EPILOGUE - BIRDIE #3
I’m even more breathless and flushed by the time we reach the house, and it’s not helped by the fact that Axel is waiting for us on the porch stairs.
After finally admitting how much I want him – not just as a pack alpha but as a mate – I look at him with different eyes.
Or maybe my eyes are just all the way open now.
I want Colt and Axel as badly as I want Hog, and there’s been a deep, simmering longing in my bones for weeks now. Probably months.
He’s wearing a tank and workout shorts, the fabric clinging to his muscular thighs. His bare chest glimmers with sweat, and that tight feeling in my belly moves lower as I scent his pheromones in the air.
Huh. Once upon a time, alpha sweat was one of my early warning signs. A pumped-up alpha was never to be trusted, especially when their hormones were raging for a target.
But my muscles clench for a different reason now.
“No swimsuit?” he asks, looking at my empty hands.
“We got distracted,” Colt replies, squeezing my hand and flashing a grin at me.
“Well, how about we take a walk, then?” Axel suggests. “The breeze is picking up. We could take the kite down to the beach.”
“Maybe later.” Colt is almost twitching with impatience. “Baggage has an important announcement.”
I squirm as Axel’s gaze lands on me. With the impressions of Colt’s fingers still inside me, I’m finding it hard not to just drag them both to bed, all discussions on pause. But Colt isn’t about to be deterred. “Boss, you really want to let us inside so we can get on with this.”
Axel casts a quick glance over his shoulder and rubs his nape. His reluctance is suddenly obvious, and I bristle. “Is there some reason you don’t want us going inside?”
“I was sent out here to buy some time,” he admits, but then jerks his head towards the door. “Come on, we can see if Hog’s ready for us.”
I look at him in surprise, since Hog has been busy with his furniture business all weekend. He’s been using my old bedroom as a workshop, and for the last few days there’s been a lot of hammering and grunting coming from that direction. Now, I’m really curious.
But when he wanders into the living room to greet us, I feel nerves lick over my skin. I’ve talked to Hog about the other guys in general terms, but I probably should have checked in with him before I blurted out my intentions to Colt.
I guess you could blame it on the fact that I was naked and horny as hell at the time.
“Little Bird has an announcement!” Colt tells his packmates, planting me in front of him so he can nuzzle my neck. “She’s finally gonna let us chomp on her pretty throat.”
“I thought it was my announcement,” I mutter, since they weren’t the words I had in mind.
But his scent is wafting over me, mingling with my arousal, and I guess I can’t blame him for his impatience.
“I’ve really appreciated the time and space you’ve all given me to settle into the pack, but now I’d like to make it official.
If you don’t have anything more important to do, I’d really like it if you’d claim me… ”
I don’t get another word out, Axel crossing the room to pull me into his arms. “I think I need to remind you how our priorities work. You come first. Everything else is just annoying shit that we can’t avoid.”
I smile, relief turning my scent extra sweet. “The thing is, I can work around your schedule. Hog is still busy with his furniture business, and you have that new contract with the software billionaire…”
“The tech bro can babysit his own over-priced ass,” Colt growls, tugging me back into his arms and nuzzling my neck. “Pack business comes first.”
It’s a good philosophy, but I know the guys are thrilled that their new security firm is thriving.
With a solid gold recommendation from their former military bosses, they’ve been inundated with civilian contracts.
Mostly CEOs who just want a little babysitting, like Colt predicted, but there have also been a couple of jobs where they located and extracted victims of the ongoing omega trafficking trade.
“I’d skip a hundred contracts to claim you,” Axel says quietly, his thumb stroking over my throat.
“I was prepared to wait forever, if that’s what you needed, but you must know, you’re all I want.
Every moment we’re together, it’s all I can think about.
I watch you with Haven, I watch you sleep…
It’s insane how much I want you. I’ll do anything to make you mine. ”
“Axel…” His words feel like a desperate confession, so different to his usual stoic soldier routine.
I cup his cheek, leaning up to kiss his lips.
“I’m sorry I took so long. I can’t give you those days back, but I can tell you how I feel.
” I reach back for Colt’s hand, drawing him forward so they’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
It’s still hard, especially with their eyes boring into mine, but I owe them my honesty.
Better late than never, I guess. “I love being with you. I love this house. I love your beds. I love walking on the beach with you and snoozing in the sunroom with you. I know I’ve left a hole in the pack bonds, but I want to fill it. With me. If you’ll have me.”
My heart is in my throat, but every anxious moment is worth it for the look in their eyes.
I don’t know who I kiss first, just that there are mouths moving over mine and restless hands pulling me close.
Desire rolls through me, but I’m also giddy with relief, and I laugh as we stumble towards the bedroom.
None of us are walking straight but somehow, we make it all the way to the end of the hall.
I come up from a searing kiss right as Hog pushes my bedroom door open.
“How?” I gasp, stepping over the threshold and staring around at the beautiful room. “I thought…”
“We wanted to surprise you,” Axel replies, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Hog’s been working every spare minute to put the finishing touches on it.”
I shake my head, too stunned to speak. Not only has he completely refurbished the room with a bedroom suite of his own design, but he’s knocked out a wall, combining it with Colt’s room next door.
It’s now big enough to house a huge mahogany four-poster bed that will easily accommodate the whole pack.
“We’ve hated making you choose who to sleep with each night,” Axel tells me as I drift over to touch the silky blue and white bedding.
It’s a similar, soothing palette to the one I used to have, only now there are extra pops of color, including royal blue drapes on the bed, a bright pink flamingo lamp on the nightstand, and a full-length gilt mirror next to the window.
“This way,” Hog tells me, brushing my lips with his, “it’s a pack bed, and no one gets left out. ”
“It’s perfect.” Better than perfect, because I realize they’ve mounted their portraits from Charlie on the wall. My heart squeezes as I look from their painted smiles to the ones beaming back at me. “I can’t believe you’ve done all this.”
“Great timing, too,” Colt says with a waggle of his brows. “It’s like you could read her mind.”
Hog shrugs and I look at him in surprise. “You knew my big announcement was coming?”
“The bond has been extra tingly for a few days.”
“I want to feel some of those tingles.” Colt says, grabbing my hand and pulling me over to the bed. “Oh, damn. This mattress must have cost a bomb. It’s not the one from last month’s Omega Allure spread, is it?”
“Only the best for our pack,” Axel says, then nods to the door. “I’ll just take a shower and…”
“Don’t you dare,” I growl, stopping him with a look. “Every drop of that sweat is mine.”
Colt hums in amusement, but he scoots up the bed so the other alphas can join us. It has to be the biggest mattress I’ve ever seen, but I’m not really focusing on the décor as I melt into their arms.
“You should’ve seen her in the bikini store,” Colt murmurs, propping my head in his lap and rubbing his finger over my lips. “She was presenting for me, so I could see her pretty pussy on full display.”
I blush, but I can taste myself on his finger, and his eyes darken as I draw it into my mouth.
“Is that why she smells like a caramel apple?” Hog asks, leaning down to nuzzle my neck. “Did Colt get you all worked up in the fitting room, Omega?”
I groan, and multiple hands are suddenly drawing off my clothes, mouths licking and nibbling the flesh they uncover. When they get down to my sodden panties, Axel clicks his tongue at Colt. “You really left our omega dripping like this?”
“I was dragging her home so we could claim her,” Colt says with an indignant eyeroll. “I actually did the responsible thing for once, so I should get first bite at the caramel apple.”
I groan again, but Hog is chuckling and I can sense his satisfaction – his pure happiness – through the bond, like a warm pulse against my ribs.
“Then you should definitely go first,” Axel says, like he’s offering first dibs on the buffet line.
Hog chuckles, his fingers rolling over one of my peaked nipples. “I think our omega has a different plan.”
I grimace, wondering if it’s my scent or the bond that has given me away. When Axel and Colt look at me, intrigued, I say quickly, “I was thinking… unless this is against any kind of pack rules… that maybe you could claim me at the same time.”
“Sure,” Axel says with a smile. “It’s better when we’re inside you, though…”
“That’s what I mean.” They both freeze and I sit up, because this is a hard conversation to have splayed on your back.
“It’s just that I’m taking Hog’s knot a lot, and I think I could take you both…
at the same time,” I clarify, just in case their shocked faces are from confusion.
“But if that would mess up the claiming…”
“Fuck me…” Colt groans, dropping his head back. “Someone pinch me before I come all over myself.”
“If you’re inside her while I am,” Axel says in his best gung-ho tone, “you’re gonna keep your hand off that trigger, soldier.”