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“That’s right, omega,” Asher murmurs into the side of my head. “Yours. We’re yours. She’s nothing.”
Another whine has Ford pressing even closer, teeth nipping at my neck. “Yours, pipsqueak. Take a few deep breaths for us, okay?”
I do as he says, bringing the combined scent of my pack into my nose, my lungs, savoring the smell of my favorite breakfast all together. I relax by increments until I feel less inclined to cut a bitch for being too close to my alphas.
“Better, beautiful?” Davis asks, sliding his fingers between mine.
I give a jerky nod. “Sorry, I was just.. I don’t think I can handle the sight of you with her.”
Jackson pulls back slightly, then kisses me. “I’m sorry, baby girl. We should have thought of that.”
“We’ll keep our distance, angel,” Asher reassures me.
“Idiots,” Ford mutters behind me, and a chuckle falls from my lips, making all of them relax even more.
Jackson pushes a strand of hair behind my ear, his gray gaze impossibly soft. “Ready, omega?”
“Ready, alpha.” I nod and he steps to the side, revealing Yasmin watching us with a concerned look on her face. I’ve never seen her look concerned, but it seems like she might be concerned for me. Which is really wild, considering how she made my life hell when we were teenagers.
But now she’s clutching the hand of a stunning female alpha, tall and statuesque with cheekbones for days, slicked back blond hair and brown eyes. She reminds me immediately of Bethany, and for whatever reason, that soothes me.
Yasmin smiles as she moves forward, but her alpha wraps an arm around her waist, holding her back. “Patience, love,” she murmurs, chiding. “You know Sylvie doesn’t have the best memories of you.”
Yasmin winces and then nods. “Yes, alpha, I know.”
The blond woman lifts her warm brown eyes to me. “Sylvie, I’ve heard so much about you from Yasmin. I’m Ariana Padlow.” She holds out her hand to me and I tentatively slide my fingers into her warm grip, even as my alphas all bristle with possessive energy.
Ariana smirks and pulls my hand to her lips, brushing a kiss over my knuckles that has everyone around us releasing wave after wave of pheromones. Yasmin glares at me, but only as long as it takes for me to remove my hand from her alpha’s and sink back into my pack. Then she’s all smiles and concern again.
“Sylvie Kinsella,” I say by way of greeting and her pale brows arch.
“Kinsella? As in the Alver City Kinsellas?”
I nod, and I don’t miss the way her eyes sweep my neck, looking for a mating bite that isn’t there. “They took me in after I left. Made sure I had everything I needed. I changed my name when I turned eighteen.”
Ariana’s eyes flick up to Jackson. “And Maxim isn’t happy with this match?” I flinch at her blunt question. Ford tucks me farther into his body, a low warning growl sounding from him that Ariana ignores. “I would think he’d be thrilled to have a connection to the Kinsellas. I know he’s been trying to work with them for years.”
Well, that’s news to me. I tilt my head to look at Jackson and find him already looking down at me. “Is that true?”
He nods. “Yeah, baby girl, it is. But Bethany Kinsella refused him at every turn.”
I chuckle. “That sounds like her. She knew all about you and your father. I wouldn’t put it past her to dangle the possibility of a merger in front of him for years, only to repeatedly tell him ‘not yet, it’s too soon,’ and eventually ‘never’.”
Honestly, it’s ballsy as hell for Maxim to approach Bethany after the way he treated me. He knew I was with her pack, knew they cared for me. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t say anything about him and his sons. Maybe he assumed Bethany wouldn’t put two and two together.
Yasmin takes a tentative step closer, her hand reaching in the air between us, but she freezes when Jackson lets loose a warning growl. One that Ariana meets with her own snarl.
The other omega drops her hand and twists her fingers together in front of her as she regards me with large, pleading eyes. “I was hoping you and I could talk, Sylvie.”
I stare at her, at the unsure woman in front of me. Yasmin always seemed so poised, so calm and collected and put together, that I’m not sure what to make of this show of nerves. I want to say no. Every conversation I had with Yasmin in the past was her talking down at me, making me feel inferior because I hadn’t presented yet, and she had already graduated from the Omega Academy. She rubbed it in my face that the elder Werth pack thought she was a better fit for the men around me. She did everything in her power to make me feel small.
I really don’t need a repeat of that.
But she’s looking at me with such wide pleading eyes, while her alpha watches us closely, that I find myself nodding. “Sure.”
Yasmin squeals and reaches out to curl her fingers around mine, intending to tug me away from my pack, but all of them reach out to keep me with them. I turn back to face them and meet their worried gazes. “I’ll be fine. We’ll just go,” I jerk my chin toward a quiet empty corner. “Over there.”
Asher moves a step closer. “You’re sure?”
