“Then we won’t tell them.” He says it like it’s simple, like we keep secrets from our mom and dads all the time. We don’t—or at least, he doesn’t. I do, clearly, but that’s because I haven’t been comfortable enough to talk to anyone about this before. “If you want to tell them when you’re ready, that’s your decision. I’ll back you up either way.”
It shouldn’t be like this. I’m the older brother, a goddamned über alpha. I should be as put together as Rourke, not the mess I am. Still, if it was as easy as fixing myself by thinking about it a lot, then I’d have been fixed a long time ago.
“Thank you,” I tell him, and he finally removes his hand from my arm. I’m not used to receiving comfort from anybody, especially my younger brother, but… it wasn’t bad. I don’t know that I feel heaps better, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Asher shakes his head. “Don’t thank me. I should’ve noticed something was off sooner. I’m your brother.”
“Yeah, but before this whole mess, you and I didn’t exactly talk all the time.” It’s true. He’s in school, going for a degree, with the ultimate goal of taking over our parents’ company. He’s always had a lot on his plate. Him and I were never best buds, like a lot of brothers end up being.
Hell, I never, ever would have thought we’d talk about forming a pack. Never thought we’d want to share an omega. Never thought I’dwantan omega, for that matter.
He doesn’t take the excuse I give him. “No, it doesn’t matter. You’re still my brother. I should’ve known—I’m so sorry. All these years I thought you were messing up on purpose. I had no idea you felt this way.”
“You don’t think I’m weak?”
Never before have I seen such conviction in my brother’s expression than I do right after I ask that. He holds his head high, and even though he’s two inches shorter than me, he givesoff the appearance of a much taller alpha, practically an über, when he says, “No. Mental health matters. I don’t think you’re weak and I don’t think less of you. You’re my brother, and maybe I don’t say it enough, but I love you. I really do. I’m glad you’re my brother.”
A month ago, a declaration like that would’ve made me gag and roll my eyes so fucking hard, but now… now I can only stand there and accept his words for what they are: the truth.
Asher and I are so different. We might look similar with our light eyes and our yellow hair. We might be alphas, but that’s where the similarities end. For so long, I thought he could never understand me or where I’m coming from, and you know what?
I’ve never been happier to have been so wrong.
I do something right then that I would never have done before: I hug him. I reach for my brother and pull him in and hug him for the first time in recent memory. Shit, I can’t remember the last time we hugged like this.
Asher doesn’t say a word, but he does hug me back.
And it feels good. It feels good to know I’m not alone, that my brother has my back. It feels even better knowing Jess is the one who helped him open his eyes; I don’t think I ever would’ve had the balls to say anything if it wasn’t for her inadvertently forcing the issue.
Coming clean to my brother isn’t a magic cure-all, but it’s a start.
The next step? Getting Jess through her heat.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Jess
The guys take the job of babying me very seriously. Anytime I want to go downstairs, I’m carried like a literal princess, cradled by an absurd amount of tattoos and muscles since Rourke claims the honor every single time. When it’s time to go back to my room, I’m carried back up.
I don’t have to lift a finger—or a foot—to do anything. Not to cook, not to clean up after meals, not even to do my laundry.
I stop wearing my scent-blocking cream. It’s strangely freeing, not having to worry about applying it all over my body after every shower. One less thing I need to worry about.
Plus, I get a little tingly when I see how easily I can rile them up and dilate those intense alpha eyes. All I need to do is say something that can be taken as remotely sexual, or wear a tight shirt, and it’s over. It’s fun to see them try to pretend I don’t affect them.
It’s not just Rourke, too. Being his scent match makes things worse for him. He gets erections so freaking easy.
It goes like that for a while. The days blend. We spend time together, no more secrets, no more walls. They’re respectful of me even when I tease them. As the days go by, I can’t help but wonder if this is what it’d be like, a life with them.
Do I even need my inheritance if I found myself a pack I can trust to actually take care of me? Is money worth waiting and depriving myself of what could possibly be the most earth-shattering pleasure a girl could hope to experience? I thought I had my answer to that in the beginning, but each day my answer wavers more and more.
I want them. I want them so badly it’s starting to hurt inside. It’s a pain I’m unfamiliar with. I had a sneak peek at said pain the night I first met Rourke at the Omega Garden and I watchedhim walk away from me. Being so close to him on a daily basis without feeling his bare skin on mine is torture of the ninth degree.
A week goes by when Rourke gets a call. It was just after dinner, and we were in the middle of a movie, all of us sitting on the couch together. When he sees who it is, he excuses himself to go answer it, and he steps outside on the patio to do it. He’s gone for a little while, and when he returns, he says not a word as he reclaims his spot beside me.
Asher, Mason, and I all stare at him, waiting for him to spill. It’s Mason who says, “Well? You going to fucking say something, or make us guess what that was about?”
“It was Darius.” Rourke says, referencing his boss. I’ve heard a lot about Darius and his friends, Pax and Warren, lately. They’re Alabasters, pretty high up in the company. Darius and Pax recently found their forever mates, and in doing so helped change Alabaster Security for the better. “The company’s lawyers got their hands on a copy of the will.”
In my chest, my heart skips a beat. I’m almost afraid of what he’s going to say next. Not going to lie, more and more I’ve been wondering what it’d be like to have actual alpha knots at my disposal during my heat and not that silicone one.
