Faith & the Dead End Devils (Sweet Omegaverse, #8)(23)

"She's been like this since the afternoon."

I burrowed deeper under my pillows, where my alpha's scent was still thick and heady. He was in the room, standing tall and dark outside of the nest, but I could sense him, the soft frustration and worry. I whined into the bedding.

"Did she take anything? Eat?"

My beta answered in a low tone. I'd gagged down another pill when my head had started to throb and the sunlight in the room made my eyes water. I'd eaten a box of wrapped chocolates and fumbled my way through a little snack pack.

Resignation simmered at my edges. I was disappointing my alpha.

"She needs a better nest," Chance said.

Chance. Chance and Bear. Not mine.

"I've got plans, just needed the club to clear out. Tomorrow."

"And there's something else…" Chance trailed off.

Vulnerable. I'd given him a secret, and now…

I listened, whining in my nest as Chance explained what I'd confessed about Omikron's treatment.

Anger. I sat up with a snarl and reached out, slapping for the closet doors and slamming them shut as Bear called for me.





Legs trapped, wrists clasped. Heat radiating into my back. Safe, home. Need.

I squirmed, and the alpha purred, the sound stuttering as I rubbed my ass against the hard length behind me.

"Not like this, Butterfly," the alpha purred.

Bear.

My breath hitched and I settled.

"Come on back to me, sweetheart," Bear murmured, nuzzling the back of my head. "You're safe here."

I was hot, sweating through my thin pajamas, my skin sticking to his where he'd crossed our arms over my chest. I was constrained, but gently so, and I winced against a foggy understanding that I'd pawed and tried to bite at him before he'd settled us like this.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"It's okay," he said, and this time, there was no anger or resignation or frustration. Just calm. Just…something tender and possessive, a binding sensation that I sighed into, relaxing in Bear's hold. He didn't free me, and I didn't want him to.

"Knot?" I'd meant to say it like an order, but it came out as a question.

Bear purred for a few minutes, keeping me calm. "Not like this. I need to know you're with me, Butterfly."

Adam would've been bitten and bonded by now, I thought, and the reminder of my brother, missing him and not knowing where he was, the little hint of anger at being torn out of reach and left on my own, brought me back to myself. My breath hiccuped, and Bear gave up my wrists, arms circling my chest like thick and comforting bands.

"This is stress, not heat," Bear said in my ear, misinterpreting my sudden tears. "It's gonna be okay. This will pass."

He let me cry, and while I wanted to twist in his hold and distract myself with the press of his lips, making him settle his weight on top of me, I let his purr do its work, falling back into the weight of sleep, or something like it.





"Absolutely not."

"He's here now, and he drove two hours. I can't reschedule."

I woke, vibrating in the nest, a fire of anger licking at my skin, and I was snarling before I even realized it wasn't my anger. It didn't matter. My alpha's rage would be my own.

"You should've fucking warned me," Bear rumbled, a feedback loop running between us.

The other voice at the door was familiar yet not, hard and sharp. "You're too attached. I didn't trust you not to try and talk yourself out of what has to be done. She can't stay."

"I—I know that. But fuck, King, she's…"

"She's got the chance to be safe. With a pack. That was the idea, right?"

A pack. I needed a pack. I needed Bear.

I blinked and climbed out of the closet nest, tiptoeing over rough carpet, my body protesting. I had the urge to sink into a crouch or onto my knees, to hunch my shoulders up around my ears and raise my arms in front of me.

Bear had started another soft growl, but he cut himself off abruptly as I rounded the corner. Over his shoulder another alpha stood, and based on the prickle running over my skin, he was staring back at me. Bear turned to face me, revealing more of him, King. The prez. He was shorter than Bear but still taller than me. He smelled rough, masculine, and it made my belly cramp and my breath catch.

He jerked at my stare. "She's receptive, at least. The others are gone. Preston is waiting."

Bear growled and caught the sound again, holding out an arm for me. "Let her change first."

"Five minutes. No more."

Bear shut the door on the other alpha before he'd stepped away, one hand remaining on the surface of the door.

"What's going on?" I asked.

Bear let out a heavy sigh, and I tipped my head as bit by bit, what I was feeling from him seemed to bury itself, hide away.

"Come here, Butterfly," he said, reaching his other hand out in my direction.

I crossed to him with a sinking stomach.





11. BEAR





Butterfly had been silent ever since I explained the situation: that there was another alpha here to meet her, to potentially take her away, keep her safe, offer her a home and a pack to protect her. I'd tried to hold myself back from sharing my own emotions, but it meant I couldn't get a read on hers either.