Chapter Twenty-Five
Charlotte
Charlotte wakes up alone. The bed is cold where Tomas had been, and that coldness sets into her body, her heart filling with ice and setting her to trembling.
She needed to do this, she knew. She needed to do it before she loses her resolve. Needs to get this over with, so she can run and lick her wounds and try and preserve whatever might be left of her when they're gone.
She walks into the kitchen like she's walking to her own funeral, looking at the handsome faces of the three alphas waiting there for her.
Before she can chicken out, she forces herself to speak, and her words feel like knives cutting into her.
"I-I think we should stop this," she says, then clarifies. "Stop seeing each other, I mean."
All three of them pause what they're doing, their faces suddenly drawn and blank.
"You want to stop seeing us?" It's Alex's voice, and it sounds... confused. And hurt. It sounds as empty and hollow as she feels. She flinches back at it. She never wanted to hurt them.
"I just... umm..." Her words evade her. "I don't think it's working for me anymore. I think-I think I need to move out and get some space."
When they still don't respond, her anxiety hitches.
"Is that okay? I mean—I know we didn't discuss a time frame or anything when we agreed to this.
I don't want to-to shortchange you or anything.
You've been so generous, and you've helped me so much.
I will be forever grateful for what you did for me.
If you want, I could stay until the end of this school year, or. .."
If anything, their faces become more drawn. She starts to wring her hands. This conversation isn't going at all the way it's supposed to. She thought they would be fine with this. They could get another sugar baby, couldn't they? Was it because of the money?
"I know you won't want me working at the office after this, but if you could just give me a few weeks’ notice, I can find another job... I don't know if you could give me a reference...?"
They still don't respond. Not that she would expect them to, considering she's backing out on them after everything they've done for her. Leaving them to deal with their needs on their own, to have to find someone else...
"Okay. No problem. No, I understand. That's okay.
It's just," she pauses again, unsure how to put this.
Finally, as it always did in their presence, the awful truth comes pouring out of her and she is powerless to stop it.
She needs them to understand. She needs them to understand that it's not them.
They're perfect. They're everything. It's her. She's the problem.
"I think I'm... attached. And I know the whole point of this arrangement is no attachments.
I didn't mean to. I've tried really hard to stop.
But I think I need some space now, because I'm having a really hard time separating myself from my feelings, because I really like you.
You've been so kind to me. No one has ever cared about me like this before—"
Her voice raises in pitch the more she speaks, her breath becoming choppy and heaving. Once again, tears start to pour down her face. She quickly covers it with her hands, not wanting them to see her such a mess like this.
Finally, they break their silence.
"Charlotte." Tomas' voice is so soft and kind.
She feels a sob hiccup out of her. God, she loves their voices. She loves everything about them. She needs them to understand that. This is all her fault. She just wants them to be happy.
She continues, trying to make them understand. "You keep talking about plans for a nest and I know one day you're going to find a perfect omega. I will be so happy for you, I just c-can't handle watching it. I know it's selfish. You've already done so much for me. I'm so sorry."
"Charlotte—" It's Silas’ voice now trying to interrupt her, deep and soft and touching places inside her that make her ache even more in response.
She can't look at him, can't bear to look at them while she does this.
She knows if she does, she won't be able to go through with it.
But she can't stop the sob that jerks out of her chest at his voice, cutting him off as she starts crying in earnest now.
She quickly turns her back to them, scrubbing her palms down her face and trying to regain her composure.
She didn't want to make this harder for them.
Didn't want their last memories of her to be ugly ones.
"I'm so sorry," she says again. She cannot help the distressed whine that bursts out of her chest with her words. Every omega instinct inside of her is screaming at her to stop, not to upset them, not to disturb this delicate balance and lose them. Because she needs them.
She scrubs her palms into her eyes, trying to force the tears to stop.
When she opens her eyes, she's staring at the wall, and she can feel their eyes boring into her back.
It was a nice wall. Original plaster, she thinks.
They had such a beautiful home, such beautiful lives.
She had loved being part of them for a while, even though it was obvious to everyone around them that she didn't belong there.
"This is so embarrassing. I'll just pack and go, okay? I don't want to make you uncomfortable—"
"Charlotte Hines." It's Alex's voice now, and it sounds angry. "If you do not turn around this second, I am going to blister your ass myself."
She turns swiftly, unable to resist their commands even now, her eyes wide with shock at his words.
"Now, if you would let us get a word in, we would tell you that we have wanted to mate you since that first date at that godawful bar.
We would tell you that we have thought about you in terms that are in no way appropriate since the first moment we saw you in our office on your first day as our intern.
And we would tell you that if you keep trying to talk about walking out that door, we will have to tie you up and duct tape your mouth. "
Alex's eyes are scorching her with heat, his words uncharacteristically harsh, and it takes a moment for the full weight of them to sink in.
Her mind races to catch up with what he said, to make meaning out of it when it makes no sense, the words rattling around in her head and ricocheting off her skull. They wanted to mate her?
"B-but, I thought that you were, I don't know, just looking for no attachments. That's what Gwen said."
"That's before we knew she was bringing us you," Silas says, his voice urgent.
"B-but you keep talking about mating someone one day and—"
"Mating you," Tomas says, and his voice is so earnest and serious that she believes him. His face looks grave, as if he is delivering devastating news to her, rather than speaking words that she hasn't allowed herself to consider even in her wildest dreams.
"Only you. You are perfect for us, Charlotte. You are the only omega we want. You are the only omega we have ever wanted for our pack."
Her lip trembles and her eyes well with tears again. Her mouth opens and closes, desperately trying to find words, but only a whine escapes her chest, and then all three of them are there around her, surrounding her with their broad, warm bodies, rumbling out their soothing purrs.
Her knees feel as if they're going to give out, but then their arms are there, holding her against them, lending her their strength.
She takes desperate, gasping breaths and her arms act on their own accord, reaching out to touch and hold each of them, her hands smoothing over their chests from one firm body to another.
Smoke and wood and richness fill her nose, and then, as if carried on the lightest breeze, a tendril of sweetness joins them, weaving through their scents until they become one.
The scent blends them all together into sweet tobacco and smoky incense and tonka crème brulée. It is the perfect complement to each of their own individual scents, and together, it is complete. They are complete.
With an aching feeling like her pelvis has been hollowed out, a wave of slick soaks her panties and carries more of the scent with it.
A blend of her sweetness mixed with their scents fill their noses.
Their answering growls pull more of the fluid out of her with a wrenching cramp that nearly doubles her over.
Her heat has finally come, she realizes with wonder, followed by a wave of anxiety. Wait, her heat? She had no idea what she was supposed to do.
A million awful what if’s drift through her thoughts, but the worries are not allowed to take hold, because her alpha's purrs redouble in strength the moment her scent sharpens with fear, responding to her automatically with their reassurance.
"Come, omega," Tomas purrs. "Take us to your nest. We will take care of you."