I need to see Lilah. It’s a thrumming inside of me with each beat of my heart.
“You can’t make it seem like a nest,” Miles says. My attentioncatches on the pile of pillows and blankets set up on the back lawn. A huge movie screen blown up in front of it.
“It’s just pillows and blankets. We want to be comfortable, right?” Rafe replies.
Miles tugs his fingers through his hair. It does look like a makeshift nest, and it pushes thoughts of sinking into her over and over again. The constant memory of the club playing on repeat inside my head.
“What’s this?” I ask, interrupting the on coming argument between them.
“We can’t walk because Miles is clumsy, so we can watch a movie under the stars.”
“As long as it isn’t one of Rafe’s,” Miles clarifies from his chair overseeing the area.
“Maybe she would want to watch me on the big screen,” he says, clearly poking at him.
Stepping down to the lawn, I eye the area they’ve set up. Enough room for the four of us to be cozy. A fancy cooler set up with bottles of wine, and fruit, cheese, and cracker platters, already sits near the edge of the space. Rafe lays another blanket down and tosses two more pillows toward the growing pile.
“You did this all, Rafe?” I turn to look at him, studying his face. He’s further gone than I thought, if he did.
He shrugs. “I might have done a search on the internet.”
Miles snorts from his spot on the veranda. “He’s just missing the rose petals.”
“Don’t act like you don’t want this to be perfect too,” he says, pointing at Miles. “It’s your fault we can’t do our original plan.”
“Yeah, my fault the root was across that path.”
Rafe rolls his eyes and turns back to fluffing the pillows.
“Can we not fight? You two are acting like alphas getting ready to go into a rut.”
They both still, and my stomach drops. Is that what this is? The excess energy running through me? I don’t think they’ve had a heat break out on the show, and I can’t recall a rut. But there’s a first time for everything, and they’ve kept us from Lilah all week.
Our omega could soothe us. Pull us back from the brink if we were entering a rut. As long as she isn’t going into a heat too. Of course her presence could have the opposite effect and have us fighting over knotting her. Just the thought has blood rushing behind my zipper.
“This needs to be good enough,” I say what I know they have to be thinking. The longer we are away from Lilah, the stronger this urge will get. The need to find our omega and make sure she’s ours. Knot her, claim her, breed her…all of it, everything we are unable to do while on this fucking show.
“Wait, I have candles,” Rafe says. He bounds up the three short steps and grabs a box before bringing it back down. He circles the area with tall, thick candles. “Okay.”
“Let’s go,” I say, before they can decide to add more pillows or fight about it looking like a nest.
My heart slamsagainst my ribcage as I step out of the SUV, my eyes running over the Villa in front of me. It’s bigger than the mansion in the states. At least from the outside it looks that way. And there is an elegance to the lawn decorations. It feels like we are someplace magical. Somewhere dreams can come true.
Thomas stands at the top of the steps, looking slightly annoyed with us. That’s fine. He can fuck off for all we care. I turn to watch Miles climbing from the car, his crutches already out to steady him. Briefly, I wonder how his injury will play out on the TV screens. Not that it matters. Onlymaking it to the end matters now. One more week. Three more dates after this.
“You’re late,” he says, a frown forming between his brow and on his lips. “You three are the most difficult alphas we’ve ever had.”
“That’s surprising, considering what an ass you are,” Rafe quips.
He doesn’t reply, only heads into the house, expecting us to follow. There’s a grand stairway that runs up both sides of the room, the staircase curving along the walls. At the top, there is a landing that looks down over the entrance way. I’m sure this villa was used for elegant evenings. And I can almost picture them as Lilah steps up to the banister.
Her fingers curl around the shiny wood, a smile lighting up her face as she looks down on us like an angel. In fact, it’s as if her entrance was planned to be viewed that way. The light shining behind her blonde hair even looks like a halo.
It doesn’t last long before she’s descending the right side of the staircase. When she reaches the bottom, she closes the distance and throws her arms around me. A purr rumbles in my chest as I gather her close, allowing her perfume to sink into my senses like a healing balm to my soul.
“I’ve missed you,” she says, her cheek pressing against my shirt, then she’s pulling away, and I want to pull her back.
But she’s turning to Rafe and giving him the same treatment. He folds her into his arms, nuzzling her neck with his own purr.
