Jude’s face turns red. “So, you didn’t just want me for sex?”
Bishop snorts as he moves back onto the bed, slotting himself against my side. “Jude, the sex was definitely a perk but not the point of this evening. We really just did want to get you off that stage without anything bad happening.”
“But why? Why me? What’s the point?” He snuggles further into my chest, his ear slotting over my heartbeat. Any otherOmega would have dragged their nose along my skin to catch my scent. But Jude isn’t just any other Omega.
“Because I want you,” I whisper against his head. “We both do. Bishop told me I had to wait and be good. And I was but I don’t want to be good anymore, Jude. I just want to hold you. Touch you. Kiss you. Knot you. I want...”
Jude stills a little before meeting my gaze and then twisting to look at Bishop. “And you? Because it seems like you’re running this show.”
I’m used to people looking to me for direction as the Alpha but I love the fact that Jude hasn’t. Bishop offers him a small smile. “I want anything you’re willing to give. But other than that, I just want to know the real Jude, the Omega who used to enjoy life.”
The Omega lets out a little grunt, his fingers splaying across my chest next to his ear. “No heart to hearts. Let’s just cuddle.”
I’m not complaining in the slightest as I tighten my arms around him and bury my nose in his hair.
jude
Iwakebeforeeitherof them because apparently, my survival instincts don’t care how warm the bed is.
For three breaths, I don’t move. The room is gray with early morning light, the blinds cutting pale lines across the floor and over the chair where my jeans are hanging half-off one arm. My shirt is near the desk. One sock is by the foot of the bed.
Hollis is asleep beside me, mostly on his stomach, one arm stretched across the space I must have crawled out of during the night. His face is buried in the pillow, his hair is a mess, andwithout all that eager Alpha attention turned outward, he looks enormous and soft in a way that makes my fingers curl against the sheet. His hand is open near my hip, like his body reached for me before his brain could tell it not to.
That’s the problem.
I slide out from under the blanket carefully, every muscle in my body protesting enough that I decide not to think about why. Thinking about why means thinking about last night, and thinking about last night means remembering Hollis shaking under me while trying so hard to stay still. It means remembering Bishop’s cock in my mouth and how perfect it felt there. It means remembering the way I stayed afterward longer than I should’ve because Hollis' purr was under my cheek and Bishop’s hand was warm against my back.
So I don’t think about it. I get dressed instead. My shirt is inside out when I find it, but fixing that would require taking longer, so I pull it over my head. My jeans make too much noise when I yank them off the chair. Hollis doesn’t stir, but I still freeze with one hand at my waistband. “Door’s not locked,” Bishop says.
I stop with one shoe in my hand, the rest of my clothes gathered badly against my chest. Bishop is sitting up against the headboard, awake enough that I know he saw the whole pathetic search-and-rescue mission for my jeans and kind enough not to comment on it. The blanket is low on his hips, his hair mussed, and his eyes are steady on my face instead of drifting anywhere else.
“I wasn’t sneaking,” I whisper.
Bishop doesn’t argue. He just looks at me, which feels worse than being called out. I shove my foot into the shoe and reach for the other one, already halfway to the door in my head, but his voice follows before I can get there.
“We want you, Jude. Not just another night like this, although I won’t complain if there’s a repeat. This is about wantingyou.”
My hand tightens around the second shoe. There’s a joke somewhere. There’s always a joke somewhere, some clean little exit wound I can use to get out of the room without bleeding out my emotions. This time, I can’t find it. Hollis breathes softly into the pillow between us, still asleep, still reaching across the empty space like his body hasn’t accepted I’m already gone.
“You don’t know me,” I throw back at Bishop, quickly rebuilding my mental walls.
“I know enough to want to.”
I glare at him as he slowly tangles his fingers with Hollis’, a gesture that holds more love and adoration in it than I can bear. I always knew Hollis was softer than the other Alphas on the team, but I had no idea he was such a... teddy bear.
My face scrunches up a little, my heart beating a little too fast for my liking, knowing full well my scent is probably sweetening as well. I make a mental note to grab blockers on the way to class. “I don’t do this,” I push out, refusing to let Bishop see anything I don’t want him to. Ever since that incident last year, I haven’t let anyone get close.
Mostly because they were using me but also because I didn’t want to get hurt again.
Bishop’s gaze holds mine. “I’m well aware, Jude. We also don’t do this.” His eyes drop to Hollis, a smile forming on his lips as he looks back at me. “My Alpha is precious to me but he can’t always be vulnerable around everyone. They weaponize it against him and he’s too nice to fight them back.” Bishop swallows carefully, tilting his head to the side, making me realize that last night wasn’t just a way for me to let go. It was also for Hollis. “If tonight was all there was, then I’m grateful for every moment of it. But if not? The offer stands when you change your mind.”
When.
I get the second shoe on without looking at him. The door is only six steps away, and I make all six before I can do something humiliating, like ask what he means by the offer or glance back at Hollis’ sleeping hand one more time. My fingers close around the knob and I swing the door open. “Don’t hold your breath,” I say. The words feel like ash on my tongue, though, because not once from the stage until this morning did they pounce onto my scent. They didn’t talk about the smell of my slick. They don’t tell me I smelled like whatever sweet, soothing thing it is that I smell like.
It was all about touch and consent and letting me drive the moment.
I don’t know what to do with that so I just hurry back to my dorm. Everything is exactly how I left it. One unmade bed. One desk covered in notebooks. One laundry basket I keep pretending is a temporary storage system. I check the time, realizing I have at least an hour before I have to be anywhere.
