Chapter 50
Chapter Fifty
Sage
I blink my eyes open, rubbing them to get the crusties out as I toss the blanket away from my skin. Too hot.
My pack is passed out, scattered about the nest around me. Riley is a starfish on his stomach, bare assed with legs and arms spread like he’s trying to touch us all at the same time but can’t quite manage it.
Neveah is sleeping soundly on her back, one hand thrown above her head and one leg bent so her knee is sticking out from the blanket haphazardly draped over her.
And Brooks is curled on his side with one arm out, reaching toward me.
I yawn and stretch, then grimace as what feels like every muscle in my body screams at me. That’s new. Does that mean the heat is done?
I don’t hurt in the way I normally do after a heat. Although my muscles are sore, it’s the delicious kind—the kind that says it was worth it.
And emotionally, I feel… Safe. Treasured. Cared for.
Tears fill my eyes, and I blink, trying to keep them at bay.
My memory is spotty from the last few days—week?—however long it’s been. I remember a few moments, and I cringe when my needy voice demanding a bite pops into my head. I raise my hands to my neck, both relieved and disappointed to feel no bond marks there.
Then I get a whiff of my body odor, and I grimace for a different reason.
I carefully untangle myself from the blankets and tiptoe on shaky legs to the bathroom for a shower. I hope it doesn’t wake the others, they deserve a week of solid rest after the marathon they pulled for me.
My omega is sad to wash their scents off me, but it also feels good to rinse off days of sweat and cum. I have a hazy recollection of Riley in the tub with me at one point, but I don’t know if I bathed at all besides that.
I’m pouring a glob of shampoo into my hand when the bathroom door opens and Neveah slips in on silent feet.
“Can I join you, Sweetling?”
“Yeah,” I say, voice raspy.
She smiles and holds up one finger, then turns to the sink and fills a glass of water, holding it out to me.
I take it gratefully, downing the whole thing. I didn’t realize how parched I was until she offered. Then she’s slipping into the shower behind me.
“Let me help,” she says, scooping the shampoo out of my hand.
“I can—”
“Please,” she murmurs. “My alpha needs this.”
Oh. Okay.
I relax into her touch as she scrubs strong fingers through my hair and then tilts my head back to rinse it out.
“I don’t know how we’re going to get your hair untangled. We should have braided it when we noticed your heat had started,” she says, voice soft.
“Maybe…” I say, but then stop, losing my confidence.
“Maybe what?” she presses, moving her fingers down my neck to my shoulders as she rubs the sore muscles.
I moan at how good it feels.
“I was thinking maybe I could cut it, if you all don’t mind.”
“Why would we mind?”
My body tenses beneath her strong fingers, and she turns me to face her.
“Is this another ‘alpha thing’?” She puts the phrase in quotes, as we’ve started to do when refering to the lies my brother and his friend filled my head with.
I nod, hesitant, and she sighs.
“Sage. I don’t know what they told you about alphas and … hair preferences?”
I nod again, so she continues.
“But all any of us want is for you to be happy. You can keep your hair long if you like it, or you can cut it, or you can shave it bald for all I care. More important than your hair, is you. You are the important part of this equation, Sage. Not how your hair looks.”
“So… You won’t be upset if I cut it?”
“Not even a tiny bit. In fact, I’ll happily take you to get it cut myself.”
She boops my nose and it’s such a random, out of character thing for her to do that I can’t help but giggle.
“Okay, let’s not bother trying to detangle it then. I want to chop it all off!”
I’m so nervous-excited I can’t sit still in the salon chair. We spent the entire day yesterday in recovery at home, sleeping off the heat marathon while one of us occasionally got up to switch out the laundry.
Now I’m at the local salon with Brooks at the station on my left, Riley on the other side of him, and Vee on my right. We’re all getting pampered today, and I love that we get to do this together.
I’m also terrified they’ll end up hating me with short hair, even though they all encouraged me to do it multiple times. I take a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Neveah smiles and gives me an encouraging hand-squeeze before turning toward her mirror.
It’s time for the big chop, and the stylist checks one more time with me, then takes the scissors to my hair. They cut it off at about my shoulders, saying they want some extra to work with after shampooing, and mounds of wavy brown hair fall to the floor around me.
Riley and Brooks are getting clean-up trims, and Neveah is getting a specialized precision cut for her super curly hair. I’m the only one doing something drastic.
“You want us to watch, Petal? Or should it be a surprise?”
“Oh, um. I think I want it to be a surprise for me, but I don’t care about all of you.”
“I want to be surprised, too,” Brooks says.
“I don’t have the self control to keep my eyes off you.” Riley licks his lips dramatically as he looks me up and down, and Neveah huffs a laugh.
“I’ve a blindfold in my car for you, if you want,” she says to Riley.
“Why do you have a blindfold in your car?” Brooks interjects.
“Keep questioning me if you want to find out, big guy.”
“Ooooooh,” Riley calls, like Brooks is a kid getting in trouble. “Do it, do it! Keep questioning her, I double dog dare you.”
“I’ve got a gag, too,” Neveah says as she uncrosses her legs for the hairdresser.
The stylists all start laughing, and I cover my mouth as I join in. Neveah shoots me a wink, then hushes everyone.
“Let them work their magic,” she says.
And when they turn me around to see the end result, I’m half-convinced they do have magic.
I gasp, leaning toward the mirror as my hands fly to my cheeks.
The longer pieces come to about my jawline, but all of it is layered, even on top of my head.
With my natural waves, it gives me a fun, sexy look that I would have never thought to go for on my own.
“Oh my gosh,” I whisper. “It doesn’t even look like me.”
“I’d know you anywhere, Petal,” Brooks says, walking up behind me as we make eye contact in the mirror.
Him and Riley were done over an hour ago, but Neveah wanted both of us to have some conditioning treatment done, so our appointments have taken longer.
“Do you like it?”
“I love it,” he says, placing his hands on my biceps. “Do you like it?”
“I love it,” I whisper, my eyes fixed on the short, wavy hairdo the stylist has given me.
“Daaaaaamn,” Riley says, sauntering up to us. “Check out this fine piece of ass.”
I break into a grin and swat at him as he wraps his arms around me and kisses my cheek. Brooks heaves a sigh and rolls his eyes, and Vee pinches his ass.
“You look incredible,” Riley murmurs in my ear.
I tilt my chin to look up at Neveah while trying not to look like I’m asking for compliments. She’s been hovering to my other side, and she steps forward when I meet her eyes.
She uses one knuckle to nudge my chin up further, then slowly bends down while maintaining eye contact, only to pull me into the most devouring, possessive kiss she’s ever given me. I squeak into her mouth, and she grins against me, then kisses me again, and again, and again.
Finally, after nipping at my bottom lip, she pulls back.
“I think she likes it,” Riley whispers loudly, and I can’t contain my grin.
“He’s understating it, Sweetling,” Vee says, smoothing a lock of hair between her fingers. “I’m obsessed.”
We pile into Brooks’s work truck, as it’s the only vehicle we have that is comfortable for both of our tall alphas, and Riley pops his head up from the backseat to catch his own reflection in the mirror.
“I need to redo my blue,” he says, running a hand through his trimmed hair.
“You do it yourself?” I ask.
“Yep, why?” He turns to me. “You want some color in yours?”
I hadn’t thought of that, but my eyes light up at the idea.
“I can do that?”
“Course you can,” he says.
My hair is purple.
MY HAIR IS PURPLE.
I want to scream it from the rooftop, but I manage to contain my excitement to inside the house.
Riley carefully combed purple into my locks, then told me to sit tight while he added blue to his.
I yelped when he had me tip my head over the tub so he could rinse it with shockingly cold water, but he says it helps lock in the color better.
I don’t know if I believe him, and he could have warned me first, but I wasn’t about to fight him on it. After he blow-dries it for me, I feel like a new woman.
I sprint down the stairs in search of our alphas, careening around the corner to find Brooks in the kitchen.
“I have purple hair!” I screech.
He jumps about a mile, then spins around with one hand to his chest. He blinks at me, taking in my new look.
I put on some of the new clothes Riley and I bought before my heat: a tight, knit black top with no sleeves tucked into short denim shorts.
Both items I never would have been able to consider a few months ago.
“Not sure why I’m bothering to cook,” Brooks growls, stalking toward me. “I’d much rather eat you.”
I shriek as he hauls me off my feet and into his arms, laughing when he nibbles along my bare shoulder and up my neck. He sets me on the counter, stepping between my spread thighs, but before he can get started on whatever he was thinking, the front door slams.
“What’s all the hollering about?” Vee says from the front hallway, and I twist my upper body around.
“I have purple hair!”
She rounds the corner with a grin on her face.
“So you do,” she says, sauntering up to us and leaning against the counter beside me. “You’re also on the counter, looking entirely too edible. Did I interrupt something?”
“Yes,” Brooks grumbles, turning back to the pan on the stove.
I shrug and hop off the counter, taking the hand Vee offers me. She holds it up, twisting me into a spin, and then pulls me against her.
“Somehow even more gorgeous than you were yesterday,” she says, dropping a kiss to my upturned lips.
Riley wanders in, toweling off his wet, bright blue hair.
“Purple suits her, huh?” he says, a smug grin on his face.
He did a great job, and suddenly I want a picture. I want to remember this moment, this past week, forever.
“Someone take a selfie of us,” I say.
Neveah laughs, then lightly swats my ass as she pulls her phone out.
“You’ve gotten awfully bossy,” she says. “I would’ve thought we’d have fucked it out of you by now.”
“I think we actually fucked it into her,” Brooks says, his tone dry, and Riley cackles.