“Sorry, this isn’t what you think. Ignore me for a second,” Peter said, waving his hand in Carver’s direction to distract him.
“What?” Carver sounded mightily confused.
“Do you want me to be here?”
Carver looked guilty, but he nodded his head. Peter breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sorry. I was just… I don’t know. These past few days—this past year—has been a lot. I think it’s just catching up to me.”
Carver nodded, and after hesitating a second, he put his hand on Peter’s back. Broad and warm, strong fingers massaged Peter’s back like only an alpha could, carefully sliding closer on the couch until they were thigh to thigh.
“This okay?” he asked, voice getting a little rumbly.
Peter shuddered, turning his head and burying his face in Carver’s side. He smelled like alpha and laundry detergent, and Peter wished he could bottle the scent up and just sniff it forever.
“This is good,” he said, allowing himself to relax.
He could do this. Tex and Carver hadn’t done anything that didn’t make him feel good—quite the opposite, in fact—and with the fiction of his pardon, it might be better to pretend that events had transpired the way Carver’s mother had made them look like they transpired.
And why not? Peter had the chance to face the world as a free omega happily mated to two stunning werewolves. Was it so bad if it was all built on a lie?
That wasn’t a question he wanted to answer.
15
Carver
The next morning Carver and Tex headed to the gym after breakfast, letting Peter have the house to himself for a while. He still seemed a little shaken up by hispardon, and Carver thought that he might appreciate some time to get his thoughts in order without Tex and Carver looming over him.
Tex wasn’t at all eager to leave the house, but a look from Carver shut him up and he went to pack his gym bag.
Besides, going to the gym gave Carver a chance to talk to Tex without Peter being present. He’d worried that Tex would be an asshole about the safeword thing, but to his surprise when he’d brought it up the night before Tex had thought it was a good idea.
Carver didn’t trust it.
Locking their gym bags in the locker room, Tex and Carver stretched and warmed up before getting started with their workout.
“Why are you looking at me like you think I’m planning something sinister?” Tex asked a while later, looking up at Carver from his position on the weightlifting bench. Carver was spotting him, crouched down and controlling the bar, enjoying the sight of his mate spread out in front of him. Chest, arms and shoulders all pumped from the workout, Tex made for a stunning picture.
“I didn’t think you’d like the idea of a safeword,” Carver said, holding the bar steady as Tex struggled to push it up for the final rep of his set. Tex was at the very limit of his strength and the way his muscles quivered was beautiful.
“Why not?” Tex asked, putting the bar into place and sitting up and wiping his face with a towel. He looked at Carver with an open expression. “He loves being dominated, so it’s not like he’s going to be using it all that often. It makes him feel like he can trust us and we get to push him harder. It’s a win-win.”
Carver agreed, and he was feeling a little guilty for thinking Tex would be an asshole about it.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Carver said, moving around and getting on the bench while Tex got into position behind him. “I mean, what we need is for him to feel like he can trust us.”
“I agree,” Tex said, standing behind Carver’s head and giving him a very nice view as he squatted down to hold the bar steady. It was a wonder they hadn’t been asked to leave the gym with Tex’s bulge sticking out of his compression shorts like that.
Carver started his first set of lifts, grunting softly each time he lifted the bar.
“So this thing you have to do for your mom, how much trouble is that going to be?” Tex asked. Carver had told him about his mother’srequestin the car on the way to the gym, and he’d been surprised by how not surprised Tex had been.
Carver curled his lip in distaste. He’d looked into The Bank the night before, and while he hadn’t found much, what he did find was shady as hell. They’d been involved in several investigations related to omega trafficking, but none of the investigations had resulted in charges being pressed, much less a trial.
The whole thing had dirty cops and dirty prosecutors written all over it.
“A lot,” Carver said. “I don’t have a clue how I’m going to get an invite, and then there’s the fact that I’d actually have to bring Peter there.”
