"For fuck’s sake," Riot growls and jumps to his feet. "I've had enough of self-sacrificing bullshit to last a lifetime."
As he says this, Riot grabs the front of Silas' shirt and yanks him off the couch. Jarek stands, looking ready to fight, but I tune into Vivian instead. She's curious and calm.
"What the hell, Riot?" Silas exclaims trying to push the alpha off him.
Riot doesn't let go. If anything, he gets even closer. "You may think nobody's noticed, but I have. I've seen how you're trying to be everything for everyone. You're exhausting yourself, and it ends now."
"I'm not?—"
Riot snarls and grips Silas' shirt tighter. "Youare. Just be you! Let us fail and struggle. Kade deserved it for his poor choice of words. Why would you try to protect him?"
"Because I'm the beta! It's my job to make sure everyone is okay. I may be over compensating but our worst fear came to life, and I'm scrambling to make it all better."
As if Riot has all the confidence in the world, he scoffs. "Well, that's enough of that. We all have each other to lean on. Nobody wants you to be anything but yourself. So stop," he snaps and shocks the shit out of all of us when he pulls Silas into a kiss.
Kiss isn't the right word. They go from just their mouths to tongue fucking each other’s throats in a split second.
"Shit," Jarek curses, immediately adjusting himself in his jeans. I agree.
The only thing that stops them from ripping each other’s clothes off is the heady expansion of Vivian's perfume. She wiggles against me, and I can tell she's holding back a needy whimper.
Silas and Riot pant for the same breath as they press their foreheads together. Riot's voice is thick with emotion and lust when he reiterates, "We need you to be taken care of too, babe. I'll keep an eye on you."
We need to keep trying to be better for each other.
Everything is out in the open. The next thing to do is move forward.
Together.
Twenty-Six
Vivian
"Eat, babe," Riot demands, slapping Silas' ass.
In the past two days since they made out for the first time, they've become exceptionally comfortable with each other.
Silas grumbles and finally takes his attention off me. I swear he's been counting the number of bites I've taken of my leftover pasta. He's only slightly driving me crazy, but I get it. We're all dealing with the trauma of these past two months in our own ways.
I haven't been out to the garden since my meltdown, even though everyone has assured me it's fixed. There's no sign I lost my shit, but I remember it. It was awful, and I'm not ready to face it yet. I have other things to focus on.
It takes a lot to remind my body and mind that I haven't eaten since eight in the morning. Kade and the others thought it would be good to exercise my ability to separate myself from Riot, which just means Riot will go on as is and I need to work through the differences.
He already ate lunch, and I just started a few minutes ago. I was starving an hour ago, but I'm not anymore, all because my alpha is full fromhisfood. What I'm feeling isn'tme.
I've gotten a few hunger cues, but I really have to focus. Which makes this an incredibly stressful event. I feel like I'm overeating, when in reality, my body is begging for food.
Now that Silas is taking care of himself and eating, I relax in my chair at the dining room table. Still, he hovers at the island watching over me, but it feels less suffocating.
At least for a moment.
Riot closes the fridge and saunters behind Silas. His low rumbling purr as he dips his head into our beta's neck sends tingles straight to my core.
A ringing starts in my ears, drowning out Riot's words, but judging by Silas' red cheeks and eyes rolling into the back of his head, they're sexy words. My uterus cramps ever so slightly, and if I weren't working on my awareness, I'd say my stomach was too full.
But no. Riot's tongue flicks out, licking up the side of Silas' throat. My pussy clenches and the cramp twists harder.No, not now!
"Firefly, what's happening?"
