31. Bailey-Rose
Asoft grunt coming from Gareth was the only sign that he’d had a tower of wooden blocks dropped on his back. Freeing myself from his hold so I could turn to face him, panic erupted in my chest.
“Oh my God, are you okay?” I asked, grabbing his arm to pull him free of the pile of blocks. “I’m so sorry. I should have gotten out of the way the second I knew it was going to fall.”
“Hey, easy, baby girl… take a breath,” Gareth soothed. “I’m fine, totally and completely fine. Those blocks weren’t all that heavy, and none of them have sharp corners for this very reason.”
I refused to let this go until I yanked up the back of his shirt and looked at his back with my two eyes.
There were a few red marks from the blocks but nothing that gave me any concern.
With a sigh, I pressed a kiss to each of the marks before wrapping my arms around his waist, hugging him as I rested my cheek on his skin.
“That was absolutely reckless, Gareth,” I muttered.
He wrapped a hand around my wrist and drew me around so I could face him. “Baby girl, I don’t give two shits how reckless it might be, but your safety comes first. Period.”
“That’s stupid. My life isn’t more important than any of yours,” I challenged.
Gareth cupped my face and smiled. “Not true… you are the most important person to us. I know without a doubt I can speak for the others when I say this is a battle you will never win. There is only one of you, and there are five of us. You would be able to survive losing one of us, but none of us would ever recover from losing you.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Gareth tucked a hand under my chin and shut it. “Sorry, no matter what you say, none of us will agree. So what do you say to packing up here, grabbing some Chinese, and picking a movie to watch all snuggled up together?”
Everything in me wanted to do whatever it took to get him to understand that I could never survive without one of them.
It was clear as day to me that each of them was a piece of my soul, and losing even one of them would leave me forever broken.
There would be no way to fix that ailment unless science created a way to bring back a man from the dead.
Yet I had a sneaking suspicion they felt the same way about me.
“That sounds perfect,” I admitted, letting the matter drop for now. “What about the final round? You still have to go against Ulysses.”
“Nah,” Lysse said, gripping Gareth’s shoulder. “Seeing the lengths this guy is willing to go to, I’ll let him have the win.”
“Fuck off,” Gareth shot back, grinning as he shoved Ulysses. “Who’s calling in the food? We can pick it up on the way back to the house.”
“On it,” Warrick called, pulling out his phone. “The usual place?”
“Make sure you triple the potstickers and crab rangoon. This little monster will eat them all before we even get a chance,” Lysse warned, wrapping me up in a bear hug. “Anything else you want, Rosie? We always get beef and broccoli along with that chicken almond dish I know you like.”
“I don’t know, you might want to double up on those too if you’re that worried about me eating them all,” I muttered, trying to act upset even as I was soaking up the affection.
“Hmm…” Ulysses hummed, then scooped me up, tossed me over his shoulder, and headed back to our base camp. “War, better get two large orders of beef and broccoli since you’re the only one who likes the almond thing.”
“Almond Ding, not thing,” Warrick corrected. “I’ll get it sorted. There’s a reason you guys always make me do the food orders.”
I hung there for a moment, stunned that Lysse was tossing me around like a doll. Placing my hands on his ass, I pushed up to see Warrick on the phone and the others cleaning up the game like nothing odd was happening here.
“What do you think you’re doing, Mr. Ford,” I demanded.
His response was to pat my ass and chuckle. “Well, Ms. Thatcher, I’m ensuring my Omega doesn’t get into any trouble. Seems she’s rather prone to getting into mishaps lately… can never be too careful.”
I groaned, rolling my eyes as I let my arms relax. “That is some of the most Alpha-sounding shit to ever come out of your mouth.”
“Want to hear a secret?” Lysse asked as he paused, shifting me lower so my legs automatically wrapped around his waist, and we were face-to-face.
“I really just wanted a little one-on-one time with my Rosie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to share with my pack brothers, and I see how happy they make you.
Yet, sometimes, I simply want you to myself for a bit. Does that make me a bad pack brother?”
My love for this man only grew at hearing his concern.
“No, I don’t think that makes you a bad pack brother.
To me, it sounds totally normal for you to want some alone time with a person you care about.
If you think about it, the others have also asked for one-on-one time with me over the past week. ”
Ulysses leaned in, kissing me with such tenderness it made me tear up.
I don’t know how long we stood there under the shade of a large tree with a soft breeze rustling the leaves above, and it didn’t matter.
In all the whirlwind of discovering this man was my scent match, meeting my pack, moving, and creating a new life with my guys, I hadn’t really had time to realize my first and only love loved me back.
Every person I dated was compared to this man, and I should have realized they were destined to fail when they didn’t even come close.
My heart belonged to Ulysses, Warrick, Yun-Sun, Gareth, and Vili long before I understood what that meant.
“I love you, Ulysses. I’ve loved you pretty much my whole life,” I whispered, resting my forehead against his. “Thank you for coming back to me.”
Lysse lovingly brushed my hair out of my face as the breeze picked up.
“Rosie, there has never been a moment since meeting you that I wouldn’t drop everything to be right by your side.
I didn’t understand why. No matter what happened in my life, you never left my thoughts.
Now I do and fuck, am I a lucky bastard to have you. ”
Heat burned across my cheeks, telling me I was blushing and probably grinning like an idiot. I leaned forward and kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck, pressing my body to his, needing to feel him so I knew I wasn’t dreaming.
“Hey, you two,” Yun-Sun called softly. “I hate to be the guy who cuts in on your moment, but everything’s packed up.”
My head snapped up, and I looked around, not that I thought Yun was lying but more so surprised we’d been making out that long. Ulysses let me slide down his body until I stood on my own but immediately took my hand, threading our fingers together.
“Yun, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “You guys shouldn’t have had to clean up everything after setting it all up.”
Yun-Sun gently gripped my chin, urging me to tilt my head back and meet his gaze.
“Sweetheart, it’s no trouble. Don’t fret over the small things.
It was clear to us that Ulysses needed you, and we were more than happy to make that possible.
We are a family, and that means we do things to support each other.
Now if you’d like to help me out, Gareth is getting rather hangry. ”
I smiled as Yun dropped a kiss on my lips and headed for the car with the two of us right on his heels.
Sprawled out across Ulysses and Warrick on the couch, I groaned. “I think I’m going to burst.”
Warrick placed a hand on my stomach and rubbed it, talking to it in a baby voice. “Aww, look at the food baby.”
I swatted his hand away halfheartedly, only to squeal in laughter as he pulled up my shirt and blew raspberries on my stomach.
A fart so loud it echoed off the living room walls rocketed out of me.
It shocked everyone, including myself, but it wasn’t long before Warrick started to snicker.
He slapped a hand over his mouth to keep the laughter in, but it was too late.
Gareth lost his shit a moment later, nearly falling off the couch, he was laughing so hard.
This set everyone else off, and I joined in, refusing to let a normal bodily function upset this amazing night.
A knock at the door had us trying to pull it together, but it wasn’t going well.
Yun stood and did his best to collect himself as he answered the door after the person on the other side knocked even more insistently.
Wriggling around, I managed to sit up with Lysses’ help, curious to see who was at the door.
A middle-aged man dressed in a suit with the Scent Matchers emblem on the breast waited for Yun to sign whatever was on the clipboard.
When he handed it back, the man in the suit gave him a letter, saying something I couldn’t hear, but seemed serious.
Yun said goodnight, giving the man a friendly wave before closing and locking the front door.
My gaze tracked Yun-Sun as he rejoined us, yet didn’t take his seat. Instead, his whole attention was focused on the letter in his hand. “What is it?” I asked.
“The man said it’s an official summons to meet with the Scent Matchers,” Yun answered as he carefully opened the letter that was sealed with a sticker bearing the organization’s emblem.
He pulled the letter free, slowly unfolding it as he read, his brows furrowing.
“They require our presence tomorrow, one o’clock, at the Windermere hub. ”
“What? Why?” Gareth demanded, holding his hand out for the letter. Yun-Sun gave it to him, seemingly lost in thought. “The fuck, we’re to attend this meeting without Bailey-Rose? None of this makes sense, I’ve never heard of something like this before.”
Ulysses took the letter out of Gareth’s hand as he started to crumple it in his grasp. I read over Lysses’ shoulder, trying to make sense of this as dread grew in the pit of my stomach.