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“You’ve got a kitchen and everything you could need in here. Why the hell are you living down in that tiny cabin, cute as it is, when you could be up here?” Maia asked.
I just shrugged, but Maia didn’t notice. She’d already spun away, trying to take everything in. I grabbed the plate back from her before she dropped it.
“What’s up there?” Ava asked, pointing to the stairs.
“A loft bedroom. There’s an A-frame ceiling with a skylight and an enormous picture window at the end. It’s beautiful. It has mattresses and blankets all over the floor, so it’s comfy too.”
“It sounds heavenly,” Ava said sweetly.
I was suddenly uncomfortable, feeling like I should offer to show it to them, but I really didn’t want anyone up there. Especially other omegas.
“It’s okay,” Maia said as she touched my arm gently, suddenly serious. “I get it. We can stay down here.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, feeling grateful for these two women. “Dio thinks I unconsciously designed this place as a pack house, complete with a nest for myself.”
“Did you?” Ava asked quietly, like she was trying not to spook me. For a good little omega princess, she seemed to be endlessly curious about packs, heats, and nests. Everything the Palace said was illegal or had forced into extinction. I didn’t know if it was her natural instincts coming through or something else.
I shrugged, trying to sort through the barrage of feelings that were bombarding me right now. “We intended it as a hangout pad when we built it, but the guys have never spent much time here. It never occurred to me that I could live up here. It didn’t feel right somehow, or didn’t feel right yet? I don’t know,” I said as I sighed in frustration, staring at the plate in my hand as if it had all the answers. It was a lot of pressure to put on bacon.
Everything had felt so easy, like it fell naturally into place with Dio. But I’d been away from him for five minutes and now I was getting antsy. I suddenly wanted a hug from him in the worst way. It was disconcerting. I’d been so independent and self contained for years. Keeping everyone at arm’s length for fear of triggering something in me. Now, suddenly, I felt like I needed him near or I couldn’t breathe right.
Maia slid her hand down my arm to grab my other hand. “Here, let’s sit and we can talk it out.”
I followed her and put the plate on the timber coffee table before I plonked down on one of the comfy couches in the living area.
“Is this the same couch as in the guys’ cabin?” Maia asked, running her hands over the soft sage colored leather.
“Yeah, they had their u-shape couch custom made to fit the sunken living room in their cabin, and their size. I liked it too. So they got a few three seaters to put up here at the same time.”
With the green couch and the blue kitchen bringing all the colors from outside, inside, it made the tree house feel even more open.
I grabbed a hash brown for comfort as Maia snuggled into my side while munching on some bacon. Ava sat on my other side on the floor at my feet and helped herself too. She froze when Bear plonked himself down almost on her feet, but he just looked from her to the bacon and back again.
Ava grabbed some off the plate and held it out to him hesitantly. He grabbed it with his teeth so gently and delicately, avoiding her fingers, that she relaxed. He bumped her leg with his giant head in thanks and promptly fell asleep snuggled against her, making her smile.
Being here with these two women felt nice. It felt right. I’d spent a lot of time around women but I’d never really hung out with any outside my work. I had a feeling both of these women were going to become important to me. There was a kinship there that was instinctive and would only grow with time. I really needed to stop repressing everything and closing myself off if I was going to get their help.
I took a deep breath as Maia prompted, “Talk to us.” She seemed concerned at my silence, which was funny considering she mostly just shrugged at us when she first arrived here.
“It’s just, I honestly had myself convinced I was a beta. I had the rest of the world convinced too, so I must have done a good job. Yet the moment I met Sam and Dio, everything changed. It felt like this tsunami of need and want threatened to spill out of me. I felt a pull to both of them instantly, but we were in the middle of a fight with you at gunpoint.
“Then I smelled that scent that had haunted me, and it was so much stronger. I panicked, and I tried to shut it down, but for the first time, I couldn’t. It was too potent. I had to use your trick of hurting myself so I didn’t start a frenzy.”
“Sam and Dio?” Ava asked. “I remember they both spun towards you during the fight the second you spoke. Does Sam feel the same way as Dio?”
I froze. “Shit, I need to shut up today.”
I couldn’t look directly at Maia, but she sat forward slightly to search my face.
“Why would you try to hide that?” She asked, tilting her head, seeming to be genuinely confused.
“Well, he’s your brother, for starters,” I shrugged.
“Yeah, and Leif is yours. It doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back and not talk to you about him. I distinctly remember grilling you about all my guys when we had movie night, and they all consider themselves your brother.”
I smiled at the memory. She’d not long arrived at the farm. I’d been sussing her out, feeling protective, knowing how my brother had instantly reacted to her. She’d been so sweet and open, yet so obviously lonely. Her quiet inner strength had called to something within me. I’d ended up all but adopting her as my sister before the night was out.
My smile fell a little as I thought back to Sam and my conflicted feelings for him. Dio had felt like a warm hug from the first moment, but something about Sam had me on alert. Bear felt it too. I wasn’t afraid of Sam, but I could sense he was on the precipice of something explosive. He felt unpredictable, like a wild card.
