"That's the right answer," I told him, sitting down beside him. His arm went around my shoulders. "I know this is really fast though. I don't mind if you want to go and sort things out, away from the heat pheromones."
"Sweetheart, if I had a choice, I'd never leave this room," he said honestly. "Well, as long as you were in here. But it's not just sex. I have this overwhelming need to protect you, to fight offanyone who might want to hurt you, physically or emotionally." He looked at the door. "Your old alphas are not leaving. We'll have to leave if you don't want them interfering in your life."
"Where do you live?" I asked curiously.
Geo laughed. "In the barracks at work. I never needed a house, so I never bought one or rented."
"Wow. So, my scentmatch is a homeless dude. Good to know," I teased him.
There was a knock on the door and my heart fell. My heat had barely ended and they were already here, wanting to talk.
Geo stood, but I put a hand on his chest and went to the door, jerking it open. "What?"
Finn was standing there with some flowers and a box of chocolates. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
"Fine . . ." I eyed him suspiciously. "Why?"
"We can all tell when your heat is over with the scents here," he told me, giving Geo a nod. "Thought you might like a little treat after going through it all."
I frowned. "What's the catch?"
"No catch. But if you two want to come out of the room, we have a breakfast buffet prepared."
I looked at Geo just as his stomach rumbled.
"Sorry, we can stay here if you like," he offered. But my alpha was hungry and after all the effort he'd just put in with my heat, I couldn't deny him food.
"Let's go." I took the flowers and the chocolates, setting them on the dresser and stepped out of the room with Geo following.
The dining room was set up with one side of the table full of platters of food and the other side was ready to sit, with plates and cutlery and glasses of orange juice. I was suddenly ravenous.
Geo handed me my plate and I started to pile on food. They'd thought of everything. Bacon, eggs, sausages, assorted fruits, yogurt, pancakes, and toast was all laid out with toppingsavailable. I grabbed toast with honey and some watermelon, strawberries and blueberries, dumping the berries into a bowl of vanilla yogurt. Geo took some of everything, piling his plate high with food.
The others came in to fill their plates, too, but Geo had me sitting at the end of the table so he was between me and the pack. I just dug into the food, too hungry to actually deal with them right now.
Geo polished off his plate in record time. I was still working on the yogurt and berries, but Finn encouraged him to go get more food, so he did, leaving me with just a chair between Finn and me.
"Feel better?" Finn asked.
I nodded. "Thank you."
"I know we didn't do heats for the last few eyars you were with us," Mace said, further down the table. "But I remember how hungry everyone was after the fact."
"I remember no one stayed," I said, not even intending to let the words escape. There was a beat of silence.
"We put work over you," he admitted. "And that was an idiot move when we had our perfect omega at home with us. We could have appreciated what we had instead of what we wanted. I'm sorry."
"You don't have to forgive us," Finn put in quickly. "Not right away at least, but we still want you to know how fucking sorry we are."
"But hopefully you can forgive us someday," Aiden added. "I'm so sorry for what we did to you. We thought it was a simple thing, but the repercussions are enormous."
"They are," I said, suddenly losing my appetite. "If you'd rejected me and looked after me, that would have been okay, I think. It's the rejection, plus the abuse I had to deal with. That's the unforgiveable part."
"Does it help that we honestly thought you'd go to a better pack? One that would cherish you like we weren't capable of?"
"Are you my scentmatches?" I asked abruptly. Needing to know.
"Yes." Mace hung his head. "We knew the first moment we saw you in that diner."
