“Shouldn’t have hit you.”
He shrugged. “You probably deserved a free shot.” He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tight, thumping me on the back. “She made us swear, Coop. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to keep my mouth shut, especially at the beginning. We loved her, Coop, but we loved you and Darius just as much.”
“He won’t forgive you as easily. He won’t take a swing—he probably even likes Kitten—but he’s still hurt.”
Corvin dropped his arms with a sigh. “I know. How about we get past this insanity, and then we reorientate ourselves, okay? She mightn’t even want to stay. Might be just as angry with us as you are right now.”
I sucked in a deep breath. The scent of Omega now permeated every inch of our house. Both Kitten and Darius’s scents had combined to make something mouthwateringly exquisite, and I wasn’t sure I would ever forget it, even if she did decide to leave.
Something inside me ached at that thought, but I pushed it away. An Omega in heat made you feel insane things, and I wasn’t going to give into the sensations quite yet. “You guys need to wrap your shit up before Kitten has her own damn litter.”
“Unless you have Saran wrap and a roll of duct tape, no condom was going to fit on Beckett’s shifted dick,” Corvin joked, though he probably wasn’t exaggerating. To even imagine that tiny woman riding that…
“How does that even work?”
A throat cleared behind us, and I knew the sound like I knew my own laugh. “Well, Coop, when two people feel mutually attracted to each other, sometimes they fornicate. This involves—”
I flipped Beckett the bird. “I know what it involves, asshole. I just spent fifteen minutes cleaning up all your damn ‘involvement.’” I looked at him hard, taking in his relaxed shoulders but the wild flash of his eyes, showing the Alpha was still riding him. “I just hope you guys know what you’re doing.” I slapped a hand lightly down on the countertop. “Go and cuddle the Omegas. I’ll make some food and bring it up.”
Corvin quirked an eyebrow. “Stepping into the role of Beta, are you Coop?”
I opened the fridge door, looking at the meager offerings we had in there. It was difficult to think about food when your dick was sitting hard against your stomach. Gritting my teeth, I tried to block out the smell of Omega.
“Someone has to stop you fuckers from going feral and wasting away into nothing. Now get the hell out of here before I decide to abandon the lot of you to your own devices.”
Corvin swaggered off, the light in his eyes telling me he was excited about what was happening here right now. Beckett had always been the more sensitive of us, which kind of made his betrayal worse. Corvin was big and fearless. His word meant everything to him. But Beckett, while still being big and fearless, also had an empathy, which was what had attracted Darius and endeared him to me in the first place.
He paused, his jaw tense like he wanted to say something to fill the silence between us. “You shouldn’t hide yourself away down here. When she’s a little less needy, you should meet her properly. I think you’d like her.”
I chewed my lip as I stared into the fridge. “That’s the problem though, isn’t it? I know I’ll like her, because you and Corvin love her, and you are the best males I know. But she doesn’t have to love us at all.”
Beckett reached out and gripped my chin, pulling me close so he could rub his cheek against mine. Sometimes we played as a group, because I mean, there was only one Darius and some days just called for an orgy. So we all played, but it was a casual thing, more when you needed an extra hand, or mouth, or both. What we had, more than that, was affection. A bone-deep love for each other, and that love was physical as well as emotional, not just always sexual.
It was hard to explain. But the cheek rubbing, the hugs—they were as integral to our Pack as mate marks and sex.
They were expressions of love.
“If you trust our judgment about her, just trust me about this too. I can’t promise it won’t end bad, but I just feel it deep down in my gut, you know? This is going to be something good.”
With that, he patted my back once more and turned on his heel, heading back up the stairs after Corvin. I trusted Beckett with my life and with Darius. I guess I could trust him with my heart too.
9
KITTEN
When the heat broke, it was like a rubber band snapping. Days of sleeping and fucking and eating and fucking and sleeping on repeat, and suddenly all that was left was a overwhelming tiredness. I sat up, looking over the naked bodies strewn around me. Most of the past few days were hazy, but I vividly remembered the begging, the expression on Corvin’s face while he made love to me, the softness of Darius’s lips. Beckett’s monster coc—
“Your heat’s broken?”
I looked over at the other Alpha in Darius’s Pack. Cooper, that was his name. He looked like a Cooper. His hair was a messy blond, his eyes a pretty blue, and he looked like he’d be more at home on a surfboard than in the wilderness. But he had slight lines between his brows that told me he took the world seriously, in the same way that the small creases at the corners of his eyes told me he laughed often. A perfect balance.
I stretched, ignoring my nakedness. Too late for modesty now. Pretty sure the guy in front of me had wiped more bodily fluids off me than my own mother had. “Yes.” I held his eyes so he knew I wasn’t ashamed of what had happened.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t angry. Or scared. I just didn’t know who to be angry at just yet, and there was no need to be scared because my two white knights had appeared just when I needed them. Again.
I was pissed about that too.
“Do you need help to the shower? I could run you a bath, maybe?” He was speaking in a soft voice so he didn’t wake up his Packmates, and when I looked at him, I could see the slight edges of the same anger that burned low in me. He was mad, but not at me.
