I hand Asher the two rods. He gestures for me to give him the basket as well, shouting over the loud rain, “I got it. She needs help.” He’s more than willing to juggle everything while I focus on helping the omega who, I’m guessing, doesn’t like being helped.
Ironic, considering.
After I give Asher the basket too, I move to Jess, who’s now on her own two feet, but she’s using a nearby tree for support, not putting any weight on her left ankle. She wears an adorable frown, though the adorableness wears off a bit, replaced by pure aggravation, when she realizes what I’m about to do.
“Don’t you dare,” she hisses as she puffs herself up—as if she could scare me away from helping.
I stop when I tower over her. Like hell is she going to intimidate me into not helping her. “I’m giving you a choice: letme carry you, or I’ll throw you over my shoulder like I did the first night I was here. Your choice.”
The way she grinds her jaw and glares up at me tells me all I need to know: she really hates me right now. But I’m not stupid. I know she doesn’t hate me, not really. It’s all an act, a show, and up until recently, she was getting through life with everyone believing said act of hers.
Lightning lights up the dark sky, and right after the thunder comes along with it, Jess’s shoulders slump and she says, “Fine.”
She doesn’t need to say anything more. I grab her, heaving her up into my arms like she weighs nothing at all. Lifting her is like lifting a pack of feathers; I could carry her all day, every day, and never tire, never complain.
Jess, for her part, keeps her arms folded over her chest and her gaze averted, refusing to meet my stare the entire way back. In other words, she pouts the whole time. Honestly, I don’t expect anything less from her.
I follow Asher’s lead back to the house, being extra careful due to the precious cargo in my arms. We make good time back, I think, and as we walk up the few steps of the back patio, Mason appears just inside, a deep frown on his face.
He yanks open the door for us as we approach, demanding to know, “Didn’t you see the storm rolling in?”
Once inside, Asher sets the rods down, along with everything else as he says, “We lost track of time.” But his response is ignored pointedly when his brother sees Jess in my arms.
“What the fuck happened?”
I step over the threshold, and Mason shuts the door, locking out the sounds of the pouring rain that hasn’t let up. “She fell,” I tell him in a huff. “Hurt her ankle, I think.”
“My ankle’s fine,” Jess mutters with a roll of her eyes. “It’s just a little sore, that’s all.”
“Oh, yeah?” I ask her. “Should I put you down right here and make you walk to your room then?”
She acts as though she’s seriously thinking about it. It’s a long few seconds before she whispers a defeated, “No. You can take me up the stairs.” Hearing her admit that, you’d think I was a dentist pulling her teeth without any type of pain management.
I slip off my muddy shoes before I carry her through the house. Up the stairs we go, followed shortly by Mason and Asher, both clearly worried about her. I say, “I know you wanted your room to be off-limits, but I think you should probably do your best to stay off that ankle for a while. Let us take care of you. With any luck, it’ll feel better before your heat hits.”
When I reach her room, Asher rushes around me to open the door Jess keeps shut, even when she’s not in there—and the moment we step inside, I realize why.
Her scent. It’s everywhere. In the air, in the sheets, probably in the walls.
“I’ll start a bath so she can warm up,” he says, heading straight to the attached bathroom to do just that.
Mason goes to her suitcase to pull out some dry clothes, and Jess says, “Hey, that’s not—” She can’t even get the full sentence out before Mason pulls out a big, fat silicone alpha knot, and at first, I think we’re all quite shocked at his discovery.
Mainly shocked to see it, I think. I knew she brought something, but seeing it in its full glory is… let’s just say very different.
Jess blushes and turns into my chest to hide herself from the world.
Asher walks out of the bathroom, saying, “It’s running. It’ll be a bit before the tub fills, but—” He stops the moment he surveys the room and sees his brother kneeling next to Jess’s suitcase, or rather, when he spots the impressive fake cock in his brother’s hand.
Jess isn’t the only one who blushes. Asher does too, once he puts it together.
He trips over his words, “That’s… I don’t think she, uh, needs that thing right now.”
Mason jiggles the thick silicone knot a bit, showing everyone in the room that its length is not rigid. It bends, as I suppose it should, given what it’s used for. “Now, I know what an alpha knot looks like, but I have to admit, it feels pretty fucking different when you’re looking at one like this.”
“Then maybe you should drop it,” Jess mutters against my chest.
It’s like her words bring him back to reality, and Mason drops the dildo like it’s a hot potato that just burned his hand. The alpha returns to digging through her stuff to find some clothes for her, and I can only imagine the other items he may or may not be digging through.
