24. Phoenix
Phoenix
“This is a dumb idea,” I groan as Zephyr raises his fist to knock on our older brother’s apartment door.
“I don’t see you bringing up a better one.” Zephyr’s knuckles connect with the reinforced wood.
He’s right, so I keep my mouth shut. My ideas to grovel to make Honey forgive us all involved more sex. That worked for Revenant when he was courting Evangeline, but apparently that’s a fluke or some shit.
The door opens a few seconds later, and Fox leans against the doorframe, blocking our entry.
“We need your help. We need to make amends with Honey, and you’re the best when it comes to making an omega comfortable and forgive you. Any ideas would be acceptable.” Zephyr crosses his arms, straightening his spine.
Fox snorts as he pulls his phone out of his cut’s pocket and types out a message. He doesn’t hit send but instead turns the phone around so we can see it. “Nesting supplies. Soft things with different textures, get them all, don’t underestimate the power of faux fur.”
“That’s it?” I wrinkle my nose. “Go buy nesting supplies?”
Fox steps back and goes to close the door.
I push forward and hold it open. “There’s gotta be something you’re not telling us.”
With an eye roll, Fox types out another message. “Make the apology fit the crime. You’re not skilled enough to get away with Revenant’s trick of fixing your mistakes with sex.”
“That’s what I said.” Zephyr looks over at me. “You know it’s bad when I agree with Fox.”
“Fine, we’ll try the nesting supplies.” I huff and let go of the door.
Fox is quick to close it behind us.
“Come on, let’s take a cage so we can buy more.” Zephyr starts off down the stairs to the garage, where our bikes and the cages — vehicles with enclosed walls like cars and vans — are parked.
“Want to spend so much that we get an angry text from Dad?” I smile thinking about how we barely ever touch our inheritance, and if we do, it’s always a few thousand dollars at a time.
“All signs point to yes.” Zephyr gives me a conspiratorial grin. “I can’t buy an omega in a public sale for a year. But nothing said I can’t try to keep one who just walked through the back door.”
I want to laugh at ‘back door’ but hold it together while we get through the public space of the garage, snagging car keys off the rack and going to the auto lot.
“Phoenix?” Mom’s voice is just as I remembered it.
It’s been too long since I’ve been home or even talked to her on the phone. I should be a better son.
“Hey, Mom, let me put you on speaker.” I close my car door and wait for Zephyr to get in before clicking the button. “You’re on speaker with me and Z.”
“Are you two okay?” Mom sounds worried, which is probably why she called.
“Yeah. We’re good,” Zephyr answers.
He’s wincing, and it’s probably because he hasn’t seen her since he got out of prison. I know how he feels. We’re both guilty, and that feeling radiates in the car’s stale air.
“Well, Zephyr didn’t answer his phone, and your father is all upset, saying you’re up to your antics, spending money all over town, and that I should try to talk sense .
. .” She lets off a sigh, and I can almost hear the way her shoulders drop, and how she shakes her head when she’s letting go of the frustrations one of the dads put on her.
“And well, I’ll spare you the details of what he said.
” She practically whispers into the phone, “Are you two buying blankets for Xavier’s little project, with the saving of the omegas? ”
“No, better.” I’m so excited thinking of how she’ll be glad to meet Honey. “We’ve found an omega. Well, she found us, and we’re trying to keep her. So we’re buying nesting supplies to show her that we care about her.”
“Well, that is very sweet of you.” Mom’s voice is all smiles. “What’s her name?”
“Honey.” Zephyr answers before I can. “You’ll really like her, but we’ve got to get going. When things are more settled, we’ll bring her by the house.”
“It’d be good to see you before then.” Mom reprimands us, but it’s in the gentle way she always uses with us. “I’ve missed you. It’s been four months since our last lunch, just the three of us.”
Zephyr grips the steering wheel tightly and squeezes his eyes shut.
“Let’s make a plan for next week.” I quickly offer to smooth things over. “Send me which days you’re available?”
“I will, just the three of us, don’t scare your omega by bringing her to meet me so soon.” Mom scolds, but it’s playful.
She’s always understood that being a member of Family Baron, with the wealth and prestige, can make it complicated to make friends or court omegas.
“Sounds good. Love you, Mom,” I tell her while bringing the phone back toward me from where it had been suspended over the center console of the car.
“Love you too.” She hangs up before I have a chance to.
Zephyr starts the engine. He slumps back against the driver’s seat and backs us out of the parking spot before I’m even buckled in. He white knuckles the wheel, and his jaw is locked tight. Tension ripples off him in aggravated waves.
“She’s proud of you. She’s not mad at you.
And I couldn’t go to lunch with her without you.
I tried, but even leaving the compound with Lazarus was hard.
” I try to reassure him that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t around.
But how do I explain that I fell apart when he was gone without making him feel guilty about it?
“I know. I just . . .” He doesn’t say anything more, and he doesn’t have to.
He experienced something I haven’t. Figuring out what life will look like now that he’s back will take time. I put my arm on the center console and push our forearms together, reassuring him, and myself, that we’re together. We’re stronger together.
“Where have you two been for the last few hours?” Lazarus growls as he comes walking down the hallway from his bedroom.
While we’re carrying the totes of nesting material, he’s got his backpack and bedroll hitched up over his shoulder — for riding out with the reconnaissance party.
We got big scent-blocking bins, in a soft yellow color, to put the nest materials in so they were easier to carry but to also store what Honey doesn’t want out daily for comfort.
Honey is nowhere to be seen, and my heart picks up a beat. Where is she?
“Well, you said we needed to make it up to Honey.” Zephyr shrugs, his totes rising and falling with the movement before he sets them down on the coffee table in the seating area. “We messed up with Honey’s heat and our rut. We thought maybe this would help.”
“Where is she?” I finally get my break between Zephyr’s words. I set my tubs next to his on the table.
“She’s making up the bed in the spare room.” Lazarus gestures to the closed door.
She should be sleeping with us. I want to protest. I’m hot under the collar, and it isn’t the last little bit of rut as it works its way out of my system.
Zephyr goes to the spare bedroom door and knocks softly. I would have just thrown the door open. Which makes me wince internally; we’re apologizing because I act first and think second. Nesting supplies will only work as an apology once.
Honey opens the door and steps out. Her hair is messy, like she’s been running her fingers through it. She looks adorable all swallowed up in my clothes.
“We brought you some things, as an apology.” He offers his hand out to her, low, at hip level.
After a suspicious pause, she places her hand in his. It’s not a far walk back to the living room, but they take it painstakingly slow.
I unstack the tubs, placing two on the sofa so that she can open the lids more easily.
Her eyes dart to Lazarus, with his arms crossed and eyebrows raised, and then to the tubs.
Why is she checking in with him? Jealousy flares, but the truth humbles me quickly. We weren’t the best behaved. We did something bad, and now we’re trying to make Honey want us, and an apology is the best place to start.
I’m calmer when I open the lid for Honey and show her the soft blankets and pillows tucked inside. They’re separated by what kind of soft they are. These ones are the silky-smooth soft that feels cold to the touch at first but warms as you touch them.
Zephyr and I couldn’t decide on a color, so we got a little bit of everything.
Most of the ones in this tub are warm tones in as many shades as we could fit, from burnt sienna to goldenrod and butter yellow to ruby red.
We didn’t like the big, loud patterns, so we stuck with small, delicate flowers and solid colors only.
“Oh,” Honey gasps as she runs her hand over the top one — butter yellow with tiny pale blue flowers. She doesn’t pull away from it though. Instead, she brings her other hand to it and tugs at one of the blankets.
Her expression is shuttered, and I want to ask her a million questions about what she likes, doesn’t like, and anything else to get to know her .
. . all the things we should have done before taking her in her heat, before using her for our ruts, and before deciding we’re claiming her at the next opportunity.
That’s it, Honey. I smile as she opens the next bin, filled with soft fur-like blankets and pillows, from velvety soft to long-fibrous-fur soft. So many choices. A needy little sound rises in her throat, followed by the softest purr. Honey opens the third bin and then the fourth.
She looks around the room at the three of us. Her brown eyes are wide, and her hands twitch as she probably fights to keep from wrapping an arm around herself. “These are all for me? You don’t mean for me to just pick one?”
“They’re all for you, sweetness. We weren’t good to you, and we need to do better.
” Zephyr takes a small step toward her, but Honey mirrors his movement, shuffling away from him.
He lowers his voice, adding a little purr.
“Whatever you like, you can keep. Whatever you don’t like, we can get rid of.
If there is something you like and want more of, we can easily get it. ”
“We’re sorry.” I hang my head and reach my hand toward her, hoping she’ll take it. “I’m sorry. I should have done better by you. You didn’t deserve to be pressured into taking care of us. We need to do better.”
Ignoring my extended palm, Honey wraps her arms around herself, and I yearn, my whole body pulling toward her, to be what she wraps her arms around instead.
“Please, Honey.” I bring my arms up and out for a hug. “Forgive me?”
After almost a minute of me standing like that, she steps to me, well within reaching distance.
“I’ll forgive you, but there will be no more sinning together.” She shakes her head firmly as if to scold me, and her lips settle into a tight line.
Their rigidity doesn’t stop me from wanting to kiss her and make this better.
“You’re the boss.” I agree, even though it kills me inside.
Honey offers her own arms out wide, and we embrace. I purr when she’s close to my chest, letting that sound rumble through her. And after a few seconds, I let her go.
“Me too?” Zephyr asks, absentmindedly tracing shapes in the bin of fleece and woolen fibers.
“You too.” Honey pushes away from me and wraps her arms around him.
Lazarus is leaning against the door, bag and bedroll in front of him like it’s a shield to protect himself from us. But I’ve seen him grumpy like this for a long time. And a tiny little bit of a smile lifts the corners of his lips.
He’s leaving, and maybe it’s because he wants to, not because he was ordered to, but something about the three of us makes him happy. I mirror his tiny smile. It’s only a matter of time before the four of us are officially a pack.