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“Did you tell her what to wear?” Austin turns to Felix, who shrugs. “And why does it smell like another alpha was here today?”
He slowly looks at me, as if I am the one that smuggled an alpha into his space. I lift my eyebrows, a little shocked neither Felix nor Dean spilled the beans.
“Felix is a sigma now,” I say as I push to my feet. Dropping the bomb like I am a Night Witch bomber from World War II. While he is still absorbing that fact, I stroll over to my room, putting an extra sway in my hips, knowing they are both watching. “What should I put on?”
When Austin doesn’t answer, still in shock obviously, Felix says, “Omega females wear slinky dresses. They are more arm candy than people.”
That is how Austin wants me to dress? Like arm candy?
CHAPTER26
Audrey
I wantto say when I re-emerge fifteen minutes later in the shortest black dress possible, without flashing everyone my ass cheeks with each step, that a thrill doesn’t shoot straight to my core at the three matching hungry looks on the guys’ faces.
But I’d be lying.
Dean changed into a pair of gray sweats and a loose fitted t-shirt, while the other two are dressed as if they are attending a cocktail party. Actually, seeing Felix dressed earlier should have given me some sort of clue, but I was too in my head.
All three of them are eye candy regardless of what they wear, and I can’t help but check them out. Austin looks like he stepped right out ofOmega in Paradise,and he’s ready to sweep me off my feet. While Felix is the bad boy that has tried to clean up, his piercings and hair are at odds with his expensive suit. And Dean, he is the furthest thing from a Saint in those gray sweats that make him look like he has a fucking baseball bat running down his leg.Thathas to be in my imagination. I tear my eyes back up and put them where they should be, on their faces.
Austin holds out a mask as I approach. There are silver beads that line the eye holes, embedded on a black velvet, with soft black feathers that come off the edges. Silk strings allow it to be tied at any tightness around my head. His expression doesn’t look like he noticed my appraisal from a moment ago. Thank goodness for small blessings.
“Put it on before we leave. The paparazzi were downstairs when I came home.”
At his soft words, I pause, my fingers curling over the mask, my heart rate spiking because he knows the cameras upset me, and he cares enough to protect me in his way. Is this what people were talking about when they would say that alphas expect the needs of their omega and meet them without being asked? It makes me nervous for reasons I would rather not examine.
After fumbling with the tie for a few seconds, Austin releases a heavy sigh and circles me, taking the ties from my fingers and deftly tying the mask securely. A shiver of awareness skates through me when he leans over my shoulder and inhales, his warm palm searing a hole right above the swell of my ass on my back.
“Is it too tight?” His soft question catches me off guard, and goosebumps explode along my arms. He trails two fingers along my skin over the gooseflesh. “Are you cold?”
I suppress a shudder as I shake my head, not trusting myself to speak. While Felix catches my gaze and tells me with his expression, he knows exactly what is wrong with me.
“I don’t want to miss the first fight. Let’s go,” Dean says. He is still distant, broken.
“Wait, why aren’t you in a suit?” I ask.
His jaw tenses, and he ignores me. What in the world happened to the sweet alpha? It knocks me off my axis. I thought I had them figured out. But I don’t.
They have layers that would take months to peel away. I’ve entered a topsy-turvy reality where Austin is sweet and caring, and Dean is distant and hurt.
Austin doesn’t answer either as he follows Dean out. But Felix pauses, looking at me fully. “Saint is fighting.”
The air punches out of my lungs in a surprised whoosh. Fighting? Austin seems more the type to hop into a fight ring than Dean.
“Don’t look so surprised. He’s good. There is nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not…I wasn’t worried.”
He chuckles, seeming more like himself for the first time since I locked myself in my room. And I want to keep him smiling, make him laugh some more. Find that place we had been in before everything. It is an unexplained impulse, but when I say everything inside of me wants that, I meaneverything.
“Come on,” he says, holding his hand out for me to take as if he senses the need growing between us, too.
Hesitating only a moment, I wrap my fingers around his, and he leads me out of the safety of the apartment. The other two are waiting for the elevator, and when the doors open and they step inside, I follow. Because what are they going to do to me in the elevator that they couldn’t have already done to me in the apartment? It seems silly now, the first morning’s hesitance. The danger is greater inside the apartment, as I’ve learned on two occasions. Three if you count just now.
Once inside, they form a ‘v’ around me. Dean stands in front, where I can’t see his face, and Austin and Felix flank me. Their scents mingle in a pleasant mixture that makes me want to breathe them all in. Or roll around on each of them so I can carry them with me. The thought had barely formed when Austin steps closer, his hand falling to my lower back again as he dips his head closer.
“I forgot one thing,” he murmurs. “You need to smell like you belong with us.”
