Page 6 of The Alpha: Part Three
“You. Us. We were the target. Those rogues came to hurt us. Grabbing Iris wasn't their primary goal. If their aim would have been just a little better, or you were just that much slower, you would have bled out and we would have lost you. We need that rogue to tell us everything. I know Elijah isn't behind this.” I don't miss the way his eye tightens when I say Elijah's name, but I can't do anything about that. Elijah isn't the horrible monster they think he is. Well, he isn'tthatbad. He's going to make up for a lot of the things he's done. He just needs time.
“I'm not important enough to shoot, Desir'ee,” Seth sighs.
Michael scoffs as he trudges back into the room with the cot, a sleeping bag, and a pillow. “Right. You're just an East Coast councilman, who claimed the omega that the head of the Western rogue operation wanted for himself, who also actively interrogated that same head of the rogue operation and had a part in his death and disappearance, not to mention having the ear and respect of the head of the entire WCC. Not important at all.” He rolls his eyes and starts making his place on the floor.
Seth chooses to ignore his importance and complains about where Michael will sleep instead. “I don't want you to sleep on the floor.”
“Well, I can't sleep with you,” Michael smirks. “You're way too fragile and delicate to cuddle up with me. Maybe tomorrow we can spoon.”
“We'll see,” I say. “I'm kissing you both goodnight and turning off the lights.”
I carefully bend over Seth again to give him soft kisses and brush my nose against his, slipping his eyepatch off when I pull away and placing it on the nightstand. Then I let Michael pull me into his arms so he can give me a few more thorough kisses that leave me flushed and warm.
Ben is sprawled all over his bed when I find him in his room. He found my favorite blankets and put them in the bed, as well as one of the pillows from our nest. Thinking about not sleeping in our nest makes my heart heavy. It must show on my face because he pulls me onto the bed and rolls on top of me, pressing his forehead against mine.“What's the matter, baby?”
“I know it's just for a few nights, but I'll miss sleeping in our nest.”
It's probably really irregular for an omega to maintain a nest as long as I have, but I don't care. It feels right. And Seth needs it. He's probably going to have fitful sleep until we're able to sleep together in the nest again. We probably all will.
“We can sleep in the nest if you want to,” Ben offers, letting his gaze glide around his room. We haven't really spent all that much time in his or Michael's individual bedrooms since my last heat. I'm not sure why he decided to sleep in here tonight. “Do you want to?”
The thing is, I do want to sleep in our nest. I love the comfort and scent of it. But Ben wouldn't have brought us in this room if it wasn't something he needed. “We can sleep in here.”
Chapter five
Ben
I know Desie would rather sleep in the nest. We've been sleeping in it for so long that it feels strange not to, which is the reason I want to be in here. I don't think I want to sleep in the bed without Michael and Seth, and I know Desie wouldn't like it, either. She'd toss and turn all night and we'd still end up on the floor with Michael before sunrise. That's probably how it's going to turn out anyway. I'll just carry the mattress in there like we used to do before Seth came to us.
That feels like a lifetime ago. Seth fits with us so well that it feels strange and almost difficult to think about how it was before he came. It was oddly instantaneous. Part of what made it so awful when Michael and I were being held at the Back House is believing he could give up on us so easily. We didn't know what to do, there was no conversation when he left. I remember feeling so torn about it. We couldn't have someone near Desie who was capable of hurting another omega like that, but it felt so very wrong to push Seth away. Then he just walked away without a fight. It hurt.
But he came back. He got Desie out and he came for me and Michael. And now he's laid up in her bed with a gunshot wound just when we were starting to feel like we'd be alright. Will it always be like this? Will there be people coming after us all the time? I don't want to live like that. I just want my pack to be safe and okay. I want us to all get old and fat together.
“What's wrong, Ben?” Desie asks, pushing her pants over her hips and down her legs.
I watch each new bit of skin appear as the fabric sinks to the floor and shake myself out of my dark musings. “Nothing now. Be naked with me.”
Her full lips twist up in a smile. “You going to behave?”
“No,” I respond, openly grinning.
She lifts her shirt up and over her head and drops it on the floor with her pants. “Well, you have to. Seth needs to rest and Michael will pout.”
“They can hear everything we say in this room. They're just across the hall.”
Desie reaches back, her back arching as she unclasps her bra. She drops it on the pile of clothes too, then the panties. “Exactly. We both have to behave. Scoot over.”
I scoot just an inch or two and lift the blankets for her to get into the bed next to me. The mood in the house isn't right for me to do all the things running through my mind, especially with Seth trying to heal just a few feet away, but that doesn't mean I don't want to. I'm rock hard against her ass when she tucks in next to me.
“You said you'd be good,” Desie whispers.
“I am being good,” I purr against her ear. “I can't help that I get hard every single time I see you naked. You don't even have to be naked, D. All you have to do is be close to me for me to want you.” Enough pleasure winds through our bond that I'm tempted to be very, very bad. I thrust my hips once, just enough to let my cock press against her a little harder. “And I never said I was going to be good. That was all you, baby.”
“Benjamin!” she hisses.
I smile into her shoulder and drag her as close to me as I can until her back is flush with my chest and her ass and thighs are tight against me. “Go to sleep, Desie. I'll be good tonight.”
I kiss her shoulder and tuck my nose into her hair. I've never minded her hair being in my face when we sleep. I like keeping the scent of it clouding around me all night. Michael minds, though. He usually gathers it all up and tucks it under her pillow. He says it tickles his face and keeps him awake. He might say that but whenever I happen to wake up in the night he's almost always got his nose buried in her hair behind her ear. I don't know how she can sleep like that.
