“We’re going to make breakfast. You three can, uh, join us when you’re done.” Diego winks, and he and Gage get up and start getting dressed.
I grin as I watch them, and though I should feel weird given everything that’s happened, I don’t. No one looks at me oddly, no one makes me feel like what just happened was anything out of the ordinary.
“Auryn, honey, you should get up eventually.” I notice the scent of lavender is thick, and Gage’s pupils dilate, if only for a second. “Showers. Breakfast in twenty minutes,” he says, and Auryn grunts.
“Fine.”
Of course, our combined shower starts off fine, but I soon realize as Emmett and Auryn kiss one another that we’re going to be late to breakfast. I sigh, wrapping up my shower. Auryn whines, not wanting me to go, and I’m torn.
“Stay,” Emmett growls. “Unless of course, you’re uncomfortable.”
I shake my head. “I’m okay if you are.”
Auryn purrs in contentment, kissing me once again until lavender fills my lungs, sandwiched between Em and me. I kiss her, getting lost in the feel of her lips, of her fingers on my jaw. I lose sight of everything except the moans she feeds me as Emmett takes her. My dick is hard, and I groan. Auryn reaches for my dick, but I back away only slightly. I’ll gladly give her what she wants, but I’d be lying if I said I wanted to come right now.
“Do youwantto?” Emmett asks. His gaze meets mine over Auryn’s shoulders.
“Huh?”
“Do you want to come, too?”
I shake my head. “No, but if my alpha wants me to—”
Auryn sets her fingers on my jaw as the water crashes around us, and something in the air shifts. Lemongrass and lavender give way to cinnamon and peppercorn, and my heart beats a little faster as she looks up at me.
I worry my brief refusal will break everything. But Auryn settles her hand on my hip instead and kisses me.
“No means no. I will never take something from you that you don’t want to give, Olly.” I relax almost instantly at her words because the way she says them is so full of love it’s hard to ignore. It makes me feel warm. Comfortable. “You give me so much; let me give you what you need.” And then she kisses me. Deeply. Her fingertips graze my skin, and she whispers that she loves me. I kiss her back before leaving her and Emmett alone to come together, and it doesn’t feel weird.
When I walk into the kitchen, Diego and Gage are side by side, laughing, cooking, both shirtless in their sweats. They turn to see me, Gage giving me a knowing look. I head straight for the coffee pot.
“Eggs and chorizo okay, buddy?” Gage asks. “Diego and I figured some protein was what we all needed after last night’s, er, marathon.”
“Sure. Sounds great,” I say, pouring a cup of black coffee and heading for the table.
Breakfast isn’t awkward despite the fact I can still smell that heavy lavender scent and tart cherry mingling with smoke and sunshine.
But once we’ve finished our breakfast, the tension is back. Today is the day.
Tonight, we will descend on the Orion pack house and rescue those omegas, and we'll burn that bloody compound to the ground. With Sneed. With his piece of shit alphas who hurt my pack.
The air is thick with unsaid things, and I decide to break the tension the only way I know how.
“Auryn, can you come with me to the lab for a bit? I’d like to—”
“Absolutely,” she says, and I can hear the worry in her voice. No one fights her as she slides out of Emmett’s lap and nearly sprints over to me. I don’t feel on display like I used to in front of them anymore. If anything, I feel like I’m one of them. An equal. Even as a beta.
For the first time ever, I feel powerful.
I feel like I can hold my own against a pack of alphas, and it has nothing to do with strength or agility, and everything to do with the alpha beside me.
Auryn slides her hand in mine and all but drags me out of the kitchen, power walking us down to my lab.
I grab the last clean lab coat off the hook. “Are you feeling all right?”
She sticks to my side like glue, and that lavender scent is so thick I think I might actually choke. It seems to be getting stronger.
“Define all right,” she says as I set up my station with my equipment. I’ve done this enough times with Auryn that it’s almost become second nature. She finds her seat, her legs dangling a bit because of her height on the chair. I organize and get everything together mindlessly.
