My already nauseous stomach flips and tumbles when I see Isadora perched sideways on Forsythe’s lap, her arm slung over his shoulder, one of his hands is resting on her hip, the other is gripping her thigh.
His jaw ticks and he drags his gaze off of me, back to Isadora.
My steps slow and then I stumble to a stop.
Shit.
Maybe Lulu was right. Maybe they are getting rid of me tonight. Maybe… Maybe they regret touching me last night.Maybe what we shared wasn’t up to their standards. It felt phenomenal to me, but then… my experience with males, beta and alpha alike, has been pretty sub-par.
Maybe for them it was unpolished, sloppy, overeager.Mid-range.
Maybe they don’t want an omega who does filthy things like feeding the prince’s cum into Thayer’s mouth, even when it's demanded of her.
Maybe I should have told them ‘no’ when they asked to touch me.
Maybe last night was a test I failed.
A half strangled whine bubbles up my throat, a camera pushes in close to catch my expression. It only gets worse when all of the alphas tense, but don’t move toward me.
“Ren? Little bird? What’s wrong?” Piers appears at my elbow, his hand a warm solid weight against my lower back. I turn to him frantic, needing the steady reassurance he always gives me, the warm smile, the calm eyes.
His expression darkens when he sees my own, and in a second he’s tugging me out of the pool area, away from the cameras, down a hall and into a… storage closet. My mic is still on, but I’m not worried about it.
The beta’s hands come up to cup my jaw, holding my gaze. “Tell me, what the fuck happened? Last night when we left you, you were a puddle of sated omega.”
My cheeks flare bright red in frustration and embarrassment. “Is… are you sending me home tonight?” The question bursts out of me. “Should I have not let things go as far as they did last night? Was that a mistake?”
“What? Baby,no.” Piers hooks a wide palm around the back of my neck and pulls me into him, wrapping his arms tight around my back as he tucks my head under his chin. I huff in hisfresh cut grass scent and try to believe him. Try to calm the fuck down.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I-there was a video. Of one of the discussions you guys have to decide who you’re sending home. Lulu and Marshall showed it to me. You were talking about me, about sending me home. It sounded like it was a forgone conclusion.”
He sighs and smooths one hand up and down my spine, while the other cups the back of my head. “We have discussed it, many, many fucking times, Ren. Because every one of us feels this… pull toward you and we can’t… You know what’s expected of us,” he says, softly. “What’s expected of Forsythe. So yeah, we’ve talked about it. But every time we just can’t bring ourselves to do it.”
I grip him tighter, nails digging into the muscles of his back. “And you didn’t talk about it this morning?”
There’s a very brief moment of hesitation that has me tensing before he says quietly, “Of course not, sunshine. We haven’t even had the meeting to discuss who’s going yet. The video you saw must have been from an earlier discussion. They’re just trying to stir up drama.”
I blow out a relieved breath, sagging into him as tears prick my eyes. “I was so worried I fucked it up,” I whisper.
“Never, sunshine. You can never fuck this up.” His lips press into the crown of my head, over and over again, before he rubs his cheek over the same spot. Marking me in his faint beta scent.
That action alone is enough to soothe me. He wouldn’t mark me if they were leaving me.
“Pix?” Courtland’s voice reaches us. “Where are you, baby?”
“Here,” Piers answers for me. “We’re in here.”
A second later the door opens and Courtland slips in. “Hiding are we?” He presses into my back, and a soft rumbling purr vibrates into me, relaxing me even further.
“What happened, pixie? Why’d you come out looking so upset?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. It was stupid. A bad confessional is all. But Piers made it better.”
Court hums. “He does do that, doesn’t he? Makes things better.”
I nod, melting between them. I didn’t realize how much I needed this reassurance after last night. If I could have made all of them stay and cuddle me until the early morning I would have. God, what I wouldn’t give to sleep next to them, to wake up just like this, sandwiched between two of them.
