Faith & the Dead End Devils (Sweet Omegaverse, #8)(36)

My fingers dug into Faith's hips and she hummed, curving into my chest before hiccuping again and stiffening.

"I'm so sticky," she whispered, and I lifted my head to find her cheeks pink and lips twitching.

I grinned and she reached up, tracing the line of my mouth with her fingertips. I nipped one, and she jumped.

"Bath or shower?"

"Mm, shower. You're…a little clearer today, but also kind of…" She frowned and squinted, blinking for a moment as I waited. "Double."

My cheer faded slightly. I'd gotten a concussion in high school during a football game and had double vision for a few days. But I didn't know how long Faith had been dealing with this and what it would take to help her recover.

She squeaked as I scooped her up off the bed, kicking open the curtains at the end of the nest. She hid her face in my neck as I carried her out, the room bright with midday light. I made a list in my head. Faith needed to shower, needed to eat. Needed to see a fuckin’ doctor. I wasn't sure I would win that last battle, but I had to try.

I'd set her down in the tub and just gotten the water going when a knock sounded on the apartment.

"Might be Chance. You good, Butterfly?"

Her eyes were shut and she had her hand braced on the ledge for balance, but she was smiling and sighing, face ducked under the water.

"Good," she said, stretching that marked-up throat and making my mouth water.

The knocking hit again and I scowled, now certain our visitor was, in fact, not Chance. I ducked out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind me, and went to hunt for a pair of pants.

"Gimme a minute," I called to the door.

I only bothered with a fresh pair of sweatpants, fully intending on jumping into the shower as soon as I was done with whatever this was about. And if I opened the door a little too aggressively, allowing the mixed scent of Faith and me to gust over King, it was only a minor payback for the interruption.

King's jaw dropped, eyes going black with dilated pupils, and a brief, stuttering purr rose from his throat. He stumbled back, aborting the sound with a rough swallow, and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Fuck," he snapped.

"What do you need?"

King's fists were clenched at his side, eyes scanning around me into the room as if he were searching for her. "It started already?"

"Close to. Not quite," I said, fighting my smirk as his eyes widened at that announcement.

Yeah, I thought. This is just the appetizer.

"I…got a call from Chappy," King bit out.

My hand tensed around the door handle. Chappy was the prez of the Western Wasted.

"They know?" I asked, glancing at the bathroom door. King's eyes followed mine.

"Didn't say so clearly, but they wanted a meet here. I assumed it was to sniff her out. I refused, demanded neutral territory or their own, since they called the meet. But fuck, I can't take you. You reek of her."

I arched an eyebrow at King. Reek implied that the way this room smelled right now, the way I smelled, wasn't making his mouth water and his dick hard. Which, given the way he was swallowing and hunching, I was sure it was. King was a commanding presence in every way, and I was enjoying this sudden uneven playing field he found himself on.

"I can shower," I said, trying not to laugh. Although it was true, there probably wasn't a single thread in this room that didn't smell just a little bit like Faith now. "You wanna deal with this when it's just us? Someone has to stay here."

King's scowl deepened and his lips parted. I recalled the advice I'd given him the day before about breathing through his mouth. And boy was he breathing, chest heaving as he tasted Faith's pleasure.

"Can't stall for two weeks. I don't want them to think I'm nervous," King muttered.

The bathroom door opened abruptly, a cloud of sweet steam cutting between us as Faith appeared. She was dripping wet but wrapped in a towel, leaning against the doorframe, and the bright smile on her lips faded as she found King and not Chance in the doorway. But she didn't shrink.

"Oh. I…" She turned her head, blinking at me.

"I'll join you in a second, Butterfly."

"There's not…not another alpha?" she asked, frowning.

"No," King snapped out before I had to reassure her. "No more alphas till—" He cut himself off, looking at me in a rare panic. "I'm…sorry about that. Bear, come find me when you're…done."

And then King turned on his heel and all but raced down the hall, boots stomping a tempo of panic.

Faith blinked and I swung the door shut, a slow grin growing.

"He's afraid of you," I whispered, waggling my eyebrows and crowding her back into the bathroom.

"Afraid?" she asked, breathless.

"Never been around a needy little omega before," I teased her as her eyes widened. "Probably thinks you're gonna take a bite out of him like you did me."

She gasped as I scooped her up, whipping off her towel and hauling her over my shoulder. I kicked my sweatpants to the floor, hand groping at Faith's ass.

"You told him?" she asked, voice high and nervous.

"I didn't, actually," I admitted. I probably should have, not that King was any less suspicious of my interest in her without knowing about the bite.