“My pack.”
“No, they are not. Your pack consists of Ben Rogers, a twenty-eight-year-old man who has blonde hair, blue eyes, and an allergy to peanuts. And you have another pack mate named Andy Howard, who works in aged care… you do not have two people in your pack that look like you!” Her scent takes a dip in its sweetness while her panic makes her curl into herself.
“You remember I said we both needed to trust each other?”
“Yes, Kai, I do remember,” she hisses before she glares daggers at me. Her brown eyes filling up with all her emotions, making her look alive, and fucking beautiful.
“Good. This is one of those times. The second one is probably worse, Heidi.”
“What do you mean?” She stares at me, or through me really.
“You’ve met one of my brothers already.”
“No, I am pretty sure… oh wait, he’s the cheater?”
“No, that would be Dare. Ramses hasn’t dated for approximately six years because he, like me, met his scent-matched Omega. He can’t stomach the thought of even dating.”
“Right?! So, you expect me to believe that too?!” she squeals, and my eyes flash over to my brothers, both of them recoiling slightly.
I take a gulp and man up. “Well, you said it. Not me.”
“And when did I meet him then? Because I am pretty fucking sure, Kai I-Don’t-Even-Think-Alastor-Is-Your-Pack Name, I’d remember meeting him!” She keeps staring at me, before she starts shaking her head slowly, a small, defeated whine escaping from behind her pretty lips.
My other brother strides over without a care in the world, but it’s all a ploy. I can see the impact her stress is having on him. Darius is about to lose his mind and start punching shit up. Instead, he makes a grab for her and snuggles her in his arms. “Omega…I’m not going to hurt you. At all. But I am going to lift you up and carry you.”
Dare is not a quiet or softly spoken Alpha. His emotions and control are up and down like a fucking yoyo. But he is also clearly the most level-headed out of all of us because he opens the door and hauls her into his arms.
He talks softly to her, saying the same thing over and over. “I’m not going to hurt you. You’re in complete control, and always will be with us.”
His sweet chai latte scent is so rich it’s warm and thick, and it fills the air. So does a deep rumbling that spills from his chest in response to her anxiety. Without ever meeting her, he purrs for her. And despite her struggles to get out of his arms, she relaxes when he clamps his hand over her head and holds her to his chest, so she can hear the noise he makes.
It literally takes seconds until Heidi loses some of her initial fright. Her fists ball in Dare’s hoodie and she whispers, “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Darius answers quickly, “Oh, you know… just three Alphas falling apart in front of you thinking they’ve screwed everything up before we’ve even said hello.”
Heidi squeezes her eyes shut and makes a sound that’s a mix of frustration and disbelief, and it’s not directed at us, it’s directed at herself. That much is clear. It’s hard to listen to.
But she’s like a magnet, and no matter how much we should have stayed away from our little broken and bruised mate, it was never going to happen. The four of us were supposedly written in the stars by the gods themselves. Well, according to our mother, who used to coax us into bed every night with a fairy-tale of broken hearts and happy endings.
ChapterNineteen
DARIUS
“Stop, Ramses,” I snap out.
And my brother freezes mid step. I know he’s freaking out and not thinking clearly or he would have read the scene himself.
“Go get some blankets,” I say quietly. “And make it fair. Blankets from each of us.”
Given half the chance, he’d only use pillows and quilts from his room. She needs grounding. Her Omega side needs scent and comfort while her human side needs answers.
I block out the sounds of her uneven breathing, and the edge of anxiety to her scent because right now she doesn’t need us like that. She needs to stand on her own two feet and fight. She needs to grapple with the fear threatening to consume her. After I’ve held her, of course.
Even in distress, Heidi is as beautiful as they said. But they both got her unique scent so wrong, it’s omnipotent and each note of her scent is layered over the other. Despite her mood impacting it, you can easily tell it’s sweet like sugar, and crisp like the first rays of sunshine on a winter’s day. There’s also a subtle tartness that makes me hope it’s the brat in her, the one she’s locked away. Without a doubt, I’m encouraging her to let that side of herself be freer.
“We’ve argued about how to do this. And decided there’s no right way,” I offer simply. I’m not going to dance around and pretend this is going to be easy for her. “But you need to hear us out. I know I’m asking a lot for you to stay and listen when all you want to do is run, but I think you need to hear what we have to say too. You want to leave after, I will drive you myself.”
She’s quiet and barely moving in my arms. I’d like to stop and show her the house, let her sleep in my bed, anything but have this conversation. Except it’s not just words we’re about to drop on her, and I suspect as much as she’s had to lock up her naturally tart bratty side, that she’s banished memories of Ramses in the deepest recesses of her mind.
