Thisis odd.
I don’t get embarrassed, I don’t think I’ve ever felt shy, but I might be experiencing a touch of both right now. I doubt Dimitri usually feels those things, either, but the stupid smile on his face says he might be, too.
“Two alphas walk into a bar…”
My smile grows as I turn on my stool, facing Styx as Dimitri does the same.
“I saw the footage,” he says, looking at our alpha with a smirk as I lean back against the wood and pull him between my knees. “Row cleaned your fucking clock.”
“That’s my girl, Red.” I pucker and he gives me a quick kiss before reaching for the water and a few napkins. “If she didn’t have giant lady balls, could she really be my scent match?”
“No,” he says with a snort as he starts cleaning the dried blood on Dimitri’s face. “And judging by the way she hit you then clearly threatened you, I’d say it has something to do withheromega.”
Our alpha fights a snarl, one that turns into a hiss as Styx pushes hard on the bridge of his nose. “That fucking hurts.”
“It fucking should,” Styx fires back. “Obviously you fucked something up somewhere and since it involves our omegas, I’ll keep your nose busted just so I can use the pain to break you of that possessive streak you keep trying to paint down the middleof our pack. You know, the one that isn’t exclusive to Mikhail anymore. Sharing is caring, you big ape.”
Dimitri looks between us, his blue eye bouncing back and forth before he blows out a breath. “This is all new for me.”
“Us too, sugar tits,” I say as I reach over and pat his knee. “New, exciting, terrifying to the point of shitting your pants.” Then I slide my hand up his thigh and flick his dick through his jeans. “Maybe if you explain the way you royally fucked up whatever you had with Mikhail, and how it’s connected to the reason why you’re running from your own family, we could sort through your bullshit. I think that’s a good starting point, anyway. As much as I liked watching it, I don’t think it’s healthy for our omegas to harbor enough hostility to want to rough up anyone in our pack outside of the bedroom. Behind closed doors? Totally different. So, let’s get to the bottom of your shit so we can?—”
“Don’t,” Styx snorts as he keeps working on Dimitri’s face. “Don’t even think it.”
“Too late.” I slide my fingers up his thighs and grab a healthy handful of his ass in each of my hands. “Thought it. Visualized it. Now I need it.” I wink at Dimitri as I squeeze my beta’s cheeks hard. “You can come, too. I know you’re not ready to join in and frankly, until you start talking, I don’t think you should, but you like to watch and we like it when you do. The front seat reclines so we can kill two birds with one stone.”
“Sex and therapy?” Dimitri moves our beta’s hands away from his face with a smirk then turns to get off his stool. “I don’t think I’m ready for either but maybe we can talk after I have a smoke.”
A smile of victory splits my face as we watch our alpha weave through the tables and head out the back door.
“I’d be fine with Pack Volkov.”
Styx looks at me with a frown. “Really?”
I nod and start massaging his ass. “Pack Glass sounds fucking stupid. I don’t think Rune has a last name, so that’s out, even though he’s clearly the most alpha, alpha that ever lived. Adder is fabulous but big brother has dibs there, and I think it’s a little unorthodox for a pack to be named after an omega, whether they go by an alias, or not.”
It has happened, though. Probably more than I’m familiar with but I know for a fact there’s a big ass omega-run crime family out of New York who all go by the two founding omega’s last names. They have a pretty big beef withKing Daddyas a matter of fact.
“Are pack names even a thing anymore?”
“Why wouldn’t they be a thing?” I ask with a frown.
I’ve always hoped—secretly, of course—that I’d get to be a part of a pack and take on the same name as the rest of it to show the bonds we shared. Not having a family made me want it more than most people probably do. Judging by Styx’s question, I might have romanticized the fuck out of it and will need to hide the way this will crush my fucking soul.
“You are extremely dramatic,” my beta says as he cups my cheeks and gives me a sweet kiss. “Romantic, but dramatic as fuck, and whether it’s a thing or not, if being Pack Volkov makes you happy, I’ll make it happen.”
I love how well he knows me after such a short period of time. I love the way Dimitri seems to get me already, too. I can only hope things are as easy with the other three members of our pack because I knowI’mnot easy to be with, and I really want to be with them.
I want to be in love with them, and I don’t want it to be a one-sided thing. I spent a lot of time on the wrong side of that, and I don’t want it to happen with my pack. I know in my gut that the five of them are my pack, and I want them more than I realized.It’s unflattering and unsettling how desperately I want us to be Pack Volkov.
I also want to see all of them naked and full of my cum, but I need them to tolerate me first, the same way Styx and Dimitri do.
Tolerating me is a good starting point.
Tolerance leads to acceptance, and acceptance must inevitably lead to love. Since I’ve never gotten past tolerance with anyone—present company excluded—that makes the most sense.
That’s what I’m telling myself, and I can be pretty fucking convincing.
CHAPTER 24
