Chapter 16
CLAIRE
I’m standing in the Alphas’ living room, arms wrapped around myself, shaking, while Jakob is waking Corey and Brody.
The lights are on. Bright, harsh, too much for three a.m. Damien pads in from the hallway, one ear flat, fur creased on his side, and trills at me with the indignant confusion of a cat whose household has gone insane at an unreasonable hour.
I scoop him up, and he melts into my arms instantly, his massive head burrowing into my neck, and a purr starts in his chest that travels through my rib cage and settles my pulse by a fraction.
“You’re the only one not trying to kill me tonight,” I whisper into his fur teasingly.
He chirps, so I hold him tighter. He smells of clean fur and powder. I love the smell of cats.
Footsteps down the hallway, then Corey appears first, filling the living room doorway, wearing gray sweatpants and nothing else.
Bare chest, bare feet, his dark hair messy from sleep, and the muscles across his stomach and shoulders are on full display in the overhead light.
My heart is drumming against my rib cage, my gaze having a field day with taking in all of him, especially how little those pants are concealing.
His mocha-brown eyes sharpen in my direction, then soften when he scans me clutching Damien in the middle of his living room.
Brody is behind him. Black sweatpants, a crinkled white T-shirt, pulled on inside out, the tag visible at his collar. I can’t help but smirk. He shoves his hair off his face, but it keeps falling forward.
Jakob follows them. He must have given them the short version because their expressions tell me they already know something. Corey’s jaw is tight, his fingers cracking against his palm. Brody remains still, the performance mask gone.
“Your shirt’s inside out and backwards,” Jakob states, slapping a hand to Brody’s shoulder as he passes them, approaching me.
Brody glances down as if he’s only just remembered he’s wearing a shirt, then drags it over his head with a sleepy, irritated grunt.
For one reckless second, all I see is bare chest, hard muscle, the sharp V at his hips, and sweatpants hanging so dangerously low that they reveal a tempting patch of dark hair disappearing under the waistband.
Then he tugs the shirt back on the right way, and I force my eyes up like I haven’t just gawked at every inch of him.
Brody’s gaze cuts to me, the last of the sleep vanishing from his face. “Hey, gorgeous.” His voice is rough as he comes in closer and hugs me and Damien at once. It’s so intimate, his body still warm from sleep. “Jakob gave us the short version. Are you okay?”
The question nearly undoes me, and we break apart just as Damien leaps from my arms to the end table beside me. “Yeah, thank God he was there.”
Corey’s already crossing the room, dragging me into a bear hug too. I’m swallowed by how huge he is, and I melt against him. “So sorry that happened. That little fuckwit is going to be sorry when we get hold of him, but for now, as long as you’re okay…”
I glance up, blinking, as he stares down at me. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
“You’re safe here,” Brody explains, still close to me, as is Corey, and then Jakob steps in too.
They’re all so tall compared to me, so overwhelming and magnetic that some reckless part of me wants to be trapped between them until there’s no world left beyond heat and muscle and the brutal promise of protection. “You know that, right?”
I nod as my throat tightens.
Corey drops onto the arm of the couch, one foot bouncing against the floor. “So. Louis broke into your place, and now he’s loose.” He’s shaking his head.
“He’s a fucking asshole,” Brody pipes in.
“That’s the summary, yeah,” Jakob says, leaning against the wall.
“Brilliant. Love that for us.” Corey’s voice is dry, but his eyes are lethal. “What are we doing about it?”
“We report him,” Brody says. “Breaking and entering. He had a weapon.”
“And he files assault charges against Jakob for the broken face and the tree situation. Which, by the way, nice work. Very artistic.”
Jakob is grinning, and I smile, thankful for his help but still shaking in my shoes from the whole ordeal.
They’re talking across me. Around me. The way men do when they’re solving a problem, except this time I don’t feel like the problem.
Brody keeps glancing at me between sentences, his gaze traveling from my face to my hands to the tremble I can’t hide.
Corey is doing it too, in his way. Quick side-glances.
His foot bouncing faster whenever my breathing catches.
And Jakob hasn’t stopped watching me since we left my place.
They’re not going to let me out of their sights, and I welcome it.
Louis fucking terrified me tonight… What the fuck is his problem?
“What about security?” I ask, because I need to say something or I’ll dissolve. “I think I may need to turn my place into Fort Knox.”
“Already ahead of you.” Corey straightens. “Cameras on every entry point. Motion sensors along the perimeter. Alerts that go straight to our phones if anyone gets within ten feet of your doors or windows.”
“We’ve dealt with this before,” Brody adds. “Fans who took the obsession too far. We know how to lock a property down.”
“Shit, that’s scary,” I admit. “I’ve got enough savings to do the whole thing.”
“You’re not paying,” Jakob adds.
“But—”
“You’re one of us, and that’s not up for debate. We protect what’s ours.”
I can’t miss the possessive edge in his voice, and my stomach flips because I’ve never had anyone look out for me this way. Despite the fear, Louis, and the fact that I’m trembling and exhausted and still processing the reality that my ex-fiancé came to my house at two a.m. with rope and a knife.
“He’s right,” Brody adds, his hand finding my face, fingers pushing hair behind my ear, his touch gentle enough to close my throat. “This isn’t a favor. It’s how it is now. We need you safe, and that’s the priority.”
Damien stretches along the end table beside me, then headbutts my arm as if he’s confirming what Brody just said.
The small brush of fur makes me glance over, but my attention snags on Jakob instead.
On the way his smirk softens for half a second when Damien blinks those golden eyes up at him, then yawns, showing every one of his tiny perfect teeth.
Something about seeing all that hard Alpha intensity melt for a cat has me grinning.
“He agrees,” Jakob says. “So it’s four against one.”
Brody’s mouth curves beside me. “Smart cat.”
“Bossy cat,” Corey mutters.
Damien headbutts me again.
“Hey, I get it. I’m outnumbered,” I tease.
“Okay, then,” Corey says, standing, cracking his knuckles.
“Tomorrow, Brody and Jakob handle the security install. And, Claire, I’m taking you out.
Somewhere far from all of this. Just a change of scenery, and no pressure.
But it will be an overnight thing, so pack extremely light, and something comfortable, as there might be some hiking involved. ”
“Oh, I haven’t been to the gym in years, so I might die.” I laugh. “And you don’t have to—”
“I want to. And you’ll be with me, so nobody’s getting close. I guarantee it. Besides, we need some alone time.”
“Is that so?” I say, feeling incredibly safe in their presence, which is insane considering how we came together in the first place.
He gives me that melt-my-panties smirk where I stand no chance, and I laugh. “Fine, deal.”
Brody struts toward the kitchen. “We’re up. Might as well eat. I’m making grilled cheese for everyone.”
“Thank fuck,” Corey mutters, following.
“I’m starving,” Jakob adds, going to join them in the open kitchen. I turn to face them, the island counter with Damien stretched across it between me and them.
Every muscle in my body unclenches by a fraction, but the relief twists into an inferno. My instincts are trapped in a room with three compatible Alpha scents, and the effect is brutal. Explosive. Wrong in the wake of fear, but so undeniable that it steals the air from my lungs.
My body doesn’t care that Louis broke into my house. It doesn’t care that I should be shaken, trembling, thinking clearly.
It only knows Brody’s heat, Jakob’s solid presence at my side, Corey’s restless, lethal energy too close to ignore.
It knows safety and hunger.
And it screams for me to press myself into the dark, overwhelming circle of them until their scents are on my skin, in my hair, buried so deep in my lungs there’s no room left for fear. Just the terrifying, primal ache for these three Alphas.
Brody pulls out a cast-iron skillet, butter, thick-cut bread, and three types of cheese.
He moves through his kitchen the way he moves through his videos, confident and completely in his element.
Corey opens a tin of tuna and forks a portion into a clean dish for Damien.
The cat abandons lazing about without a backward glance and buries his face in the bowl.
Jakob is leaning against the counter beside me now, arms folded, and his shoulder brushes mine whenever one of us shifts.
Every point of contact sends a current through my skin that I’m trying to ignore and failing.
It doesn’t help that my mind keeps dragging me back to his mouth on me, to the way I let him draw pleasure from me like he owned the right to it, to the wild, breathless tangle of us when we turned greedy together in a way I’ve never done with anyone before.
Heat buzzes under my skin just thinking about it, and Jakob knows by his sideways glances, every slow drag of his eyes over my face, my throat, my mouth.
It’s as if the only thing stopping him from lifting me onto this counter and devouring me all over again in front of his friends is the thin, fraying thread of his self-control.
How is this my life?
Three half-dressed Alphas in one kitchen, and the room feels less like a safe place and more like it’s about to catch on fire. I should be thinking about Louis, afraid, shaken, planning my next move. Instead, my anxiety has gone terrifyingly quiet in the middle of them.
It’s said that compatible Alphas can calm an Omega’s energy.
This isn’t calm.
It’s insanity dressed up as safety. This is my body mistaking protection for permission, turning every glance, every scent, every careless flex of muscle into something slick and shamefully needy between my thighs.
“See something you fancy?” Brody asks, interrupting my thoughts.
“The grilled cheese. Obviously,” I joke.
“Obviously.” He winks, and I’m melting. I have no idea how I’m meant to survive them, especially when my cheeks keep lighting up and showing them exactly the impact they are having on me.
The cheese sizzles in the pan, and my stomach grumbles for food while Corey and Jakob bicker about whether hot sauce belongs on a grilled cheese. The normalcy of it, the domestic ease, wraps around me and squeezes.
A laugh slips out of me before I can stop it. “I still don’t understand how none of you are already hooked up with an Omega.”
The bickering dies, and they stare my way. Strange…
I glance between them, my smile faltering. “What? Am I missing something? Are you all serial killers and none of your past Omegas survived or something?” I giggle.
No one answers fast enough, and my laugh flatlines. My stomach drops. “Oh my God,” I whisper. “Please don’t tell me you’re serial killers.”
Brody blinks first, then lets out a short, rough laugh. “No. Sorry. We were stuck on the Omega part.”
“Because you had one?” I ask, the words rushing out of my mouth.
They glance at each other for a long moment. Corey leans against the counter, all his usual mischief dimmed at the edges. “Once.”
“Oh.”
“Trudy,” Brody says, turning the heat down on the stove. “A couple of years ago. She was with us for about a year.”
My fingers tighten around the edge of my shirt. “What happened?”
Jakob’s jaw flexes. For a second, I think he won’t answer at all. “It went to shit,” he says finally, voice low. “And after that, we decided we didn’t need an Omega.”
Corey’s mouth twists, but there’s no real humor in it. “Then the universe, manipulative temptress that she is, put you in our lives.”
My breath catches at his implication.
Jakob’s gaze slides to me, and it’s dark, deliberate. Brody exhales, dragging a hand through his hair before he looks at me again. “We don’t really need to talk about the past. Nothing great there, to be honest.”
“Should I be worried?” I ask.
“No.” His voice softens. “It was just… complicated.”
Corey huffs a humorless laugh. “That’s the polite word.”
“And the impolite one?” I ask.
Jakob’s eyes don’t leave mine.
“Damaged.”
“We don’t talk about it much,” Corey says.
The vulnerability in the room is staggering. They’re exposed, offering me their wound so I understand that they know what mine feels like.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Hey, it’s okay. Now, how about we fill our bellies?
” Brody says, sliding the grilled cheese onto four plates.
He carries them to the island and sets one in front of me.
It’s golden and oozing, the bread perfectly toasted, and the warmth of it against my fingers when I pick it up is almost unbearably comforting.
We all tear into the sandwiches, and I’m moaning at how delicious mine is, while Damien sits on the counter staring at Brody’s plate with the patience of a predator who knows his moment will come.
“I mean, I get it. Everyone has baggage.” I force a small smile and take another bite. “Mine clearly came with an asshole.”
Corey chuckles.
“Anyway, my point is, I’m nowhere near perfect and you three haven’t run away yet.”
Brody’s lips curl upward at the edges, that dimple in his chin deepening. “We’re not going anywhere.”
“Bit hard to scare us off, gorgeous,” Corey says.
“Impossible, actually.” Jakob leans into me for a long second.
I swallow my bite, loving how adamant they are about keeping me, but the food suddenly feels thick in my throat. “In truth, I’m scared. Good things don’t stay long with me,” I admit. “I keep waiting for something good to fall apart.”
“Then we’ll keep showing up,” Brody says, voice stripped of every joke, “until you stop waiting.” Corey and Jakob nod, smiling at me as if there’s not a worry in the world.
I take another bite. The cheese stretches in a long golden thread, and they’re laughing while I’m enjoying this ridiculously buttery and delicious sandwich.
Yet, on the inside, there’s a terrified part of me that sounds like Louis is still whispering, This won’t last.