I start to ask if she needs anything, but before I can say a word, she perfumes.
Cookies and cream.
Fresh from the oven, warmed throughout but decadent and gooey on the inside. Not only is our Omega safely back with us, but she just dropped into her heat.
Chapter
Thirty-Four
RYDER
Simona whimpers, and her incredible coloured eyes flutter to a close. As the car moves forward, she follows the motion and drapes against my chest.
Her skin is warm, her cheeks rosy-pink, and I don’t need to ask if her heat is here, because it’s obvious.
I just wish her fear wasn’t as easy to discern.
“You’re safe, Sin,” I whisper, brushing the hair from her sticky forehead.
She makes a faint noise before she hides it behind gritted teeth, pluming her scent into my face. And fuck me, I was a freak for her cookies and cream scent before. Now, inhaling her sweetness, it’s nothing short of a religious experience. She’s staring deep into my eyes, and I can read the answers to all the mysteries of the universe in them.
“We’ll always protect and love you,” I promise easily. Echoing the sentiment I’ve felt since our first strange meeting. My words fall between us like soft rain, and the both of us take the chance to simply enjoy it for what it is—a reunion.
A small smile tugs at the corner of her lips, making her beauty shimmer. Also highlighting the minor but noticeable changes she’s going through; her pupils are getting bigger as they dilate, her brow is slightly pinched in discomfort, and her breathing is altering to shorter cycles like she’s been jogging. But that’s all surface level.
Simona has always stroked the deepest, fiercest, most vivid emotions and feelings within me. These few minutes with her in my arms, I swear my DNA alters. Which is exactly what happened with Hen and Dom. Now I just need to make sure she unequivocally knows she’s ours, with no question or doubt in her mind.
“In an hour from now you’ll still be wrapped in my arms. In a day, I hope you’ll understand I’ll always be here to hold you. In a year, I’ll kiss your face and remind you of the first time I held you like this. In a decade, we’ll celebrate and relive the beautiful life we’ve shared.Westart today.”
Her lip quivers as hope sparkles brightly in her eyes. Her heavy-lidded eyes. But Simona’s heat is in the early stages. She’s still able to fight through the tides. There will come a point where the waves will crash over her, and she’ll think she’ll drown, but we’ll hold her high and tight and keep air in her lungs.
“I needed you all yesterday. And you were there. I asked for space while I was with Tristan, and you gave it without questioning or doubting my reasons even when I went out. I asked Dominic to prepare the papers, and I know he has been working ever since. As if that wasn’t enough, I say a handful of words to Hendrix and you all come running. It’s a lot to take in,” she says quietly, pressing her forehead to mine.
Cookies and cream flavours my mouth, and I lick my lips hungrily before smiling. “We said we would. And we will always do what we say.”
“What ifheknows?”
Simona’s question is open-ended, likely because she isn’t entirely sure what she’s trying to say. All I know is that I want to allay each of her worries before they even have the chance to become more than fleeing thoughts.
“Our focus is you, Sin. We’re going to spend our days showing you how incredible you are. We’re going to go wherever you want to go. Every day you’re going to do whatever it is that makes your heart happy. We won’t hold you back. If he tries to hold you back, or if he does anything to make the light in your eyes fade, then our focus will shift.”
“Your career?”
I lean up to kiss the tip of her nose, making sure she gets a lungful of my scent too. So she smells, sees and listens, and understands completely how committed we are.
“My career will always be there.”
“What if he exposes you? Being with me is probably going to ruin your career.”
“Then I will beat him in his twisted games by exposing myself first. I wanted to be anonymous to protect myself and my pack. But I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure your safety. I’ll show his face next to mine, in every post and clip I make if it means you are protected.”
“For me? You’d do that for me?” Doubt crests, along with another flush of colour, unnecessarily reminding me her heat is on the way. I massage the tension rising until the small spasm she rides ebbs away.
“That and more, Omega,” I pledge. Easily. Desperately.
But of course, because of how destined and fate matched we are, Dominic and Hendrix somehow utter the same words, at the same time, with the same devout declaration. It’s perfect really.
As is the gracious relief that flutters through her scent, making her smile wider. She buries herself under the crook ofmy neck. “I need a nest, and your Alpha attention. Each of you.”
