AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bishop
Everyone’s concerned when Scarlett passes out in Gus’s arms, after our moodiest pack brother experienced what I can only assume was a mating bond acceptance, led by the fates, if their glowing eyes can be trusted as an indication of otherworldly guidance.
“For the last damn time, this is not Scarlett,” Gus growls at us.
Rueben raises an eyebrow at him. “Then who is she?”
“Denial?” Scout murmurs, with a shrug of his shoulders when Gus focuses his glower on him.
The glow disappears from Gus’s eyes, and he nods at me. “Take our mate.”
I move to his side and lift Scarlett into my arms. She lets out a soft sigh as I rest her sleeping form over my shoulder.
Gus stumbles and grabs onto the back of the chair. He grimaces at me.
“I might be about to faceplant the floor.”
“Sit down before you fall down,” I tell him. “Was that what I think it was?”
“Was it … Wait, what did you think it was?” Rueben asks, his eyes wide when I look back at him.
Gus pulls the chair out and sits down. He lets out a heavy yawn.
“It was a mate bonding acceptance,” I tell Rueben, when Gus doesn’t respond.
He covers his mouth and nods. “She just accepted all of us.”
“She did?” Rueben blurts.
“Sort of,” Gus amends, yawning again the second he takes his hand away from his mouth.
“What do you mean, sort of?” I ask, knowing something was weird about it.
Typically when there’s an Omega involved in a true mates situation, there’s perfuming the second the Omega feels a connection with any of the mates, Alpha or not. I can see why she wouldn’t have perfumed when we met since we barely spent any time around her. But we’ve all spent a little time with her this week, and I know we all felt something, strongly, while we were with her.
We’re all Alphas, and she only perfumed once Gus came into the room.
It doesn’t make any sense.
It makes even less sense considering he’s the one brother who’s been swearing blind that she isn’t our mate. Of course, he’s also insistent that she isn’t Scarlett, and he couldn’t have bonded with her if she wasn’t …
“Oh my God,” I murmur, looking at Gus’s smugly happy face. “She’s really not Scarlett, is she?”
“It’s about time you started listening,” he says, right before he passes out on the table, knocking over one of the apparently full coffee cups.
I look at Rueben. He pulls a face.
“Would you rather I asked you to carry Gus to bed?” I ask him.
“Cleaning up, here I come,” Rueben says, heading for the sink.
Scout moves around the table and lifts Gus over his shoulder.
Gus is already snoring by the time Scout and I are headed up the stairs with our sound asleep bonded mates. I take not-Scarlett into the spare room and put her down on the bed. Taking her sneakers off gently, I stay quiet as I slip them onto the floor and put a blanket over her sleeping frame.
Her perfume is fainter now than it was when it was triggered, but it’s still intoxicatingly sweet and tempting. The desire to lay down beside her and stay with her until she’s awake comes and goes on an inhale and exhale. I ignore my impulses, moving away from the bed.
I leave the room and close the door quietly.
