31. Hannah
Hannah
" M ags, why are you pouting?" Charlie asks, sitting at the end of the couch and pulling my feet into his lap.
Before I can point out that I am not, in fact, pouting, I'm simply enduring a downward spiral of panic because one of my alphas decided to hinge our entire court case on an illegal, underground fight, that same alpha clears his throat in the corner.
"She's still pissed at me." He puts a bookmark in his book, and I'm so stressed, I can't even poke fun at him for reading the same books Cady does.
This particular one, he says is about dragon riders.
Or something. I don't know, I'm more of a rom-com kind of girl.
"I'm not pissed," I say weakly, "though…I'm not happy."
Not happy is an understatement. My entire world is going to collapse around me at any moment. Okay, you know what? Maybe I am pissed.
"What happened?" Charlie asks, frowning as he picks up my foot and digs his thumb into the arch.
The motion makes every pissed off thought momentarily flee my mind as my head falls back and a groan leaves me, my eyes closing in absolute bliss. Shit. Is that some kind of voodoo? Is it the scent match? Or could all wars be avoided if every world leader was constantly getting a foot massage?
Suddenly, hurried footsteps sound, and when I open my eyes, Enzo and Austin are in the room, looking around frantically. Austin looks like he's afraid he might miss out on something, while Enzo looks like he's afraid he's going to walk in on a dog humping a pillow.
Though, if we're being honest here, he doesn't have a leg to stand on considering that's what he did to me this morning.
"What's going—" Enzo's eyes zero in on where Charlie is massaging my foot. "Oh."
Austin is flushed red, which seems to be his default setting, a sheepish hand scratching behind his neck. "Ah, sorry. We thought, um…"
"That was a pretty serious moan of pleasure." Noah smirks, making me blush. Nice to know that if some sexy times start with two members of my pack, the others will be soon to follow.
"Noah here was just telling me what he did to piss off our omega." Charlie says with an arched brow, and I sink a little bit into the couch cushions. I really don't think Enzo is going to be happy about this.
Enzo crosses his arms and levels Noah with a look. "Oh? Do tell."
"Okay…" Noah huffs a breath, looking suddenly worried.
"Before you say anything, you have to let me tell you the whole story, okay?
" Enzo only rubs the bridge of his nose, and Austin's brows furrow as he sits on the couch adjacent to where Charlie and I are.
Noah goes through the entire morning, and then tells them about how Cat found us afterward and what she proposed.
"She said if I beat her alpha on Halloween, they'll drop the entire case.
Don't we owe it to our omega to make this as painless as possible?
If there's an option where she doesn't have to go through this whole gods-awful process, isn't that the one we should take? "
"Noah…" Enzo sighs. Charlie is stony-faced and Austin looks like he might be sick. "That's in two days. Did you ever think about what would happen if you lost ?"
"That's the thing, I don't lose. Well…one time I did, but that was because we had just found out about Hannah, and I was distracted as hell. But that…that was before I had something…some one to fight for. And this place isn't one of those underground rings. It's a legitimate gym. We could all go."
"Hannah," Enzo turns to me, his voice serious. "I'm going to leave this up to you. We could still back out without your integrity questioned with the technicality that you didn't agree to this, your hard-headed alpha did."
Biting my lip, I look over to Noah, who looks so unlike his usual cocky self.
I can tell he wants to fix this for me. But what if he loses?
Then I'll be disregarding one of Nana's last wishes.
But…he wouldn't have accepted the challenge if he couldn't do it.
I suppose the question is…do I trust him?
When it comes down to that…the answer is easy. "You can do the fight."
Based on the looks from my other three alphas, I can tell they don't agree with me, but based on the way Noah's face lights up, I know I made the right decision. Has he ever had anyone put their trust in him like this?
Noah stands, crossing the room in just a few strides as he leans over, gently grabs my neck and tilts my head up so he can kiss me. "I won't let you down, princess," he says, his forehead resting against mine. "I swear on my life."
"This will end well," Charlie huffs, resuming his massage of my feet.
"Be nice," I scowl, narrowing my eyes, "we're a pack. We support each other."
Silence follows, and I look, confused, around at my alphas. "…What?" I ask as I take in their varying degrees of shock and smug satisfaction (Okay, only Noah is smug).
"I just don't think you've ever referred to us all as a pack before, darlin'." Austin grins. "Sure is a pretty soundin' sentence though."
My stomach flips under their scrutiny, and it hits me then. This is my pack . These are the men I've been waiting for.
Then , something else hits me. "Wait!" I gasp, sitting up and pulling my feet out of Charlie's grasp. "I think this is the first night that we've all been home together since I moved in! Usually Charlie has a game, or Austin has to work…"
"You're right," Enzo gives us all an appraising look. "It's our first night together as a full pack, what would you like to do?"
A devious smile lights up my face. "Oh, I can think of a few things."
"Okay, I'm sorry, but in what world are flying monkeys chewy ?" I laugh, putting down the card for the game "Alphas to Omegas", where one person gets an adjective or short sentence card, and the rest of the group has to put down subject cards that best describe it.
"Chewy" is currently on the table.
"Has anyone ever eaten a flying monkey?" Charlie argues, sitting up from his spot on the floor, clad in boxers, a t-shirt, and one sock. "Who's to say they aren't chewy?"
We're all in the middle of the living room, sitting in a circle, playing the strip version of the game. That I just made up. Basically, whoever puts down the answer that gets picked has to remove an item of clothing, and the first one naked, wins.
What can I say? I'm an innovator.
Even though I started out with more clothes, I'm down to my bra and underwear already.
I thumb through the rest of the cards, referencing each one as I speak.
"Gum is chewy, but that's a little too on the nose, don't you think?
An existential crisis, however…" Grinning, I look at the last card.
"Omega pheromones? Really? I take offense to that.
My pheromones are not chewy. Winner is the existential crisis. "
"YES!" Austin's hands shoot up in victory as I toss him his card.
I look him over, biting my lip. "Take off the pants."
"Yes ma'am." He stands up quickly, shucking off his sweatpants, leaving him in just his boxers and socks. My Southern gentleman is built .
"Gum was the perfect answer!" Enzo's jaw drops. He only has one piece of clothing left, which, unfortunately, are his boxers.
"You gotta know your audience, Enz." Austin chuckles, settling back on the floor. "Our girl appreciates a good idiom."
My eyes shoot over to Noah, who is still fully clothed, and apparently, really bad at this game. Based on the way Charlie defended the flying monkeys, that was clearly his answer, which means…
"My pheromones are chewy ? Really?"
He gives me a sheepish grin. "Sorry princess. My other cards were not good."
"Sure, blame the cards," Enzo smirks, making Charlie and Austin laugh.
"This game is purely subjective!" Noah argues, "There's no clear-cut way to win!"
The guys continue ribbing each other for a bit, until Noah picks the winner of his hand, declaring that "my asshole packmate" is clearly the best way to answer, "reason why my boss hates me."
"Yes!" Charlie pumps his fist.
"How…am I the asshole packmate since your boss is my brother?" Enzo's brow furrows.
Austin barks a laugh, and Noah throws up his hands. "Damn. No matter what I do I suck at this game. I just picked it because I thought it was Hannah's answer."
Charlie looks at Noah impatiently. "What do I take off, man?"
Noah rolls his eyes. "I don't know. Your shirt, I guess. I really don't care."
Charlie freezes like he just realized something, and stammers. "I uh…how about my other sock?"
Noah's eyes widen, but then he grins and crosses his arms. "Nope. I'm the moderator and I say take off your shirt."
My brow furrows as I look between the two of them. "Why don't you want to take off your shirt?" Now that I think about it, Charlie's the only one who doesn't walk around shirtless.
"I…ah…I didn't think about how I was going to show you this…later." He grimaces as he starts to pull off his shirt, and…
"Oh my gods," I gasp, getting on my knees and basically crawling towards him and his exposed chest. On his pec, right over his heart.
My fingers trail over the inked skin, tears stinging my eyes as I take in the beautiful image.
It's a magpie. Wings spread out in flight, a strand of pearls clutched in its beak and draped over its neck, a full moon behind it.
The ink is bright and fresh. "Charlie…when did you get this? "
"The same day as Titus' party. I…"
"Saw Ollie for a tattoo," I murmur, remembering how Ollie told me about how he met Charlie. "This was the tattoo?"
His throat bobs as he watches me. Waiting for my reaction. "It was."
"You got it…before you even saw me?" Tears well in my eyes. This is so much…more than getting something like my name tattooed on him. This is…this is…
"I did," he chokes out, placing his hands over mine, which I now realize are just resting on his chest.
I could sense the truth in his words before, when he told me that he never stopped loving me. Never stopped waiting for me. But seeing it, inked on his skin…I can feel it in my soul .
My eyes find his, and it's like I'm swimming in pools of blue. "I love you too, Golden Boy. I never stopped either, even when I thought the worst. It's always been you."
When his arms wrap around my back and I feel his bare skin on mine, goosebumps break out, and when his lips meet mine in a deep, passionate kiss.
My arms link behind his neck, pushing my body against his, and when he shifts us so I'm laying on the ground the rest of the guys let out sounds of protest causing us to break apart to witness the source of discontent.
"Hey! The game!" Austin grumbles, but I can see a little smile pulling at his lips.
"Whatever, you were losing anyway." Noah rolls his eyes, and I bark a laugh. Charlie kisses me once more before rolling off me.
"I guess the living room wasn't the best place for that revelation." He grins sheepishly.
"You won't find me complaining," I purr.
But we continue the game regardless, and Enzo ends up winning, standing before us naked in all his glory.
Ho-ly shit.
"You've got a little bit of drool right there, princess," Noah teases, pretending to wipe my chin.
"Our omega can stare at me as long as she wants," Enzo arches a brow. "But the rest of you? My eyes are up here, pups."
"Okay, now, Enzo, you need to...run through the backyard." I can hardly keep the maniacal giggle from my voice.
Enzo's brows shoot up. "What?!"
"Hey, I said whoever loses all their clothes will be the winner and entitled to a bit of fun. I never specified what that fun would entail." I suppress a grin, putting on a serious face. "You should have read the fine print, Enzo."
Enzo lets out a playful growl. "How about…instead of running in the backyard, I run after my sassy omega instead?"
I let out a little yip as he lunges towards me, and scramble to my feet. My heart racing, I laugh and jump over my other alphas, weaving around furniture as Enzo chases after me, losing it when Noah grumbles about "mature ballsacks swinging in my face".
He snags me when Charlie grabs my ankle, allowing Enzo to catch up and throw me over his shoulder, my head hanging down his back. "Traitor!" I cry, scowling at Charlie, who only laughs at me.
"You shouldn't have changed the rules on us, mags."
"Where are we going?" I laugh, using my hands to palm his naked ass.
What? He says I'm sassy, I'm just trying to live up to his expectations.
He gives my panty-covered ass a little swat, the sting sending a fresh wave of slick to my core.
"I think the sassy omega needs to be taught a little lesson.
" He growls, then calls over his shoulder, "Are you guys coming?
" The scramble of feet from the living room has my stomach dipping in the best way.
My other three alphas race each other to the nest, and Enzo chuckles, pressing a kiss to my hip.
"How's that for being wanted, reinita ?" He chuckles, and my heart swells with the knowledge that despite my past, I'm pretty sure Enzo is right.