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I frown and it’s on the tip of my tongue to say no way in hell, because I’m pretty sure after what I witnessed today, I won’t be able to let Sadie out of my sight, let alone pass her over to another man.
It doesn’t make the least bit of sense, but I guess that’s the way of it when you find your scent match, when they’re almost taken from you. I sigh and use my hand on her neck to gently push her away from me, ready for her to eagerly reach for Luca and leave me. But instead, she draws back, away from both of us, teeth sunk into her lower lip, the red lipstick she put on this morning smeared over her chin.
Still looks fucking beautiful, though.
So fucking pretty, even as she slips off my lap and sways on her feet. The three of us reach to grab her, hold her steady.
“Don’t,” she snaps in a whisper. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want you to touch me.” There’s a lie there, but also a truth. She wants her alphas to comfort her, but she doesn’t want to want us to touch her, so she’s being stubborn about it.
“Vixen, please,” Luca holds out a hand toward her. “I need to feel you to make sure you’re okay.”
Silver-gray eyes flick to his hand. A flash of hurt makes her face crumble for a moment before she reconstructs it. “I don’t know why that would be the case, Luca,” she rasps, voice hoarse from screaming earlier. Those screams are going to echo in my head for the rest of my fucking life. I’m sure of it. “You fucked up when you bonded me. I’m just a situation you’re stuck with, right? Something for you to just fucking deal with.”
She folds her arms over her chest and drops her gaze to the floor, shoulders hunching. It kills me to see her like that. Twice in less than twenty-four hours, I’ve somehow managed to make my omega feel small, defensive, hurt. Nothing like the woman who met me glare for glare the first time we met.
“Vixen, sweetheart,” Luca pushes to the edge of the couch like he might stand up and go to her. “That’s not what I meant. I promise you, that’s not what I meant. Open the bond, let me show you-”
“It doesn’t matter,” she shakes her head, still not looking at us.
“What doesn’t, Sadie? ‘’ Logan asks gently, kneeling at her feet like a supplicant, cold pack still clutched in his hand. His head tilted back, green eyes on her face, as she sucks in a breath and shakes her head again.
“Nothing. None of this matters. The bond is going to fade and then you won’t be stuck with me anymore. And I can go back to the people who don’t treat me like I’m a fucking leper.”
Luca pushes to his feet at her words and I’m right behind him. Logan stays where he is, though, head tilted slightly.
“We aren’t treating you like a leper,” Luca protests. “That is not what’s happening here.”
Logan slowly pushes to his feet, and Sadie watches him until he’s towering over her, her head tipped back to meet his gaze. Tension is radiating out of him, but he keeps his hand steady when he tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and his tone is soft when he says, “Tell us why you think that, mo chuisle. Help us understand so we can make it better.”
A humorless laugh bubbles up from her chest that cuts off on a wince as her hands fly up to the side of her head where a deep purple bruise is forming. “Well, let’s see, Logan. The first night I was confined to a tiny room with no windows and no fucking light on the opposite side of the apartment from all of you. I’ve been alone basically all fucking day, going stir crazy because there is nothing to do here. Last night Maddox locked me in my room, literally, like a goddamn prisoner. It’s been made clear to me on more than one occasion that the bond between Luca and I—the one that I didn’t actually ask for, by the way—will probably fade and thank god for that, right? Who would want to be stuck with a second-rate omega like me?”
“Hey,” I snarl. “Cut that fucking shit out right now.” She might have said it with a hint of sarcasm, but something tells me she believes that. That she’s second rate, that we really don’t want her. And I know I’m the reason for her feeling that way. “You’re our scent match. Of course we want you. And you’re not second-rate, Sadie. You’re strong and kind and sweet and fucking… everything. You’re everything.”
Her silver eyes lift to mine, tears shimmering along the lower lids, threatening to spill, but our girl is too stubborn for that, too strong. She takes a huge shuddering breath and then blows it out. “If that’s true, Mad, if I’m everything, then why are you treating me like I’m nothing?”
My stomach drops. How the hell did I fuck this up so badly? Because make no mistake, this is on me. Not my pack. I’m the one that put her in that room. I’m the one that—in an attempt to give her space, time to adjust to being an omega and bonded—told them to back the fuck off. I’m the one that is too fucking scared of caring for her, of falling in love and then losing her. It’s on me.
By the looks Logan and Luca are giving me, they feel the same fucking way, so it’s up to me to fix this. I take a deep breath and move an inch closer to her. “Omega, look at me.” There’s no command in my voice, but she still does as I ask, lifting those silver eyes to mine.
“I fucked up,” I say softly, hoping like hell she can see that I mean it. “The room… Omegas like small enclosed spaces. It’s the smallest room we have, and I thought you would feel more comfortable there. I thought you would feel safer with some space between you and a pack of men that you don’t know beyond that we are criminals. I wanted you to feel safe, Sadie. It’s so fucking important to me and to my alpha that you feel that way.” Her teeth sink into her lower lip again, a good sign I think, so I keep going.
“It’s not that we don’t want you, trouble, that I don’t want you. It’s that you might not want us. We aren’t good men.” I look up at Logan and Luca, seeing my truth reflected back at me. “We’re criminals and murderers. We’re trying to be better, to go legit. But we still have a lot of blood on our hands, will continue to have blood on our hands long after this. We do what we have to in order to protect the pack, the family.” I blow out another sharp breath. “We have so many fucking enemies, trouble. Wicked men that would give anything to get their hands on our omega, to hurt her—hurt you—in order to hurt us.” I look at Luca. “We agreed we didn’t want to bring an omega into this pack until we knew for certain that we could protect them. There’s always going to be threats, but it’s… particularly bad at the moment because we’re in a transition state.”
I reach out and carefully tug Sadie’s lower lip from between her teeth, smoothing my thumb over the plump swell, damp from being partially inside her mouth. “You’re ours, trouble. There’s no doubt about that. The timing is just fucked. What happened today is proof of that.”
The elevator dings at that moment and Ethan and Swift enter the penthouse, drawing our omega’s attention. I have to swallow a snarl. I want her eye on me. Always.
Swift doesn’t hesitate. He strides right up to Sadie, invades her space, all but pushing me out of the way, gold eyes latched onto the bruise on the side of her face. His fingers, blood still under his nails, come up to brush against it softly, so gently she doesn’t even flinch. “Who hurt my Cherrybomb?” When none of us answer—we don’t fucking know who hurt her and doesn’t that kill me?—he growls out even softer. “Who. The. Fuck. Hurt. My. Cherrybomb?”
I swear Sadie’s eyes go half lidded at the rage, the promise of violence lacing his tone. She shifts on her feet, thighs rubbing together just the slightest bit, and then a swell of cherry pie hits my nose. She is so fucking turned on right now.
That’s gotta be a good sign. If Swift, covered in blood and growling out vengeance, can turn her on, there’s hope for all of us, right?
“Tell me,” he whispers, fingers dropping to caress her bottom lip. “So I can rip them the fuck apart, omega. Even if it was a member of our pack.”
Sadie blinks in surprise at his words, and it’s enough to pull her out of whatever spell Swift just put her under. “It wasn’t,” she rushes to say. “It wasn’t a member of your pack.”
“Our pack,” Logan corrects gently, reaching out to lace his fingers through hers. “It’s our pack, Sadie. Yours.”
