HAYES
Her nails diginto my scalp as she looks down at me.
She completely owns me.
Sterling and Nate told me not to come tonight, that we needed to give her some space and that showing up at her place of work could make her retreat even more. The issue is…I don’t fucking listen, and I have too much fucking free time on my hands. Plus, maybe I didn’t like the idea of other people looking at the woman I already considered mine.
I can barely look away from her now. Her deep red hair is down in waves, framing her beautiful heart-shaped face. But beyond that, her body is absolutely insane. A combination of strength and softness.
I’m obsessed, and I needed to make sure she was alright. That we didn’t scare her off, and she’s still all in.
I could tell that she was retreating when we dropped her off after our weekend together. I know that Nate and Sterling put it all out there. We couldn’t have been more honest with our intentions. But I think that maybe that intense honesty scared the shit out of her.
Fuck, if I was an Alpha, I’d probably already have my mark deep into her skin and tuck her away in the most perfect nest you could imagine. But I don’t have the power to bond us. What I do have is an unrelenting tenacity to prove to this woman that this is real, that we want her, that we can provide for her.
I clearly am not mature enough to deal with her working here.
The sooner she accepts she is ours, and that she never has to work another day in her life, the better.
“Hayes, you can’t just show up here and threaten people at my job.”
“I know that. I didn’t mean to,” I say sheepishly. The fact is, if he was talking about her actual pussy, the cops would probably need to be called. At the bare minimum I would’ve been banned from Lavender Moon.
“Were you feeling jealous?” she asks in a soft voice. One hand threaded in my hair, the other placed on my chest.
“Very. I’m needy. I want all your attention,” I tell her honestly.
“I thought the Omega was supposed to be the needy one?” she asks as she slowly begins to bracket my thighs with her own, sliding on my lap.
I do as she says, not touching.
“Baby, you work at a scent club where people pay unreal amounts of money to scent you and admire your body. Your neediness is based on hormones. Mine is bone deep desperation for you to pay attention to me.”
She nestles her ass against my thighs, her scent thick and comforting as she cups my jaw. Her teeth dig into her bottom lip.
“What are you thinking?” I ask her.
“That this is all too good to be true. That you’re being perfect now and then if we become a pack it will all go to shit. That I’ll lose everything.”
I didn’t expect her to be so honest. I hate the wordif, it should definitely bewhenwe become a pack, but I don’t need to harp on that.
“Can I touch now?”
She shakes her head no, and I sigh, trying to dig deep for some self-control.
“Can I ask you something about your mom and her pack?” I ask and she swallows thickly before giving me a quick nod.
“I know your mom wasn’t kind to you, that her Alphas acted like you didn’t exist, but who ran the show in that pack?”
“My mom,” she whispers.
“How do her Alphas treat her?” I ask.
She glances down, and it’s like I can see her mind racing.
“They aren’t good people, don’t get me wrong. The hierarchy bullshit is sick. But as fucked up as they are, they treat your mom well. There would be no hierarchy, I mean besides you being the center of the pack. Omegas are meant to be adored, and Sterling and Nate are nothing like your mother’s Alphas,” I tell her, hoping to calm some of her fears.
“I know they’re good. That you’re good,” she whispers.
