Chapter 26 Sofia
Sofia
Ilay in Mack’s warm embrace, not quite awake and not quite asleep. I shift and throw my thigh over his hip and press my face against his chest. His big hand strokes up and down my back in a way that is both soothing and arousing.
“So, building things just felt right. It’s what Dad did, and Mum worked the business with them.”
I hum and turn my face into his side, nuzzling his chest as I start to wake up.
“I do love it, though,” Mack says. “Plus, I get to work on lots of different projects, and I get to help people out. I think that’s the best part for me.”
He slides one of those magic hands down my spine and pulls me close for a minute before letting me go.
“We all need to go back to work tomorrow, though.”
I let out a hiss and bite his nipple.
“I’m not going to melt if you aren’t around,” I say, pulling myself out of my sleepy state. “But I will miss you.”
“I know that; I just hate to leave you alone after your heat,” Mack says as his hand drifts possessively over my ass.
“It’s biological; I’ll be fine. Besides, it’s not my first heat.”
Mack huffs. “I know that; I just want to take care of you.”
I roll onto his body and drag myself up his chest until I can brush my nose across his. “You are taking care of me.”
“There’s always a little bit more we can do, though.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he murmurs, pressing little kisses to my face. “Massage. I could force Elijah to bake you a cake. Take you shopping. Anything you want.”
“I’m more relaxed than I’ve ever been. I don’t need a cake or clothes. But I do need to go get my puppy.”
Mack sits us up and kisses the curve of my breast. “I have to share you with the world, then?” He pulls an adorably sad face that makes me laugh.
“Yeah, just a little bit.”
He rolls us, slamming me to the mattress. “I don’t want to share you,” he pouts.
I giggle as he attacks my neck, kissing and sucking.
Elijah walks in. “Your mother just called. Apparently, a friend from the city left a message. An omega named Giselle. She’s been trying to contact you.”
My fingers curl into Mack, and I go completely and utterly still.
“They rang my mum?” I ask sharply.
“Yeah. Do you want bacon with your pancakes or fruit and cream?” Elijah walks out of the room.
Mack stares down at me. “You want to talk about it?”
I force a smile. “About what? An old friend? No, we don’t need to talk about it.” I lean up and kiss him, willing him to forget. “Come and have breakfast, and then let’s go get my baby.”
“There’s no distracting you,” he groans.
I slide out from under him and walk around the nest, finding my clothes, only to have him pass a bag to me.
He’s utterly uncaring of his nakedness and very appreciative of mine.
I duck into the bathroom and shower quickly. Mack slides in with me and silently takes the soap. He’s meticulous as he washes me, and though I get aroused, it’s a deep, slumberous feeling that is nice to let simmer.
We get out, and before I can even reach, he grabs a fluffy towel and gently dries me all over.
“You’re taking this very seriously, Mack,” I tease.
“Of course, I am. I need to make an impression. Besides, Elijah took care of you during the heat.”
“Did he? An Impression? On me?”
“Yes, because I like you so much. And, yes, he did. He was dedicated.”
I try to hide how much that means to me. The alphas from my last heats hadn’t really cared about making sure I ate or drank. If I go too bad that’s what IVs were for.
“I like you, too, Mack,” I say, and I mean it.
He opens the bag and pulls out a light blue lace bra and, to my utter astonishment, he puts it on me.
My underwear goes next, made of blue lace, just as delicate.
After that, he pulls out a pair of white jean shorts and pulls them up, slowly stroking his hands up over my thighs. He takes the last item and stands up.
“Arms up, gorgeous.”
I lift my arms, and he carefully pulls the material down. It’s tight around my breasts with thin straps, but the material flows out around me, swinging.
“This is beautiful.”
“Yes.”
“Whose is it?” I ask hesitantly.
“It belongs to you.”
“How can it belong to me?”
“Well, I went out and bought it for you,” Mack says and kisses me hard.
My mind gets all melty, and I lean into him. “You spoil me.”
He grabs my hand and tugs me downstairs and into the kitchen where I’m sat in a chair. A plate of pancakes is placed in front of me. There are six chairs at the table, but despite the semi-rustic charm of the kitchen, every appliance is top of the range and matte black.
“Eat,” Elijah purrs and sits, leaning on his hand and staring at me.
I eat slowly with the complete and mildly unnerving attention of both alphas, but it's easy to forget them when the food is this good.
“You’re going to get sick of looking at me. I don’t do tricks.”
Elijah snickers. “You don’t need to.”
I roll my eyes, but I’m secretly pleased.
“Tell me about what we’re going to be doing today, then?”
I hum and look at them. I don’t know what causes the panic, but I think it’s the lack of panic. It all just seems too real, too fast, and my mind flashes to the Collins pack and their smooth words and how they said all the right things.
“Actually, I was thinking I’d like to spend the day with my family.” The words tumble out of me, and I wish I could take them back.
Elijah looks down at his plate. “Of course. Absolutely, that’s fine. We can-”
“No,” I say quickly, hating myself. “Actually, I wanted to just spend the next couple of days with my family. Before the Valentine’s event. It would just be nice to, umm…” I trail off, suddenly aware of how much I’ve upset them.
The urge to cry is almost unstoppable.
The silence is heavy, no one speaks into it. No one wants to break it.
Mack forces a smile. “Sure, we can take you home.”
“Oh, I can walk-”
“We’ll take you home,” Mack says with finality.
Elijah gets up and stands there not looking at me. “I, uh, have work tonight, so I won’t be able to take you home. But have a good day, and yeah…” he looks at me helplessly, and I can see he’s struggling to figure out the appropriate thing to say.
I want to argue with him, stop him from worrying about the words, fix the hurt that’s bleeding into the room.
Instead, I harden myself and double down.
“Okay. Thank you for helping me with my heat.”
Elijah rocks back like I’ve hit him. I clench my hand on my thigh hard enough so the nails bite into my palms.
“Okay,” Elijah says and jerks his head in a nod and slinks out of the room.
Mack takes my plate to the sink and then gestures to the door. “Ready to go?”
I look to where Elijah disappeared and nod, ignoring my pain. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”
We get in the car and drive, but he abruptly pulls off, going down a back road that leads up to the top of the hill.
“Are you kidnapping me now, Mack?”
“Ha ha, very funny. No, we need to talk.”
He parks the car and undoes his seatbelt, turning so he can look at me.
If I were with anyone else, I would be scared.
“Do you want to tell me what happened?”
I shake my head.
“All right, then you should probably just listen. If you want us, you should know a couple of things about us.”
I stare out at the blue ocean. There are a few clouds that leave the water looking black in places. It goes on forever.
“When my parents died, and I left Sunshine, I lost all my friends and family but my uncle, and he was not equipped to raise a child. He tried his best, but he wasn’t good at it.
Being a parent wasn’t something he wanted, but he was too honourable to just allow me to go with anyone who wasn’t family. ”
“Where are you going with this?” I ask defensively.
He smiles ruefully. “Going there and the abrupt change in everything I knew took forever to get used to, and it wasn’t a good change for me. I mean, I learned things, I got stronger, but it was like wearing an ill-fitting shoe.”
I stare out at the blue with my whole self falling, feeling seen. The sadness and loneliness, those hard and hungry days. The nights I sat there wishing I could just pick up the phone, damn my pride, and call for help.
I shift in the seat, trying to cover it all up, hide all my feelings away.
“You don’t have to say a word about what it was like; I can see it on your face. You are as easy to read now as you were back then. I understand you, Sofia.”
I resolutely say nothing.
“Elijah has also felt that feeling, except he lived with it for most of his life. Being here is the strange new world for him. Devon is similar. His family were not the ones who embraced him; that was yours. He always felt like he was outside watching in.”
“Mack,” it’s a plea for him to stop.
“We understand you, Secret. We do. We get it.”
I shake my head and erect more walls and boundaries. “I’m not saying no, I’m saying I need time. A couple of days.”
“Of course, and we will give it to you,” he says easily.
“Just like that?”
“Of course, just like that. Why wouldn’t we? Did you think we’d force you to be with us? Sofia, no one will ever force you to do anything, least of all us. We want you to want to be with us.”
He puts his seatbelt on and starts the SUV.
I sit quietly, thinking about his words, until he pulls up in front of my mother’s house.
Before I can say anything, he gets out of the car, comes around to my side, opens the door, and helps me out.
He doesn’t step back like I expect he will, just stands there staring down at me.
“We’re going to miss you.”
I look up at him, my throat tight. “I just need to sort some things out, then we can talk.”
“Anything you need, Sofia.”
He ducks down and kisses me. I fall into it, unable to resist him, not wanting to. But then, all too soon, he gets back in his SUV and drives away. I just stand there staring at the spot where he left, hating my life choices and what got me to this point.
I turn and walk into the house.
“Danger?”
The explosion of tiny barks gets louder and louder until he’s flying down the hallway towards me.
“It’s only been forever,” I whisper as I pick him up and hold his wiggling body to my chest. “I missed you, too.”
When I look up, Mum is leaning against the door frame with a coffee cup held in both hands.
“Come and have a cup.”
It’s not a request.
I follow her into the kitchen and take a seat.
“It’s time to talk.”
I know it is, I just don’t know how to tell her.