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The normally affable omega’s eyes were ice cold for a moment as we stared each other down, a fierce protectiveness evident in her stiff shoulders. Then, the expression melted away and she offered me her friendly customer service smile.
“I look forward to seeing your segment today, Mr. Santoro, have a lovely rest of your afternoon.”
She turned and rolled back toward the elevator without so much as a backward glance in my direction.
I sat there for a long time, my lips still tingling from the press of her lips and it took everyone returning from lunch to finally break me from my stupor.
“You did what, Enz?” Artie’s mouth was wide open as he stared at me with shock.
I’d just spilled the beans about what I’d done in the broadcast closet and both of my packmates were looking at me as if they’d never seen me before.
“You kissed her against her will? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Leith asked, his face red with anger as he clenched his fists.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly against her will,” I pointed out, remembering the way her mouth had softened and moved against mine, and the way her moan had sent a bolt of need straight to my cock.
“Did you ask?” Leith pushed.
“… well… no, but—”
“But nothing, Enzo, you can’t stomp about and be angry with Ciara one moment and then kiss her the next,” Leith said, cutting me off and echoing the words that Ciara herself had said less than six hours ago.
Artie reached out and put a hand on Leith’s knees and I could feel him soothing Leith’s anger through our bond. “Love, look at him. I think he’s finally realized what we did a while ago.”
Then our omega turned to face me. “You did, didn’t you, Enzo?”
My mouth was dry as I nodded. “Yeah.”
Artie looked pleased as hell with himself as he smiled. “Took you long enough to figure out that she’s our scent match.”
Looking down at my clenched fists, I still felt stupidly conflicted. “Not that it matters, she has a boyfriend now, she’s with that hockey player.”
Leith frowned with recognition. “Wiz? That’s not that surprising, the guy is already famous around the Complex because he follows her around.”
“Why aren’t you more upset about this?” I asked, surprised that Leith wasn’t torn up about Ciara finally taking the chance with someone who wasn’t him.
“I don’t know,” the other alpha said, his expression thoughtful as he scratched at the edges of his beard. “I wouldn’t mind him being around if that’s what she wanted—if she wanted all of us that is.”
“It’s one thing to add Ciara to the pack, but another alpha? Who has nothing to do with us?”
The cloves scent that clung to her skin must have been his, I realized now as I thought back to how her cinnamon had invaded all of my senses, and apparently, put me out of my mind for a moment. He smelled to me the same way Leith had at first, nothing special—at least not in the way that Artie was special—but even I had to admit that Leith’s apple smell was now a part of what I thought of as home.
“That’s if she even wants us at all,” I said, pointing out the obvious.
Artie’s expression fell again and my inner alpha whined at me to go and comfort him, but I stayed where I was standing, letting him process.
“It’s not fair. How is it that you’ve both kissed her already and I see her more than the both of you?” The omega finally pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.
His words seemed to finally break the tension that had been hanging in the air ever since I made my confession.
Leith’s chuckle rumbled through the living room as he gave Artie’s shoulder an affectionate pat. “If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t kissed her in four years.”
Artie seemed to think about it for a moment before brightening. “You’re right, that does make me feel better.”
After a moment of comfortable silence, it was Artie who finally asked the question that had been rattling around in my head all day.
“It’s all well and good to be on the same page about Ciara, but how are we supposed to convince her to even read the book?”
I looked at Leith and he looked at me as we realized that we had no clue where to even start.
