27. Twenty-Six
Twenty-Six
Ridge
The moment Cozette runs back inside, crying her eyes out, I feel like an absolute ass. I glance over at the alpha she walked out with, panting and wiping my split lip with the back of my hand. He glares at me, his fists clenching, and I raise a brow at him.
“I should pummel you into the ground right here, right now, for doing this with her around to see. I told her if any of you made her cry, I couldn’t promise not to break bones, and godsdamn, do I want to break your bones right now for what you’ve done. But my omega needs me, and she’s far more important than sitting out here fighting with you. Unfortunately for me, she fucking likes the three of you. Get your shit together and figure out if you can handle being with her if I’m around, because I’m not going anywhere unless she tells me to.”
Before I can say a word, he spins and stomps off back into my parent’s house, the other alpha that walked out with them looking at me with a frown and sighing before he follows. When I turn around and look at everyone, there’s a mixture of disappointment and frustration on everyone’s faces, and I flinch when I catch sight of my mother’s furious glare.
“Well, that just went swimmingly, didn’t it?” she asks sarcastically, shaking her head as she puts her hands on her hips.
“Ma! You heard all of that, right? He stalked Ripley for that psycho of an alpha, for fuck’s sake!” I growl out and her eyes narrow.
“Don’t you dare growl at me, young man! I didn’t need to hear all of that. Cozy told me everything herself before I had to call him to come take care of her for her heat! And yet, he was man enough to walk over here to your sister’s pack and apologize, despite the hostility.”
“So that absolves him of it all? Gods knows what the fuck else he’s done that none of us knows about!”
My mother’s disappointed sigh is like a shard of glass stabbing directly into my heart, and I can’t help but flinch.
“You don’t get it, son. That man may have done some bad things in his life, but anyone with eyes can see how completely devoted to Cozette he is. He saw her at her lowest, watched her be abused repeatedly, and tended to her wounds behind the back of the man he was supposed to be working for. All for her .”
She huffs, her gaze sweeping over each one of us, and a sense of nostalgia washes over me as I feel like a child being reprimanded once more.
“I want each of you that have an issue with that man to think for a second about how that would feel for you. To have to watch the person you feel so strongly for be beaten and abused, humiliated and treated less than a dog. River, sweetheart, I love you, and I get your anger, but I know you remember how you felt when Victor took Ripley. How agonizing it was for you to not know where she was and if she was okay. So put yourself in Jeremiah’s shoes and think of everything you know of what Cozy went through and ask yourself if you wouldn’t do terrible things to save my daughter, no matter the consequences.”
When she looks back at me, she has tears in her eyes as she shakes her head, and that only makes me feel worse. Throughout my life, I have never seen my mother cry because of my actions, and the weight of realizing that I’m responsible for those tears now is unpleasant.
“That poor girl was terrified of every one of you for the longest. It took so much for her to reach the point of being comfortable around any of you. And if none of you can see how comfortable, protected, and cherished Jeremiah makes her feel, then I don’t know what to tell you. I’m so disappointed in you for this. Today was supposed to be about her and helping to put her fears to rest. She was already so scared about how you three would react to her having other alphas, afraid you’d all change your minds about her. And to be honest, I think you just validated all the worries she had.”
Before I can even think of what to say back to her, she walks away and goes inside. I glance at my dads, running my fingers through my hair as I blow out a breath.
“Did you all know?”
They nod, and I sigh, closing my eyes. Did I completely fuck this up? I let my anger get the best of me, and in turn, I hurt the omega that’s supposed to be mine. Ours .
This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
“Your mother told us after he got here, and we spoke with him ourselves when he came down once for food and water for them all. He’s not so bad, and he’s hopelessly in love with Cozy, which was all we needed to see to let go of any resentment we could have held over what he almost did. Try to remember that, son. Don’t persecute him for something he ended up not even being responsible for,” Pops says before him, Dad, and Papa follow Ma inside, leaving me standing there feeling like a complete piece of shit.
“This is a disaster,” Ripley cries, sniffling in River’s hold.
“I’m sorry, Little Bird. I didn’t mean to ruin Cozy’s day. I just— I was surprised, and suddenly flashed back to that night at the carnival. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I-I meant to, I swear. But so much has been going on, and since my abduction you’ve all been hypervigilant and anxious in the bond, so I thought I’d just wait until things calmed down so I could break it to you all. But then I just forgot until Ma called and told me he was here because Cozy had gone into an unexpected heat, and I couldn’t figure out how to tell you…” Ripley trails off, pouting up at her omega before sighing and wiping her face with a sniffle.
“My parents are right, though. He really isn’t that bad, and he makes her happy. The way she talks about him, the way she is when he’s with her. It’s just like I am with all of you.”
When she glances back at me, a wave of isolation washes over me. Without Manny or Zeke by my side, I’m left clueless about their perspectives on all of this. Neither of them has said a word yet, and neither is standing with me, which has a pit opening in my gut.
“They’re bonded through pain, and for a long time, he was her only light in a very dark place. If you can’t get past her loving Jeremiah when I can, then you need to leave her alone. Don’t give her false hope if you can’t accept him, too. It’s not fair to her, and even though I know he’d protect her with his dying breath, I’ll step in to stop you before you can send her back to that dark place inside her mind,” my baby sister growls at me, a frown marring her lips.
“I—” I’m cut off by Manny when he comes to my side and grips my shoulder tightly, his body tense and his jaw clenched as he looks at my sister.
“We don’t want to hurt her, baby sister. We’ll fix this, I promise. If she loves him, then that’s all that matters. Isn’t that right, hermano ?”
As he utters the Spanish word for ‘brother’, his clenched teeth add an edge to his words, and I can’t help but react to the tension in his eyes that seems to penetrate my very being. When Zeke joins us on my other side, I clear my throat and notice an unfamiliar expression on his face, one that I’ve never seen before in all the years we’ve known each other. His lips are pressed together tightly, his eyes refusing to meet mine, and I can feel a lump forming in my throat as I try to swallow.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath.
“If she trusts him, loves him, then I guess I’ll have to give him a chance to prove me wrong.”
Ripley smiles and leans her head against River’s chest.
“Good. Then go fix this mess so they can get back out here and everyone can get to know Micah and Jeremiah. If she doesn’t come back out with a smile on her face, I’m kicking you in the balls,” she huffs, narrowing her eyes, and I know she means it, which makes me wince at just the thought.
With me leading the way, my brothers and I make our way inside. As we enter the kitchen, Ma and my dads turn their heads to look at us. Letting out a sigh, I approach Ma and plant a loving kiss on her soft cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not me you should be apologizing to, sweetie.”
I nod and say, “I know. I’ll fix this. I promise.”
We leave them in the kitchen and ascend the stairs, the sound of our footsteps echoing through the otherwise empty house. As we reach Ripley’s old room, I notice that the door is slightly ajar, but the absence of any sound makes me tread carefully. Cautiously, I push the door open, my entrance into the room deliberate and unhurried. As soon as I step inside, I can’t help but to breathe in deeply, inhaling Cozy’s familiar scent that’s become embedded in every area of the room. Her bed is a chaotic mess, overflowing with pillows and stuffed animals, and the image of her sleeping there, buried beneath it all, brings an unbidden smile to my face.
I search the room, but there’s no sign of her or the two alphas in the room. When I glance towards her closet, I notice that the door is wide open, their scents strongest there. Looking inside, my eyes are drawn to the door at the very back, triggering memories of Ma’s words about the special nest Dad built for Cozy. I approach the closed door and gently tap on it, and when it opens, the resonating sound of Cozette’s sorrowful cries fills the space, momentarily diverting my attention from the intimidating man glaring at me.
She’s in the most impressive nest I’ve ever seen, so packed full of clothes and blankets that it’s practically a fort. Micah holds her tightly in his arms, murmuring calming words as she curls into a protective ball. Despite his efforts to ease her, her sobbing persists. With each passing moment, her cries grow louder, her small body shaking with visible tremors, her flawless face now a deep shade of red, stained by the trails of her tears, and I can’t help but feel a sharp pain in my chest. The need to force my way inside and pull her into my arms so I can apologize and take away her hurt is impossibly hard to ignore, but going inside without her permission would only make things worse.
I can feel my brothers’ discomfort at my back, and I know it’s just as hard for them not to barge through the opening to get to her, her cries distressing to us all and like a rusted knife to the heart. Eventually, I pull my eyes from the sight of the omega that my instincts scream is mine and look at Jeremiah.
“I suppose you won’t be the only one apologizing today,” I sigh, running my fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have attacked you, I just…” I pause, blowing out a breath. “There’s no excuse, really. I let my anger get the best of me and I hurt her with my actions, which is something I never want to do.”
The longer his piercing gaze lingers on me, the more my chest tightens in response to Cozy’s incessant cries. Finally, he lets out a long sigh, his face easing into a relaxed expression as he shakes his head.
“Get the fuck in here and fix what you broke or I can’t promise you won’t walk out of here with something of yours broken to make shit even,” he rumbles out, and he doesn’t have to tell me twice.
I visibly deflate and climb inside after kicking my shoes off, dropping to my knees the minute my feet touch the foam floor. I crawl to where she is until I’m at her front, and then I lay myself out until we’re face to face, laying my head on my arm as I let my eyes take stock of the damage I caused.
Tears cascade down her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose, falling onto the blanket beneath her. She hiccups when she sees me, her lower lip trembling as even more tears escape, each one breaking a piece of my heart. The mingling scents of her own fragrance, as well as Micah and Jeremiah’s, fill the surrounding air, and what surprises me most is how… at ease their scents make me feel, despite not knowing them.
“Cozy?” I whisper, and she turns her face until it’s buried in the blanket clutched in her hands, making my throat constrict.
“You’re killing me here, Smalls. Please look at me. I can’t stand that I’ve made you cry. It’s breakin’ my heart, B eautiful.”
“I-I’m n-not s-small!” she hiccups out, turning to narrow her glassy eyes on me and making me smile, which seems to aggravate her even more as she growls through clenched teeth.
“There she is,” I murmur, slowly reaching my free hand out to cup her cheek, swallowing around the lump in my throat when she flinches.
My initial instinct is to withdraw my hand, but her throat emits a distinct sound, causing me to reconsider. I gently place it back and proceed to tenderly wipe away the tears that have left trails on her lovely, freckled cheeks using my thumb.
“I’m so sorry, Cozy. I wasn’t thinking, and I let my anger get the best of me. I’m already screwing this up with you, and we’ve barely even started.”
My eyes flick all over her face, memorizing the way she looks right now so that I never make the same mistake again. I don’t ever want to be the cause of her tears, of her pain.
Slowly, her tears stop flowing, her eyes puffy and red, and she sniffles, wiping her nose on the blanket with a grimace.
“I understand if you’ve all changed your minds. If you-if you don’t think you can-,” I place my hand over her lips, stopping her from going any further with a shake of my head when her eyes fly up to mine.
“We haven’t changed our minds. If you trust him, then we’ll learn to trust him too. In fact,” I pause, glancing over at the door where Zeke and Manny are still standing, unsure of whether they should come in or not. “We’d like it if you’d come stay with us. All of you,” I say, glancing at Micah at her back and then at Jeremiah, who’s still standing guard at the door.
I didn’t exactly run this by the guys, but I can feel their support and anticipation building as we all wait. We need her to say yes. For all of them to say yes. If they all come stay with us, we’ll have more opportunities to bond and build stronger connections. It’ll also show us if we can function as a cohesive unit, with no barriers or divisions among us. If Micah and Jeremiah are hers, that means they’ll become family and my brothers, just like Zeke and Manny.
When tears well back up in her pretty blue eyes, my breath halts in my lungs as I scramble closer to her, pulling her into my arms on instinct and letting loose a purr to rival all purrs to stop the tears because I can’t take it anymore. She relaxes against me, her hands tucked between us and clutching my shirt in her fists.
Fuck, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
“I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d be good for us all to-to get to know each other easier, spend time together.”
“Are you asking us to move in with you?”
Her voice comes out muffled since her face is pressed against my chest and I can’t help but chuckle, kissing the top of her head.
“Pretty much, Pretty Girl. I think it’d help us all,” I murmur to her, burying my nose in her hair and breathing her in.
“You’re sure?”
“Positive. We have plenty of room for everyone, and there’s a special nest we built a few years ago when we were building the house that I think you’d love. It’s actually not inside the house, but in its own separate space. You can decorate it however you want or bring your things from here with you. It’s a blank canvas inside, and I, for one, would love nothing more than to see it finally made up with an omega’s touch.”
She pulls back slightly and peeks up at me, nibbling on her bottom lip and looking ridiculously adorable despite her tear streaked cheeks and red nose and eyes.
“Do you have a picture?” she asks, her voice soft and slightly hoarse from her crying.
I nod and dig into my back pocket for my phone, pulling it around and opening my pictures. Since I only documented it after its completion, I have to scroll through several years of photos to find one. It’s sat untouched since the moment it was finished, untouched by any of us. We never even let Elise in there, not that she seemed too impressed by it when we pointed it out to her the one and only time she came to our house.
Will Cozy like it? Will she like the home we built with her in mind?
Finally, I find them and eagerly turn the phone for her to see, handing it over. Her reaction is immediate as she lays eyes on the picture, letting out a gasp and wriggling in my grasp. She sits up on her knees, swiftly swiping through the pictures with wide, sparkling eyes.
“This is… beautiful,” she breathes out, hands shaking. “The ceiling is like a giant skylight. Oh, it’s so lovely. You built this?”
Connected by a meandering stepping stone walkway, the nest door is guarded by a grand tower structure on the right side of the house. It’s constructed entirely from oak, untouched by paint and left in its raw, natural form. Surrounding it, flower beds encircle the ground, with a multitude of bright flowers my mother helped us plant. Inside, there’s a small entryway and a wide, winding staircase that leads up to the nesting area. Behind the stairs, there’s a small kitchenette with a mid-sized refrigerator, a sink, and enough counter space for a toaster oven to heat up food during heats. The stairs lead up to the nest, where a simple, foam-covered floor dominates the majority of the area. A decently sized bathroom, featuring a walk-in shower, is conveniently located to the right. When you’re inside, the vaulted ceiling, reminiscent of a tower, is mostly composed of thick glass, offering uninterrupted views of the sky.
After seeing the way her room here is decorated, I can’t help but think it’s fate that we built the nest the way we did. I don’t even remember what gave us the idea to build the nest in an entirely separate building, to give it the look of a tower or lighthouse, depending on who’s looking at it. I just remember feeling incredibly proud of the structure once it was complete and how optimistic I was that our future omega would love it.
“We all did. We saw it as an opportunity to strengthen our bond as a pack, and since we knew the nest needed to be perfect, we handled it ourselves to guarantee perfection. We built the house, too, though we did have help with that to get it up faster. The fact that Manny owns his own construction company made the project a lot more feasible.”
I sit up, and her hand drops to her lap as she looks at me. Her hair is a mess and her face is splotchy, nose and eyes red, but she’s still so beautiful that it hurts. My heart is in my throat as I wait to see what she’ll decide. If she’ll give this an honest chance and come stay with us.
She glances over at Micah and then Jeremiah, nibbling on her lip.
“What do you think?” she asks them, showing me how important they are to her.
“Wherever you go, I follow, Dove. It’s up to you,” Jeremiah tells her, his features softening as he looks down at her with a soft smile.
“It’s not a bad idea, and it might help you feel more secure with us all around so you don’t have the chance to keep second guessing anyone’s intentions. I’m with Jeremiah. Where you go, I’ll follow, Firefly.”
She looks over at the door where Manny and Zeke are still standing outside, shifting on their feet.
“Okay,” she murmurs, and I can’t stop myself from reaching forward and grabbing her, pulling her into my chest and gripping her cheeks.
Before I do what I’ve been craving to do since the moment I laid eyes on her, I let her see my intentions in my eyes so she can pull away if she wants to. When she doesn’t, I crash my lips to hers and groan at how soft they feel against mine. She whimpers when I let my tongue slip out and run across the seam of her lips before nipping that bottom lip she’s been abusing and pulling back with a smile.
I watch as a blush colors her cheeks, which brings a lighthearted chuckle from me. But when she smiles back, it’s as if all the pieces of my life finally click into place.
I can’t wait to take her home with us.