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“Stay?”
The word was soft, and he was already drifting off to sleep so I wasn’t sure he would even hear my reply.
“Always.”
His hand tightened around mine, telling me he had heard, before his breath evened out in sleep. Miles' parents said their goodbyes and we all settled in for the night. Shae slipped in with Miles. Jade and Theo took the bed closest to the door, unwilling to let go of the possibility that someone could try to hurt us again. I lay down in the bed farthest from the door, close enough to the edge that I could reach out to touch Miles. When Trevor climbed into the bed behind me, I still had a moment of surprise. I knew it was silly but some part of me still expected him to keep me at a distance. His giant body wrapped around me, my head tucked just below his chin, and his feet going past mine on the bed. I stiffened for a moment before relaxing completely. His purr vibrated against my back and I sank into it as I drifted off to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
SHAE
“Enough stalling, Sunshine.”
I huffed as Miles' deep, gravelly voice called me out while I fluffed the pillows around him in our bed. He had been released from the hospital after twenty-four hours with the equivalent of a gold-star sticker from his surgeon for being such a good patient. We’d all hurried home and fussed over him which he took with an amused kind of exasperation. That was until Ethan’s heat hit while we were eating dinner our first night back.
It had been two days so far and I couldn’t bring myself to go into the nest. At first, I used Miles as an excuse, because he’d just been shot, for fuck’s sake, but there was no hiding from him all the insecurities that were plaguing me. I wasn’t the only one struggling, though.
“What about you, love? Want to go into the nest with me?”
His mouth twisted and his expression became uncomfortable, making me immediately regret my harsh words.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, Miles. I’m being an asshole and you absolutely do not deserve it.”
“Talk to me, then. I can only tell so much from the bond and what I can feel doesn’t make sense.”
My eyes darted to the door, partially so he wouldn’t see the tears welling there. But also, because I wasn’t sure if I could look at him when I confessed what had been bothering me.
“I ran. Left him there; left you both. What if he can’t forgive me?”
“Shae.” Miles' voice was hard, almost angry, and my head whipped around to look at his face. “I forced you to run. You don’t think that haunts me too? Taking away your free will even if it was to save you?”
“Ethan resisted your bark though. Maybe if I’d tried harder?—”
“Ethan is not bonded to me. You couldn’t have resisted a command from me, and you know it.”
He reached out and tugged me into his bare chest, grunting a little when it probably hurt as I collapsed against him from the unexpected pull. I glared up at him for risking hurting himself more but he just chuckled and pressed a kiss to my mouth. Then he leveled another serious gaze at me.
“That’s not all, though, is it?”
Shame curled in my stomach and Miles pulled me in more tightly against him, purring and soothing me as he picked up the emotion in the bond. I whispered my fear, afraid that I would speak it into existence if I said it any louder.
“What if he doesn’t want me there anymore?” Miles sucked in a sharp breath, but once I’d started, I couldn’t stop. “He has three Alphas now. They can meet all his needs and you would too if you decide to cross that bridge with him. But what can I offer? I know he loves me. I know that but the anxiety is louder than logic at the moment. Theo’s an Alpha now, and they’re bonded. Before it was like he and I were together in our, I don’t know, Beta-ness? I keep thinking about what happened to Cat, and I couldn’t take that kind of rejection.”
Miles tipped my chin up to look into his eyes that were filled with love and empathy.
“Listen to me: that Omega loves you completely. Loves all of us, true, but you were the one who he trusted first. You were the one who brought him to us. He wouldn’t be part of our pack at all if he hadn’t been drawn to you.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but he shook his head and pressed a finger to my lips.
“I hear you. I’m not trying to say there aren’t people who would do that, but you need to trust our Omega more and believe in your own worth. He may be the sun that the pack revolves around, now, because that’s what biology basically demands of all of us, but you are the force that keeps us all together, love. You are our heart just as much as he is. Never doubt that.”
I pressed my face into his neck, allowing myself to just feel for a moment when I felt a tugging on my bond. Jade was calling to me and then my phone began to ping with messages. I smiled at the texts piling up from her and began to read them out loud.
Jade: I don’t know exactly what is causing all those emotions, love, but I trust that Miles is pulling you out of it.
Jade: Hate to pile on to the worry I’m catching, but our Omega has been asking for you the whole time. I don’t think we can put it off any longer with explanations of Miles' fragile state.
The Alpha in question huffed a laugh and grumbled about the fragile comment, but also raised his brows in a “told ya so” kind of way.
