Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Hunter Cabin, Blue Valley Woods
It has been over a week, and I still haven’t grown used to waking up next to the inferno of warmth that is this giant of an Alpha.
Phantom sprawls next to me. He is asleep and naked, despite the freezing chill in the air, although he is still wearing the mask that he wears even in bed. We are both burrowed underneath the coarse green blankets.
Weak morning light streams through the window, which looks out over the forest of tall hardwoods.
This is Phantom and Joker’s bedroom.
Except, Joker promised that it is our bedroom now — the pack’s.
The room is uncluttered and simple. Three pine shelves are filled with ranks of shoes, boots, and clothes, neatly folded.
Phantom does the folding, after Joker flings his clothes onto the floor.
Joker isn’t neat about anything he does, apart from how he handles his weapons.
There are no personal belongings or photographs.
A music player and headphones sit on the end of the tallest shelf like Phantom was determined that Joker wouldn’t knock it off, which is a valid fear.
I wriggle, attempting to free myself from underneath Phantom’s muscled arm.
A red rose tattoo, whose stem transforms into a musical note, rests above an inked mask on Phantom’s arm.
The Alpha always sleeps pinning me down like he wants to be certain that I won’t slip away while he sleeps.
It’s another valid fear. I did try to run out on Joker.
There is a Joker shaped empty space on the other side of Phantom like there has been each morning. The Beta is dedicated to his dawn gym sessions.
I have found that I enjoy quietly waking up in Phantom’s arms. So, I alternate spending time in the gym with Joker in the morning and working out with Phantom in the evenings.
I can’t match Joker in his runs, or Phantom with his weights.
It is a new experience for me. I thought that I would hate being challenged.
I love it.
These men are worthy of my respect. They’re teaching me tricks, while I have tricks of my own to pass onto them.
They have been taught to play fair. I haven’t.
We all have our own strengths. Together, we’ll be fucking unstoppable.
I listen to the running water from the shower in the en suite next door.
Bird has enjoyed long showers every morning.
“The Hotel Omegas and staff were only allowed to bathe in cold water,” Bird told me on the first morning in Hunter Cabin, when he purred in delight as he tested the hot water. “Do you think that I need to ask permission to use the hot water?”
“If the answer is yes,” I replied, darkly, “then I will punch the Chief Alpha in the dick.”
Phantom looked horrified when Bird asked permission, shaking his head to indicate he didn’t need to.
So, I didn’t punch Phantom in the dick.
Now, the Alpha’s cock rests softly against his thigh. I haven’t seen him grow hard, even when Joker enthusiastically fucked me in bed next to him, while kissing Bird.
Phantom wrote Bird and me a long explanation of his needs.
He enjoys watching Joker having his sexual needs met by other people but doesn’t want to come himself. He feels close to his pack through deep emotional connections, feeling wanted and courted.
He needs romance.
He underlined the word.
Well, that will have to be Bird’s department.
Phantom loves soft touches, holding hands, licking and nuzzling.
I can help there.
I push at the Alpha’s arm, but it’s fucking heavy.
I sigh. “Are you awake?”
I reach to slick back Phantom’s ice-white hair.
He doesn’t open his eyes, but he sleepily signs: Sleeping.
I huff a laugh.
Before Phantom, I hadn’t known that it was possible to both lie and be darkly humorous so fluently in sign.
It only took me two days to learn the mix of army signals and privately invented sign language that Phantom and Joker created to communicate with each other. It took Bird slightly longer because he wasn’t used to being drilled in information. He was committed, however, and he has learned it now.
Over this last week, we’ve all learned many things.
Phantom has trained Bird in combat fighting and the use of the wolf dagger like he promised he would. He hasn’t been slowed down by only having the use of one arm.
He’s more patient than I guessed he would be, or I could have been.
I’ve sparred thrillingly with all of them out in the forest in between the storms that have lashed the mountain.
We have grown increasingly comfortable with each other, enough that I have almost forgotten that we are waiting for an attack.
Is this domestic bliss?
Joker sews our clothes, when we rip them with our over enthusiastic sparring.
Phantom cooks delicious meals, aided and abetted by Bird.
I am becoming used to the opera and musicals, which Phantom loves to play, while he reads curled in a chair in the cabin’s lounge.
Phantom appears entranced by Bird’s long hair, combing out its tangles each morning for our Omega. Bird falls into a blissful state at the attention, purring.
Joker and I have discovered someone with equal strength, attitude, and kinkiness in each other.
We’ve christened every room in the cabin.
Several times.
Joker is endlessly creative.
I adore that when he walks into a room and shoots me a heated look, I never know if he will be a Beta or an Omega.
It is like unwrapping a new gift each time, and I love each side to him.
It is like learning to love all of myself as well.
“Sleeping, huh?” I stroke lightly along Phantom’s cheek like he enjoys.
Then I make one final valiant effort to escape from underneath his arm.
Phantom tightens his hold on me. His sensual lips curve into a smile.
It’s the only warning I get before his luminous green eyes snap open.
Adrenaline spikes through me.
Uh-oh.
If there is one thing that I have grown to enjoy the most this week, it is Phantom’s surprise attacks.
Bring it on.
Phantom snatches me by the shoulder and wrestles me onto my back with a growl.
My soul sings at the playfight.
I grin in vicious delight.
Every morning should start like this. It’s better than sex.
I grab Phantom’s hair and yank his head to the side, which reveals the chandelier tattoo on the base of his neck.
Being much smaller than him, I need to play dirty.
Then I drag the pillow out from underneath my head and whack Phantom across the face with it. I am careful to avoid aiming for his wounded shoulder. I can’t even pretend to myself anymore that I would hurt him like I would any other Alpha.
Phantom splutters in shock, before he laughs. It’s a deep sound that rumbles through the bedroom.
I attempt to swipe the pillow across his face again.
To my surprise, the Alpha bites the pillow, catching it between his teeth.
Then he savages it.
I hold onto the pillow, as Phantom sits up on his knees, and we play tug of war.
“Oh yeah, I’m challenging you, Chief Alpha,” I taunt. “This is my pillow.”
He bites harder.
I hear a sudden rip, and the pillow tears in half.
Suddenly, feathers explode into the air and then fall across us like snow.
We stare at each other in surprise, before we both grin.
Phantom points his thumb downwards: Enemy Neutralized.
Then he adds: Kitten Neutralized.
I hiss in an attempt at the impression of a furious cat.
I can’t persuade Phantom to buy me anything but these adorable black kitten pajamas.
They are growing on me.
Bird tells me that I have black cat vibes, after all.
I toss the remnants of the pillow onto the bed. “I’d say that this bedding is collateral damage in our war. This isn’t over.”
Phantom looks smug, although he spits out a feather.
Suddenly, Bird starts to sing in the shower.
His voice is sweet and unrestrained because he believes that no one is listening.
He is singing some pop song that I don’t know because I was rarely given a chance to listen to music. It was considered a distraction to my training. When I was out on missions, I didn’t pay attention to the music I heard around me.
It was noise, which belonged to a world that I wasn’t part of.
Phantom stills, the same as I do.
He is entranced.
Then he reaches to hold my hand.
“Are you okay?” I check.
Phantom reaches his finger to his lips to hush me. He is listening intently like he’s just caught the sound of the gods’ songs through the veil.
I tighten my hold on his hand.
Bird, he signs.
I nod.
My Angel of Music, Phantom continues to sign. Then he points to me, before he points at the closed bathroom door. Mine.
“Possessive,” I mouth.
My eyes widen, when Phantom snarls and launches himself over the bed.
I try to snatch at him but it’s like attempting to hold back a mountain.
Butt naked, Phantom marches to the bathroom door and yanks it open.
Bird is too trusting. Typical him not to lock the door.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I scramble off the bed.
I hope that Phantom isn’t a sleeper agent and singing isn’t his trigger.
Before I can reach the door, Phantom is dragging a bedraggled and startled Bird into the bedroom by his arm. Bird is naked and dripping water from the shower. He must have been in the middle of washing his long hair because it is still covered in shampoo bubbles.
“Ro…? What’s going on?” Bird cranes his neck to look at me. “Was my singing that bad?”
“I think it was that good.” I prowl to Phantom, attempting unsuccessfully to prise his fingers off Bird’s wet arm.
Phantom ignores me.
He is carrying a fluffy towel under one arm that he must have snatched from the rail as he passed it. Instead, with the same focus, as if he is taking an enemy unit down, he starts to dry Bird’s hair.
“It’s okay, Ro. Let him. Is this an Alpha thing?” Bird’s muffled voice calls.
“It’s a Phantom thing.” I step back and lean against the timber wall.
I cross my arms, pretending to be casual, while in fact being ready to leap into action if needed.
Phantom efficiently dries Bird.
He gestures at his throat and then his chest. He smiles, before touching Bird’s lips.
“My voice…? The song?” Bird ventures.
Phantom nods.
Bird ducks his head. “My sis would scold me for singing in the shower and taking too long. But did you really need to drag me out like that?”
Phantom’s expression falls.