Chapter 13 – Lacey
Chapter Thirteen
Lacey
The outside of the house is more festive than I remember it in years past. Wilder must like to decorate for the holiday. His dads didn’t do anything, outside of a tree and stockings, the year I spent Christmas here.
The car comes to a stop on the circular driveway rather than pulling into the garage.
“Thank you, Raymond.” Wilder pushes open the door, climbs out, and turns back to me. “Come on, beautiful. Let me help you just in case you’re wobbly.”
Beautiful?
He wiggles fingers, extending his hands.
I scoot over, and he helps me from the vehicle. It’s freezing, and the first exhale of my breath fogs the air, but I barely have time to focus on that.
My legs shake so violently that I grip on to Wilder’s forearms for support. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Your adrenaline is crashing,” he murmurs, pulling the blanket off my shoulders and tossing it over the still-open door of the car. Before I know what’s happening, he scoops me up. I have no choice but to wrap my legs around his ass, or I’d just be hanging down his front.
Wilder tucks a forearm under my bottom, grabs the blanket with his free hand, and rewraps it around my back.
“I’ll let you know when I need you again.” He must be talking to the driver because he closes the door and takes off toward the front steps.
Wilder types a code in on the door handle before scanning his thumb. It’s very high-tech, but I guess he thinks it’s justified.
I’m still having trouble comprehending that he’s had security following me around. I’m almost afraid to ask how long it’s been going on. Like, did his dads have a team following me during my time in college?
Twinkling Christmas lights glitter from the staircases as Wilder kicks the door closed behind us. He turns to relock the door, and I take in the decorations.
The entryway or foyer is enclosed, at least at first. About ten feet down on the left is a small sitting room. It leads to the formal dining room and eventually the kitchen, which is deeper into the house. On the right is the downstairs office.
If you follow the entryway past those, it opens up into the area with the double staircase.
Both banisters are lined in white Christmas lights.
To the right of the right staircase is a tree that must be nine or ten feet tall.
It’s decorated in sky blue, silver, and white ornaments, but if it has lights, they aren’t turned on.
Wilder turns and takes off toward the stairs, and I have to twist my head to continue to see where he’s going since we’re chest-to-chest.
The ceiling in this area is open to the second floor. There’s probably a fancy name for the style, but I don’t know it.
If you bypass the staircase and instead go straight through, there’s a bedroom down on the right. To the left is another living room that opens up onto the back deck. It’s an open floor plan with a great view of the kitchen.
Wilder takes the stairs, and my stomach wobbles as I’m jostled around. He’s not even moving that quickly. My equilibrium is just off. Once we’re on the second-floor landing, my system settles a bit, but he takes the wrong corridor.
“Did you forget which room was mine?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light.
“I did not. You had a rough day. I think that calls for a bedroom upgrade.”
Wilder stops by a room that smells exactly like Grim. He snags a pillow off the bed that is covered in my newly bonded alpha’s scent and digs in a dresser, grabbing out one of Grim’s shirts.
“You’re freshly bonded. Having his scent close will soothe your system.” He stuffs both items between us and takes off again.
I’m still gross from blood, even if Wilder cleaned my face in the car, so I don’t let myself snuggle with Grim’s pillow.
Not yet.
That will come after a scalding-hot shower.
“This room has been completely redecorated since you’ve seen it,” Wilder says, opening the door at the end of the hall.
I already know which room this is.
This house has two primary bedrooms. The one on the first floor, which was Wilder’s room. Not that he ever spent a night in it the entire time I was here.
The second was the room my mom shared with his dads. It’s lovely, or it was the last time I saw it, but it’s also huge. My old room was big compared to anything I’d lived in before, and it was incredibly lonely.
I was used to being able to walk twenty feet—at max—and find my mom in our apartment. Having to search this mansion, just to run into anyone, left me feeling extremely isolated.
Wilder comes to a stop while I’m still busy replaying those memories. He pries the pillow and shirt from between us and tosses them onto the bed before taking off again.
The bathroom he steps into is familiar, but it’s been completely redecorated since I was in it last. The tile, fixtures, and even the color on the walls are all new.
We end up near the laundry area, and he tugs the blanket off my shoulders.
“We’re going to have to dispose of your clothes. I hope you didn’t wear anything you’re too fond of.”
It’s all covered in blood.
I’m good with it being destroyed. “Burn it, for all I care.”
He chuckles and steps around the hamper, reaching into one of the cabinets and pulling out a huge black trash bag. With that in hand, he walks us across the room.
Wilder puts me down on the small bench in front of the vanity and shakes out the bag, shoving the blanket in. Once he’s done, he drops the trash bag and steps over to the shower, pulling open the frosted door.
He climbs inside, fully clothed, and starts the water before returning to squat down in front of the bench I’m seated on.
Goose bumps erupt down my arms, and I realize how cold I am. It’s freezing in here, but steam wafts through the open shower door, and that seems like a good sign.
“You’re still pale,” Wilder says, brushing his fingers over my cheek. “I’m not going to let you climb in there by yourself, but I am willing to compromise. I’ll leave my boxers on, and you can keep your bra and panties, if you’d like.”
“I’ll be okay. I can do it,” I assure him, but at this point, I don’t even know why.
Omegas are coded to crave care from compatible alphas, and I just went through the scariest thing I’ve ever had to live through.
I want to be comforted.
“I know you can, but it’ll mean a hell of a lot to me if you’d let me help.” Wilder’s dark blue eyes sparkle, and I nod before I can stop myself.
Wilder removes his attire with no fanfare. Once that’s done, he helps me out of my clothing and into the shower.
He’s slender by nature, with strong shoulders and defined arms, but it’s nice not to be met with a six-pack or anything crazy.
I’m entirely too covered in blood and wearing my ugliest bra with unmatched panties for all of that. If I had known how today was going to end, I would have put more effort into looking put together, but here we are.
“We are going to have to get you out of the rest eventually, but I’ll do the best I can to work around them for now,” Wilder says. “Once it comes time for that, I’ll turn around and let you do one final scrub down.”
“Thanks.”
He nods and gets to work.
He’s efficient and rougher than I expect, but it dawns on me that I’m covered in evidence that could send Grim to prison. That means I keep my mouth firmly shut, and I even use my nails to scrape under each fingernail to try to get rid of any lingering DNA.
Wilder is significantly gentler as he shampoos and conditions my hair twice.
I have to lean back to keep it from running into my eyes, which means I have nothing to look at but my stepbrother.
Almost eighteen-year-old me wouldn’t have believed that I’d ever find myself showering with the man, and almost twenty-one-year-old me still struggles to understand how I ended up here.
If nothing else, the heat of the water soothes my aching muscles. I got tossed around a little before Grim stepped in, but it was pretty mild in comparison to how my body is reacting.
“Are you doing okay down there?” Wilder asks once I’m upright following the second conditioning. His dark blue eyes sparkle as he studies me carefully, and the concerned look on his face makes me emotional for no good reason. “Lacey?”
“I’ll live.” I offer him a tired smile. “My entire body aches. I just want to get this over with.”
He gives a clipped nod. “Got it. All right, I’m going to turn around. I need you to hand me your underclothes and do a final scrub down.” He spins to face the wall, and my eyes widen at the expansive tattoo on his back.
His right shoulder has a woman’s face and neck that flows down toward his left hip. She bears a striking resemblance to me, or maybe I’m delusional after the world’s longest day. She has the back of her hand resting against her cheek, and she’s beautiful…
Like, truly stunning.
I reach behind me, unhooking my bra while studying the other pieces.
There are several flowers framing the parts of her body that aren’t highlighted by the tattoo, and they’re the only areas of the back piece that are white.
Everything else is black and gray, from what I can tell, making the flowers shine brighter in comparison.
His lower back has a lion prowling under a full moon with a lightning strike glowing in the night sky.
That’s especially weird because lightning is one of the words I would use to describe his scent.
I force myself to look away to get back to what I’m supposed to be doing before I end up spiraling about it.
It would be silly to believe Wilder has an entire portrait of me covering half of his back.