dark hardwood, and she looks up when she hears me come in.
She goes a little still when she sees the pile of blankets in my arms. "Hi."
"Hi." I cross to the bed and drop everything onto the mattress in one soft heap. "Perrin won't miss these."
"You stole his blankets?" Her eyes go wide.
"Borrowed," I say with a wink. "Without asking."
She gives me a small smile. Her eyes drop to the pile of blankets, then back up to my face. There's something quietly uncertain in her expression.
She wants them.
But she doesn't know if she's allowed to want them.
"Go ahead," I say simply. “We have a million more pillows and blankets in this house. Perrin will be fine without them.” That’s not entirely true, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Elowen nods, then turns and drops her towel into the hamper right next to the dresser.
I stare at it for a second.
I own a hamper.
I keep forgetting that.
Moving slowly, Elowen makes her way to the bed, touching each pillow. I take the opportunity to pull my shirt over my head and drop it on the floor. My jeans follow, kicked off and left where they land, leaving me in my briefs as I watch the omega work.