I groan and bury my face in his shoulder.
“Love, I’d be happy to stay here with you forever, but they need to see you. They need to know you’re all right.”
I nod against him, and we slip from the bed. He finds my abandoned pajama shorts and tank top, and I tug them on, my movements slow. Will they look at me differently, now that I’m a mated omega? Luca had said he wanted a pack for me, and I always assumed Ian felt the same, but what if they don’t? What if, by mating Cassian, I’ve lost them?
Cassian comes up behind me and nuzzles my cheek. “Don’t worry, Junes. They love you. That hasn’t changed. It never will.”
Once again, he gives me the courage I need to steel myself. I poke my head out of the room to find the others sitting around a small table. They’re all worn from lack of sleep, but Simon gives me a bashful smile.
And I feel him, a gentle presence down the length of my bond with Cassian. I touch my heart and look up at him with wonder in my eyes and know from the awed smile on his face that he feels me just as I feel him.
Saints above, I’mmated. I’m mated, and I’m hundreds of miles away from the monster who would have defiled me.
“You saved me,” I murmur. “Rad was going to mate me… He tried to get in my bedroom, and he would have, if not for Hawthorn.”
“He’ll never touch you again,” Cassian swears.
Ian eyes us warily. “You’re happy?” he asks me, and I nod.
He considers my response for a moment and sighs. “Though I still have my reservations abouthowthis happened, this could be the protection against Rad you need.”
“That’s not why I did it,” Cassian growls.
Ian arches a dark brow. “You don’t want to protect her?”
Cassian starts forward, and I brush my fingertips over the back of his hand. He stills, but he’s rigid behind me, power and dominance rippling off his strong body. “Of course I want to protect her.”
I nestle myself in his arms and that seems to settle him—somewhat.
“And you have. None of us have the reach and power you do. We wouldn’t be able to leverage the legal privileges of matehood like you can.”
Comprehension dawns on me. Cassian was able to take Rad to court for assaulting Simon. He can now protect me in the same way. His power and influence can keep Rad from me. Saints, it’s almost too good to be true, and I feel hot tears well up in the corners of my eyes.
“I’m free?”
“You’re free,” Cassian promises.
“My father isn’t going to like this,” I say quietly, but I can’t help the way hope stirs inside me.
“We’ll deal with him,” Cassian says.
“Rad won’t stop coming for me.”
“He does, and I knock his fucking teeth out,” Cassian growls. “You’reours.”
“Ours?” Luca asks softly, looking up at me for the first time. “What does this mean for us?”
I slip from Cassian’s arms and go to him, kneeling before him and taking his hands in mine. “It means we can be mated, too. We can be a real pack. If… if that’s what you want.”
Luca pulls me to my feet and then into his arms, stealing a searing kiss. “More than anything.”
I cuddle against him, reaching a hand out behind me for Ian. He comes to me, enveloping me from the other side, resting his chin on my shoulder. “Be my pack?” I ask him.
He nods against me and presses a kiss to my jaw.
Cassian’s heart swells with joy and I feel it through our bond, along with the faintest trace of Simon’s smug satisfaction.
I meet his dancing hazel eyes, and he graces me with a fond, adoring smile. He’ll never be able to mate me the way an alpha can, but he’s as much my pack as any of them. And he just got exactly what he wanted: me, mated to his alpha. Our alpha.
