Chapter 20 Ayden
When I woke up the place where Calliope had fallen asleep was empty. Cain and Dax were cuddling on the other side of the bed. I pushed down the jealousy that wanted to complicate things, before turning towards the bathroom. The light was on and the shower was running. Last night had been one hell of a night. But there was something about it that made me question things. I had expected Calliope’s heat to be worse than it had ever been. This had been absolutely mild. Yes, last night we had fucked for hours on end, only falling asleep when the sun was coming up. I was thankful we had moved to the lower nest yesterday. We wouldn’t have gotten any sleep in the library.
Climbing off the bed, I went to the door and pushed it open, letting it close behind me. Calliope was humming happily as she used her favorite scented products to clean herself.
I pulled the glass door open and slid into the stall behind her. Invading her space without thought, I slid my hands up her body, listening to the way her breath hitched at my touch. “Morning.”
She spun in my arms, looking up at me with happy eyes. “Good morning. Heat’s over.”
“I know.”
“How do you know that?” she pouted.
“Because the last thing you did before falling asleep was to tell the three of us to sort it out ourselves. You never turn down dick unless its right after your heat.”
She nodded, I saw the question cross her face, hesitating before voicing it. “Is it just me or was this heat different?”
“Different how?”
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.”
I reached behind her, turning off the water before grabbing her robe and wrapping her in it. I carried her through the nest and downstairs without waking the other two. That was an accomplishment, Cain woke up at every noise. Settling us on the bed in my room, I pulled her into my arms. Laying a gentle kiss to her forehead, I said, “I could never think you were crazy.”
“It was less intense, but the need was still there, almost as if—”
I took the chance I had while she was thinking, leaning down to lift her from the bed. She was so lost in thought she didn’t take even a moment to enjoy the sensations of being in the air as I carried her down the hall and into the kitchen before setting her down in a chair, I started to preheat the oven as I reached over and grabbed my laptop. “As if what?”
“We were sharing it between us.”
That made me think. I had been closer to rut this time than I had ever been before. Something about Calliope and Cain had nearly ruined me multiple times. And Cain was almost as needy as Calliope had been.
It made sense. But it was so outlandish that I couldn’t quite believe it. “Let me do some looking.”
That seemed to appease her as she reached out and grabbed her e-reader. I dove headfirst into my computer, bypassing the sign-in I used for work. A few quick keystrokes brought me to the back door I created into a second system. This was what I called a shadow system. One that was there but hidden within the main operating system. Connecting to the internet would be tricky for others. Thankfully, Calliope had bought houses in non-extradition countries, allowing me to set up server farms there. Each of them randomized my IP address three times per second. It was a seamless process that was nearly foolproof.
Pulling up the search engine, I tried to find anything related to sharing symptoms of heat between bonded partners. Nothing came up, so I widened my search to include a few more parameters. Still nothing. I thought about that for a moment, this had to have been recorded somewhere. I just had to dig deep enough to find it. Pulling up my tenth medical journal finally gave me something to chase. There was an article referenced from the nineteenth century. Clicking to the linked article, I scanned through it until I could get the information I needed. It only affected ten or so packs per generation. That made sense, no one liked to talk about their bonds, so whatever information was out there was likely skewed. Couldn’t be helped, I suppose. There was a list of symptoms at the bottom that I quickly scanned through.
Shared sense of horniness. Check. If there was a beta they would be as needy as the omega. Definitely a check. I had never heard Cain beg before last night. Fuck, if that wasn’t the sexiest thing I had heard in a while. Mild heat for the omega. That was the biggest. Three for three.
The oven went off and I slipped the food into it as Cain came down the stairs. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him, the way his abs flexed as he moved was mesmerizing. He was so sexy walking towards me, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. “Good morning, Alpha.” His voice still held that dreamy quality of someone just waking up.
I went to him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Is Dax still up there?”
“In the shower.”
“Keep an eye on her, I’m going to get dressed.”
I moved away and he caught my wrist before I got too far. “Be nice to him.”
Leaning down I pressed a kiss to his forehead and climbed that flight of stairs to go deal with Dax. I had no idea what I was going to do about him. I knew it had been less than a week, but Calliope and Cain were absolutely enthralled. That should have been a big enough red flag for me. I should have kicked him out when I had the chance. I just hoped it wasn’t too late. I couldn’t stand to see the people I loved get hurt. Pushing open the door to the nest, I saw him coming out of the bathroom. I took a moment to try and figure out what they saw in him. He was tall—much taller than I was. I suppose he was kind of attractive in the older man, daddy kind of way. But that had never done it for me. His head came up, watching me come into the room. We were in a standoff for a moment before I slid past him. Giving him my back, I took my time choosing what I was going to wear.
I had just settled on basketball shorts and a t-shirt when Dax spoke. “Is this when you tell me to get out and to stay away from your pack?”
“If I did, would you?” His laugh was answer enough. “Didn’t think so.”
“So where does that leave us?”
I slipped on the shorts and t-shirt, taking my time in turning and facing him. “That depends entirely on you.”
“How so?”
“If you’re leaving, now is your chance.” I crossed the room, stalling at the door long enough to say one last thing. “This pack doesn’t accept half steps. You’re either in or you’re out.”
When I made it downstairs, Cain and Calliope were cuddling on the couch. They looked so happy together. I debated for a moment what I wanted to do. Dax had a choice to make and so did I. If he left, I would do my best to put the two people I loved back together.
Calliope spotted me and called me over with a smile. I went to them, slipping into the space they made for me in the middle. My arms reached out pulling both of them until their heads rested on my chest. I nearly sighed from the intimacy, but I refused to relax. Calliope cuddled into my side with a, “That’s it right there.”
“So nice of you two to remember I existed.” I pressed a kiss to both of their foreheads. “I was starting to think the world revolved around Dax.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Cain denied.
“Do you even remember the last time I touched you?”
It took him a moment before he responded. “It was at the beginning of Calliope’s heat.”
“Was it?” I was teasing him just a little.
“It was,” Calliope chimed in. “You’re being overly sensitive.”
This was why I had been so hesitant about taking someone new into my pack. I had experienced this before, and it had nearly destroyed me. My best friends had formed a pack right after we graduated high school. Six alphas and one beta. We were happy, saving, making money, establishing ourselves. That was until we went to an Omega Services matchmaker. She had collected our scents and said she would call us. Nothing came of it for nearly a year. That was the day my life had changed. The omega we met was nice enough. I wasn’t into her, but my friends were, so I went along with it. We were mostly happy until she brought a new man into the house. Another alpha. Slowly, I was pushed out by them, it was small things at first. Starting fights between me and the two I slept with. Causing damage to the house and blaming me. Stealing from the pack, which was also somehow my fault. Until one day I came home, and the locks were changed. They actually didn’t live too far from here. Well, lived. They were the first victims in the Pack Annihilation spree. I guess that meant I owed Dax something.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Calliope murmured.
“How do you know that?”
“I can feel how sad you are, and it’s breaking my heart.”
I swore to myself, erecting a wall between the three of us in the bond. Cain looked up at me, reaching up and catching the back of my head, pulling me down to catch my lips. The kiss we shared was simple, but it held all the love and adoration that we felt for each other. “We aren’t your last pack.”
“We don’t work without you.” Calliope’s voice drew my attention to her. “Cain and I are too volatile to be left alone without some kind of supervision. I can’t imagine the havoc we would wreak with Dax in the mix.”
“Someone said my name and destruction in the same sentence?” The other alpha came sweeping into the room like he owned it.
I immediately shut down, very carefully feeling nothing. It was a skill that had kept me alive and out of prison for years. I was saved from whatever was about to happen by my phone ringing. Standing, I slipped from between them. Moving into the kitchen, I grabbed my phone answering it with a simple, “Yes?”
“Is your omega’s heat over?”
“I’m not due back until tomorrow.” It was Jeremy.
“I don’t give a shit. I need you to monitor a chat room for me.”
“Isn’t there anyone else who can do it?”
“Not that I trust,” he snapped. “I’m doing a press conference in an hour that’s being shared online, I need you in the chat room to see if any of our killers hop in.”
I almost laughed at that. “Fine, let me get set up.”
He hung up before I could say anything else. Grabbing my laptop, I returned to the living room. My stomach dropped when I saw Calliope siting in Dax’s lap, his arms around her possessively. They were so absorbed in each other they completely missed me coming into the room. I turned, going to the recliner. I refused to leave. Refused to admit defeat. Maybe that was just my insecurities rearing their ugly heads. But they couldn’t be all wrong, could they?
I closed my sub system and logged into the main operating system. A few clicks of the mouse I was into the main system at the FBI. Opening my email, I selected the one with the link. Opening it led me into a chat room where I was staring at a podium. The reporter was talking about how they were waiting for a member of the FBI to make a statement. I tapped a rhythm with my fingers watching the chat. I didn’t expect to find anything, both of the serial killers were in the same room as me.
Jeremy came on screen and clearing his throat, he started to speak. “Thank you for joining us today. We have come here to present our profiles and take any questions you may have.”
I reached down and turned up the volume as one of the reporters asked a question. “What profiles will we be getting today?”
“All of them.” His voice was gruff as he started to give them what they believed. It hadn’t changed any in the last five days, so I was half paying attention to what he was saying.
My eyes were on the chat box. People chimed in the more he spoke, some of them claiming to have seen one or more of the killers. That was unlikely, but I made a note of their usernames and continued to scroll. There wasn’t much there that I could see. Jeremy was just opening for questions when Cain came over to me. “What are you watching?”
“Something for work.”
I didn’t even look up at him, too intent on trying to find someone that I might need to deal with. It didn’t matter to me that my pack might be leaving me. I refused to leave Calliope in danger. Since she had chosen to be attached to Dax he got the same protection by default. Cain reached down, bringing my face up until I could see Calliope. She was shaking in Dax’s arms, her body moving with her sobs. My heart ached seeing her like that. The wall I erected between us in the bond shattered, I was feeling all the panic she was.
Slamming the laptop shut, I tossed it into the recliner as I stood and crossed the room. Stopping at Dax’s side I looked down at them murmuring, “I got her.”
The second she heard my voice she threw herself at me. Wrapping around me until I had to fight to stay upright. Adjusting my hold on her, I shifted enough so I could sit on the couch next to Dax. He started to move, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You need to know how to handle this.”
Leaning down, I brushed the hair out of Calliope’s eyes. They were closed tightly, like she was too afraid to open them. My hand was moving on her back in gentle circles, the other was running through her hair. I whispered sweet nothings into her ear until she relaxed for me. She finally opened those eyes, looking up at me like I was her center. It would completely break me when they inevitably left. Pushing that to the back of my mind, I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
She rewarded me with a smile. “I’m okay.”
“What set you off?”
“That voice.” She shivered. “That man was there that night.”