“Down you go,” Gage said, and basically shoved Tony on top of him.
Tony made a strangled noise, and Heath’s arms came around him mostly in self-defense. The pair sat frozen for a painful moment. Then Tony let out a strangled whimper and clung to the alpha he’d tried so hard to push away. They both fell back to lie on the mattress; their bodies tangled together from chin to ankle.
The feelings flooding through the bond made my breath catch. Guilt and regret and fragile hope, all wrapped up with silvery threads of painful yearning. Gage took my hand again, drawing me down with him.
“The dress,” I said stupidly, thinking of stains and sweat and wrinkles.
“Forget about the dress,” Gage rumbled, as I settled into the space between his big body and Heath’s back. A moment later, he shuffled me forward until I was spooned against Heath, withGage curled close behind me. The electric surge of contact from earlier mellowed into a deep, penetrating warmth.
It should have been hopelessly awkward. A tangle of people who had a list of reasons not to like each other, mired in misunderstanding and bitterness. Instead, something inside me that I didn’t dare look at too closely untwisted itself, relaxing into a kind of security that I’d never felt before.
There was no chance to poke at the feeling, though. Because seconds later, I was fast asleep.
THIRTY-FIVE
Heath
WHEN I WOKE UP, I HADan armful of Tony, and there Jez was still nestled inside my head. The room was dark, but the darkness held a faintly gray edge that signaled the arrival of morning in the not-too-distant future.
“Not a dream, then,” I muttered, even though the whole scene had a faint sense of unreality to it.
“Not a dream,” a feminine voice whispered at my back.
Tony slept on in my protective embrace. Gage’s rhythmic snoring sounded from somewhere behind me. Jez and I lay there for several minutes, loudlybeing awakeat each other through the mating bond.
We had to talk. Iknewwe had to talk. She knew it, too.
Eventually, she stirred. “C’mon,” she murmured. “While they’re still asleep.”
I felt the slip-slide of her expensive dress as she eased upright, squirming out of the tight space where she’d been lodged between me and Gage. Giving in to the inevitable, I gently settled Tony’s slender body into the nest of cushions and blankets.
He made a small, unhappy noise in his sleep. I barely managed to get out of the way before the hulking form of my alpha packmate shuffled forward and took my place, wrappinghis arms and legs around Tony without either of them waking up.
The idea of Tony safe in the arms of the world’s most protective teddy bear made a spear of some unidentifiable feeling pierce through me. And, of course, every emotion I felt was now shared with an audience of one bonded omega.
“Yeah,” Jez breathed, apparently in agreement with my reaction to the pair now cuddling in the nest. “I know exactly what you mean.”
That mirrored reaction ricocheted between us, until I couldn’t have said who was feeling what. I carefully got to my feet, aware that Jez was doing the same. We snuck out of the room like guilty schoolchildren, trying not to make noise.
Was Knox awake yet? Normally, he would be—but I could tell he wasn’t quite as recovered as he wanted us all to think. I didn’t hear anyone else stirring in the house. For lack of any better ideas, I led the way to my room, rather than to the shared space of the kitchen.
It was only when we entered that I realized this might not have been the best choice of venue. I was immediately hit with the visceral memory of everything that had happened in this room over the past several days.
I flicked on the light.
