She blinks, startled.
“I’m done letting old shit decide how I act. I’m done letting Gina haunt what could be good. I’m talking to him. Man to man. It’s time we bury this once and for all. Because I’m not dragging that into whatever this becomes. You deserve better than two grown men shooting each other death glares from across a kitchen table.”
Her lips part. “Thank you,” she says, and the way she looks at me while she does it… I have never felt a hit so direct to the chest.
I breathe in her scent. Mint and green tea, soft and sharp, threaded with the last remnants of stress and heartbreak. It mixes with the shaky hope rising off her and wraps around me.
I step forward. She rises onto her toes without even thinking. I cup her cheek and tilt her chin up. Her eyes flutter.
And then her mouth meets mine.
The kiss hits like the first inhale after nearly drowning. It is warm and hesitant, but it holds something that nearly buckles my knees. Her lips move against mine with a mix of relief and want. My hand slides to the back of her neck. Her fingers curl lightly into my hoodie.
Heat flares through my spine. Every instinct inside me roars to life.
I pull back before I lose control, my breath shuddering against her forehead.
“Not like this,” I whisper. “Not tonight. I want our first time to be when you’re not hurting. When you’re not questioning everything.”
She looks up at me with that soft, stunned expression that destroys me. Her cheeks are flushed. Her lips are pink and kiss-bitten.
“Okay.”
I drag a thumb across her cheekbone, soaking in the warmth there.
“I want you,” I say. “I’m not hiding it anymore. But when we do this, it’s going to be right. You deserve that.”
She swallows and nods, eyes shining in the porch light.
I walk her back toward the others, but her hand stays in mine the entire time. Her fingers are small, warm, steady. By the time we reach Milton and Lincoln, her scent has shifted completely. No fear or panic.
Something new… for us.
And as she steps toward them, looking up at all three of us with hope instead of heartbreak, I feel it settle like a promise deep in my bones.
Bayleigh Lennox is our omega.
43
Bayleigh
I stand there with them,the cold whipping around me, freezing me to my core. My body shivers, and Lincoln catches it.
“Fuck, you’re cold.” He tries to sign but fails miserably, signing refrigerator instead of cold. Thank God I was able to read his lips.
“I am,” I tell them. “Come inside with me. Meet my parents.” I’m not really asking them, but I hope they say yes.
“I’d love to. We…um…brought some food too.” Korbin gestures back toward the bag he left sitting on the porch steps. “Some pasta. Nothing fancy.”
A smile spreads across my face as my eyes shift between the three of them, lingering on each of them for a brief moment. They want to meet my parents. But do they realize that I’m going to be introducing them not as the alphas I’m seeing, or the ones I’m courting. No, this time I’ll be introducing them as the men I’m letting into my life. The alphas I’m giving my heart to. The ones I’m trusting to cherish it and keep it from breaking ever again.
Lincoln takes my hand as the other two fall in place beside me, and we make our way up to the front door. Korbin stops long enough to pick up the bag from the steps. The walk seems to take longer than it should. Maybe because each step causes the knot in my stomach to tighten more.
The scents of the three alphas surrounding me, fills me with safety, happiness and comfort I never knew I needed. I only hope my father likes them as much as my mother. She had the opportunity to meet them briefly when she dropped items off to me at their house.
They follow me inside, their scents reined in—still there, still them, just softened so they don’t overwhelm me. Instinct thrums beneath their skin. Milton checks the space first, sweeping the entryway with a soldier’s habit. Lincoln hovers just behind my shoulder. Korbin shifts to my right, every movement calibrated to keep me steady.
My mom notices all of it from where she sits on the couch and smiles like she’s just won the lottery with sons-in-law.
