Chapter 25
Bear
She was in my home.
Well, my temporary home. We had been in the apartment below the Garnetts for almost a year now, but it wasn’t our true home.
That was about two hours out of the city.
A large country house on a few acres of land that felt wonderfully isolated and peaceful.
After purchasing it for a steal, we’d planned to settle down there, but work had kept us moving around the country, and there had never been a good time to move in fully and lead the life we dreamed of.
And now there was Flora.
Knowing she was near made my body hum with excitement and anticipation. Her proximity made everything seem better—though I despised that there were doors between us. Flora had locked the guest room door, and who could blame her, given everything she had been through?
That didn’t change the fact that I desperately wanted to be near her. Just being in the same room as her soothed the beast inside me in a way that was utterly foreign to me.
Lying in my bed, I stared at the ceiling for a good while.
My body didn’t want to rest; it wanted to go to the omega.
To ensure she was safe and happy. Spencer and Chase had sulked off to their rooms. Chase was probably taking apart the laptop he had been working on; computer stuff baffled me.
Spencer… well, he was probably brooding or plotting, knowing him.
That man lived for his family, and as a pack, we were his family.
So, when we were in trouble, he couldn’t rest.
And me? I was bored, cooped up, and itching to get out of this damn room and check on Flora.
Knifepoint. She’d been held at knifepoint, and I needed to make sure she was actually okay.
Still, if space was what she wanted, I was going to give it to her, no matter how much it made my skin crawl, which it really shouldn’t have.
We’d just met, and hardly at that. Yes, we’d been keeping an eye on her, but it was all one-sided.
But the need wasn’t ebbing, no matter how much I told myself to knock it off.
My obsession should have been concerning, but I couldn’t help myself. Ever since she had grabbed my hand and called me “babe,” I was hers.
Sleep was finally pulling me under, promising me dreams of a sweet, floral-scented omega, when the door to my room creaked open. I kept my eyes closed, my body stiffening in preparation as my ears strained to listen.
Our home was secure. There were only three options for who could enter my room.
Usually, Chase and Spencer didn’t bother to tiptoe around.
Chase, in particular, barreled in like an excited puppy whenever he had a breakthrough.
I didn’t mind—most of the time I was reading or working, so I often welcomed the interruptions.
You know, unless I was taking care of personal business.
Spencer had a habit of declaring himself, and his footsteps were much heavier.
The third option was likely to be more careful and even more welcome.
Flora had gone to bed an hour earlier, but we could all hear her tossing and turning from the living room.
A severe lack of sleep was to be expected with all the stress she had been under.
It probably didn’t help that she didn’t have her own nest and was making do with a random assortment of items that Mable didn’t want.
I wasn’t an omega, but that sounded crappy to even me.
Was I sorely tempted to install cameras in her room so I could keep an eye on her?
Yes. Yes, I was.
But I was doing my best to behave.
She was under my roof, only a few doors away at any given moment. The proximity helped ease the worry somewhat. That had to be enough.
And then, my suspicions were confirmed a second later when the sweet scent of honey and rose wafted over to me.
Nothing had ever smelled so damn good.
If only there was a way to bottle her scent and keep it with me forever… Then again, I could just keep her at my side. That way, I would always have access to it.
So tempting.
With a smirk, I faced her. “Hey, little omega.”
She stood in the doorway, wearing a pair of oversized pajamas I was pretty sure had once belonged to Spencer. Her hair was scraped back into a messy bun. The shorts she was wearing showing just how long her legs were—my hands itched to reach out and run along the smooth expanse of skin.
Chewing on her lip, she darted her eyes around the room. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t feel safe, and I wanted…” She trailed off. “I followed your scent and figured out which room was yours.”
She just wanted… to be near me? No way.
“What?” I raised my brows, waiting on edge.
Her poor lip was going to be red and raw with the way she was abusing it as she padded softly into the room.
“Can I…” She paused again, clearly gathering the courage to dart forward.
Before I could even blink, Flora pulled back the comforter and crawled into my bed, draping herself around me.
“You feel… safe,” she admitted in a small voice, her delicate body trembling.
That hit me like a ton of bricks. It was overwhelming. My eyes watered as I wrapped my arms around her, holding her close.
Those three words.
You feel safe.
“Sorry, I’m being stupid,” she hesitated, starting to pull away.
I tightened my grip, refusing to let Flora move an inch. I couldn’t. This was too wonderful, too overdue.
“Nope. You’re staying right here,” I muttered, my body relaxing more than it ever had, with her pressed against me.
She was partially on my chest, partially pressed against my side—there was no way she was missing just how fast my heart was beating from her proximity, but thankfully, she couldn’t feel the raging hard-on I had been sporting since the moment she entered the room.
I was only human, after all.
I reached a hand up, resting it on the back of her head, tangled in the mass of waves now spreading across my pillows, covering them in her sweet floral scent. My entire bed was going to smell like her—a thought that excited me far more than it should have.
“Are you sure?” she whispered, sounding full of concern.
That uncertainty in her voice made me inexplicably sad. Flora needed to know that I would do anything—not just to make her safe, but to make her feel welcome and cared for. As far as I was concerned, I was hers to command.
She’d had me wrapped around her little finger from the very first moment she grabbed my hand while walking home.
She just didn’t know it.
I kissed the top of her head. “I have never been more sure of anything in my life,” I muttered.
“I’m sorry about your jacket,” Flora sighed.
“My jacket?” I asked, my voice thick with sleep and emotions.
“The one you gave me that first night you met me. I forgot to give it back. It was destroyed when that asshole trashed my place. It was a really nice jacket.”
“It was.” I hummed in agreement. “I saw you wearing it the next day.”
She stiffened against me. “Oh… I…”
“I liked it,” I admitted. “Seeing you wrapped up in it, knowing you were carrying my scent around with you.”
“Even then, your scent made me feel better. From the moment I saw you, I just knew.” Her quiet confession made me smile against her hair.
“That’s damn good to hear, little omega. I want you to know you are always safe around me. And I… I feel the same.”
“Really?” she asked, pulling back to look at me questioningly. “You seem so… aloof? Indifferent?”
“That’s just a byproduct of my job.”
“Hmm… I guess I never thought of that. So,”—she lay her head down, and I closed my eyes, breathing her in as everything got heavier, quieter—“is it okay that I sleep here?”
“Always.” I smiled, squeezing her before I allowed myself to drift away even more. “As long as you stop talking.”
Flora laughed, snuggling into me, and right then, nothing else in the world mattered.
That night, I slept like the dead, which was highly unlike me. I wasn’t an insomniac by any means, but I usually slept on the lighter side—another byproduct of my job.
But having Flora nestled against my side, her scent lulling me into a restful slumber, was all it took to make me sleep so deeply I could feel it in my muscles.
When I cracked an eye open, I found her looking up at me, still wrapped around me.
“Morning,” I said sleepily.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you,” she whispered. Her hair was falling messily around her face, her cheek wrinkled from being pressed into the pillow. Flora looked delightfully rumpled first thing in the morning.
“You could never disturb me.”
“That’s not. Ugh, never mind.” Flora rolled her eyes, a smirk lifting her cheek. “I should probably get going, though. I don’t regret sleeping in here, but I would rather avoid all the growling from Spencer and teasing from Chase.”
Part of me wanted to be nervous about that, but I couldn’t sense any embarrassment or regret from Flora, just… irritation that was directed solely at my pack mates.
“Fair enough. But you'd better get going, then. Spencer wakes up early.”
Her brows shot up, and she straightened abruptly, tearing out of the bed. Flora paused at the door, looking over her shoulder at me. “Of course, he does. Masochist. I bet he’s the kind to work out for fun.” She said it with such disdain; I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Little omega, you don’t know the half of it. There was a time he would get up at four a.m. every day to run twelve miles, then do a workout.”
Her horror-struck expression was comical.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let him make you work out.”
“See, this is why you’re my favorite.” She grinned. “Thanks. For last night.”
And with that, she sprinted back to the guest room. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face if I tried, which was definitely new. But I was pleased to keep this moment a secret for a little while. Flora was here, her scent all over me, and I was going to bask in it for as long as I could.
I was her favorite.
When, in the last seven years since I had been scarred, had someone chosen me?