Harper settles comfortably in my lap as I run my hands through her hair, petting her. Those amber eyes blink up at me lazily, full of warmth.
“I like this,” she confesses, as she curls into me like a cat. Her face is open, vulnerable. Placing my hand against her cheek, I stroke my finger gently over her cheekbone. The barest edge of a bruise lingers there. I wish I could take away all of her bruises, all of her bad memories from that fucking place.
But all we can do is replace them with new ones.
“How can you trust us?” I ask softly. “When you’ve spent the last seven years with the OC?”
Even after everything she’s been through, she still smiles, still laughs in a way that makes her whole damn face light up and shakes her entire body. Seven years of that place, but she’s still so full offire. So full of life.
That shining light could have been snuffed out by the grey walls of the Omega Compound. A thrum of relief pulses through me that we went to the OC that day.
If we hadn’t, we might never have met her.
I pull her closer to me at the thought, a possessive rumble at the back of my throat.
Harper frowns, a crease between her eyes as she thinks over my question.
“I’ve spent a long time being told that a good omega is everything I need to be,” she murmurs slowly. “There is nothing else for me. Just a pack, or the heat nests, children that won’t be mine. And then I came here, and you were more than I ever expected.”
She smiles at me. Guilt fills my stomach at our actions yesterday. Trying to keep our distance was a mistake I won’t make a second time.
“You wouldn’t even let me crawl to the car.”
“Damned straight,” I snap. “Your knees were cut up as it was.”
She waves me off. “Nobody else would havecared, Rogue. They would have let me crawl. Put me in a cage, made me submit to them.”
“But you didn’t. Youaskedme what I wanted, and nobody has done that for me in a very long time. Even just now, you kept checking to make sure I was okay. It makes me feel…safe.”
Tenderness fills my chest as we watch each other.
“I don’t know what will happen,” she continues. There’s sadness in her voice. “I don’t have any control over my future. But I have control over my actions here. And that means a lot to me.”
A fist squeezes my heart.
“You do,” I swear, the words gruff and unyielding. “You have a choice for as long as you’re here, love.”
Which will be forever, if I have any say in it.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Ace
Isnort as Gabe stares after Rogue and Harper with a look of longing on his face. It’s been so long since we’ve all just let go and had fun like that. Running my hand through my hair, I dislodge flour that drifts around me like snow. Leaning into Gabe, I shake my hair like a dog and belly laugh as he dives out of the way.
Devlin watches from a safe distance, his usual moody frown swapped for a smirk. He’s been lighter this morning than I’ve ever seen him. I’m glad that he’s come around to Harper being here.Because I wouldn’t have let her go.
My eyes drift to Gabe as he starts running the tap to clean up, catching on the slim muscles pulling under his shirt. He’s been better with pack touch since Harper came to us. After the incident, he’d barely touch us unless he had to. I just didn’t know how to reach him, but with Harper here, it seems effortless. I don’t know why. She’s not bitemarked, so she shouldn’t be influencing our overall pack emotions to this extent. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth though.
And she’s definitely a fucking gift.
Swallowing, I look away from Gabe. I’m guessing that with Harper here, our previous…relationship, is finished, once and for all. It feels like another barrier that we won’t be able to overcome. Not that I feel that way about Harper. But Gabe’s focus is on her, and I’m not sure there’s any space for me.
I miss you.
Hesitantly, I move up to him. He’s standing with his back to me, and when I reach out and touch his shoulder, he jumps like he’s on fire.
“Shit, Ace,” he groans. I follow his gaze down to where the water’s soaked through his shirt, plastering to his skin. Stepping closer to him, I reach out slowly and give it a tug. Gabe’s eyes dilate, a low rumble beginning in his throat.Yes, I urge him silently as his scent rises, entwining with mine.Remember how good we were.
