14. Zale
Zale
We find a sweet spot on the beach not far from Saylor’s lake house as the three of us watch the world go by.
Kids scream all around as they play in the water, but I can’t stop gazing at Saylor. The way the rippling water reflects and shimmers off her beautiful, porcelain skin as she lies down on top of a beach towel, enjoying the hot weather.
It really is like a little piece of heaven out here, and it appears we really are at the height of summer now.
And Saylor just makes it all the more beautiful and tempting.
“How are your allergies now?”
She directs the question toward Trent as she shields her eyes with her hand, glancing his way where he sits on her right.
My Alpha writhes with jealousy. He wants those perfect ocean eyes on him.
Trent sniffs then, and it looks as if his sinuses have finally cleared.
Good for him.
“Never better,” he replies. “Damn, the smells out here truly are something. I’m just glad I can smell them now.”
Yeah, but they have nothing on Saylor. Now that I’m sitting fairly close to her, her soft, rainy meadow scent wafts my way, and I could bury myself in that sweet aroma.
Even the local dogs know she’s heavenly, as a little caramel-colored poodle mix runs straight up to her, dropping its sandy, slobbery tennis ball onto her beach towel.
It gets sand all over her, but the Omega just giggles, grabbing the ball so she can toss it across the beach. The dog makes a beeline for the bright yellow projectile, and that’s when I hear its owner shouting, “Bridget! Get back here!”
Bridget?
Never thought I would meet a dog called Bridget…
Saylor is still smiling at the dog as she leans back onto her beach towel. “I knew that would happen at some point. I don’t know why, but dogs always approach me at the beach or the park.”
“Yeah, I wonder why,” Trent teases, flicking sand at her.
She mock-gasps, flicking sand right back at him.
I eyeball the flirtatious pair then, trying to ignore the envious Alpha who lives rent-free inside me.
That’s when my gaze tracks up and down her arms. She’s burning up fast. The sun beams down overhead, and I curse myself for not thinking ahead.
Saylor is going to get sunburn. Her gorgeous, porcelain skin is already rosy as it is, and if we’re not careful, she’s going to get sick.
She needs a parasol immediately.
And sun cream.
So, I jump up to my feet, finding the umbrella stand near the entrance of the lake. I almost bite the heads clean off a young Beta couple, who were just about to take the last umbrella for themselves. The woman even curses an expletive at me, but I have no time for her or her boyfriend.
I have an Omega to protect from the sun.
Saylor will not burn to a crisp this summer.
Rationally, I knew that Saylor wasn't in any real danger, yet tell that to my Alpha. He doesn’t care.
All he saw was her fragile skin turning red beneath a relentless sun, and then every protective instinct in my body erupted at once.
It wasn't just the sun that was hurting her.
It was everything.
Ryan. Martina. Me. My brothers.
The rejection.
Every moment I'd failed to shield her when she'd needed me most.
My Alpha doesn’t distinguish between old wounds and new ones. If buying the last parasol on this goddamned beach means one less mark on her fair skin, then I'll gladly become the biggest asshole that Silverpine has ever seen.
I rush back to the Omega, opening the wide parasol so she can finally get some sweet shade.
She gazes up at me, alarmed. Now that she’s beneath the shade, I can truly see how red her skin has gotten.
Fuck.
It’s worse than I thought.
I failed her…
“It’s okay, Zale. I have sun cream,” she replies, trying to placate me as she rummages inside her bag.
But I won’t hear any of it. “Well, it’s not enough, S. You’re very fair, so you need all the protection you can get from the sun.”
Saylor laughs. “Yeah, I know… I inherited my fair skin from my grandmother’s side of the family, after all. She was Welsh.”
Trent snorts, shaking his head at his brother. “Yeah, you’re going a little overboard, Z.”
I scoff, gazing at my brother pointedly now. “Oh, so you want Saylor to burn?”
He narrows his eyes at me in challenge. That’s when he smirks, lifting up a bottle of his own sun cream.
My eyes widen in shock.
He wouldn’t…
“What factor are you wearing, England?”
Pfft, England... What a stupid nickname.
Yet the Omega appears to light up whenever he utters the word, and my Alpha growls in envy yet again. Perhaps he is the smartest of us after all.
But I suppose I could always call her Wales due to her grandmother’s Welsh heritage, but that would be taking it too far, I think.
“Um. 30, I think,” Saylor replies rather sheepishly. “Why?”
Trent shakes his head, keeping his smart-ass gaze on me. “50 and above is better. Let me apply some of my own sun cream onto your arms, Saylor.”
Saylor stammers. Then she turns bright red, and now it’s hard to tell where her blush begins and her sunburn ends. She hides her face behind her jet-black hair as she finally allows my brother to smother her in SPF 50.
I may have gotten her the parasol, but my brother gets to be the one to touch her skin.
It’s not fair. I remember how that soft skin felt beneath my own hands back at Silver Grove. The one time we actually touched.
It was just after Ryan tripped her up in the hall and she fell into my arms. Even then, I just wanted to protect her, and it seems some things never change.
A slight rumble sounds in my chest, but I hide it away quickly, peering over at the shimmering water.
It washes over the sand soothingly, giving me an idea then. I suppose it beats watching my brother feeling up the beautiful Omega.
“There you go, Saylor.”
She’s too shy to look at him now, and her reticence does something strange to my knot then. Especially as her perfume fills the air.
All the blood in my body rushes straight to my crotch next, and that’s when I wonder what her belly would look like if my knot were swollen inside of her.
It’s best I cool myself off before I do something I regret.
Oh, I would have her right there and then on the sand while I smothered her skin in sun cream.
But instead, I make a beeline for the lake, ducking right beneath the water while still fully clothed.
Trent and Saylor watch me with looks of utter confusion on their faces, but I decide then that it’s time I showed off my swimming skills.
Let’s see if Trent can beat that.