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Chapter Twenty-four
Colter
“You don’t think she’s going to cancel on us, do you?”
James smacks my shoulder reassuringly, and Kit gives me a tight smile. But neither one of them answers. I don’t think I’ve ever questioned my confidence quite as much before. Being an alpha, I’m used to walking into a room, and knowing that I’ll essentially get what I want. Not many people will tell an alpha no. So, I’m unfamiliar with this feeling. The feeling that the woman of my dreams, might do just that. She has every right to tell me no.
I know that if she were to waltz into this house right this second, and tell us that there is too much damage done, that she didn’t want to try anymore, and she asked us for this house? I don’t even know that we’d stop to pack a suitcase. We’re so eager to please her, even to the detriment of our own well-being at this point, as evidenced by how little we've paused for any self care this week. But that’s how it should be. General consensus is that alphas run this world. It’s a little-known fact that the omegas they bind themselves to control them. So in effect, you win over the omega, you have full power. It’s Calai that runs my world; that runsallof our worlds.
August steps in first from the back door, with his hands clasped in front of him. He’s got a nice dinner jacket on like all of us do, and we're all basically matching. White button up shirts, nice pants, leather shoes, slight variations and color tone, but that's about it. His beard looks slightly trimmed, like he just spent some time making it look nice. The man has a great beard.
“Shecomes,” he tells us. He only uses simple words around us because he knows that that’s all we can understand in his language so far. “She’s…afraid.”
“Why?” I ask him.
He doesn’t seem to know how to explain in our limited vocabulary; so, he grabs a notepad that we’ve kept out on the counter for this very reason, scribbling down a quick note.
She’s not used to wearing dresses like this, or having her makeup done. She feels a little uncomfortable because she doesn’t know how you’ll take it. I think she feels beautiful, but she also doesn’t feel quite like herself.
She knows she could go in leggings and a ratty t-shirt if she wanted to, right?I write back.
You won’t be saying that when you see her in that dress.
How right he is. She slides the door open slowly, stepping through with high intent. She’s picked out some of the heels we bought her, a strappy somewhat low heel that wraps around her ankle in a delicate buckle. As her legs move, the slit in her dress reveals almost her entire leg, nearing her hip bone. The whole line of her skin showing is so erotic. My thoughts immediately cloud over, because all I can see is that leg wrapped around one of us as we thrust inside of her.
And then I take in the rest of her. The black gauzy fabric, the skirt of it brushing the ground and dancing around her ankles, flowing down from the waist. Not sure who picked this particular dress out, but they deserve a prize or medal. It’s got sort of short sleeves on it, but they’re slit at the shoulder so that they flutter around her arms. And the V neck. I want to lick all that gorgeous skin on display, her cleavage calling out to me. I’m imagining running my tongue up and down that line I can see, tasting her warmth.
And all of that is nothing on her beauty. She kept the makeup light, just some lip color, some stain on her cheek, and some stuff on her eyelids. But whatever she did makes her eyes just stand out like crazy. And her hair? She’s done something to it so that her curls are glossy and smooth, springy even. Pinned behind one ear, she looks like she came from a film noir.
“Um… Hello.”
Crickets.
The ever-steady beta steps up, taking her hands and pulling her forward. “See I told you you’d make them speechless. Just because you’re not used to feeling this beautiful, doesn't mean you aren’t. Look at their faces right now and tell me that they're not seconds away from grabbing you and dragging you to the nearest flat surface.”
Some of the effects of August’s words are ruined when Calai has to interpret them for us, but it's made all the better by the way she stammers across the words, stumbling like she’s a little bit drunk. I know that if her skin were lighter, we’d be seeing a hell of a blush, just as I also I know that if I would have put my fingertips to her cheeks right now, I’d feel heat.
“I’m thinking we go in tonight armed,” Kit tells us simply. James nods, heading off towards our gun safe.
“Wait,” I tell them. James stops and looks at me like I’m crazy.
“I just… don’t want her to be uncomfortable.”
James looks between Calai and us, several times, his eyes lingering on her silhouette. “You do see her, correct? If I’m not armed, how on earth am I supposed to beat off all the bastards that are going to try and take her away? She’s so fucking beautiful right now that it literally hurts my eyes. And you want me to bring her in public? With no weapon?”
We look to Calai to be our deciding vote.
“Surely you’re joking,” she says with a nervous laugh. “Unless you plan on taking me to a strange, violent place for dinner, I can’t imagine that would be at all necessary.”
“It’s not,” I sigh. “I just… you’re a knockout. And your bite marks are well on display in this dress, which is why I’m sure it got added to your wardrobe, but I’m probably going to want to blind anyone that looks at you like there's a possibility you could be theirs.”
She rolls her eyes and stalks off. Grabbing a jacket and her purse, she exits through the front door and heads towards the car.
“So…” James asks, “guns? Or no?”
Are you guys always this dumb?August scribbles down.
“Welcome to the family brother,” James signs back.
