Chapter Nineteen
Harper
The boys had been taking turns sleeping with me for over two weeks. The more they did, at my request, the more I knew in my heart that I might not be able to sleep alone ever again.
Rowan’s confession last week shocked me. I thought they were just taking pity on me. Taking in a nearly homeless omega and giving her shelter until she got her life together.
Somewhere along the way, Rowan said he fell in love with me. They all did.
And though I’d refused to admit it until now, I had fallen in love with them as well. Miles for his calm strength. Rowan for the way he cared for me and his pack. Lev for the way he saw needs in me that I didn’t know I had.
They saw all my broken pieces but never tried to put them back together. That was my job. But they offered to hold them while I did. Hold me while I learned to trust them and myself again.
One Saturday morning, I came downstairs, and they were all waiting. Coffee mugs in their hands.
My heart beat like a rabbit’s and I stopped in my tracks. “What’s going on?” I asked.
On the table were all my favorites. The bear claws from the bakery. Rowan’s breakfast casserole. Miles’ banana bread. Of course, the bear claws were from my bear, Lev.
“Good morning,” Miles said and came over to kiss my lips. There had been make-out sessions while they had been sleeping in my bed but nothing beyond that. They never pushed me for more. Didn’t even mention it.
But I’d seen the way their bodies reacted to me. Such restraint for alphas.
“Good morning,” I said. “It’s not my birthday. Shoot! Did I miss one of your birthdays?” No, that didn’t make sense. Everything on the table was my favorite.
“No.” Lev came over and took my hand. His touch instantly calmed me. Every. Single. Time. “We have something we’d like to ask you.”
“To move out?” I joked, but no one else thought that was funny.
“No. Of course not, omega. Come and sit. Coffee?”
“Yes, please.” My tummy strummed up a thousand butterflies, and I could hardly swallow I was so nervous.
“We were talking about you yesterday,” Miles started, sitting next to me. “About how we all love you but other than Rowan, we haven’t made that clear. We decided to make it official.”
Oh, goddess. I nearly darted for the hills, but my wolf stilled me before my anxiety and overthinking got the best of me. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” Lev started. “That we want you to know that we love you. We are all in love with you. And we want to officially ask you if you would allow us the honor of courting you, properly.”
I opened my mouth, but Rowan spoke first. “Before you go with your gut reaction, please know that this can go as slowly as you like. Even if it takes years for you to trust us, then we will wait because there is no one else, no other omega on this earth, for us. All we ask is that you let us. Let us prove ourselves to you.”
“You already are proving yourselves to me.”
“We hope so.” Miles wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “We’d like to take you on a date tonight and present you with a mating gift. We’ve been working on it behind your back for weeks, but it’s time to give it to you, if you accept us—accept us courting you.”
“I need…can I finish my coffee before I answer?”
They all laughed, but it was about more than coffee. I wanted to let this sink in. The truth was, I already did trust them. They were nothing like my old pack. Not one bit.
We ate breakfast, and I let myself chill out.
I was in love with them too. It had grown over the time I lived here. All my walls were officially crumbled.
They would never do anything to hurt me. Despite my promises to myself to never trust an alpha or let one in, I had. Three of them. Their warmth and love had melted all the ice I’d built up trying to protect myself.
“I have already decided,” I blurted.
Lev turned green. “Tell us. Please.”
“I accept your courtship and, for the record, you aren’t the only ones who have fallen in love. I tried to keep my distance, convincing myself that all alphas were like my last ones, but you have proven that they were a nasty exception—not the rule.”
“You’ll accept us?” Rowan asked. “Truly?”
I nodded. “Yes.” They all embraced me one by one and then as a pack. I’d never felt so safe.
Miles broke free first. “We’re taking you to lunch and then the surprise courting gift.”
“I hope you didn’t spend too much on me.”
Lev shook his head. “Why? You only get one omega in this life. Let us spoil you.”
That afternoon, the boys took me on a date. Getting dressed, I’d made up my mind once again. My wolf knew they were mine. I knew they were mine.
The only thing missing was their mark.
I wanted it so badly. To belong to them. There was nothing else to prove.
We went to lunch and came back home where they promised my courting gift would be. I had no idea what kind of gift needed to be worked on for weeks, but it warmed my heart for them to think of me.
I’d never received a courting gift before.
Just lingerie.
Miles took my hand once we were home and ticked his head down the hallway. “Come with me, omega mine.”
Mine. That was the first time he’d called me his. The others followed behind us and we stopped at the end of the hall, in the guest room that was never used.
“Keep in mind that you can change anything you like. We intended to take you shopping after you saw it to buy more things and, of course, you can add our stuff in with it.”
“What is it?” I asked. My patience was zero since we’d committed to me being courted. They were lucky I let them take me to lunch. I wanted them so badly. To make us whole as a pack. For their bites to mark my skin.
“Come in, Harper. We made this for you.”
Miles opened the door, and inside was like a fantasy.
A small machine projected castle windows on the wall on one side.
In the middle was a huge circular mattress covered in all kinds of blankets, pillows, and cushions of all shapes and sizes.
There was an electric fireplace on the opposite wall glowing like a real fire.
In the corner was a bookshelf and a chair. A reading nook of my own.
“Is it…is it a nest?” I asked, feeling naive and a bit silly. “For me?”
Lev stood behind me and encircled me in his beefy arms. He rested his chin on my shoulder. “It’s a nest for you, omega. You mean so much to us, Harper. It’s not fancy like some nests but we thought you would love it. What do you think?”
Tears flowed down my face. This pack had given me so many things that were triple the value of anything my old, rich pack gave me. Belonging. Safety. Security. Adoration. Care. Love. And now, a nest of my own.
“It’s the most beautiful nest I’ve ever seen.”
“That was the reaction we hoped for.” Rowan stood next to me and took my hand in his. “How about you spend some time in your new nest while we get the dessert out. I had to make a cake for the occasion. Store bought seemed too…removed.”
They started to leave but I whirled around, trusting my gut and my wolf before my anxiety and catastrophizing. “Wait. How about you stay?”
“Stay with you?” Lev asked. “Are you sure? This is your room. Don’t feel obligated because…”
“There’s no obligation, alpha.” I reached for my shirt and pulled it off. “There’s only need. Your omega needs her pack.”