Chapter 11 - Miles
“Hi, how’s the book?” I ask, walking into the living room. The room is warm and cozy. Kelsey made a fire, and the flames flickered, casting an orange glow over the walls. She is curled up on the sofa beneath a fluffy blanket with her book in her hands.
“You’re home,” she smiles, setting her book aside and kicking the blanket off herself to stand up.
“You don’t have to get up; you look so comfortable there. I’ll throw another log onto the fire for you,” I laugh, pushing her back down into her seat.
“I have to make some dinner,” she replies, grinning and standing up again.
“No, you don’t. I already ordered us the chef’s special from the pack house.” I pick up three logs from the pile and place them onto the fire, agitating the coals a little to get oxygen flowing.
“Oh wow. Being a Beta has some perks,” she teases me.
“So does being the Beta’s wife,” I smirk.
“So, how is the book?” I ask again, sitting on the sofa and grabbing her arm to drag her down with me.
I lift the blanket, throw it over her legs, tuck her in again, and she grins with that wide, genuine smile that makes dimples form on her cheeks. Man, it’s cute as hell.
My body stirs as I study her face. She is beautiful. Exquisitely so. Her cheeks start to turn a rosy color, and she bites her lip. “Do I have something on my face?” She asks, nervously brushing her hand over her cheek.
“No,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Is that the only reason a guy would stare at you?”
She shrugs. The movement causes the air around her to move a little, and the soft sweetness of her scent drifts towards me. Jasmine. Enticing and delicate.
“The book is really good. I can hardly put it down. I finished half of it since you left for work this morning,” she says, eyeing the book lying face down on the coffee table.
“I could get used to this vacation thing. By the time I go back to work, I’ll have forgotten how to be a focused, responsible person,” she muses.
“Well, it’s finally today, Friday, and we’ve been invited to a picnic tomorrow morning. My sister and Jace are taking their little one out near the forest to build snowmen. It sounds like it could be fun?” I ask her.
“Oh, that does sound like fun. I haven’t caught up with Mira in ages. What time are we going?”
“Ten. I’ll message them and let them know we’ll join,” I smile.
A knock at the door has me reluctantly moving away from her to get our food delivery.
Instead of eating at the dinner table, I set up the food on the coffee table in the living room so Kelsey can stay comfortable under her blanket.
I keep thinking about how I want to crawl under there with her and feel the heat of her skin against mine.
Fuck, this girl is starting to drive me properly insane.
There have been times over the last few days when I wasn’t sure I could keep myself or Mudder under control.
Like when she walked from the bathroom to the bedroom in nothing but her silk robe.
It clung to her damp skin, showing every little detail of her body.
I could picture myself running my tongue over the silk and teasing her nipples through the robe.
Dammit. Just thinking about it now is making my cock grow harder.
“Steak with mushroom sauce,” I say, forcing myself to stop remembering it.
“And mashed potatoes. The perfect cozy food for a stormy night,” she says. “Do you think the weather will have improved by tomorrow for the picnic?”
“You’ll be shocked. The weather report says it’s going to be a little sunny even,” I inform her.
“I never trusted the weatherman,” she grins.
Coming home to her is my new favorite thing. Having her living in my cottage has completely changed the energy in this place. She makes it a home rather than just a place to sleep, eat, and shower.
After dinner, Kelsey clears away our plates while I fold her blanket and tidy up the living room a bit, getting ready for bed. How I long to scoop her into my arms and carry her to my bed instead of wishing her goodnight and watching her go to her own room.
The weatherman was right for a change. The sun is shining warmly above us, and Mira called to change the picnic to nine instead of ten so Logan could play in the snow a little.
“Isn’t he too young to be playing in the snow?” I ask Kelsey as we walk toward the stop that Jace and Mira chose. They have blankets spread out and hot chocolate in tall flasks and warm breakfast muffins that smell like they just came out of the oven.
“Shifter babies are so much stronger than you think. A little cold will make him resilient,” she says, watching Logan with a smile on her face.
“Kels! Miles!” Mira jumps up when she spots us and rushes over to give each of us a hug. Kelsey says hi to Jace, then sits down on the blanket next to Logan, scoops him up, and cradles him in her arms. She coos over him and pinches his little red cheeks.
Jace walks over to me.
“Hey man, good to see you outside of work,” he laughs.
“Jeez, it’s been busy this week, hey. I am so glad it’s the weekend.”
“Me too. I’m up to my neck in meetings I don’t want to attend,” Jace grumbles.
“How are things going?” Jace asks, gesturing with the tilt of his chin at Kelsey.
“Really good. It’s an adjustment, but it’s good.”
I watch her as she laughs and smiles with Mira and Logan.
I’ve learned that she’s very good at putting on a brave face.
A smile. A joke. A little laughter. It all covers what she’s really going through.
And when she’s struggling with something, she seems to joke a little extra to hide her true feelings.
But when Logan reaches up and grabs a fistful of her soft blonde hair, and she laughs as she tries to pry his little fingers off her curls, I can immediately tell the difference between her cover-laugh and this genuine laugh.
The sound of it pulls that invisible thread between us and makes me want to go to her. She is a thousand times more beautiful when she laughs like that. Her walls down and her heart out.
The sigh of her, relaxed and enjoying herself, suddenly makes desire shoot through me. An intense need that catches me by surprise. Not wanting Jace to know what I’m thinking or feeling, I draw his attention to the girls.
“Do you think they need our help?” I ask, laughing.
Mira is now involved, too. She’s also trying to pry Logan’s fingers off Kelsey’s hair, and the three of them are laughing even harder. My smiles grow wider.
“Man, that little guy has a grip of stone,” Jace tells me. “I’m dreading the day he’s up and able to walk around on his own. He already gets into trouble just being able to crawl.”
He walks over to the blanket and leans over to tickle Logan, who immediately becomes obsessed with his father and releases Kelsey to reach for Jace.
“That kid is daddy-mad at the moment,” Mira smiles.
Jace sits down on the blanket next to Kelsey, and I join them, stealing a steaming mug of hot chocolate from Mira.
“Hey, you brat, pour your own!” She laughs, swatting me.
“Why? This one was already poured, and it’s just the way I like it,” I tease.
My sister rolls her eyes and grabs the flask to pour another mug.
“Would you guys also like some?” She asks Kelsey and Jace.
“Sure, I’ll have,” Jace says.
“Me too,” Kelsey replies.
It turns out that Kelsey never really spent time with Jace before. She’s been friends with Mira since they were kids and often hangs out with Mira and Logan, but never with Jace.
It’s nice to watch her relaxing and getting to know them as a family, as my family, instead of just as Mira and Logan on their own. Jace is a good guy, but a lot of the omegas think he’s stuck-up and arrogant. I guess they think the same about me, too.
But we’re not.
Ok, maybe I am a little.
***
After breakfast, Jace and Kelsey have Logan in a big pile of soft snow they’ve gathered, and he’s loving it. He’s rolling and giggling and slapping his hands against it. I’m leaning against a tree, watching them with my shoulder resting on the textured bark and my hands shoved into my pockets.
“I didn’t ever think I would be this happy in my life,” my sister says, handing me another mug of hot chocolate and standing next to me.
I take the mug and sip it, burning my tongue.
Mira laughs at me. “You never did have the patience to wait for things to cool,” she says philosophically.
“Ok, Zen master, maybe you shouldn’t have made it so hot in the first place.”
“How are things going with Kelsey?” she asks.
I could tell her we’re struggling to connect, and Kelsey won’t let her walls down. I could tell her that we haven’t even kissed, even though we’ve been married for weeks now.
But I choose not to.
“Things are going great,” I say.
She gives me a sideways glance that tells me my tone wasn’t as convincing as I would have liked it to be.
“You know, Kelsey is a very strong woman. She’s been through a lot of Miles.
She stayed strong when we were growing up, even though she suffered just as much bullying as I did.
She went through the same trauma I went through, being outcast from the pack and made to feel unworthy.
And now she’s still dealing with bullies.
"But Kelsey handles it differently. I used to cry and isolate myself from people. I would hide. Kelsey is so much stronger than that. She puts on a brave face and a big smile, and she keeps facing her problems as though they have no effect on her. She never lost her cheerful outlook. Not through any of the bad things life threw at her.”
I sigh.
Guilt stabs at me. Thinking about the pain that Mira went through, and knowing Kelsey went through the same thing, causes a deep ache inside me.
I wasn’t there for my sister. I never stuck my neck out to help her or even give her a kind word when I saw what was happening to her. I was a total asshole, and I’ve never forgiven myself for that.
I should have saved her from those bullies. And someone should have been there to save Kelsey, too.
And I should have been there for my wife when Luke and Taylor were bullying her recently.
Before it got to the point it reached.
Mira slips her arm around my waist and hugs. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and hug her back, and she rests her head on my chest, still watching her husband and her son.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” I mutter, feeling miserable.
“Hey, don’t do that. You’re here for me now,” she scolds me, stepping back to shoot one of her stern looks at me.
I smile, but my heart is heavy.
I don’t deserve for her to be this kind to me. And I don’t deserve a beautiful woman like Kelsey when I can’t even protect her from bullies.
I never took care of my own family, my own sister. I was perfectly willing to let her struggle on her own to save myself the trouble. I was a terrible brother, and now I am a terrible husband.
Mira expects too much of me.
I’m not the person she thinks I am. I don’t deserve for her to think I’m good enough to be that person.
“Listen, Mira, you should know that this marriage with Kelsey is just for show. It’s not real. There isn’t anything real about it. It’s for the image of the pack and helping create a new view of the omegas for the elders,” I tell her, hoping it will lower her expectations.
Mira’s eyes soften, and she smiles sadly.
“Ok, Miles,” she sighs, then shrugs and heads over to join Jace.