Chapter 3
Jessabella
Iwas busy scrubbing wine stains from a tablecloth when I heard a deep voice call my name.
Today I was struggling to stay positive.
I was a rejected Omega. I thought I knew my place among the much bigger Betas and Alphas in Winter Haven. I might be smaller, weaker. But I knew my place. It was to serve Edgar, Penn, and Brand.
I didn’t have that role anymore.
Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes and I wiped them away resolutely.
That was in the past. I had to adjust to my new future.
Then I heard,
“Jessabella!”
I froze motionless to see the Duke himself burst through the door to the laundry, and my cheeks burned with humiliation as my pussy gave a traitorous leap.
Because here was one of the two much younger men that I thought dirty shameful things about in the dark, the very ass, shoulders, and forearms I pictured when I slid fingers into my pussy and rode them.
I had overheard bits and pieces of the dinner party conversation surrounding the returned Duke, listening as my former Pack dismissed me like I had meant nothing.
But why was Alexei here?
He looked just like he did when starring in my feverish lustful fantasies. Movie-star good looks, golden blonde hair, and a tall, athletic frame, his brown eyes kind.
“Yes?” I gasped.
Were my nipples visibly pebbling in my top to see him standing in front of me, panting heavily, like he’d just been running?
God, I hoped not.
Alexei said nothing for a moment.
He definitely smelled even better than I remembered, too, cold and spicy, like peppermint, with something I couldn't pinpoint on my tongue, but it reminded me of coming back home after a long sleigh ride and drinking an overflowing mug of hot cocoa.
I shook myself. What in the world was wrong with me?
Why was I even scenting this 25-year-old man who probably thought of me as an auntie figure? Damn. I needed to get on some suppressants, because my hormones were out of control.
I dipped a hasty curtsey, but it made the Duke start forward anxiously toward me.
“Please–never curtsey to me,” Alexei said in a choked voice. “I–I don’t want you to think I am on top of you. I mean above you. I mean–damn.”
And now his cheeks were pink, which made me even more flustered.
“Oh–of course, if you wish it,” I stuttered, getting up.
Why were my ovaries twitching?
“Not–it’s not a royal order,” he hastened to correct me, and now we were both staring at each other in confusion.
What was even worse, was that my insides were starting to turn over at his Alpha voice.
Damn, was I too close to my monthly heats? It had been a long time since I’d been an unmated Omega, and I didn’t remember the way the scent of an Alpha made you ridiculously horny, because all of a sudden my skin was flushed and heated at how close he was.
“How are you–finding your home?” I asked.
“I–beautiful, of course. As always. Can I convince you to come back upstairs and visit?” Alexei asked.
I opened my mouth to reply, but just then I noticed Theo, the other Alpha in the Duke’s Pack.
He looked out of breath, but trying to act casual, his arm draped across the doorway.
Theo was very tall and broad-shouldered, with wavy brown hair and a strong, square jaw and at the sight of a tendon flexing in his hand, I had to swallow down my lust because he was looking as sinfully delicious as always.
“You don’t have to worry about me–” I started.
“Not worried–just wouldn’t be the same visit without you,” Theo said. “Edgar and them–not the most scintillating conversationalists. All they care about is money. We like to hear you talk about what’s been happening and the art you’ve been working on.”
Wait, since when had the King’s stern, serious Packmate ever said this many words to me?
It was kind of true about Edgar, Penn, and Brand, though. The money from their own smaller estates. The money from Koval Manor. That was what they loved to talk about.
“I–I can’t,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’ve got a few more loads to finish.”
I could feel them wanting to look at each other, and suddenly I knew if they did I would burst into tears that they were aware of how far I’d fallen.
After all, the last time they’d visited, I’d been at the right hand of the table in my fanciest dress, pouring them tea and talking about our favorite painters.
“Well, can we at least stay with you and help out?” Alexei asked, smiling at me. “I’m the Duke. I should know how my own Manor is run.”
“I–guess,” I said, while Mrs. Apel looked at me with eyes as big as saucers.
What kind of Alphas helped out with daily labor?
Theo took off his suit jacket and began to roll up his sleeves, then walked over right next to me and plunged his hands in the soapy water.
His body was only millimeters from my own, and I suppressed a foolish impulse to touch his strong forearm, see what those veins felt like under my fingers.
God, hormones sucked, because I was getting horny as hell from this normal human interaction with two much younger men who only wanted to help a rejected Omega not feel like a loser.
“Show us exactly how to do it,” Theo murmured in my ear, and I had to suppress a shiver.
Calm down, Jessabella, you’re fifteen years older than these men.
“Let me do this next one,” Alexei said, dunking his hands in the water with no regard at all for his suit jacket or the silky tie he was dipping in the soap suds.
“You–just have to get out the worst of the stains,” I said disjointedly, as Alexei and Theo began to start scrubbing, chatting lightly about the weather and the long winter and the coming spring and did I think the ice would break soon?
I was having difficulty concentrating with all these Alpha scents wafting over me.
Theo smelled like a tree, but somehow even better. He smelled like a treehouse, like something built comfortingly deep in the soil, something grounding and stable.
It hit me so hard I had to blink away tears of unexpected emotion. How could a man smell like that, like a home?
“Are you the only workers?” Alexei asked Mrs. Apel pleasantly.
“Yes, my lord,” she said. “Jessabella stepped in to–to help when another worker left.”
What a strange sensation to feel Theo and Alexei breathing beside me, to feel the intake, the exhale, all along my skin.
“That was so thoughtful of you,” Theo said in his low voice, and he didn’t say what we all must have been thinking.
What else was there for a rejected Omega to do? It was very difficult to find another Pack once your Alphas had rejected you.
“You are doing such a wonderful job here,” Alexei said, and I wanted to sink into the ground at the kindness in his voice, to both the aged retainer and me.
“It is a good thing to have fairly clean sheets. However, it is also good to have enough people so the work is distributed. I would estimate, from the size of these washers, and the amount of laundry I see, that you need another four or five people at least.”
“Whatever you wish,” Mrs. Apel squeaked out.
Alexei peeled off his wet suit jacket to reveal a dripping shirt stuck to sculptured shoulders and heat was gathering between my thighs and soaking my panties and my brain was blaring, BABIES BABIES BABIES.
What the hell was wrong with me!
I blinked past the sweat suddenly slick on my forehead to see Edgar, Penn, and Brand in the doorway looking in confusion between the much younger men and me.
“Jessabella, we didn’t mean you had to work in the laundry,” Edgar said, darting his eyes over to the Duke.
“Didn’t you?” Alexei asked, and I felt the taste of his anger under my tongue.
Anger on my behalf? I couldn't remember the last time this had happened, that someone had stuck up for me like that. With my previous Pack, I had been the peacemaker, smoothing things out between Edgar and Penn or Penn and Brand. But now? I didn’t feel any urge to intercede.
It felt good that someone was angry for me.
Edgar took a step closer.
“Jessabella said it was fine,” he said in irritation, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “There were no hard feelings at all. We just want a baby and she isn’t giving one to us.”
“Step away from her,” Theo growled suddenly, a low, raw sound, and I looked up in surprise to see him standing in front of me with his fists clenched.
What the hell?