“Who’s Marlon Brando?” Juneau asked, confused.
It was time for me to get this crazy train back on track before we lost the plot of the evening entirely. “All right, everyone, let’s head inside and get Juneau a fresh set of clothing, there are too many things happening and I’m about to lose my damn mind.”
I began to shoo them toward the house, trying not to watch as Juneau brought the collar of my shirt up to her nose and gave it a little sniff, her eyelashes fluttering with pleasure.
I gave myself a mental shake. I needed to focus on the task at hand and not how much I wanted her to press her nose into my neck instead of the shirt.
Chapter Thirteen
WhilewewaitedforJuneau to get dressed, I was in the powder room under the stairs downing a handful of tums in an attempt to sooth my bubbling stomach. During the thick of everything, it had been easy to ignore the bone-chilling fear that encountering the Titans always gave me. But now, as everyone was settling in for a conversation that I really didn’t want to have, my nausea was returning full force.
All I wanted to do was drag Juneau up into my nest and drown out the world until my insides stopped shaking. But Juneau deserved to hear the full story. She was in danger just by being around us.
Hands gripping my neck, forcing my face into dirty sheets.
A bark that made my spine go straight and the smell of black coffee burning my nose.
A sickening voice whispering in my ear.
‘I don’t know how I didn’t see it before. You’re the perfect omega, you can’t even talk back.’
My stomach twisted into a harsh knot. I leaned over the toilet to heave up the pink Tums I’d just swallowed, gagging as the chalky texture filled my mouth, mixed with stomach bile.
When I was done, I flipped the faucet on and began to splash cool water onto my face, hoping it would quell the tangles in my stomach, at least enough for me to try and swallow some more medicine.
In the two years since my designation presented itself, I had worked hard to ignore the terrifying memories from my first few hours as an omega. After all, my alphas had made it their job to replace all of the bad with so much good.
They’d always protected me, even when I was a beta, and it had been an unfortunate string of circumstances that had led to being alone, surrounded by assholes when I perfumed for the first time.
I wish I could push it away forever, but they knew about Juneau now. That meant she was in danger and I would be damned if I let them do anything to hurt her.
Over the past week, I had gravitated to her like a moth to a flame. At first, it had been all about her lemon pound cake scent. She smelled better than anyone I’d ever met, my own alphas included, and it had made me irrationally territorial over her and her time.
Then, she asked me to teach her sign language. I could have continued to type on my phone or my computer to communicate. Most people that I met preferred that method anyway. But Juneau was adamant that she would learn it. She had made huge strides in such a short amount of time that I was continually blown away by how sponge-like she was when it came to learning new things.
I was excited to wake up in the morning now. After greeting my alphas, I would knock on the guest room door, inhaling the cloying collection of her scent until she opened the door and greeted me with a sleepy smile.
She was with me for most of the day, even sitting in the office with me while I worked, though I was pretty sure she had absolutely no idea what my job really was.
Her scent was always close by, and I wanted nothing more than to take her up to my nest and rub all of my blankets and pillows on her body so that it would linger in the air. The only reason I hadn’t done that yet was because I didn’t want to make Rex or any of the other alphas upset.
I was already hooked on Juneau and it had only been a few days. I didn’t know how the fuck I was supposed to let her go back to the past or how I was supposed to explain my own past to her. Just the thought made me want to throw up again.
A knock on the door made me jump. I wasn’t sure how long I had been standing with the water on while my thoughts spiraled, but something told me it had been a while.
“PC?” Rex’s rumbling voice came through the door. “Are you okay in there?”
I leaned back, giving the door a single knock which was my version of a yes, before turning the water off.
I dried my face quickly with the towel hanging next to the sink and knocked back another handful of tums. I hoped they would stay down this time, but my stomach was still turbulent as I opened the door to find my most-stubborn alpha already crowding the doorway.
Rex was leaning against the doorframe, his expression scrunched with worry as he took in my pale face. Rex could feel every bit of my inner-turmoil through the bond, but even if we hadn’t been connected he would have known anyway.
He was my oldest friend and the first person I ever fell in love with. What had started as a childhood crush on a teenage boy when I was younger had morphed into the kind of romance that one could only dream of.
And with him had come three other alphas that loved in different ways. They’d seen me when I was invisible as a mute beta that hid away from the rest of the MC.
Rex’s ice-blue eyes softened as he continued to look at me. “We don’t have to tell her anything if you don’t want to. I don’t want to bring up bad shit for you, PC.”
