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While Parker busies himself drooling over my men, I feel August’s hand wrap around my hips all sneaky-like, making a thrill race through my body. He hasn’t touched me a whole lot this week because he’s been respecting my boundaries. Now that he’s apparently gotten the green light from my alphas though, it seems that there’s no reason for him to keep his hands to himself.
His fingertips dance in circles around my hip, and it makes me straighten out my spine and sit upright more while my head hangs a bit precariously, enjoying the simple touch.
“Shut up, you guys are adorable. I’ve never been with a beta before. I’ll be expecting to receive your notes later.” Parker gets up and winks at us as he goes into the bathroom, and then August is crowding me into the couch, his face close enough for me to count how many whiskers he has. If, you know, I was that bored. Maybe I should do it anyway to distract myself, because right now I was having some R-rated thoughts.
“They also told me they’ll be picking us up for dinner tomorrow night, and said they’d have a dress delivered tomorrow, along with some of your clothes.”
I miss the warmth of his hand as he pulls it back to talk to me, but his body stays close. It makes it a little awkward to watch his fingers, so I know what he’s saying, but I’m not about to ask him to scoot back. “And they really didn’t have anything to say about me wanting to be with you?You should know that I’m running out of reasons not to kiss you.”
His eyes heat up a little bit, but he keeps his hands where they are. Which is probably for the best since Parker will be back out here at any second. “They told me to have you call them or text them if you wanted to double check. I think it made them sad to think of someone else touching you without them around, but they’re okay with us.”
“Okay kids. I think it’s my bedtime. And by bedtime, I mean that I’m ready for my alpha to take me home and knot me. I texted him, he’s ready whenever you want to bring me back over to the office.”
August leaves me with a kiss to the hand, and I use the quiet time to text the guys. There’s a group chat I use so that one text will get to all three of them. Unsure how to begin communication, I send them an awkward, ‘hi’, and then bite my nail waiting for a response.
Colter: Oh, thank fuck. Are you doing okay? Calai, I’m so sorry I was such a mega jerk. I hate that I hurt you.
Kit: Just your text has my knot swelling for you. Is August treating you well? Do you need anything?
James: Please tell me you’re less mad at me since I helped you get away. I miss you something fierce, omega.
All their relief hits me square in the chest, and even though I thought I was done crying, it happens again. I take a minute to calm down before replying to all three of them.
Calai: I’m…well-ish. August has been wonderful. He is just bringing Parker back to the office so that Owen can take him back home.
Kit: And you want to be with him? He told us you did, but I wanted to make sure it was what you wanted as well. Can we do a video call-
His text ends abruptly and then there’s an incoming video call, because apparently they don’t believe that it’s actually me texting? Or maybe they’re just as desperate to see me as I am to see them. I settle in on the couch, tucking a blanket around my legs before accepting the call.
They’re all sort of pushing at each other to see the screen better, and their banter makes a smile creep onto my face.
“Fuck I miss that smile. I’m so sorry, Calai. I have no excuse for my behavior. I fucked up,” Kit looks so sincere that I believe he feels bad and knows how much his betrayal hurt me.
“Me too, Calai. This house is so empty without you here to warm it up. We’ve been sick all week playing back how that night went down, and you have no idea how badly we wish we could go back and re-do it all.”
James is just smiling at me, which breaks me. I smile back and feel my traitorous heart warming towards them. I don’t know that I full stop forgive them yet, but something has mended inside of me.
“Thank you,” I tell them, unsure what else to say. “I’m still working through everything, and I’m still hurt that you chose Gavin over me, but I believe that you’re sorry.”
“How is your injury? It’s been absolute hell for us knowing you were injured and that we couldn’t do anything about it. All we want to do is take care of you and keep you safe. Even though we did a piss-poor job of that at Parker’s house. We should have let you talk before we jumped to conclusions or let our own insecurities affect us.”
“Insecurities? What insecurities? You’re alphas. What on earth could you be insecure about?”
“You. Always you,” James says. “Even though we’ve claimed you, and even though we’ve fucked up every single aspect of our courtship, we are always going to feel the need to prove ourselves to you. You wear our mark, but we haven’t done anything to deserve that yet.”
I mull this over a little bit. “Yes you have. If we’re clearing the air, then I suppose I need to apologize as well. I was angry that you took me, but looking back, and now knowing what I do about how I ended up at that compound, I’m grateful that you rescued me. “I wasn’t really living there. You all gave me a home.”
“You mean that? You still consider this your home?” Kit’s eyes shine a bit as he asks this, further warming me.
“I do. I’m not ready to move back in, but I do miss that place.”
“Can we please see your injury?”
Knowing nothing else will happen until I've appeased their innate need to care for me, I pull my t-shirt up over the tank top I've got on. I'm thanking my forethought to dress in layers when I was borrowing August's clothes, because now I'm not flashing them the goods.
Truthfully, most of the pain is gone by now. It's tender of course, if directly prodded, but mostly it just looks really gross with the yellowish green splotches radiating out of the darker blue impact in the middle from Gavin’s fist.
None of them say anything at first and I'm too nervous to look at their faces while they evaluate me, but it's not long before the cussing and threats start.
