Ranieri glanced at the alphas on either side of him. “We’ve been talking.”
Nico scoffed at that, but stopped when Ranieri elbowed him in the side.
“And what exactly have you been talking about?” I pushed tentatively as I heard the sound of a bathtub being turned off in the other room..
“We think you should be the one to be with her tonight. Alone,” Ranieri finally answered.
Surprise filled me. “But we’re a pack. We married her as a pack.”
“Yes, but we aren’t bonded like you are—”
I cut him off. “That doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” Dante said, his deep voice brokering no more argument. “She needs someone familiar. Especially tonight.”
There was a lot unsaid as he gave me a gentle shove toward the bedroom and I resolved to talk about it fully in the morning. I stepped over the threshold and the door was pulled shut behind me.
The room was heavy with her scent. It wafted through the air creating a trail to follow toward the bathroom.
Rubbing my hands nervously on my slacks, I crossed the room to the door and knocked before immediately kicking myself.
“She can’t hear that, stupid,” I muttered, moving to open the door only for the handle to be yanked out of my hand as it opened from the other side.
A waft of steam filled my vision, bringing with it the clean scent of soap and melon.
There she stood with wide blue eyes as she clutched a plush robe around her slender frame.
“Sorry—” I began before quickly signing it.
I was immediately filled with the desire to turn tail and run like the coward I truly was. Maybe we could fake the sheets and come back to the whole marriage consummation thing later on when I wasn’t feeling so damned nervous.
Never in my life had I felt sounsureabout myself. Growing up I had been trained to be confident. There was no room in our lineof work for anxiety. Anxiety got you killed and now I didn’t know how to cope—
My chaotic train of thoughts was cut off abruptly by bath-warmed hands cupping my face and pulling me down.
Cini’s lips met mine in a soft, tentative motion, like she was testing the waters between us before her tongue softly swiped along my bottom lip.
I vaguely wondered who had taught her such a thing as I lost myself to it. As far as I knew, she had only ever kissed me and Nico, and if Nico had done this to her then I would kick his ass in the morning.
Then, all too soon, she was pulling away and I was blinking at her inquisitive expression like an idiot.
‘Well?’she signed, tilting her head so that her damp blonde hair shifted over her shoulder.‘Aren’t we going to have sex?’
The brusque way she asked it threw me off.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked, suddenly the one with cold feet as I became all too aware of the bed behind me.
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’she said, a huff of exasperated air leaving her lips.‘You know how I feel. How I’ve felt.’
I did. From the moment I kissed her on her birthday all those years ago I knew it.
Then Alesso was killed and the guilt of going after his most prized treasure, his little sister, had set in.
I kept telling myself that I could put off how I felt so long as I freed her from her father’s influence, then that could be my penance toward her brother and I could finally explore my feelings for her.
But there was no way for me to predict how far Amante would go in order to mold Cini into the omega he’d always wanted her to be.
There were still so many variables we needed to figure out in order to set her free—Keane regaining control over his people,how the hell we were going to oust Amante from power before Cini gave birth to our hypothetical child, the possibility of the pregnancy harming her already fragile health.
