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I arch a brow at him. “You were already hard.”
“True,” he laughs. “Can’t blame me when I was in the shower with you, though.” He goes to sit on the couch, and a whine spills from me, making him pause.
I stretch out a hand to him. “Here. I want you here. Ethan, you on his other side.” Luca stretches out on the mattress next to where I’m laying and Ethan curls up next to him.
“What about me, Cherrybomb?” Swift nuzzles into my neck and trails an open-mouthed kiss over my skin. “Can I be next to you?”
I nod decisively, even though the only one I know I wanted to be near me is Luca, since he’s hurt. “Yes. And Logan-” He’s already laying down next to Swift, who bundles me into his arms and settles me between him and Luca.
“Maddox,” I call as Luca covers me with a blanket and snuggles into me. A large hand settles on top of my head and I tilt it back to find him stretched out across the couch just above me. Close enough to stroke his fingers through my hair.
“I’m here, omega.” He reassures me, as Ethan and Logan reach over to lace their fingers with mine.
All of my pack members are touching me, soothing me, and for the first time in ages, I feel relatively settled.
A soft purr pours from my chest, rumbles out to return that soothing feeling to them. A contented sigh passes my lips. This is how it’s supposed to be with a pack. This is how I hope it will always be between us.
The TV flicks on in front of us, and Maddox asks, “what are we watching?”
He puts on a comedy, somehow sensing that I didn’t want anything with explosions and guns, not after living through it in real life.
Next to me Luca dozes in and out of consciousness, the painkillers Logan fed him doing their job to help him heal.
As much as this feels amazing to have all of them here with me, to feel safe and secure in my faux nest in the middle of the living room. I have a hard time relaxing, a hard time coming down from the firefight we’d been a part of earlier.
Something won’t let my omega settle, and I have no clue what it is.
Maddox’s hand slips over my head, stroking gently, blunt fingers scraping over my scalp, drawing my attention to him.
He’s still on the couch, eyes focused on the screen, lips twisted into a small smile at something that’s happening in the movie. He’s so fucking sexy, it’s insane. All of them are, but there’s an innate dominance in him that makes my omega pant.
Maddox looks at me with heavy-lidded eyes, no doubt feeling my perusal of him. When our gazes meet, there’s a gush of slick and a throb between my legs, one that I’m tempted to ease right here, right now.
“Need something, omega?” he murmurs, fingers tightening on my hair, making my scalp sting in the best way.
A shiver skitters over my skin, sparking like electricity at those three words. When we got home, I thought what I needed was to cuddle Luca, to snuggle and feel cozy, and that helped, but now… Well, now I’m realizing that I was shot at. Someone fired an actual gun in my direction and while I didn’t get hurt, I could have. A bullet grazed Luca, but it could have been worse.
We don’t know who it was. We don’t know why. Though they guys have theories on that, they talked about it int he car on the ride home. We might have more answers if I’d allowed Swift to go do his job, but I wanted him here, and so he stayed.
While I know logically, I’m safe bundled up here in this penthouse that needs a freaking handprint scan to enter, I don’t really feel safe. Every instinct I have is telling me that Maddox, my prime alpha, is going to be the one to protect me, to shelter me from harm. That I need him.
He holds out a hand and lifts the blanket off his body, revealing his bare muscled chest. “Come here, omega.” I stare at the hand. I think this is the first time Maddox has reached out to me for… well, anything beyond just demanding that I do what he wants.
Technically, this is still a command, but it’s one I want to follow. Still, a part of me doesn’t want to leave Luca. I need him to be safe, too. Almost as if he can feel the indecision in my body, and maybe he can because I’m not doing a great job of keeping my bond locked down at the moment, my bonded alpha nudges me gently toward our prime. “Go on, vixen. Take what you need.”
My cheeks heat even as I blow out a breath and scramble out of the nest of blankets. Making my way over hard male bodies until I’m next to Maddox. He glances down his body in invitation, and only a second later I’m on top of him, stretched out on his chest with my head tucked under his chin. He closes the blanket around me and a soft purr rumbles up from his chest. That combined with his cedar and gin scent in my nose and lungs is like melatonin to my overwrought omega senses.
I relax, but it’s not enough. Every time my eyes drift closed, my brain replays the sound of a gunshot, and I jerk fully awake. Like when you dream you’re falling and wake up just as you hit the ground. Only it’s the crack of a gun and Luca throwing himself on top of me that wakes me up.
Everytime Maddox tightens his grip on me and smooths his hands over my back, kisses the top of my head and murmurs something unintelligible into my hair.
The sixth time that happens, the alpha grumbles. “We’re going to have to give you something else to focus on, aren’t we, trouble?”
I frown, rubbing my face into his chest. “I’m sorry.”
One of his hands slides up to grip my hair, tilting my head until I can see his face, meet his eyes. “No need to apologize, omega. You’ve had a hard day. Traumatic. It’s no wonder you can’t stop thinking about it. But as your alpha, it’s my job to make sure you get what you need. And what you need right now is something else to focus on.”
I don’t know why that suggestion makes my core clench, but it does. A waft of cherry pie perfume hits the air.
