My shaking worsened, and tears leaked down my face. I didn’t even know why I was crying. They’d just rescued me. I was incredibly grateful. But I couldn’t control my reactions.
“Hey,” Spencer soothed, quickly coming up to my side and taking my hand, “that is most certainly what I want. You’remine, Flora, and I don’t mean that in some horrible way. You’re a part of this pack, and we love you. Being bonded to you would?—”
His words cut off as a hungry growl left him, and he had to shake it away as Chase and Bear laughed, Chase quickly adding, “I’ve wanted you to bite me for ages, honeybee. We just wanted to make sure you were ready. So, since you are, it’s a non-issue.”
“When the heat hits…” I trailed off.
“Wewillbe there for it, happily and with eager, bitey teeth.” Chase grinned, and a second later, I was thoroughly surrounded by my alphas.
My muscles relaxed. I still didn’t know exactly what I was feeling. There was so much to process and unpack. But it felt possible, thanks to the men standing around me, something that no one but the three of them could do.
Chapter 47
Bear
We nearly lost our omega. Flora had almost been?—
I cut off my thoughts with a firm shake of my head. I couldn’t let myself go there. Flora was here. She was safe. That was what I needed to focus on.
“Never again,” I muttered, watching Flora sleep. We were all piled into her room. Chase and I were in her nest with her, and Spencer was sitting on an overstuffed armchair to the side, watching our omega intently.
She wore clothing she had pilfered from our closets, her hair scraped into a bun after her shower. With her fresh-faced and sleeping deeply, I couldn’t stop watching her.
“If she allows us to, I’m going to put so many goddamn trackers on her,” Chase muttered. “I've been reading about ultra-high-tech ones coming out of Asia. I'm going to order them as soon as we've rested. Jewelry, clothing, hell, even under her skin…”
“I don’t give a shit if she allows us to—she’sgoingto have extra trackers on her,” Spencer said softly. “I'm never fuckingrisking her life again. If I hadn’t put them in her damn shoes… I’m not sure we would have found her in time.”
I didn’t want to think about that. We wouldn’t have even known whether she was still on campus. We could have torn the place apart for nothing. Lyle was a piece of shit, but he’d been smart enough to leave very little evidence that he was Flora’s stalker and where he took her. Thankfully, what little paper trail he did leave meant the police could arrest him easily. The idiot had items of Flora’s in his apartment and photos proving he had begun following her shortly after she started at Avalon University.
Personally, I was all for tracking devices. I imagined Flora would ask us to only look at them when there was an emergency, of course, and I could deal with that.
Spencer sighed, his eyes still pinned to Flora. “What she said about her heat… Do you think she meant it? About wanting all of us? I would hate to think that was something she said in the ‘heat’ of the moment.”
I snorted lightly. “There’s no way in hell she said that in the heat of the moment. God, that’s a terrible pun. Ugh, but anyway. Shelovesyou guys, and you know it. While I hate what led us to this point, I am sofuckingexcited for us to be together as a pack, fully bonded, like we ought to be.”
Spencer gazed longingly at Flora. “Yeah. It’ll be amazing. First, she needs to heal, though. We help her through this, then we help her through what’s next.”
Chase hummed in agreement. “And whatever she has to face in the future, we’ll be there.”
I smoothed my hand up and down her arm. She didn’t even flinch in her sleep. Flora was so exhausted by what’d gone down in that horrible, rundown dormitory that she’d passed right the fuck out when we got home. She deserved it. All therest with none of the interruptions. We were on board to ensure Flora got everything she needed.
“Always.” I smiled, unable to keep myself from thinking about the one omega who’d seen the real me, beneath the exterior. “Til death do us part.”
“And maybe afterward if she needs us.” Spencer nodded, and I had no doubt in my mind that any of us would come back from the dead for Flora, rules and mortality be damned.
“Spencer!” Flora whined. She was sitting in the nest, throwing the alpha in question a pleading look.
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head, his arms folded firmly over his chest.
She flopped back on the bed. “I havethreealphas. Surelyoneof you is willing to knot me?” she asked hopefully.
Our pack leader didn’t blink. “You need to rest.”
“Ineedto come,” she grumbled. And damn, could we all tell. I was this close to cracking, but if we only had a few days between everything Flora had been through and her heat, that time was better used preparing.
Still, when she pouted at me like that, my steely resolve was tested.
“How about we go get some cookies?” I suggested holding my hand out. When in doubt, tempt the omega with a treat. It usually bought us at least an hour or two.
