Cole is placing a foldable waterproof chair in the large glass shower and coming over with this pink sleeve. This man gets down on his knees and gingerly takes my injured ankle before sliding the glove on.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“It’s nothing.”
“No, I mean for everything. For not emergency landing the plane, for risking your job, for taking care of me during my heat, and taking care of me now,” I say as his green eyes search mine.
“I’m not sure what you’re used to Shiloh, but this is kind of the bare minimum for taking care of an Omega. I’m glad you’re here. I like taking care of you.”
He makes sure the sleeve is airtight, and kisses my knee before turning on the shower, and coming back over to me, helping me remove whichever Alpha’s shirt I’m wearing.
Part of me wants to cry over his words and how sweet they are, but I genuinely am so fucking over crying. Instead, I let him carry me over to the shower, and let him sit me on the cold ass chair.
“Sorry,” he says with a laugh. “Are you okay if I get undressed?” he asks.
I blush, but nod. It’s a weird sensation when someone has knotted you, likely lost their job over you, but you’re still relative strangers.
He undresses and I get to ogle him for a moment, but do my best not to look at his dick that feels like it’s demanding my attention.
“Ignore that,” he says, as he grabs the shower head and touches the water temperature before spraying down my skin.
I moan against the warmth. I don’t think I realized how sore my body was or just how dirty I felt until this moment. My eyes are closed and I let myself enjoy this moment and not overthink it. There’s so much we all need to talk about and figure out.
Sure, they invited me to stay here, which is probably a mixture of guilt and intrigue, but what does it mean? And is this even healthy? I literally just broke up with my pack of two years a little over a week ago.
Cole keeps spraying my body with the water before he sets it to the side and his masterful fingers are scrubbing shampoo against my scalp. Truly, he could be a shampoo boy if he can’t be a pilot anymore. Scratch that, he can be my shampoo boy. I don’t like the idea of his fingers touching someone else.
This is all well and truly fucked. I’m feeling possessive over these Alphas who’ve shown me more kindness than I deserve, and I don’t even know if they have any intention of keeping me.
Everything about my heat is such a blur, and while bits and pieces are coming back to me, all I really remember is most of the plane ride, when Heat Haven gave me the medication to make me lucid, and when I woke up from sedation.
Cole sprays the shampoo out of my hair and moves on to conditioner. While it sits in my hair, he gently scrubs my body and I almost want to have a slight breakdown over his delicate touch. He didn’t know me, but he helped me when I needed it most. The way he’s taking care of me now is something I’ve never experienced.
My Gran is very maternal, but she’s my family. She had to take care of me. Right now, Cole is choosing me, and I’m not sure how to handle it. His warm hand grabs my chin, and I blink open my eyes.
“What’s wrong?” he asks.
I blink at him, holding back tears, and his thumb rubs soothingly against my cheek. He bends down, so that his erection is no longer a focal point and I don’t even worry about my naked body sitting in this collapsible chair. Instead, I just stare at him while steam whips around us.
His hand slides from my face, and he rests them on my thighs.
“I might be way out of fucking line for saying this, but I have to ask. Did your previous pack abuse you? Do you need us to back off a little?” he asks, and I quickly shake my head. “It’s just you were traveling alone across the country, and the doctor said that your previous heats were likely unfulfilling.”
My brows furrow as I really take in his words.
“They never hit me,” I reply.
“Physical abuse isn’t the only kind of abuse. Emotional abuse is just as damaging. If they were withdrawing affection, holding bonding over your head, that’s abuse. It’s not okay.”
A few tears fall away, and I wipe them with the back of my hand.
“Fuck. I’m fucking this all up and being invasive. I just…I don’t know, I want to make sure we did things right, that you’d tell us if anything we did upset you.”
I’m not sure what to say, so instead, I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him in for a hug. He accepts it easily, holding me tightly and not saying a word. I’m sure his knees hurt against the pretty pale tile, but he holds me back, not complaining in the slightest.
Is he right? I mean, here I thought something was wrong with me. What was it about me that they couldn’t give me their full attention? Why wasn’t I good enough to bond? Why wasn’t I important enough that they all spent my entire heat with me?
I don’t think I ever took a moment to consider it wasn’t me.
