“Ew, TMI.”
“Well, what else do you want me to say?” This redlight is taking forever. It needs to hurry the hell up. I don’twantto be away from my Omega. The farther away from her I am, the tighter and itchier my skin gets.
I have to remind myself that I’m doing this for her. That she’ll appreciate what I’m doing. Love it, even.
“Okay, well, are you at least going to tell her?”
“Not yet. I need more before I do.” Oh my God, if this car in front of me doesn’t move, I’m going to scream. I need to get a hold of myself. The last thing I want is to fall into a rut while I’m driving because I get pissed off. That would be a nightmare to deal with. Someone would have to come pick me up. I focus on my breathing to calm down.
“This is a bad idea.”
“I hear you, Marlie, but it’s the one I’ve got.”
“You should take my advice and tell her sooner rather than later. I am an Omega, you know. I know something about this shit.”
Maybe I should tell Ariana. Marlie knows her well, and I know she wouldn’t steer me in the wrong direction. But part of me feels like this needs to stay a secret. That the moment she knows, it’s going to look like I did this to make her forgive me, to convince her to bond me.
And it’s not why. This is me keeping every option open for her. Making sure she never feels trapped. It doesn’t matter that we’ve bonded. She deserves a safety net.
I swing into the parking lot and turn off my car.
“I just wanted you to know she wasn’t ignoring you. I’ll have her call you when the heat is over.”
“You’d better. I miss my best friend.”
I end the call without saying goodbye and climb out. The clinic opened five minutes ago. Here’s hoping I get back before she wakes up.
Chapter Forty-One
Derrick has leftevery day of her heat. He told me why, but it has been hell to distract Ariana enough that she didn’t realize he was missing. When he crawled back into the nest the first time, she was asleep again, having drifted off while she suckled softly on my cock. On day three, Grant had slipped her off to the shower before she could notice Derrick missing and cleaned her up. It’s day four, and this is the first time he managed to get back before she woke up at all.
“How’s she doing?” He strips off his clothes and slips into the nest, curling up against her back. “Did she wake up?”
“No. She’s sleeping in longer stretches, so I think she’s close to being done.”
He sighs in relief as he pulls her closer to his body and strokes her neck.
“She’s so perfect, Ivan.”
This close, I can see the nearly invisible freckles that dust her cheeks. Her pink lips are parted and swollen, and her hair is a complete mess.
She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Yeah, she is. How did we get so lucky?”
He looks off to the side, eyes wistful. “And I almost ruined it for us all.”
I clap him on the shoulder. “It worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
“Yeah. We’re lucky that she gave us a chance.”
We were lucky, that’s for sure. In many ways. The odds of our being her scent match were so slim, even though it wouldn’t have made a difference if we weren’t. And yet here we are, with bonding scars and scents that mark us as hers because even though we lied to her and hurt her, she still trusts us.
If we weren’t scent matches, would it have been easier for her to forgive us, or harder? I hate to think that our scents and the fear of getting FOS were what pushed her to accept the pack, but that had to have some bearing on it. Would she have made a different decision if our pheromones hadn’t recognized each other?
I know that I’m spiraling. How could I not? Will I ever know if she truly wanted this, wanted us?
My Omega’s eyes flutter open as she reaches for my chest. “Your thoughts are so loud, Alpha. I can feel them in the bond. What’s worrying you?” Her voice is surprisingly lucid, but she’s still warm enough that I know her heat still isn’t over.
