Page 34 of Beta and the Beast
And as much as I want Romulus to do just that, I know she'll have to come to us at some point. He hates that he missed his opportunity to bite her, but it's soothed with the knowledge that she called us her alpha, that she called us when she thought she was in danger, that she was more than eager to call him alpha while getting herself off with our hand.
She's playing it safe, thinking of protecting herself because she still thinks there's no way we want her forever. And as much as I want to hate that, I want our girl to protect herself first, always.
"Nowhere fancy," Sarah says, and it takes me a second to realize she's agreeing to go out tonight. "I don't want to have to get all dressed up."
"Nowhere fancy," I agree, clenching the doorknob tighter because Romulus is chomping at the bit to be let out to ask her if we do takeout, if she'll dress down to nothing. Thankfully, Sarah closes the door as soon as I agree, so she doesn't see my eyes shifting from gold to dark.
I stare at her apartment door for too long, but it's hard to talk myself out of the idea of going and pressing my ear up to it to see if I can hear them talking about me. That has to be what they'redoing, and Romulus and I are more than a little curious. But we manage to restrain ourselves.
It isn't until I close the apartment door behind us that I remember the relief I didn't find when Sarah found hers earlier. Romulus is out in an instant, taking us to the bathroom, replaying thoughts of Sarah on the edge of her climax, how she whimpered 'alpha' like she knew what it did to us, and how her teeth bit down against our chest as she tried to muffle her sounds of pleasure. I groan in ecstasy when I reach the peak of my need.
After cleaning up, I rub my temples, and the scent of my mate's arousal tickles my senses again. Romulus purrs up a storm as he thinks about our smells together and how she's bathed in our scent in her apartment. The only thing that will be better is living with her, being near her. I think about the bed I sleep in that doesn't smell like her, and I want it to more than anything.
We need to get her home, in our nest. Mmm, imagine how she'll coat our bed. We'll need to make her come so many times to get even a fraction of an omega's scent.
Fuck, that's not a problem.
It's the opposite of a problem.
I rub my hand over my face, trying to pull my mind out of the gutter. Romulus doesn't make it easy, so I sit on the couch and text Lucas to tell him I'm not coming home tonight. I've sent him the exact text every night since I moved into the apartment, but I still don't want him to wait up or worry.
When that's done, I settle in and hope that whatever Fenrir, Lilah, and Sarah are talking about doesn't last much longer. I want to take Sarah out, and I want her to believe me when I tell her we are endgame. Her, me, and Romulus for as long as she lets us call her ours.
15
Sarah
The staring competition between Fenrir and me is one of our best. Usually, one of us gets bored long before there's an actual winner, but he really has something up his ass tonight. He started growling at me about two minutes into this staredown, and Lilah slapped his chest with the back of her hand to get him to be quiet. We're going on five minutes now, and honestly, I could go all night with how ridiculous he's being.
Barging into my apartment, reminding me there's no mark on my neck, so nothing is stopping an alpha from leaving me when he's done. Thankfully, Romulus was too distracted trying to get in my pants that he didn't hear Fen's worries.
"Enough of this, Fenrir. I'm hungry and bored," Lilah calls out from the couch.
Fenrir's lips press hard together, and I can tell he wants to look at his mate. Probably wants to take care of all her problems, too. Now, which desire is going to win out? His desire to please his mate or his desire to win a staring competition. I watch his jaw clench twice before he snarls at me and turns his attention to Lilah.
"We came to make sure you were okay," Fenrir says, sounding more angry than protective. He scoops Lilah into his arms before sitting back on my couch.
When they came inside, I grabbed the pillow Henry brought over and threw it into my bedroom. No way, no how was I going to let it stay out here, especially not now that I know how good everyone's sense of smell is.
"As you can see, I'm fine." I hold out my hands and spin around.
"You were panicked on the phone about an alpha outside your door, and you hung up on us," Fenrir growls. "What if something had happened to you?"
I give him a nasty face at him thinking I'd be stupid enough to do anything myself when I thought there was a deranged alpha outside. "I called Henry. I didn't just go out there and confront the alpha myself."
Fenrir's eyes narrow a fraction more, but his body seems to relax. "You called him to deal with the alpha?"
I nod, not wanting to voice it out loud. I don't want to know what it says about me and how attached I've gotten to the alpha next door that he was the one I called for help instead of my brothers, who have always been my go-to.
"So, you didn't leave your apartment and get lucky it happened to be Henry outside?" Fenrir cocks his head to the side in that animalistic way some alphas can get. "I thought you went to confront them on your own, and it was justa miracle Henry was out there, so you weren't mauled by an angry alpha."
I snort at the description because an alpha definitely mauled me. "Henry and Romulus were fighting about something. I didn't realize it was them at the door. But I'm fine. Everything's fine."
My words take a second to fully sink in before Fenrir closes his eyes and lets Scott back out. Scott or Fenrir, I don't mind talking to either of them, but I don't need the same big brother talk from both of them. So if Scott starts up the same bullshit Fenrir was spouting about trying to warn me from being with alphas unless they've given me a reason to believe they aren't just using me, I will kick him out of my apartment.
"Sorry about that," Scott says, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know how Fen gets when–" He doesn't finish, the highs of his cheeks staining soft pink as his nostrils flare. "Why does it smell like Henry in here?"
I roll my eyes because I don't know how he's just now noticing that my whole apartment is a peppermint candy land. It's not like it magically started smelling like this just now. But maybe Fenrir was so up his own ass that he didn't notice because he was too busy lecturing me on messing around with alphas like I'm a teenager and not a fully grown woman.
