28. Cherry
Cherry
Nervous excitement flows through me as I move the bowl of chips for the third time. Chase chuckles, pulling me away from the patio table before I can grab it again. “Baby girl, the location of the chips doesn’t matter, stop worrying.”
“I just want everything to be perfect.”
“Why?” he asks, spinning me so I’m facing him.
“Because it’s the first time I’ve hosted a party. I want it to be perfect.”
“But life isn’t perfect. Besides, perfect is boring.”
“Boring?”
He grins at me before scooping me up in his arms and carrying me inside. “Yep. A little chaos is fun.”
“No chaos, Chase,” Maddox says as we pass him by the back door.
“Okay, not chaos, but a little… excitement. Something unexpected.”
“Chase,” I groan. “What have you planned?”
He laughs. “Nothing bad, I promise. You just need to relax. It’s a party, it’s supposed to be fun.”
“Where are you taking me?” I ask, suddenly realizing we’ve passed my room. He walks into his bedroom and sets me on the bed before kneeling down and reaching underneath.
“I have something for you. Ah ha!” he says, sounding victorious as he pulls out an unmarked bag and holds it up for me. “This is for you, to wear today.”
With my interest piqued, I take the bag and peek inside. I see green material so I reach in and pull it out. It’s a surprisingly modest emerald green bikini.
“Not pink?” I ask with a smirk.
“I love you in pink, but green compliments your hair so well.” I hold up each piece, pleased to see it has a high neckline on the top and the bottoms are boy short style.
“I honestly expected something a little more revealing from you,” I say in amusement. “But it’s beautiful. I love it.”
“I didn’t think you’d want to wear a thong in front of other men,” he says, making my eyebrows raise in surprise at his thoughtfulness. “And there’s no way I wanted them staring at your ass.” I smile. That sounds more like the Chase I expect.
“There’s one more piece in there,” he says. I look in the bag and find a matching sheer skirt.
I lurch forward, throwing my arms around his neck as I tell him, “I love it, Chase. Thank you so much. It’s perfect.”
“You’re welcome.” He pulls back and stands. “Now go get changed, I’m gonna do the same, then we can head outside and wait for the guests.”
I nod, running off to my bathroom to change and put my hair up in a ponytail so it’s off my face. I make sure my necklace is still secured around my neck then search my closet finding a pair of matching flip flop sandals that I slide on before checking myself out in my full length mirror.
I smile, liking the way I look. No longer all skin and bones, I’m now showing curves on my hips and chest. It makes me happy to know I’m thriving here, to know down to my core that this is where I belong.
“Have you managed to take all five of them at once yet?” My eyes widen at Erica’s question. “What? That’s a totally normal question,” Erica insists as I stare at her with my mouth open.
I glance at Lexi who’s trying to hide her laugh behind her hand as she glances between us. When she sees my wide eyed expression isn’t going away, she interjects. “Uh, Erica? I don’t think Cherry is comfortable talking about her sex life.”
Now Erica’s the one who looks surprised. “Seriously? You have five mates. You must have incredible stamina, I’m surprised you’re not riding one of them right now.”
“Oh my Goddess!” I explain, dropping my face to my hands to hide my heated cheeks.
“Why don’t we change the subject,” Lexi says. “Erica, did you help with the wards setup around Cherry’s house?”
I peek up between my fingers, mouthing thank you to Lexi.
“Yeah, her house is a fortress now.”
“What about out here?” Lexi says, glancing around our backyard.
“No, outdoor protection spells have too many weaknesses. Magic is always better when it’s tied to something.” She glances around at all of the men scattered throughout the yard, with us in the center then she snorts. “Why do you think they’re all surrounding us right now?”
“We shouldn’t have had this party while Blaze is still out there,” I say in worry, my eyes moving to the forest beyond our yard as my fingers find the small crossbody purse I’m wearing with the B-Serum pen in it.
“You can’t let him control your life,” Lexi says softly.
When I look at her, I see understanding in her eyes. It reminds me that she was held by a facility before too. I lick my lips, hoping she won’t mind me asking her about it.
“After you escaped the facility, how long did it take you to stop looking over your shoulder?”
The look she gives me says she knows exactly what I’m feeling, having been there herself once. I also can’t help but notice how the conversations around us have died down, as if the guys are all listening.
Erica laughs, shaking her head. “Could they be any more obvious?” She turns her head toward some of them as she yells, “Nothing to hear here, just a private girl talk!”
The guy’s head’s all quickly turn away as they make an effort to pick their conversations back up, but I can sense my mates' eyes on me.
“I’m not sure, exactly,” Lexi says, answering my question and ignoring them. “It was different for me, I didn’t have a—”
“Stalker?” Erica interjects and Lexi nods.
“Yeah. That. And I hadn’t known my mates very long so I was preoccupied with getting to know them more. They helped. A lot. Someone was always with me, for months, if not years after.”
“You met them in the facility, right?” I ask, not having actually heard her story before.
She gives a small unamused laugh as she nods. “Yeah, sort of.”
“That couldn’t have been easy, meeting them in a place like that. Were you in your lion form?”
She nods. “Most of the time. It was warmer, and I didn’t like them looking at me.”
“Same,” I say, feeling a stronger sort of camaraderie for her having shared a similar experience to me. It makes me feel less alone.
“And your mates were prisoners, like you?” I ask.
“Not exactly. Finn was actually supposed to be my dinner. Thank Goddess I didn’t eat him.”
“Your dinner?” I ask in horror.
“Hey girls, you going to join us for a swim?” Chase asks as he jogs up to my side, his hand finding the back of my head and stroking down it gently.
“It is getting pretty warm out here,” Erica says, glancing over at her mates.
“I could go for a dip,” Lexi says. Suddenly Finn appears at her side so fast I didn’t even see him move. I keep forgetting he’s half fox shifter, half vampire.
I didn’t even know vampires were real before we moved here. He certainly doesn’t look like a vampire with his short orange curly hair and easy smiles. I watch as he scoops Lexi up, making her laugh. “Then dip you I shall!” he says with enthusiasm as he carries her off to the pool.
Erica stands and heads over to her mates as Chase takes my hand and helps me stand. “Is that a yes?” he asks me and I nod.
“If you’re coming with me it is.”
A heated smile covers his face as he pulls me against his front, his thumb rubbing along my jaw. “Pretty girl, I am always willing to come with you.” My cheeks heat at the innuendo, and I try to duck my head, but he just holds my chin in his giant hand and smiles.
“I love when you wear red,” he whispers.
“I’m wearing green.”
“Not here, you’re not,” he says as his fingers skate across my cheek.
He’s talking about you blushing.
A loud splash thankfully breaks Chase’s attention on me, and I use that chance to quickly pull away and turn toward the pool. He catches up within two steps, scooping my hand up in his as we move to the shallow end and start to walk in.
“You forgot to take your purse off,” Lexi calls from where she’s treading water with Finn in the middle of the pool.
I glance down at my bag and place my hand over it as I continue walking. “This has to stay with me at all times,” I tell her.
“What’s in there?” she asks quieter as we move down the slope into the deeper water with her.
“It’s…” I trail off, glancing around nervously. I don’t care about any of our friends knowing, but what if Blaze can overhear somehow?
“The serum,” Chase answers.
Lexi’s brows pinch in confusion, then Finn looks at her, and he must tell her something through their bond because her eyebrows rise in surprise as she nods. She looks at me and gives me a strained smile. “I’m glad you have that with you.”
“They’re all over the place here,” Chase says quietly. “They look like a blue marker, just pull off the cap and hit his skin.”
I’d helped place some around the house and outside, so I’d know where they are in case of emergencies. We weren’t taking any risks. Gage must have filled about fifty pens and we only needed one to take out Blaze.
Chase moves in front of me and squats low. I lie over his back, my arms circling his neck. He starts to swim as he calls to Finn and Lexi, “You guys wanna race?”
Finn laughs as he quickly gives Lexi his back. “You’re gonna lose wolf boy.”
“No using your vampire speed,” Chase tells him as we get into position at the end of the pool.
Finn scoffs. “Like I’d need it against you.”
“Big words for a little fox.”
“We’ll see who’s feeling small when I win this race,” Finn fires back.
“You mean when we win it,” Lexi corrects him, making me laugh at their banter.
The guys end up moving so fast that both Lexi and I are barely able to hold on. When we finish the race both guys argue that they are the winner, while Lexi and I wipe all the water from our drenched faces and quickly get out of the pool, leaving them to continue their competitions.
As soon as we step out of the pool, Hunter is there, holding a towel for me, and I see Soren doing the same for Lexi.
“Are you hungry?” Hunter asks.
“Not really. I was thinking about playing cornhole with the girls.”
I glance at Lexi and she nods excitedly. “No boys this time,” she says, glancing back at Finn and Chase who are in some sort of weird race where they apparently can’t use their arms.
“Do you need any help?” Hunter asks me.
I shake my head, tying the towel around my waist as I tell him, “No thanks. I think we can figure it out.”
He smiles at me and walks over to join Erica, Philip, and Gage as Lexi and I head to the back of the yard. Soren starts to follow, and Lexi has to tell him, “No boys allowed.” He grumbles something about “we’ll see about that,” but seems to let her go with me.
The cornhole is set up in the middle of the yard, just past where Maddox, Alaric, and Jon are sitting on some chairs, beers in hand. Maddox watches me as we walk past them, and just that look alone is enough to make my skin warm and my core tighten.
I quickly turn away, not wanting to get aroused right now. Lexi and I decide to toss two different colored bean bags in the same direction so we can stand together and chat while we play.
We take turns tossing them, and after our third ones she speaks. “You know, if you ever want to talk about anything, I’m here for you.”
“I know,” I tell her. “Same here.” We walk across to collect our bean bags and toss the other way as I think of something to ask her. “Have you ever met another omega before?”
She shakes her head as she takes her shot. “No. I didn’t even know what they were until we came here and I met Erica.”
“What happened to your family?”
“Happened? Nothing.”
“They’re still alive?” I ask in surprise. Somehow I assumed her abduction would have been like mine. Which is a stupid assumption to make. Lexi isn’t a hybrid like me, she’s a pure lion shifter. “Do they live here?”
“No, thank Goddess,” she says with a sigh. “They’re the worst.”
“So I’m assuming your mom wasn’t an omega?”
“Not that I know of. And she only has my dad as a mate.”
“It’s pretty strange, isn’t it?” I ask her as I toss my last bag and wait for her to throw hers.
“You mean being some weird ancient being that nobody seems to know much about except for these old books and Erica’s grandmother?” I hear the sarcasm in her voice as we move to grab our bean bags.
“Yeah, that. You think there’d be more of us out there.”
“There probably are. They’re probably either in hiding, or they have no idea what they are.”
“Do you—”
A snarl rips through the air and we both gasp, our ends spinning to face the forest. My eyes widen in horror as a dozen wolves sprint from the trees, fangs bared, running straight toward us. Their eyes are red and I realize these must be feral rogue wolves.
Why didn’t we smell them coming?
“Cherry!” I hear my guys scream, and I spin, grabbing Lexi’s wrist as I pull her back toward the others, who are all sprinting this way.
Within two steps, I hear one of the wolves behind us, and I turn my head just in time to see one of the rogue wolves leaping toward Lexi.
I drop her hand and shift into my wolf form as I tackle it sideways, knocking it off course before I tumble head over heels a couple of times, coming to a stop on my side. I quickly jump up and turn around just in time to see Lexi shift into her lioness form.
She’s smaller than I expected as she turns to hold her own against the wolves, but she doesn’t need to, Finn is suddenly there in front of her, water dripping from him as he snarls, lunging for the closest wolf.
I watch as her other mates appear in their lion and panther form, putting themselves between the rogue wolves and Lexi.
A snarl has me spinning as several rogues head straight toward me, but before I can react, Bain, Chase, and Maddox are in front of me in their wolf forms, taking down the oncoming rogues with minimal effort.
I slowly back up, finding Gage and Hunter’s wolves on either side of me in a protective stance as they watch the others. Howls fill the air, and suddenly, dozens more rogue wolves push through the treeline toward us.
How many are there?
Gage and Hunter have to leave my side to help.
“Go inside!” Maddox commands through our bond, and I turn to leave but several rogues block my path. I run, trying to get around them, but everywhere I turn, a rogue suddenly appears in front of me.
“They’re blocking the house!” I yell through the bond.
“Hold on, we’re coming!” Bain growls as I continue to duck and weave through the mass of wolves on our property. I can’t even see anyone else anymore and realize the sun is now being blocked out.
Shoot, I’m in the woods!
I’m not even sure how it happened. I was just dodging and weaving and suddenly ended up here.
“I’m in the forest!” I cry through the bond.
“We’re coming!” Maddox yells, sounding desperate.
I glance behind me, deeper into the forest. Doesn’t look like there’s any more wolves back here at least.
When I turn around, every hair on my body stands on end as I take in the man standing before me.
Blaze.