Dreaming #2
Heat floods my face at being caught staring, but I pad into the living room anyway. Adrian's blue-gray eyes track me the whole way across the room, soft and a little shy.
I round the coffee table and sink down into the space Mack opened up, settling between them. Their big thighs bracket mine, Adrian warm on my left, Mack solid on my right, and both their scents fold over me at once.
I missed both of them so much last night.
"You disappeared last night," I say to Adrian, trying to keep it light. "I thought you might—I don’t know." I shrug, not sure how to ask if my scent made him run screaming from the house.
What if the kiss we shared in the kitchen meant nothing?
What if I've spun a whole story out of one moment that he's been trying to take back ever since?
What if they both hate me for what I made Nico do?
"Oh, Yeah." Adrian forces a tight smile. "I wasn't feeling great. I needed to take care of some things."
"Oh." I smile, letting the fact that he just gave me two very different excuses go. Then I tuck my feet up under me, and my knee presses into Mack's thigh. I quickly shift, trying not to crowd him. "I'm glad you're back."
The tips of Adrian's ears go pink, and suddenly all I can think about is the way he kissed me so gently in the kitchen.
Mack watches the two of us with the satisfied look of a man enjoying a show, then he stretches his arms over his head as he yawns. "So. You're one of us now." He tips his chin at the mark on my throat. "Nico do a good job? He can get a little enthusiastic."
"Mack," Adrian mutters from my other side, and I can’t tell if Adrian thinks Mack is being rude or if Adrian just didn’t want it brought up at all.
"What? It's a fair question." Mack drops his arms as he lowers his head to see it better. "That's a hell of a bite."
My hand comes up and I brush my fingertips along the edges. "It's perfect, actually." I stare at Mack’s face, trying to figure out if he’s happy or secretly enraged.
"Course it is." Mack smiles like he approves. Please, let him approve. "Nico’s had a lot of practice. I swear he re-marks Owen at least twice a week."
"It's not that often," Adrian says to Mack, before dipping his head toward me. He’s so close that his pine and clean-rain scent washes over me, as he drops his voice to a whisper just for me. "It's really not that often."
"So. How long have the four of you been..." I gesture between them, not sure of the right word. "Together?"
Adrian and Mack share a look over the top of my head.
"Well," Adrian says. "Nico and Owen have been together eight years and have been married almost as long.
" He rubs the back of his neck. "I met Nico on a worksite about a year after that.
We were friends first, for a while." Something softens in Adrian's face as he smiles, "And then we weren't just friends. "
"I’ve been a part of the pack for about five years now," Mack says. "Got hired onto a site Nico was running, he invited me over to dinner, and I never left." He grins. "Best decision I ever made."
I try to picture their whole history over eight years, and I can’t help but wonder if they had long conversations before adding a new member to their pack.
Shit, I’ve seriously fucked up.
"Do your families know?" I blurt out, not sure what else to say, but the second the question leaves my mouth the warmth in the room shifts.
Beside me, Adrian goes still. He shifts his weight, then he swallows hard. On my other side, Mack's easy grin pulls stiff at the corners, holding in place like it’s frozen there.
"I'm sorry," I quickly say as heat blooms across my cheeks. "You don't have to answer that, I shouldn't have asked. That was so rude of me."
"It's okay." Adrian's warm hand settles on my knee, and the light squeeze he gives it loosens the knot pulling tight in my chest. "You can ask us anything." His thumb moves once against my skin and I swear to god my heart starts instantly racing.
Please like me. Please like me. Please.
"Nico's whole family knows," Adrian continues. "His mom's an omega. He grew up in a pack."
I go still then twist to look at the alpha. "Nico grew up in a pack?"
"Big one." Mack snorts. "Two alpha dads, an omega mom, and a beta mom with a whole mess of siblings. Most of them live near Boston now, with the exception of Ren." He smiles fondly. "They're really good people. They'll love you."
His words settle over me, and something in my chest goes soft and full.
Okay, maybe they aren’t angry I didn’t talk before I pounced Nico’s bones.
"I can't wait to meet them," I say with the biggest smile on my face. "I didn't know that was something people got to have. Growing up in a pack, I mean. Openly."
"Well, they kept it quiet too," Adrian says. "You have to. But behind their own doors, yeah. Nico had that."
"What about Owen's parents?"
"They know." Adrian lifts a shoulder. "They don't really care one way or the other.
Owen's never been that close with them. He calls on holidays and birthdays, but we don’t really see them much.
" He smiles a little. "The beta has always been kind of a loner.
I think that's half the reason the pack means so much to him. "
I nod, understanding that.
"And mine," Adrian pauses and his body tenses beside me, the easy warmth draining out of his face. He looks down at his hands where they rest on his knees, and his jaw works once before he answers. "My family cut me off," he says quietly.
Mack's grin is gone.
"I came from a traditional house," Adrian goes on, his voice flat and careful, like he's reading a script. "I have an alpha father and beta mother. They’re monogamists."
I clench my teeth, knowing exactly what that’s like.
"My dad used to preach about the sanctity of a proper pairing." A humorless breath leaves the alpha. "I hid the pack from them for months, but I couldn't keep it up forever, so eventually I told them."
His hands curl into loose fists on his thighs.
"My dad lost it and ended up beating the shit out of me,” he says plainly, without any drama, and somehow that makes it worse.
"He broke my nose and cracked a couple ribs.
Told me I was dead to him." He swallows hard, and Mack goes completely still on my other side.
"I’m not close with them anymore," Adrian says.
"My mom and I talk sometimes on the phone. But not my dad. Never my dad."