“They came to us.”
I balled my hand into a fist underneath his. Of course, their idea of saving her would be just to take her for themselves. “You didn’t think it was a better idea to take her home?”
Kai glanced down at me with careful eyes, sensing my annoyance. “I wasn’t there, but when she came to our place, she was an incoherent mess. She couldn’t tell us where she lived, and no one was going to let her go wandering off home on her own. She’d just witness her brother getting killed, and it fucked with her, understandably. Dan and Lance brought the guy’s body back with them, and the body looked barely human. Those damn alphas had smashed him with their bare hands like animals. They could have used weapons, but they used their fists like mallets.”
I grimaced, imagining what the body must have looked like. Alphas, even ones without supernatural magic, were as strong as bears and lions. The agony that poor boy must have gone through was probably on a horrific level. I started to get angry just thinking about them maiming and murdering a boy who simply wanted to protect his sister. It made me hate alphas even more.
Kai lifted my hand to his lips, surprising me.
I froze, glaring at him. “Why did you do that?”
He put my hand back down on his chest, flattening it out so that it was no longer a fist. “Because I know my story is upsetting you and isn’t helping my cause. But you needed to know the truth. We did finally get her and her brother’s body back to her home, where her parents lived. We were going to leave her there, but her parents asked us to care for her and become her alphas. They couldn’t protect her anymore.”
It was just like the parents to make the decision for their adult child. “What didshewant?”
“She was terrified, but she agreed. I won’t lie and say things were wonderful in the beginning. She mainly stayed in her room and tip-toed around us. She didn’t want anything to do with our pack. We understood and respected her space, but it was hard. She was just perfuming away in her room, and we couldn’t touch her.”
I sat up, moving my hand away from his chest. He frowned, narrowing his eyes. “I’m getting hot and sticky keeping my hand on your chest.”
That brought a slight smile to his lips, and I soon regretted my words. Of course, he would be turned on. But darn, why did his smile have to be so sexy, even when it was inappropriate?
I made the mistake of looking down at his chest again and then let my gaze travel down to his swimming trunks. They weren’t tight, but I could almost make out his girth laying on his left thigh. My stomach clenched in response. He was working with something very impressive, and my mind might have wandered to what those trunks were hiding. I thought of my hand dipping into the band of his trunks and touching his very long, very hard member, gripping it and moving my hands up and down, making his eyes roll back in his head.
I shook my head, slapping my cheeks to bring my mind out of the gutter.
Kai chuckled, to my utter humiliation. “Well,” he began, “You could rest your hand somewhere else.” He flexed the muscle of his left thigh, bringing my attention to his manhood once more.
Oh, he was loving this. This would be nonstop. He would keep seducing me, and I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to resist. I could feel the change of an omega coming on each day, and that earth and cinnamon scent was way too intoxicating. It covered up everything else around me.
I put my hand on his arm, which was barely any better, considering the definition I was feeling. “So, what finally got Jocelyn to warm up to you guys?”
Kai leaned close to me and inhaled a deep breath. He stuck his pierced tongue out, licking his bottom lip. “You’re perfuming so hard now I can almost taste you.”
My eyes widened in surprise. I should have been scared by that. Perfuming meant my omega status was coming in hard, and it also meant I was advertising that I was one. However, the way he said it was so freaking sexy. “Please, answer my question,” I whispered in a shaky voice.
“She went into heat. And it was a big one. I mean—”
I raised my hand to stop him. “No need to go into detail. So basically, you had an orgy fest, and the sex made her come around.”
He gave a snort. “It made her soften to us but she still wasn’t bound. We didn’t claim her until after her heat when we were all in our right minds. It wasn’t the sex that made her want us as her alphas. We protected her, we cared for her, pampered her. We didn’t demand anything of her.”
“You just kept her barefoot and pregnant.”
He gave a growl and rolled his eyes. “I suppose it will take a while for you to understand that we are not primitive animals. At least not all of us. She had her own restaurant. Well, Daniel helped her with it. Cooking is his thing as well. And we never had kids. She aged slowly since we claimed her, so we planned to later.”
I twisted my lips, still not convinced she wasn’t made submissive in some way. “So, is that why you need me? To give you the offspring you never got?”
Kai scrunched his face as if he were in pain. “Kitty cat, I thought you knew more about us. Not every alpha wants an omega just to fuck and have kids. That isn’t the only type of endgame. We want our partner.”
I gave him a skeptical grin. “So, you want love?”
His face softened, and his lips twitched into a tiny smile. “Love is a huge part of it. The omega and alpha bond is powerful. It enhances the strength of a pack. We heal faster and are harder to harm. In some cases, it can even give new powers. And the bond itself is almost euphoric. Kids or no kids, it’s something to be sought. And once you’ve had it, you don’t want to lose it. I know alpha and omega pairings where they never had kids. Yes, it’s rare, but it happens. Also, an omega and alpha pairing can make great ruling pairs. Our pack is just us. But I know of pairings that run a large group, community and even state. They make good leaders. I know you’ve heard of those before. There’s a Canadian pair that runs Toronto well.”
Yes, I’d heard of those, but they were the exception, not the rule and I still had suspicions about what happened behind closed doors. “How did she die? Jocelyn.”
Kai looked back out at the ocean. He lowered down on the beach chair and moved my hand back to the center of his chest, closing his eyes. I felt so conflicted. A warm pull tugged at my heart. He held my hand like he needed it there as comfort. Maybe he really did care for me.
“She was killed. We were a powerful pack. We had a lot of influence and access. We made enemies. There were people who wanted to take us down. They didn’t want to try to steal our omega. They were more interested in making us weak. And they did.”
