56. Alessandro
Chapter fifty-six
Alessandro
“My love,” I murmur, pulling Willow into my arms. I can use that word as much as I want, since Willow’s said it herself. “It would be my greatest honor to become yours.”
She sniffles, flashing a wobbly smile. “Please.”
I lean over to grab the box of tissues on the bedside table and offer it to her.
She cleans up her face and blows her nose, the simple gestures a relief after her earlier screaming. The sight of her holding the letter opener, aimed at her own skin burns in my mind.
I couldn’t bear if anything happened to her.
As she settles, the bitterness in her scent fades, calmed by her alphas’ presence in the bond.
I pull her close again, my arms feeling too empty without her.
Her body warmth spreads to me and her heart thumps heavily where our chests press together.
My own heartbeat skitters from the rush we’ve experienced today.
But now I have the chance to finally make her mine.
“All my love,” I whisper, hooking under her knee and lifting. “I would like to add my bite here, to the one left by the sky, if that is okay?”
Willow barks out a broken laugh. “All right, Alessandro.” Her voice cracks. “Since you find it so beautiful.”
“Sì. Beautiful and precious.” I set my teeth on her thigh, just above her knee where the red swirls end.
She grips my head, gasping as I sink my bite deep into her body. The connection rushes through us instantly, tugging at my heart. I moan into her skin and Willow whimpers, hands tightening in my hair.
To belong to someone so wholly is more than I can put into words. For Willow to allow me such a precious gift, all I can do is love her for it. She receives my love, my adoration, small noises slipping through her throat as the full strength flares to life within her own omega soul.
Here, beside the stamp of the lightning that spared her life, I add my own small life-long mark, along with a promise to never abandon her.
Willow holds my gaze as she wriggles in my grip enough to reach my hand.
She lifts my thumb to her mouth and bites down into the fleshy part between my thumb and palm.
Her overwhelm and exhaustion rolls into me, along with a growing sense of peace. Things don’t have to be right in the world for us to be all right with each other.
Willow sucks gently on her bite, and I bend my thumb back a little in her mouth to be sure she doesn’t scratch the inside of her cheek on my fingernail.
She’s so precious, hair damp from sweat, body going limp with exhaustion.
I lick at her thigh a few times, waiting for the bleeding to stop, marveling in the power of this incomprehensible physiology that we have.
Everyone’s heard what a bond is like, sharing emotions and all that. But nothing can describe the sensation of someone else’s wellbeing lodged in your own consciousness. I’ll never have to wonder what she’s feeling again.
Which means I found my own piece of binding magic after all.
I glance down at the omega resting against my chest and discover her eyes have closed. The awareness in the bond fizzles as she falls asleep.
Still sucking my thumb.
I choke down a groan. She’s so precious, I can barely handle it.
Jeremy rests a strong hand against my back. I check on him and he nods toward the pillows. With the brothers’ help, I ease myself down onto the bed, and they tuck themselves either side of us, Jeremy at my back and Joel spooning Willow’s side as she lays against my chest.
“We still don’t know what happened,” Jeremy whispers. “Today specifically, I mean.”
“She said her business was going up in flames,” Joel rasps, unsticking hair from her tear-streaked face.
I let my head drop back into Jeremy's chest. “I follow her on social media. If you check my phone, we might figure it out.”
He nods and slips out from under me to search for my phone. A minute later, he slides back into place, holding my device out with the lock screen showing.
“4-9-2-3,” I tell him. It’s not like we’ll have any secrets between us from now on.
Jeremy hooks one arm over my waist to reach Willow, the weight comforting after a harrowing evening. So much for our long-awaited date.
“Holy shit,” he rumbles. He reads aloud from the phone snippets of the comments rolling through Willow’s socials.
“Fuck,” I murmur. “I knew she got some hate speech from alphas in general, but this seems worse.”
“Ruthless,” Joel agrees.
He gets his own phone out to search for Boss Omega, growling over every insidious comment. His thumbs fly across the screen, tapping out messages or search terms, I’m not sure which.
The public discovered she doesn’t leave her home. From one faked post, it’s grown into a witch hunt where everything she’s posted has been scrutinized. Bus routes, cafes, even socialites jumping on the bandwagon to say they’ve never seen her at any events.
“No wonder she thought it might be one of us,” I mutter. “Just this morning I asked her why she felt she needed to fake all of this activity.”
“What did she say?” Joel asks.
I sigh. “That she had to be perfect on social media, and a housebound omega wasn’t perfect.”
Joel vibrates with a growl.
Willow’s mouth twitches around my thumb and I flash him a warning look. Joel freezes, the growl subsiding quickly.
“How do we fix this?” Jeremy whispers.
I study our perfect omega, noting the tear streaks and the faint worry line etched into her forehead, even in sleep. It took three of us bonding her to calm her down, and now she sleeps the sleep of the exhausted in our arms while the digital world howls for her blood.
“I want to tear those bastards limb from limb,” Joel murmurs, voicing my own thoughts. “But I don’t think we can fix this for her. She wouldn’t want us to.”
Jeremy groans and slumps, resting his forehead on my shoulders. “Fucking hell,” he grumbles.
I pull Willow closer. “We just need to be right here for her, always.”
Joel nods. “Yeah, that’s what she needs most.”
I drop a kiss on her forehead, smoothing away the worry line there. “Only she can decide how she wants to live her life from this point on.”
While we can’t make that decision for her, we can be here to tell her she’s perfect the way she is. But she does need to cherish that life.
“We can’t let her . . .” I choke up. “The letter opener. The way she was holding it . . . it scared me so much.”
I’ve only just found this omega; the possibility of losing her has my soul shaking like a leaf.
Joel growls. “That’s not happening. We won’t let her go.”
Jeremy sighs and leans over his brother’s back to watch us, musing out loud.
“That’s not like her. Not normally. Think about it; she’s such a fighter, and even when people say shit about her online, she puts up with it and responds politely.
No, this was something that touched so deep on her history, the idea of losing everyone and everything again. ”
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” Joel interrupts. “We’ll watch over her, take shifts so she’s not left alone. And make sure she never feels unloved or lonely again. I can hire a business manager so I can stay home more.”
The three of us nod in unison.
We lie still for a long time, joined in one purpose, to love the omega in our arms, sharing what we know about her in hushed whispers. This probably won’t be the only time she breaks, but so long as we’re all together, we can get through anything.
“There is something I’d like to add,” Jeremy says, clearing his voice softly. “To our pack.”
Joel’s gaze flicks over my shoulder to his brother as Jeremy rises on one elbow. His brows rise in silent communication. I envy them that, a little.
“Sì?” I ask, frowning. What more do we need?
Jeremy looks down at me, his brown eyes liquid with something I can’t decipher. “Our uncle was part of a bigger pack, and he told me something that always stuck with me.”
“Other than never trust a fart?” Joel whispers.
His brother pinches his hand to silence him, leaning on my shoulder in the process.
“He said for a pack to be fully unified, they have to be fully bonded.”
I narrow my eyes, trying to understand. “Is that an English expression? Are we not fully bonded?”
Jeremy shakes his head. “Currently, we’re omega-bonded. Well, except Joel also bit me by accident the other day.” He clicks his tongue, but anyone could tell he’s not really annoyed. “So, how about it, Alessandro. Want to become pack brothers?”
He grazes his teeth on my upper arm.
“He means even more than we already are,” Joel adds.
“Un legame alfa,” I whisper. An alpha-to-alpha bond. Emotion surges up in my chest. I may not know either of these men very well, but I do know how much they care about Willow. “Oh, I would like that very much.”
He repositions his mouth over my arm.
“Wait!” I hiss. “Put something in my mouth. I don’t want to wake her.”
Joel flails around until his hand lands on one of the discarded cushions Willow likes to keep on her bed. He positions it in front of my face, and I bite down on the thick corner.
“Ready?” Jeremy whispers.
I nod.
He chomps down and I jerk in shock. Alpha pheromones flood through me, potent and foreign.
I tense against the invasion. For a single moment, the scents in the room are so vivid I can see them as colors.
Swirling white Jasmine, coppery clay, and green rosemary.
Even my own pale scent swirls in between the others.
Our four separate breathing patterns roar like storms in my ears. Heartbeats become audible.
I stiffen, senses overloaded. And then, through the hot, swirling mess comes a calm. More like cheerfulness. The essence of a man who loves the guitar and helping others, cooking a good meal, and having a laugh. A glass half-full man.
I gasp around my mouthful, accepting the flow of Jeremy’s presence as it swarms through me, settling in my consciousness.
One down, one to go.
Joel rolls until he can reach my forearm where it wraps around Willow. I release my grip so my arm flops out into his hands. He glances at me for confirmation, and I nod.
His teeth descend.
I squeeze my eyes shut again, the onslaught of senses as powerful as the first time, but not as shocking.
Joel’s essence swirls through me, more rigid than his brother’s, the alpha spirit close to the surface.
It comes with a fierce sense of loyalty, the need to occupy his hands constantly, and the laser focus of a scent-match alpha always attuned to his omega.
I suck in a huge lungful of air as the newest bond sinks into my psyche. It’s like I forgot to breathe for a minute there, overwhelmed with new sensations.
The scents in the room settle as the new pack link sinks deep, adding another awareness to the back of my mind. I lean against Jeremy with a weary sigh. I grew up as an only child, wondering what it was like to have a sibling, knowing I never would.
But now, suddenly, I’ve gained two brothers.
Jeremy massages the sore spot on my shoulder, his touch speaking volumes.
“You can return them tomorrow, when your hands are free,” he murmurs by my ear.
I nod in silence.
United, we all settle down on the beds, finally relaxing after a whirlwind of a day. Joel pulls the comforter up, tucking it carefully over our omega before wriggling in at her back.
Jeremy drifts off first, his breaths heavy against my neck.
Joel follows him soon after, a protective arm looped over Willow’s waist. I lay awake, a half-smile curving my mouth.
But it fades as my omega stirs and rolls onto her back, breaths growing jagged and slurred words spilling from her tongue.
I kiss her cheek and pull her nose to my throat until she relaxes. With a shaky sigh, she sinks deep into bliss.
But despite the beauty of our union, her shattered life lurks at the door, waiting for her to wake. No one knows what the morning will bring.