Chapter 19
Damien
“Addie!” I scream her name, lunging forward as her body falls.
The other two shout her name as well, diving to catch her, but I make it there first, scooping her up in my arms at the last second.
My heart thunders in my chest, fear clogs my lungs. “Addie, baby.” I cup her face, feeling like a fucking asshole for overwhelming her to the point she passed out.
“Is she okay?” Reid asks as I hoist her into my arms bridal-style.
Ignoring him, I head toward the front door to bring her inside and lay her down.
“Where the fuck are you going!?” Carson shouts.
“Give her to us!” Reid argues, following along behind.
I continue to ignore them as I make my way upstairs. The only thing on my mind is getting Addie to a comfortable spot.
The other two continue arguing as they trail behind me. When I step into her room, I’m hit with her scent and have to close my eyes for a moment before I fucking moan in front of these two.
Seriously, my girl smells orgasmic.
Carefully, I lay her down on the bed and finally give the others my attention. “If you don’t mind, kindly get the fuck out of my house, you’ve done enough.”
“Us?!” Carson snaps, nostrils flaring. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? You’re the one who just fucking threw us under the bus. Don’t act like you’re not just as much to blame as we are.”
“If anything, you’re worse,” Reid snarls. “Who the fuck tells their stepsister they’re in love with her in the middle of a fucking hockey game?”
“It wasn’t the middle, it was before.” I roll my eyes. I leave Addie and step into her bathroom to grab a face cloth. Wetting it with cold water, I wring it out and bring it to her.
“Addie, baby. Wake up.” I dab her face with the cloth.
“Is she okay?” Carson asks, his voice thick with worry.
“She’s going to be fine. She’s just overwhelmed,” I mutter, brushing some of her pink hair away. This is the closest I’ve been able to get to her, and it’s the longest I’ve been able to touch her. She’s so delicate and soft. So sweet and beautiful.
It kills me that I’ve upset her so much. I don’t regret telling her the truth, and I’m not done just yet, but maybe I could have done it another way.
I was freaking out after the game when I didn’t see her in the stands. I went to the locker room to call her, only to find out that she left.
When I tried calling her, she wouldn’t pick up. As I was leaving, these two assholes bombarded me, demanding that I take them to my place to see Addie.
I told them to get fucked and left, but they followed me.
“Yeah, because you just had to go and open your fucking mouth,” Carson snarls. “Seriously, man, it’s just pathetic. Leave Addie alone. Let her be happy. She’s with us, we’re her scent matches. This is just sad. Are you trying to fuck with her because you hate us that much?”
My head snaps up, and my lip curls back in a snarl. “Don’t be so fucking full of yourself, Rider. I told her I loved her because I do. And no, I’m not going to just hand her over because you’re her scent matches. Spoiler alert, I’m her scent match too. I’ve been her scent match longer than you.”
“Bull-fucking-shit.” Reid rolls his eyes. “Seriously, you’re pulling shit out of your ass at this point.”
“When she wakes up and realizes I’m not wearing any scent blockers, you’ll see.” I go back to dabbing Addie’s face.
“Give me that.” Carson tries to take the cloth from me. “We can take care of our Omega ourselves."
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I snarl, grab his wrist with a death grip, and shove it away.
“Enough!” Reid snaps. “Stop. This isn’t helping. We need to stop arguing because when Addie wakes up, it’s only going to upset her more.” His eyes flick down to Addie, swimming with emotion.
I hate that they care about her so much. I’ve never been so fucking jealous in my life.
If only I had told her sooner, we’d be living our own lives together by now. She wouldn’t ever have had the chance to meet these two.
“Here are the facts.” I sit on the bed next to Addie, thumb brushing against her cheek.
“You’re her scent matches, and as much as I fucking hate you both, that is something I can’t change.
” I bring my eyes from Addie to the two of them.
“But I’m her scent match, too. I don’t owe you an explanation about why this is coming out right now.
That's between me and my Omega. Just know I’m not going anywhere.
I will continue to fight to be with her, to show her I love her and need her, and that I can be the Alpha she deserves.
If that means sharing her with you, then so be it. Doesn’t mean I have to like you.”
“How did we get to this point?” Reid sighs heavily, running a hand through his hair. “In real life, we hate each other. Yet, online we’ve been best friends for years.”
“Yeah, until you decided to throw our friendship out the fucking window and steal our Omega out from under me,” I sneer.
“I could have looked past our rivalry after finding out who you two were. I could have made it work so we could be there for her together.” I want her all to myself, but I know how intense scent bonds are.
I’d never ask her to give them up, not unless they were truly evil people.
Even though we don’t like one another, I can’t deny that they treat her well.
“Why?” I ask them. “Why scheme to have her to yourselves? You knew how Death felt about her, how I felt about her.”
Carson and Reid look at one another for a moment before Reid turns to me.
“When we first found out Addie was our scent match, we were ready to end our crush on PastelPrincess. Addie was the only Omega we wanted. Then, we found out who she really was and got caught up in the excitement of having the best of both worlds. The two girls we had feelings for were the same person.”
“We panicked. She’s our scent match, and the idea of sharing her with another person caused us to go all Alpha,” Carson mutters. “Not our proudest moment.”
“Then, when we went to Vegas, she told us that she had feelings for her gaming friends online. We didn’t know you were Death, but we knew she liked you. We were willing to share her with you because that's what she wanted.”
“Then you had to go open your big mouth and be all selfish, so we reacted.” Carson glares at me.
“So, what you’re saying is all this could have been avoided if we didn’t let our Alpha jealousy and possessiveness take over?” I grumble, hating the fact that it’s true.
I wanted to goad them, get them going and rub it in their faces that they can’t just come and take Addie out from under me. That I’d fight tooth and nail for my Omega.
But all it’s done is hurt her and for that, I feel like a fucking asshole. As much as I don’t like these two, I’m not going to keep butting heads with them. It’s only going to hurt Addie in the end.
“Why do we hate each other?” Carson asks. “Like, before this. Because when I think about it, other than you being a cocky fucker, there’s nothing either of us did to the other to warrant so much hatred.”
I shrug my shoulders. “It was mostly just team rivalry stuff. It wasn’t until I found out that you two were the ones trying to take Addie that I really hated you.”
“We’re not trying to take Addie.” Reid sighs in frustration. “Addie is her own person and she has the right to make her own choices for her life. We don’t control her and we’d never try to.”
“This is one big cluster fuck.” Carson sits on the edge of the bed, his hand reaching up to stroke Addie’s face.
My hand twitches to shove him away, but I keep the urge to myself.
“We need to come up with a game plan before she wakes up,” Reid says.
“I don’t want any ill will between us. Addie comes first. Before our personal opinion of one another, before our wants and needs, before hockey.
” He looks between the two of us. “She’s the most important thing so being at each other's throats won’t cut it. I won’t be the cause for Addie’s pain.”
“Neither will I,” I grumble.
“Then we make an agreement, now. We do our best to keep the peace for Addie, despite what we feel toward one another,” Carson suggests.
“Yes, but we can’t just ‘keep the peace’ for the rest of our lives. We’re going to have to learn how to get along at some point. It’s not fair to Addie if her Alphas can’t stand one another,” Reid says.
“That’s not true. You two are thick as thieves,” I mutter. “Two peas in a pod. Have been for years, haven’t you? Not only did you know each other in real life, but you two knew each other online. Waffle and Grim knew each other’s real identities, didn’t you?”
The way they look at each other gives me all the answers I need.
“Pretty messed up to make the two of us believe that you didn’t know one another in real life.” I shake my head.
“It’s pretty messed up you knew you were Addie’s scent match and kept it from her. That’s pretty hard to do, considering you two lived under the same roof from when she was thirteen until she moved to Nashville,” Reid scoffs. “Don’t act like you’re innocent.”
“I’m not,” I sneer. “I know I’m not. Trust me, I fucking know.
You think it’s been easy to keep something like this to myself?
” I get to my feet. “You think it’s easy knowing the girl you fell in love with online, who was your best friend, your dream girl, was your step-sister?
Do you know how hard it’s been to keep that to myself when all I’ve wanted to do is go to the room down the hall and take her for myself?
” I run a hand down my face before scrubbing it roughly.
“I thought the crush would go away because of who she is to me. Boy, was I fucking wrong.” I laugh as I start to pace, feelings bubbling up and boiling over.
“She’s my step-sister! Off limits. No matter how much it killed me, I knew that and respected it.
” I grab a handful of my hair. “Then the world had to go fuck me hard by making us scent matches. And before I could do anything about it, she was gone.”
“Why didn’t you go after her?” Carson asks. “She’s your Omega.”
“She’s my step-sister.” I stop pacing and glare at him.
“I was just entering the KP and starting my career on one of the best teams in the league. My father was the coach, for fucks sake! You think the world would be so accepting of a player on the Royal Alphas scent matched to his step-sister? The things they would have said, the light they would have painted my family in. I didn’t want to ruin my career before it started.
I didn’t want my dad to lose his job or tarnish his reputation.
I couldn’t have cared less about my step-mother, that bitch can eat rocks.
But I would have lost my fucking mind if they said anything bad about Addie.
I knew why she left, she wanted to be out of the spotlight and live her life, be herself without her evil mother and the world breathing down her neck. I would have kept her from doing that.”
“So what, you just spent the past six years living your life like she didn’t exist?
” Reid asks. “As if your scent match wasn’t thousands of miles away from you while you lived your life, and she lived hers?
How could you do that to her? Did you mess around with other women?
Because trust me, we’ve seen the articles. ”
My chest heaves as anger rises. “I’ve never, not fucking once, touched another person, man or woman, since finding out Addie is my Omega.
I want to make that fucking clear. No one, not a single breathing being, can compare to her.
” I suck in a lungful of air, feeling my body shaking.
“Every day was hell. I put all my time into hockey. I lived and breathed it, and made it my whole life, because if I kept busy, it hurt a little less. Hockey kept me from thinking about her or second-guessing my career. Every single fucking time.”
“So why now? What changed? Was it because she found Alphas? That she was going to move on? Did it take her starting a pack to get your head out of your ass?” Reid asks.
“Partly,” I growl. “I always planned to be with Addie. It didn’t matter what she was doing in life or who she could be packed up with, I always planned to find her and make her mine.”
“When you were done playing hockey, though, right?” Reid shakes his head. “That’s messed up.”
“I know,” I snarl. “Trust me, I fucking know. I was young, dumb, and confused. I had so many people expecting so much from me. So many people to worry about. I wasn’t thinking straight. I was thinking about how to protect the people who mean the most to me.”
“And what, hurting yourself in the process?” Carson asks.
“I was protecting her.” I point to Addie. “I didn't matter. She did.”
“You should have let me make the decision myself.” Addie’s low, sweet voice has all of our heads snapping to the side.
“Addie,” Her name comes out as a quick breath as I rush to her, dropping to my knees at her bedside. “Addie, baby. How are you feeling? Does your head hurt?”
Addie stares at me, her blue eyes locking on mine.
For a second, I think she might still be dazed, but then I see it, her pupils dilating, a little whimper stuck in the back of her throat, and her nostrils flaring as, finally, for the first time, she’s smelling me.
“So it’s true?” Addie whispers. “You really are my scent match?”
Her lower lip wobbles, the look of betrayal clear on her face, and fuck me, it’s a dagger to the heart.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I’m so fucking sorry for not telling you, Addie. Believe me when I tell you I wanted to. I wanted you every fucking day. To make you mine. To love you, care for you, and be the best damn Alpha I could be for you.”
“You let me go,” she whispers, hurt thick in her voice. “You knew what I was to you, and you let me go.”
“We’re going to give you two some time alone,” Reid says. “Come on, Carson.”
“But...”
“They need this,” Reid tells him before looking at Addie with a soft, loving smile. “We’ll be downstairs. We’re not going anywhere, okay?"
Addie bites her lip, nodding softly.
The two of them leave, the door clicking shut behind them.
Addie turns her big, beautiful, blue eyes back to mine, and I swear my heart stops. She’s just that stunning.
“You’re my Alpha,” she says without hesitation.
“I am.” I want to pull her into my lap, kiss her, and take all the pain away. I want to protect her from the world, from me, from the two downstairs. She deserves way better than us. But I know they wouldn’t dream of giving her up, and neither will I.
If this doesn’t go the way I want it to, need it to, I will fight every day until I can win her over, prove to her she’s my everything. Even if it takes the rest of our lives. She’s worth it. Every single second. Because there is no one else for me. Only her. Always her.