I cupped Juneau’s chin and tilted it up so that I could kiss her. Her lips moved eagerly against mine, her tongue swiping along my lower lip before it slipped inside of my mouth. Gone was the clumsy, sheltered debutante experiencing her first kisses, and in her place was a confident woman with a voracious appetite.
“I can think of some ways you can help me,” I whispered against her mouth, wagging my eyebrows suggestively.
Juneau’s bright laugh filled the backyard as she gently pushed away from me. “You are still on bed rest, sir, on account of the three gunshot wounds still currently healing in your chest. I won’t go against Doc’s orders.”
“Fuck Doc,” I said, but my words held no malice, just a healthy serving of envy. The night that Juneau and Podcast had played with Doc in the storage room we all knew what they had done. Even still, the day after it happened Juneau had snuggled up with me, the scent of Podcast and Doc still clinging to her skin, and whispered everything that she had learned about knots from them.
It had driven me fucking wild. Had it not been for those fuckwits that had tried to ambush me, I would have already had my turn bringing her to new heights with my fingers and tongue. But, no, I was stuck recovering while Juneau smelled like the most delicious dessert in existence.
“I don’t want you to open your stitches,” Juneau insisted, scrubbing her fingernails affectionately along my jaw. I leaned into her touch like a cat begging for more scratches.
“Juneau!” Storm’s voice filled the backyard as he stepped out onto the porch. “Podcast says it’s time for your lesson.”
I glared at him, hoping he felt every bit of my irritation as Juneau helped me up from the bench. The movement tugged painfully on my stitches which, despite my bravado,didhurt like a bitch still.
I must have made some kind of noise that gave away the pain because Juneau wheeled around to look at me again, her eyes filled with worry.
“I’m fine,” I told her, waving off her fluttering hands. “Just promise to kiss and make it better later, okay, sugar?”
Juneau nibbled on her lower lip, a tell-tale sign that she was torn between staying with me and going for her sign language lesson. I turned her toward the house and gave her ass a little swat. “Go or Podcast’ll come out here and throw you over his shoulder himself.”
The normally easy-going Podcast had turned into a tiny tyrant when it came to Juneau’s attention and I didn’t need to add getting my ass-kicked by the guy to my ever growing list of injuries.
Juneau threw me one last heated look before hurrying past me and into the house. I ascended the steps to the porch slowly, taking my time, and Storm was waiting for me by the door when I finally made it.
“You’re such a cockblock,” I grumbled at him as I stepped into the house, glancing at the clock on the stove. “And you’re twenty minutes early to calling her to her lesson.”
Storm gave me a shit-eating grin. “I was a little worried you were going to pop a stitch alongside that boner you’re sporting, old man.” Storm nodded at the stiffness in my dark pants which I wasn’t even trying to hide.
I lifted an irritated brow and frowned at him. “Who are you calling old man? I’m only a year older than you,” I asked as I, with some difficulty, pulled a bowl down from the cupboard to make myself a bowl of cereal.
“That may be, but I think each stab and gunshot ages you a year,” Storm said, moving around me to grab the box of Lucky Charms before I could reach for it.
I hated being treated with kid-gloves. I didn’t need their fucking sympathy for being stupid enough to get ambushed. My skills had been rusty, but I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. “If that’s the case then I should be about a hundred and fifty by now.”
Storm had always been the most observant of the pack, choosing to stay in the background rather than combat the heavier personalities of Doc and Rex. But he also saw more than most people. “Youcanask us for help, Bat. We aren’t judging you and we never have,” Storm said. There wasn’t a hint of anger in his voice, just exasperation.
“I’m fine,” I muttered, pouring the milk into my cereal and taking a bite of the sugary sweetness.
I heard the alpha next to me sigh and felt him give me a gentle pat on the back.
“Bat, you are a part of our pack no matter what you do or have done. I think you forget that sometimes,” Storm’s voice was full of an affection that grated against my skin for a moment before finally settling into my bones, chasing away my dark edges in the same way that Juneau’s presence did. “We wouldn’t have brought you here with us otherwise.”
With that, Storm’s footsteps retreated as he headed to join Juneau and Podcast for their lesson, leaving me by myself in the kitchen.
“They’re making some of the weirdest fucking moves,” Rex said as we all sat around the kitchen table. The same table that had been my impromptu operating table only a week ago.
Rex had just gotten off of the phone with Silas and now he looked perturbed as he spoke.
“How so?” Legs asked from where she was perched on the kitchen island, Wren and Taz flanking her on either side. Rex had asked them to stay close to home for the next few weeks until Orpheus and the Titans were dealt with, but I could see the desire to dosomethingbuzzing underneath their skin. They weren’t used to being tied down anymore, and quite honestly neither was I.
“According to Silas, they’re moving weapons and other supplies out west. He smells trouble brewing, and I do too,” Rex explained, his fists clenched against the wood of the table.
“I hate this shit,” he spat, slamming his closed fist on the table and making Juneau and Podcast jump.
They were sitting together, their arms and legs tangled like they usually were when we discussed heavy things. Omegas were needy creatures and it looked like they both offered and took comfort from one another in a way that an alpha could never provide.
Podcast reached out and put a hand on Rex’s arm, working the omega magic that was all biological. Rex’s muscles began to relax one by one until, like clockwork, Podcast had brought him back from the precipice of rage and he could think clearly again.
