Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
BEAU
H udson tosses his head back and laughs. Olivia rolls her eyes even as she stands.
“Hudson Pierce, that was just gross,” she says, though there’s no real fire in her voice.
This time, Caleb laughs, too, and Olivia smacks his chest.
“Do not encourage your brother,” she scolds, though she’s laughing, too, now. “He’s bad enough without any kind of encouragement.”
That only has Caleb laughing even harder, the kind that just grows and grows until you can’t even remember why you were laughing in the first place.
I can’t help but smile. It’s been such a stressful month, and I appreciate how thoroughly the worries have fallen off of all of us since getting out her to the shore of Jenny Lake earlier this morning.
“And on that note,” Olivia says, still smiling, “I’m going to go to sleep. I’ll see everyone in the morning. Hudson can sleep with one of his brothers.”
My brothers only laugh harder, doubling over in the low-lying camping chairs.
The girls all wave to Olivia as she passes and then ducks into the small tent she’s sharing with Hudson and Jonas.
She doesn’t even bother to turn on a flashlight, using the light of the dying fire.
I suppose most of us with young kids are pretty adept at functioning with little light.
The last thing I want at three in the morning is for Penny to fully wake up because I need to turn on the kitchen light to find the cup of water.
“Should we add another log?” Triston asks from his perch to my left.
We’re far enough back that the smoke isn’t blowing into our faces even with the light breeze that’s moving toward the lake.
Even still, he has Penny angled in his arms to keep her face away from the fire, the flow of the flames highlighting the curls of her hair and the fleece footed pajamas we put her in before sitting down to roast marshmallows a couple hours ago.
I look around those of us who are still awake.
None of the kids have made it this late, the youngest dropping off to sleep a while ago.
Iris and Rose lasted longer than Camden, but they still faded off to the small quartet of backpacking tents the Bennetts use half an hour ago.
Melissa and Faedra left about twenty minutes ago.
The Bennett Alphas didn’t last much longer once Faedra was asleep, either.
One of the remaining logs pops in the fire, sending a burst of sparks into the air. Ethan’s quick to stomp out the few that make it to the ground still alight.
“I think we’re all right,” Brielle murmurs.
Emily leans forward and grabs one of the remaining foil-wrapped s’mores from the coals of the fire, unwrapping it and eating it straight out of the foil without bothering with a plate or fork.
I palm her thigh, tracing small shapes along the seam of her jeans.
Ethan leans over the small gap between him and Brielle, kissing her cheek.
She smiles as he runs his thumb along her chin and jaw, tracing her phoenix tattoo.
“I’m going to turn in,” he murmurs.
Caleb pulls his attention away from Hudson, standing in almost the same timing as Ethan, responding to some unspoken emotion or desire in their bonds. Ethan eases Brielle to her feet.
“Come on, princess,” he whispers.
Hudson fades too after that, clapping my shoulder as he disappears into his tent.
“You’ve got the fire?” he asks.
I nod and wave him off to his family. “We’re good.”
Once everyone else is gone, Triston leans against me, resting his head on my shoulder.
I breathe in the night air, soaking in the swirling of Emily’s vanilla as it mixes with the smoke of the fire and the sugar undertones of the s’mores.
The fire crackles as it works through the last of the logs, the embers glowing a bright orange that doesn’t diminish the strength of the stars.
There’s even more than our home, and I slowly trace a few that I recognize that aren’t blocked by the smattering of clouds.
Triston presses his lips to my shoulder, letting his lips brush slowly over my flannel.
I’m hard in an instant, ready to have him and Emily both out here.
I don’t move, though, knowing Penny’s in his arms and accidentally waking her now will ruin the entire night’s chances and not just the next half hour.
“I, uh, wanted to… ask you something.”
Emily looks over at Triston, frowning. “What is it?”
He sits up and twists, his gaze flitting between the two us.
His fingers twist through Penny’s curls and down her neck, the same we do with him late at night as we’re falling asleep.
Affection fills me, and I lean over far enough to kiss him.
His lips are soft and pliant, the faint sweetness of the chocolate he’d eaten a while ago still clinging to them.
His breath shudders out of him, and I smile against his lips before pulling away. His eyes are blown out, even wider than the low light dictates, and my dick twitches again. Emily palms my knee, and I force myself away from him.
“I’d like to adopt her,” he says after a minute.
That affection roots deeper. It’s on the tip of my tongue to say yes, to agree without a care in the world. Of course he can adopt his own daughter.
Before I can, though, he continues, “I… I looked into it this week. The Council has really specific rules around pack adoptions.”
Emily frowns. “Beau and I aren’t registered.”
Someone else might be offended over that, but I’m not bothered.
Not being an Omega, there wasn’t any reason to register our relationship with the Council.
And we hadn’t felt the need to get married, either, despite some in the town grumbling.
Now, with Triston back and wanting to be with us, I’m grateful we didn’t succumb to the outside pressure.
Nothing says messy like having to get a divorce so you can become a trio.
“I know.” Triston’s throat ripples. “The thing is… in order for me to be able to adopt her, we’d have to submit the paperwork to register as a pack. Because I’m an Omega. They won’t process the paperwork if we declare we’re together without the designation.”
Silence falls between the three of us. I don’t dare break it, knowing there’s something in the sudden rush of Emily’s vanilla scent that’s communicating her thoughts more effectively than any words ever could. Triston swallows again and then looks down at Penny, his hands trembling.
“We don’t have to decide anything right now,” he says. “I just wanted to bring it up to you both so you could think about it. Maybe go to the rodeo in Billings and see if you want to stomach all of that for the next couple years.”
“All right,” Emily says.
Her voice has that same vulnerable instability as when she told me she was pregnant.
Her scent lashes out from her again, and Triston whines.
She sucks in a deep breath and then stands.
She drops the foil into one of the small bags of trash and takes the entire thing to the bear-proof trash can next to the cars.
Then she rinses her hands with some of the water from the lake we put in a large jug.
Her scent has faded by the time she comes back to us.
She crouches in front of Triston. His eyes are bright, that fragile, desperate edge back to his movements.
Her hands are gentle as she cups his face, running her thumbs along his cheeks and then his ears and his throat.
She doesn’t pull away until that quivering restlessness fades from him and he breathes without it sounding like he’s a heartbeat away from crying in earnest. Then she leans forward and kisses him, soft and sweet and simple.
“I’m going to get Penny into the tent,” she whispers.
He wordlessly hands her off. She turns to me, and I kiss her.
“Good night,” I say against her lips.
When she turns back to Triston, he grabs her hand and runs his thumb along the inside of her wrist.
“Good night.” His voice is stronger than his movements, low and thick with emotion that has me wanting to lay him out beside the dying fire, wring an orgasm from him, and then watch the clouds move over the stars together.
“Good night, Omega,” she murmurs.
She walks behind us and into the tent we’re sharing.
Once it’s just the two of us, I palm the nape of his neck and pull him into me, needing to etch myself on his bones so he doesn’t get stuck in his head over Emily’s fears roaring up.
He sinks into me, twisting his hands into my shirt.
The kiss deepens, burns hot enough to out burn the coals near us.
“Triston,” I mutter, husky and desperate.
He nods, understanding just like he always did. I bite his lip.
And then I lay him out exactly how I imagined, soaking in his moans and breathing in his gasps as I fuck him.