“Let me do this next one,” Alexei said, dunking his hands in the water with no regard at all for his suit jacket or the silky tie he was dipping in the soap suds.
“You–just have to get out the worst of the stains,” I said disjointedly, as Alexei and Theo began to start scrubbing, chatting lightly about the weather and the long winter and the coming spring and did I think the ice would break soon? I was having difficulty concentrating with all these Alpha scents wafting over me.
Theo smelled like a tree, but somehow even better. He smelled like atreehouse, like something built comfortingly deep in the soil, something grounding and stable.
It hit me so hard I had to blink away tears of unexpected emotion. How could a man smell likethat, like a home?
“Are you the only workers?” Alexei asked Mrs. Apel pleasantly.
“Yes, my lord,” she said. “Jessabella stepped in to–to help when another worker left.”
What a strange sensation to feel Theo and Alexei breathing beside me, to feel the intake, the exhale, all along my skin.
“That was so thoughtful of you,” Theo said in his low voice, and he didn’t say what we all must have been thinking.
What else was there for a rejected Omega to do? It was very difficult to find another Pack once your Alphas had rejected you.
“You are doing such a wonderful job here,” Alexei said, and I wanted to sink into the ground at the kindness in his voice, to both the aged retainer and me. “It is a good thing to have fairly clean sheets. However, it is also good to have enough people so the work is distributed. I would estimate, from the size of these washers, and the amount of laundry I see, that you need another four or five people at least.”
“Whatever you wish,” Mrs. Apel squeaked out.
Alexei peeled off his wet suit jacket to reveal a dripping shirt stuck to sculptured shoulders and heat was gathering between my thighs and soaking my panties and my brain was blaring, BABIES BABIES BABIES.
What the hell was wrong with me!
I blinked past the sweat suddenly slick on my forehead to see Edgar, Penn, and Brand in the doorway looking in confusion between the much younger men and me.
“Jessabella, we didn’t mean youhadto work in the laundry,” Edgar said, darting his eyes over to the Duke.
“Didn’t you?” Alexei asked, and I felt the taste of his anger under my tongue.
Anger onmybehalf? I couldn't remember the last time this had happened, that someone had stuck up for me like that. With my previous Pack, I had been the peacemaker, smoothing things out between Edgar and Penn or Penn and Brand. But now? I didn’t feel any urge to intercede.
It felt good that someone was angryforme.
Edgar took a step closer.
“Jessabella said it was fine,” he said in irritation, running a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “There were no hard feelings at all. We just want a baby and she isn’t giving one to us.”
“Step away from her,” Theo growled suddenly, a low, raw sound, and I looked up in surprise to see him standing in front of me with his fists clenched.
What the hell?
CHAPTER 4
Theo
What had gotten into me?
I was known forneverbeing flustered. Never letting my temper get the better of me.
Never letting my desires distract me. Shoving them down so deep I could pretend I’d forgotten about them.
It was something coming deep from my gut and burning through my blood that meant I was standing toe to toe with an older Alpha like this, growls erupting deep in my throat.
I felt Alexei’s hand on my shoulder, and how was ithimtrying to calmmedown?
Testosterone and Alpha scents were thick in the air as I glared into Edgar’s eyes.
