Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Malachy
Lukas has endless energy and a bossy streak that I find cuter than I probably should.
He helps me assemble his indoor playhouse, complete with a plastic slide, but the kid is big for his age.
Even though the box says ages two to six, he’s pushing the size limit.
It’ll work for now until we can get something installed in the backyard.
I still feel guilty. I wish it was something he could grow into.
I’m itching to get upstairs to check on Charlotte, but I take the time to put together the small plastic basketball hoop and inflate the ball pit. At this point, Lukas won’t need anything for Christmas, outside of clothes and shoes.
Nah, even if Miriam went a little overboard, Christmas is special. We’ll make sure we pick out a few things he’ll like, and I’ll know to aim for a bike for a normal-sized four- or five-year-old. That should work for him with some space to grow into.
The lad dunks the ball, and it goes flying.
I catch it with my foot, bending down to pick it up.
Lukas hits my shins, and if I were less stable, he might have made me wobble. He’s a solid kid.
“Good job. Here’s your ball.” I hold it out for him, swiping my other hand through his messy blond hair.
“Thanks, Mal! I love my new toys.” He tilts his head, giving me a cheesy smile and runs back over to jump into the ball pit with the basketball tucked under his arm.
I chuckle, running my palm over my face. He’s a mess, but he’s also cute as hell while he’s running us all ragged.
“I’d say all three of you are in deeper than you’d like to admit.” Miriam glances up from the book she’s reading, and a smile tips her lips. “I knew I only had to be patient, and it would happen one day.”
“No one likes a know-it-all,” I mutter, watching Lukas chuck the balls from the pit at the basketball hoop.
“You gonna let him get away with that?” She would have gotten on to all of us with threats of a wooden spoon if we’d made that kind of mess back in the day.
Then again, it’s probably a good thing that she’s gotten softer in her old age.
“I’ll walk him through how to pick them up once he’s done playing,” she says, flipping her page. “A little mess isn’t going to hurt anyone without your fathers around to yell about it.”
Sometimes I wonder if the three of us have dissociated so hard that none of us really remember what it was like to live with them when we were younger.
Granted, I was away more than I was here for years, but I always remember my fathers being lighthearted.
A lot of laughing and jokes. Maybe they put on an act in front of the three of us.
“Do you plan to stay down here procrastinating?” Miriam asks, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Or are you going to go upstairs and help take care of your omega?”
The latter sounds more appealing by a mile.
If I had guessed what I expected to find when following my nose to the pack bedroom, I would have gotten it wrong. Cormac and Charlotte both lie on the end of the bed with their legs hanging off.
They’re also both nude.
Charlotte is mostly on her back, with her top half twisted toward Cormac as they kiss. Her bottom half is flat to the bed with her right leg tossed over Patrick’s shoulder, and his face buried in her cunt.
The door closes softly behind me, and I palm the bag with Charlotte’s prescription. Based on the scent of her perfume, it’s clear she’ll go into full-blown heat without it. There’s also no way I could hide it. She’d ask for it, and it would also be a shitty thing to do.
My instincts won’t shut the fuck up about biting and breeding her, and that’s why being an alpha is a pain in the ass. I would never prevent her from accessing her suppressants. That thought came solely from the decay.
Fuck me.
The urge to claim her so she can never get away is almost too strong, and the fact my canines ache isn’t any better of a sign. I should hand off her prescription to Cormac—since Patrick is clearly otherwise engaged—and get the hell out of here before I do something I can’t take back.
Charlotte begs against Cormac’s lips, the sound coming out mostly incoherent to my ears. Her pheromones burst in the air, along with the smell of her pussy.
My back falls against the door as I watch Patrick fingerfuck her through her orgasm. Her hand cradles Cormac’s cheek, and her tits bounce as she pulls back, writhing around the mattress.
The edges of my vision go hazy, like they do when the fog starts creeping in.
I shake my head, trying to force away the haze, but a dangerous growl rattles out of my chest. Thoughts of murdering my brothers so I can have Charlotte to myself filter through my addled mind, and I stretch a hand back, feeling around for the door handle.
I need to get out of here right fucking now.
Only, Charlotte gasps as her hazy eyes meet mine.
“Malachy.” A smile takes over her face, and she pulls her hand from Patrick’s hair, reaching it out to me.
Ahh, fuck.
This is so bad.
I couldn’t deny her anything.
“I’ve got your pills,” I say, shaking the bag.
Cormac and Patrick growl, but fuck them. They’ve been in here with Charlotte for at least an hour, maybe closer to two.
I cross the room with no game plan outside of spending some time with Charlotte. Apparently Cormac and Patrick are better at sharing than I am, but I’m surprised to see Pat is still in his jeans.
He finally pulls his face from her pussy, twisting to appraise me. The fucker has the audacity to lick his lips.
“Move,” I growl, barely holding myself back from kicking him out of the way. He doesn’t heed my advice fast enough, so I step around him, shove the pills into my back pocket, and scoop up my omega.
“He’s always been shit at sharing,” Patrick says with a laugh. “I thought it would get better with age, but apparently, that’s not the case.”
He should watch his mouth.
I might still kick him.
Charlotte smiles, wrapping her hand around the back of my neck as I cradle her to my chest like a bride. I really don’t want to detour to the nightstand to grab the bottle of water, but I do it anyway.
I’m sure she’ll want to take her pills as soon as possible.
I grab the water and rest it on Charlotte’s stomach, still trying to fight the fog that’s slipping in. Hell, I don’t even know where I’m headed as I stride to the door and out into the hallway.
“Malachy,” Charlotte hisses. “I’m naked.”
Like I could miss that fact.
Not fucking likely, when all I can smell is her cunt.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not going to let anyone see you,” I growl, beelining toward my bedroom.
I set Charlotte down on the counter in my bathroom, wishing I had cleaned up more thoroughly when I showered earlier.
I hand her the pills and the bottle of water before stripping out of my shirt and belt. By the sounds of it, she rips into the bag to access her medication.
“Is Lucky okay?”
“He’s playing with all the toys I put together. He’s having a grand time.” I kick out of my boots, peel myself out of my socks, stomp over to the shower, climb inside, and get it running.
The legs of my jeans end up in the spray of the water, which I would have thought about if my brain was functioning like it should.
All I can think about is rinsing Charlotte off so she won’t smell like my brothers, and I won’t have to bury them in shallow graves on the back of the property.
If I did that, we could never have a family dog. The risk would be too great that the mutt would dig up their sorry asses.
Climbing out of the shower, I work on getting myself out of my jeans. Tossing them in the same pile with my socks, I check on the omega.
She plants her hands on the counter and pushes herself down until her feet touch the floor. “Are we taking a shower?”
I nod, swallowing thickly.
She’s a fucking dream.
So much flawless skin on display.
Omegas are curvy by nature, and Charlotte is no exception. Her face and top half are slightly slimmer, while her stomach, hips, and thighs are softer and fuller.
The material of my underwear isn’t doing shit to hide my half-hard cock, and it’s only getting longer and thicker the more I study her.
Her hair falls around her breasts as she meets my gaze, and my dick jumps. “Are you going to marry that woman, because if you are—”
“Fuck no,” I growl. Erasing the distance between us, I pull her to me with my hand on her ass. “Absolutely fucking not.”
Her head tilts as her hand comes to rest on my chest. “Sometimes you say fuck, but others you say feck. Why is that?”
If I thought she was going to push me for more clarification about Vanessa, apparently I was dead wrong.
I bark a laugh, shaking my head. “I’ve lived here more years than I lived there. I more than likely would have lost my accent years ago, but most of the men have a thicker brogue than I do. I think that helps me keep it.”
“Huh.” She pats my chest, steps around me, and heads for the shower. “I’d take your boxer briefs off if you’re getting in.”
The creases that form under her ass cheeks are so damn sexy that my dick weeps.
Fecking Christ.
This woman is going to be the death of me.
Having Charlotte’s nude, wet body so close to mine makes it a battle to keep focused on the task at hand. My instincts seem to think I’m supposed to be rutting her into oblivion before sinking my teeth so deep into her soft flesh that she’ll never be able to get away.
I cradle her skull in my hand while supporting her lower back with the other. She trusts me to keep her upright as I lean her into the shower spray to rinse the conditioner from her long hair.
The state of my cock can’t be helped—it’s harder than it’s ever been, bumping her stomach with no shame. Not even the soap or shampoo and conditioner have been able to lessen the scent of her pheromones.
Her dark blonde lashes fan over her cheeks as she keeps her eyes closed to avoid any soap running into them, and I’m enamored by how comfortable she is with having me this close.
Even hearing the basics of what she went through with Lukas’s dad was enough to have me teetering dangerously close to the edge.
If he had been in the room with us, I would have slit his throat myself. I’m sure what she actually endured was much worse than the glossed-over version she gave us while explaining why she ran.
She’ll never have to live in fear again.
Not as long as I’m alive.
Now I just need to sweet-talk her into letting me bite her, figure out how we handle the Chapmans without starting a war, and wipe the Jacksonville Demons off the map for good.
So yeah, I can practically breathe easy. I’m sure all of that won’t be a clusterfuck at all.