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“I have a few of them, but it’s for Leonie.” He stops and clears his throat. “Leonie was the oldest. I was the second oldest. She was sick a lot, colds, flus, minor illnesses that turned into major ones. We didn’t have the money. It’s so simple a thing, but it’s so huge. We didn’t have the money for medicine, so she died.”
I reach out, wrapping my wrist around the raven. “I’m sorry.”
“She was so protective of us. Really smart, book smart, not like me. She didn’t run amock. But she would have loved my tattoos, she loved art. This piece was my first one, and I didn’t stop.”
“They’re beautiful.”
“I’m going to get one here.” Lukas murmurs. “A ginger cat, with a wicked set of claws and gold, green eyes.”
It’s not romantic in the classical sense, and yet I find myself absolutely dazzled by him. My tongue feels thick, and I look away. “Lukas, you…flatter me. But you shouldn’t-“
“Did you want him?” Lukas asks.
I shudder. “No. My heat is close, so my body responded, but the whole time I was praying for a miracle.”
Lukas is silent for a long moment. “Do you want me?”
I pause because now we’re on dangerous ground. “I don’t think I should-“
“Please.”
I tense and then relax. “Yes,” the whisper barely leaves my lips when he leans over and kisses me. The touch of his lips is a balm to the horrible night. It’s the kiss I dreamed about as a teen, the kiss that makes you forget where you are, who you are. It’s the kiss I stopped dreaming about when I became an omega.
“Lukas,” I moan. “You don’t play fair.”
“Come on, let’s go home. Seb will want to cuddle you, and then tonight…if it’s okay, I’d like it if you stayed with me.”
I smile at him. “I’d love that.”
We climb down from the tree, but it’s during the drive home that I acknowledge the other piece of information that blew my mind tonight.
Darion had come to my rescue faster than Lukas and Seb. He’d been violent and almost feral, larger than life, protective.
I remember the way his gaze had travelled over me, hot and heavy, the fury in his tone. My breath catches, and raspberries fill the car. I look up and straight into his eyes in the rear-view mirror.
I remember the words he said so quietly that I’m the only one that heard them.
Perhaps, maybe, Darion feels something other than apathy towards me after all.
seventeen
Seb
Darion paces furiously in front of me. Each vicious turn sends a pulse of satisfaction through me. It’s an effort not to let it show. Seeing Darion come apart for our omega is a dream I didn’t dare to dream. Even a full day later, with night closing in on us, he’s still so angry he can barely speak.
Lukas has been locked up with the omega in his room, and I’m not…who am I kidding? I’m so jealous I could explode. But I’m not ruining this for him, and Darion needs me.
“What was she thinking? He’s a Samuels.” There is so much disgust and rage in his voice. “She could have been hurt or mated to that pack forever.”
I don’t say anything, I just watch him, trying to hide my glee. Lukas is wrapped up with our Omega, and I’m watching my oblivious alpha fall the fuck apart because finally, fucking finally, we’ve gotten him to actually show some kind of feeling towards her. And what do we have? He needs to protect her.
Fucking A. For weeks he’s been doing this song and dance of he doesn’t want or need to protect anyone except Lukas and myself, but one little mishap and he goes psychotic with the need to protect her. God, the way he threw himself at the other alpha, his possessiveness, the feelings that leached into the air. He can’t hide anything from me now. I’m loving every minute of this because it means even if he hasn’t worked it out yet, his instincts have. He knows she belongs to us, and he’s staking a claim.
I lick my lips and watch as he unravels further. Time for me to probe for some answers and maybe get him to see through his own bullshit.
“Why were you seeing Trin?”
He stops dead and stares at me. “What?”
