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I stepped into the shower, looping my arms around his shoulders and lifting my face for the beta’s kisses, the warm water running over my hair to my breasts, my stomach, my back, my legs.
There was time for my omega tomorrow. Tonight–tonight would just be for me.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
Gray
“You knowthey’re fucking in there,” I said to Lucas. We had put away the leftover Thai and were back on the couch, once again sitting in front of the tv. Neither of us were watching it.
“I do, yeah.” He looked back at me, deadpan. “Do you have a problem with that? I need to know about it before her heat starts in earnest.”
I hesitated, trying to search through the tangle of emotions in my chest for the most truthful one. Honestly?
“I…” I sank back against the leather couch cushions.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure.
“Is it Madison you’re worried about, or is it Rian?” the other alpha asked.
“It’sme, you asshole,” I said fondly. “I’m worried aboutme, obviously.”
Lucas and I had grown up together. We had been best friends, as children. And then–we’d both presented alpha, and suddenly, our tight friendship becameuncomfortablytight. I didn’t understand then why we started drifting apart, I’d assumed that was just what happened when people presented, when they went off to college and grad school and slowly just… stopped being friends.
Then we’d met Rian, each of us, individually, and not realized that the other alpha our beta friend talked about was That Gray, was That Lucas, and then… Rian and I had started sleeping together, and suddenly things got serious, and I found myself staring into Lucas’s face and saying “oh, we’ve actually met before” at an awkward three-top table at a shitty bar downtown. And even more suddenly, we were three, and it was Lucas and Rian and Gray, with two bites on Rian’s perfect body and a lot of history to unpack between his two alphas.
And we found that our too-tight friendship worked better than imagined, once we were both adults, and I had the guts and the balls to step down and back, to let Lucas step up and lead us.
And it had been like that–Lucas and Rian and Gray, two bites on one beta–for years now. We both loved Rian, and we loved each other, too, Lucas and I, in a different way.
Lucas was looking at me, brows furrowed, as I contemplated my words.
“Madison is…” I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my face. “She’s into him.”
“Yes, she is. Is that a problem?”
“No.”Fuck.“It’s not a problem. It’s a good thing. It’s a very good thing, right now.”
“I should say so,” Lucas said, a smile teasing at his lips. “Considering they’re in the shower together.”
“Fuck off. Imean, it’s great she’s into him,for her heat.It just… long term,” Lucas raised his eyebrows, but I ignored it. I knew he was hoping the same thing that I was. “It makes things complicated. Rian’s been with us for a long time. What if–”
“No, stop.” Lucas said. “Don’t try to pin this on Rian. ‘What if Rian decides he doesn’t want us anymore?’ ‘What if Rian decides he’d rather be with an omega?’ Youknowthat’s bullshit. He’s having a nice time with a nice omega right now, an omegaweinvited over for dinner, an omegawehave been chasing, an omega who isdepending on us–”
“What if you decide you don’t wantme?” I snarled. I stood, unable to keep still, and Lucas looked up at me, a look of surprise on his face. “An omega, an alpha, a beta. That’s three. That’s– That’s–” Suddenly I was the gangly teen I had been just after presentation, still growing into new muscles, new emotion, new feelings; I wanted to punch Lucas, without reason. I clenched my fists by my sides.
The sound of a moan drifted through the walls and into both of our ears, and I squeezed my eyes closed against the involuntary reaction of my cock, taking a deep breath.
I heard the soft creak of the leather couch, then felt Lucas’s hands on my arms, pulling me into his chest for a hug, the quiet brush of his lips on my cheek. We didn’t kiss often, and never sexually, but sometimes… we were packmates, after all. We were closer than brothers.
“Rian would never leave you,” Lucas said. “And neither will I, Gray. Remember? We tried that, it didn’t last.” I could hear his smile in his words.
“I know,” I said. I did know, but I needed the reassurance tonight. “We are pack.”
“That’s right,” he said, stepping back, giving me space. “Pack. You, me, and Rian. That’s how it’s always been.”
I was just beginning to feeling better when he continued.
“That’s how it will always be.”
