Chapter 43 Kady
FORTY-THREE
Kady
I wake with a start, my eyes snapping open. My skin feels strangely cool, and there isn’t a ball of tension clawing at my core. Although my heats usually last two or three days, it feels like it’s coming to an early end.
Around me, my alphas are still sleeping. Calder’s on my left, Riven’s curled at my feet, and Ezra is asleep in a cushy bean bag in the corner. Hale’s still wrapped around me on my other side. We must have dozed off still locked together.
Hale stirs at my side as I roll over to face him. He’s wide awake instantly. “Are you okay, Kady?”
I hold my hands up in front of my face and flex my fingers. “I feel…” I can’t put it into words.
Something’s different.
Underneath my skin, there’s a light tingling sensation. A rush of emotions courses through me—mild panic, confusion, and a fuzzy feeling that I really like. It’s more than emotions, it’s a warmth. The same feeling I get when wrapped in a hug and my worries melt away.
Hale’s forehead wrinkles as he sits up, resulting in Calder groaning on my other side as he throws the blankets off him.
“What’s the deal?” Calder grumbles. “Do you realize it’s only 7am?”
“Keep it down over there,” Ezra mutters from his spot.
Riven rouses too. He sits up, raking his hand through his messy blonde hair and beaming at me. “Morning, Kady.”
It’s easy to see who is a morning person and who isn’t. However, it’s still Hale who has my full attention.
“Can you…?” Hale’s words get caught in his throat. “Can you feel what I’m feeling? Because I think I can feel you.”
As soon as he says it, everything seems to click into place. The new presence in the back of my head feels kind and familiar, yet I also feel a stab in my skull from a flood of concern and confusion that mirrors my own.
My mouth falls open in shock. “It c-can’t be. Can it?”
Riven looks between the two of us. “What’s happening?”
“Is something wrong?” Calder sits up. “What is it?”
Hale raises his hand to his neck to stroke the two small crescent moon marks where my teeth sunk into his flesh hours before.
I raise a trembling hand to my mouth. “How is this even possible?”
“Is someone going to tell us what’s going on?” Ezra approaches the bed, wearing only loose-fitting pajama pants. “You’re starting to scare me.”
Even the sight of Ezra’s sexy torso can’t distract me right now. How do we begin to explain what’s happening to the others?
“Are you sure you didn’t…?” I quickly scan my body for any sign of bite marks. I know Hale held back when I begged him to claim me, but maybe he somehow broke the skin without realizing it? That’s the only rational explanation.
Hale shakes his head quickly. “Of course, I didn’t.”
“Hello?” Calder waves a hand in front of Hale’s face. “Talk to us.”
“I can feel Kady.” Hale presses his palms to his eyes.
“What do you mean ‘feel her?’” Calder frowns. “Of course, you can feel her, you’re right next to her.”
“Not like that.” Hale scratches his chin, expression dazed. “I can feel her emotions.”
Ezra catches on quicker, his dark eyebrows lowering. “You mean, like a bond?”
“Maybe? I mean, I think so.” I chew my inner cheek. “This is how Faye described it when she bonded with the Silverwood Pack.”
Calder narrows his eyes at Hale in accusation. “When did you bite her?”
“I didn’t!” Hale holds up his hands. “I swear!”
“This doesn’t make sense.” Ezra paces back-and-forth. “How can you bond without an alpha bite?”
“Actually, there are a few times this has happened in history,” Riven pipes up.
Everyone’s head swivels to face him.
“What are you talking about, Riven?” Calder snaps. “You’re the science guy. You should know how bonding works by now.”
Ignoring him, Riven continues. “During my recent research, I did come across an extremely rare case where an omega’s bite did create a bond.
” He scratches his chin thoughtfully. “Scientists struggled to explain it, but they hypothesized that it might have occurred because the omega also had a particularly strong alpha gene.”
“Of course, this would be my dad’s fault,” I mutter.
Dad’s about as alpha as you can get. His bark is more powerful than anyone I know. That’s why he never bothered to create a pack. He’s able to command most alphas at will.
“What else did you read?” Hale presses for more information. “Did their bond last?”
“It’s hard to say given the limited evidence.
” Riven shrugs. “From what I recall, it wasn’t as strong as an alpha bond.
The emotional connection was weaker, and it didn’t come with the same aftereffects, like needing to be close to each other during the transitionary period.
In the case I read about, the alpha eventually sealed the bond with his bite, so it’s hard to know how lasting the connection would’ve been.
Theoretically, I assume it’s a weaker version of the alpha bond that may possibly fade or break over time. ”
“This is fascinating,” Ezra muses, his gaze bouncing between me and Hale.
“I knew you weren’t like other omegas.” Calder shakes his head in disbelief. “Our girl is so strong that she can create bonds with her bite.”
Calder may mean it as a compliment, but it only makes me feel worse.
“I’m so sorry, Hale,” I sigh. “I didn’t know.”
“Hey.” Hale wraps his arms around me, enveloping me in his anchoring scent. “I’m not mad.”
“But we’re basically bonded now.” My throat clogs, despair slipping in.
“We don’t know for sure what this means.” Hale pulls me in closer. His grip his firm, yet I detect a slight disappointment.
“Look on the bright side, baby girl,” Ezra says. “If what Riven read is correct, you get the best of both worlds. Other alphas will leave you alone because they’ll think you’re bonded, yet you’re not fully tied to us.”
“It’s not that I want to bond to anyone else.” I detect the shift in Hale’s mood, nuzzling into him to provide some reassurance. “It’s just…” Not what I planned? An accident? “A shock. You have to understand that bonding is one of my biggest fears.”
My mind rattles and spins, but Hale’s grounding presence stops me from spiraling. Maybe this emotion sharing thing does have some advantages. If I can feel him like this now, how would it feel to have more of a connection through an alpha bond? And to feel the others too?
“This changes nothing, Kady.” Hale squeezes me tightly. “We’re not going anywhere. Whether we choose to seal the bond in the future with an alpha bite, that’s your choice.”
I pull in a deep inhale, my breathing starting to return to normal. If I couldn’t sense his emotions, I might question them, but I can feel how genuine he is.
“Hale’s right.” Riven nods. “This doesn’t really change anything.”
My other alphas edge closer until they’re all sitting around us in a semicircle.
With the heat radiating from their bodies and their delicious scents so close, the world no longer feels like it’s about to crumble down around me at any second.
Although I’m still internally freaking out a bit, it’s comforting to know I’m not alone.
“What if I’m never ready to seal the bond?” I voice my fears.
“You’re enough, Kady,” Hale reaffirms. “You always will be. Bond or not. We love you.”
“You l-l-love me?” Aside from the Stella girls, no one has told me they love me since Mom did. “We’ve only really spent a long weekend together.”
“That doesn’t change how we feel.” Hale smiles down at me. “You’re our scent match. There will never be another omega for our pack.”
I swallow hard. Do I love them too? Is that the fluttering feeling in my stomach whenever they’re around? Does that explain why I’m drawn to them and why I’m not losing my mind at the possibility of being tied to them through some rare omega bond?
“You don’t have to say it yet,” Calder says. “You never have to say it at all, if you don’t want to.”
I peer down at the sheet covering my legs, twisting it. “It’s not that I don’t feel…”
How do I explain that I’ve spent my entire life building up walls, so admitting that I’ve let them down is terrifying?
Hale rubs my shoulder. “I know.”
I forgot that he can feel my emotions. He knows how I feel about them but doesn’t push me to say it. Another reason why I… love them.
“But now that your heat seems to have passed, we probably need to decide on next steps.” Calder is always quick to get down to business. “What do you want things to look like when we return to SVU? I assume we’ll start courting officially?”
Feeling overwhelmed, a headache starts brewing.
“Slow down, Cal,” Hale says. “We’re taking it slow. Kady will return to Stella House with her friends, if that’s what she wants? Then we’ll go from there.”
“Okay.” I nod slowly. I can do that. “That sounds good. For now, at least. But I don’t want a traditional courtship.” I screw up my nose. “I don’t need any gifts. You’ve all been generous enough already by bringing me here. All I want is to get to know you properly and spend more time together.”
Ezra grins. With his commitment struggles, the slower pace will appeal to him too. “I guess that’s settled, then.”
“You’re really okay with that?” I turn to Hale, thinking about Faye and the Silverwood Pack. Granted, they bonded properly, but I know that her alphas didn’t want to be apart from her for a second.
“If it’ll make you happy, then we’re happy.” Hale dips his head in agreement. “I can’t say that it won’t be a challenge to be separated from you, but we understand how important your independence is to you. We’ll respect that.”
“Thank you.”
Their acceptance makes my heart skip a beat. There isn’t one set road to forming a pack. We don’t have to rush into anything or follow society’s ideals of what courting should look like. While the Valen Pack are my scent matches, it doesn’t mean my whole life has to change instantly.
They’re my true pack. I know that now. I’ll never want anyone else but them, but I’m not ready to feel the full tie of bonding yet. Maybe I’ll get there one day, maybe I won’t, but it doesn’t change my feelings for them.
When my stomach rumbles, Riven jumps out of bed like he’s been electrocuted.
“How does breakfast sound for next steps?”
I smile. “That sounds perfect.”