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“Will you still write to me?” I asked him. I’d loved reading his letter. It felt intimate and personal. My brother and I used to write to each other when he was in the military and I’d always enjoyed it. Both writing to him and getting his letters. I felt like people said more in letters than they ever would in person.
That slow spreading grin made an appearance, the one that lit up his whole face and made my heart skip a beat. “If you’d like.”
“I’d like,” I replied. We stared at each other, not needing anymore words, just feeling each other in the bond, until Dio coughed “dork” loudly.
Sam broke our intense stare-off to spin and attempt to dunk Dio again. I smiled at their antics, but rubbed at my chest. The new bond with Sam was thrumming brightly and his power felt familiar, like a piece of me that had always been missing.
Yet that dark, empty spot I’d felt earlier was a building ache that was tainting this moment, and the power circling through us all was becoming increasingly agitated and unsettled. I looked up to see Pala watching me carefully from the other side of the rock pool. He glided towards me, his long hair floating out around him like liquid midnight.
“What’s wrong, my heart?”
“Something’s missing,” I replied, as I rubbed my chest.
“No. Someone’s missing.” He removed my hand from my chest and lifted me slightly to kiss the spot instead. “So what are you going to do about it, my heart?”
He was watching me intently, but without judgment. Like he was waiting for me to realize something.
Looking at him watching me so patiently, I had a moment of clarity. Like the world suddenly came into focus, and I knew why he always called me the endearment that I loved so much. If I were a cartoon character, a lightbulb would have just lit up above my head.
It wasn’t just because I’d captured his heart, like I initially thought. It was because I was the heart. The heart of the pack.
The world had it wrong. Omegas weren’t tempting, empty vessels to be fucked and bred. Or dominated and exploited. We drew people in because we instinctively created families, packs, around us. We were what bonded people together. Or we used to be.
I’d heard Damon refer to Maia as their heart recently and Max as their center. I hadn’t really understood what they meant, thinking they were just affectionate terms. But it was so much more than that. I was the heart of my pack. Now I just needed to get them their reluctant center to balance us out before Sam’s power threw us all off kilter.
I smiled at him slowly, and he matched it. “That’s my girl.”
“Dave,” I screamed at the top of my voice, startling Dio and Sam so much they froze in place.
Pounding footsteps echoed in the ensuing silence.
thirty-six
Daveroundedthebendat a full sprint, closely followed by Bear, and slid to a stop behind me at the edge of the pool. He swiveled around, looking in every direction for a potential threat.
“What happened?”
Dio and Sam just looked from me to Dave and back again. Sam still had Dio in a playful, loose headlock. Pala just spun me around in his arms until I was facing Dave.
I suddenly didn’t know where to start now that Dave was here. “Uh, do you want to come in for a swim?” I asked him.
“You screamed my name like you were being murdered, so you could ask if I wanted to swim?”
“No. I screamed your name because you were so damned far away it was the only way you could hear me.”
“I can’t swim right now,” he said, as he looked over his shoulder distractedly towards the entrance, then looked around at the lights setup as if he was checking for safety issues. Basically looking at anything but me. “I have to go check in with Max. He hasn’t surfaced, even with Maia’s return, which means he’s gone down a rabbit hole looking through the intel Pala brought back. Then I need to check in on the guys at the top gate.”
He finally looked in my direction, but kept his eyes on the rocks behind me. “I can take you for a swim tomorrow. Maybe at the bigger hot spring outside?”
I sighed, deeply, like from really deep down in my toes, before I raised my eyebrow at him. Dave suddenly looked unsure of himself. It was a look I’d never seen on him before. He was always so confident. “Why do I need to get in the hot spring right now?” He asked as he glanced at all of us.
We weren’t cramped in here, but we were all floating around naked, with arms and legs brushing against each other. I knew I was asking a lot. I was asking him to take a leap. It was time.
“Because we need to talk, yet there always seems to be a reason we can’t. I finally figured out there’s always going to be a reason, an emergency, someone or something that needs checking on. But right now, I need you.”
“We need you,” Pala added, and I could have kissed him.
I sounded like a petulant five-year-old to my own ears, and I hated it. This conversation wasn’t getting off to the start I wanted, and my frustration was showing. I wasn’t good at having conversations about my emotions or my feelings. Forcing this conversation felt awkward and weird, but it was necessary.
