Chapter 5 #3
Claire was one of the assistants outfitting Amy’s room before, so this must not be a surprise to her. She had thrown me a pitying look earlier in the week, but she has no emotion on her face now.
Ian doesn’t thank her, but he nods in acknowledgment. It doubly serves as a dismissal.
“Have a good night, sir,” she turns and exits as quickly as she came, leaving us alone again.
He fixes his gaze back on me now that she’s gone. “Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes, alpha.” Although my response comes out glumly, he doesn’t chastise me for it. Cole’s scent picks up a note of concern at the sound of my voice, but it’s drowned by the irritation in Ian’s.
“Go get dinner ready, then.” He jerks his head towards the kitchen. I unlace my hand from Cole’s, wiping my damp palm on my skirt. As if sharing my men with her isn’t enough, I have to plate her meal too.
I can only hope dinner goes by without incident.
Ian shoots me a look of warning when Amy enters the dining room wearing one of Liam’s shirts, but I’m well practiced at holding my tongue. It’s when Liam appears after her with his clothes sprinkled with water that I struggle.
I breathe through my nose heavily, digging my nails into my palms. With my hands hidden, clenched in my lap under the table, I’m still physically the picture of an obedient omega.
Mentally, I’m plagued by the image of her inviting him into the shower with her, teasingly throwing water at him. I can see it vividly, because I’ve lived it before.
“Isn’t this better?” Ian looks down from his seat at the head of the table with a satisfied expression. “We’re split evenly now.”
Liam sits on one side of him, Cole on the other. I’m next to Cole and Amy’s across from me. No one pipes up to answer his question, but there’s a trickle of contentment lacing the air.
I keep my eyes trained on my meager plate. I think I liked it better when it was just us, but the rest of them seem to be enjoying the new arrival’s presence.
“Wow, you can see the entire city from here!” Amy’s voice is filled with almost childlike wonder.
She stands and leans forward, hands on the table. With the windows behind me and Cole and her seat being across from me, it makes her close the distance between us, swamping me with her scent.
It’s intoxicatingly sweet, but it doesn’t get me drunk the way my pack’s perfumes do. Instead, it almost makes me nauseous.
“Careful!” Cole admonishes playfully, voice laced with amusement. I wait, expecting Ian to reprimand her on table manners, but it never comes. She sits back down with a high pitched giggle.
I finally lift my gaze from my food to look at him, anticipating finding him stone faced. Instead, he’s watching her with one corner of his mouth raised. I drop my eyes back to my plate as if burned.
“You should see it during the day. You can see all of Scentral Park,” Liam showboats, pride clear.
“Wow, really?” She seems full of awe. I was too, when I arrived.
“Of course! I’ll tell you a joke, but not a lie. Ariana likes to go for walks in it sometimes. You guys can go together. Right, babe?” Liam’s words make the entire table look at me.
“Right.” I agree weakly.
I don’t think we’re going to be holding hands and skipping through the park together anytime soon. Even Amy doesn’t seem very amused by the idea, by the way she backtracks.
“Oh, but who would want to leave this place? This is the nicest apartment I’ve been in, like, ever.”
I see why Ian likes her, at least. There’s nothing he approves of more than an omega who stays where he wants her to. Though that doesn’t seem to earn enough of his approval to refrain from bringing in a second one.
I haven’t eaten all day, but I don’t think I have much of an appetite anymore. Once Ian hushes the conversation and bids us to start our meal, I push the food around on my plate. Cole doesn’t seem too fascinated with what I’m eating tonight, letting me get away with my feeble grazing.
It’s Ian who observes me between bites of his food. After our first two times making eye contact, I fix my eyes back onto my plate. Even without looking up, there’s no mistaking the familiar feeling of my alpha’s piercing gaze on me.
When I was younger, I would have asked him if there was something on my face. When we first met, he would have said it was because I was so beautiful he couldn’t look away. A year or two after that, once I was bonded in, he would have scolded me for being rude. Now, neither of us says anything.
I push my fork against a piece of salmon, passing the time by tearing off chunks until everyone else finishes their meal. Finally, Liam stretches his arms above his head, letting out a satisfied groan. My signal to begin clearing the table.
Rising quickly, I stack my full plate on top of Cole’s empty one. The sooner I do this, the sooner I can get away from the smell of sickly sweet caramel intermingling with my pack’s scents.
“I can help you with that!” Amy stands enthusiastically as I pass behind her, her quick assent sending her chair backwards into me and making me stumble. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”
I shouldn’t be mad at her. She’s younger than me. I have to be the mature one. I can feel my pack’s eyes on me, assessing my reaction.
“It’s fine,” I mumble, grabbing her cutlery from the table.
“You don’t have to help her. The dishes are Ariana’s responsibility.” She looks between me and Ian at his words, then slides back into her seat.
They fall into conversation again as I travel between the kitchen and back, placing plates and cups to soak in the sink. It’s when I return to ask about dessert that I hear a piece of particularly concerning discussion.
“We’ll be sleeping with you tonight, after all,” I stop in my tracks at Liam’s words. We? As in the entire pack?
“You all are?” I blurt out, appalled. I must have heard them wrong, walked in during a bad part of the conversation.
“She has to become familiar with our scents,” Cole has the decency to sound bashful. “This will help her get used to staying here.” Liam and Ian nod along with his words, while Amy stares up at me from her seat, face blank.
“Are you joking?” I ignore Ian’s look of warning and continue, “you guys really want me to sleep alone for the first time in nine years on the day you bring another omega in?” The question hangs over us, the room falling into silence. They can’t deny it’s an absurd idea.
A sob rings out, cutting through the quiet.
“It’s fine. You guys should all stay with her,” Amy holds the bottom of her shirt, pulling it down and tugging on it.
With her wide, teary eyes and fingers pulling against the fabric anxiously, even I feel bad for her.
“I’m used to sleeping by myself anyways, one more day isn’t a big deal.
” Another sob punctuates her sentence, making Liam wrap an arm around her.
“Don’t cry.” he comforts her softly, then looks towards me, voice firmer. “You’ve had us all to yourself for years. Can’t you give her this one day?”
It’s clear she needs their comfort. But I’m an omega too. I’m their omega. Doesn’t anyone want to soothe me? Amy beats me to responding first, letting out a sniffle.
“No, I’m okay.” She looks up at me, nose red from crying. “I’m sorry, Ariana. This is all my fault. Don’t be mad at me.”
I wasn’t mad at her. I didn’t say anything to her, but Liam stares at me accusingly like I did.
“Enough.” Ian’s firm tone makes her weeping stop. “You don’t have to apologize to her.” He turns to me. “What did we talk about earlier? You have to become used to sharing us.”
I didn’t expect sharing them to mean being completely stripped of them.
“How about this then?” Cole cracks his knuckles, stretching his arms. “Ian and Liam sleep with Amy tonight. I’ll sleep with you, Ariana, if you want.”
If I want. How generous. Was that necessary to add? It almost makes me not want to.
And since when has what I want mattered? If I say I want them to only be mine again, it’s not like they’ll listen.
I’m not sure I’ll get a better proposal than Cole’s though, and it feels like being able to hold on to at least one thing that’s mine, so I nod in agreement. He smiles at me fondly in response, his apple scent turning sweet like pie.
It makes me feel bad for almost wanting to decline. He didn’t mean to sound condescending. He’s just better with computers than he is with people.
“Amy still needs to get used to you too, Cole.” Liam points out, unsatisfied.
“I guess she does, doesn’t she? I’ll sleep with her tomorrow. We rotate. No one sleeps alone, everybody’s happy.”
Everybody whose opinion matters is happy, he means. Ian stands, signaling the end of the discussion.
“No dessert, sweetheart. It’s late,” he says to me, crossing over and placing a kiss against the top of my head. Amy’s eyes follow him as he walks, face blank again. She’s all smiles once he turns back to her and motions for her to come with him.
“Goodnight,” Cole bids the three of them. Ian nods in response and leaves immediately. Instead of leaving together, Amy shrugs off the arm Liam’s rested across her shoulders, traveling around the table to Cole’s seat.
She bends down, pressing a kiss against his cheek slowly. Then she nuzzles her face into his neck, rubbing over his mating mark and scent gland. It makes me blaze with a short burst of anger.
“Goodnight, Cole.” She says his name slowly, voice sultry. It’s a far cry from the omega that was so apologetic earlier. Even Cole seems surprised by it, looking between me and her as if shocked she’d do so in front of me.
I understand I’m supposed to become used to sharing. I don’t think I can get used to the flare of jealousy that runs through me, though. Determined not to lose, I stride over to Liam.
I bend over like she did, folding my body slowly until my face is centimeters away from his. I brush my lips against his, soft at first, then harder as if hungry. He opens his mouth for me in return, nudging his tongue against mine.