I look over at Eli and he shrugs.
I sure as hell don’t need to be told twice.
The second I settle beside Lia, she turns into me instinctively, her hand finding my chest like it belongs there. I wrap an arm around her, pulling her close as Eli settles where Knox once was. Knox moves toward the things my parents brought for Lia, picking through everything until he finds her favorite.
Fruit-punch-flavored protein water.
“There we go,” my mother says as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Much better.”
I figure my parents are going to see themselves out of Eli’s place, but I should have known better than that. Instead, the two of them begin moving around the room, tidying up the mess that’s still on the floor.
Soon, Eli’s home is filled with the sounds of laundry running, food being stored away in the kitchen, and my mother’s incessant heels clicking across the floor.
I barely register it, though.
Lia shifts, and before I know it her tongue is back at the crook of my neck. It swipes along the mark she left behind on me, and I meld around her. I hold her close while she nuzzles her nose against it, testing whether or not it’s going to start bleeding again.
“I’ve gotcha,” I murmur.
“And I’ve got you,” she whispers as she kisses my mating mark.
Eventually, she moves to tend to Eli, and then to Knox. My chest is filled with all of our connections, swimming around in the holes in my personality that I thought I’d never be able to fill.
I’ve always been stiff and stoic. I’ve always been business oriented with my attention turned toward the future. I’ve never once denied my true nature, only leaned into it.
Lia fills all of those spongy areas of my soul I’ve been ignoring.
She yawns just as she’s done tending to Eli, and I reach for her.
“Easy, beautiful,” I say as I lean her back down into the bed. “You still need to recuperate.”
She hums and presses closer against me in a way that lets me know she’s content.
I scoop her close, holding her in a way that hopefully shows her I’m just as content.
Eli shifts as he reaches for something. “I should call my parents. Let them know Amber can come home tonight.”
But before he can even unlock his phone, my mother swoops back in and snatches it right out of his hand.
Eli flinches a bit. “What the?—”
“No, you will not,” my mother says as she points down at him. “We’ll handle that. You should be tending to your Omega properly.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, Eli. God. Don’t you know anything?”
He shoots me a look, but there’s no heat in it. Not really.
And of course, my father’s there to back my mother up, as always. “We’ll coordinate everything with our new granddaughter. This first heat is prime bonding time between the four of you. Soak in as much of it as you can.”
“So lay back and let us do the dirty work,” Mom says as she tucks Eli’s cell phone into her purse.
Before she scoops someone’s boxers off the floor, pinching them in between her fingers. “I’ll get this in the washer. I’ve got at least another load of laundry that needs to be done before we head out.”
“Of course,” Dad says with a nod of his head. “We’ll make sure it’s all taken care of.”
And as Mom marches out of the room with determination in her stride, Dad turns back toward us.
“Well,” he says with a shrug, “you have your marching orders, gentlemen. Let us know if you need anything. Lia?”
