Page 67 of Sigma
“Fuck. I’m sorry, Cicely.”
“Stop it. It’s not your fault. Anyway, Dad called for help,” she says, looking relieved. “Not because he wants you locked up and the key thrown away.”
“You look surprised.”
“Yeah.”
I’m surprised, too.
“Dad says there’s no way Mitch is calling you to come there as a trap to put you in prison. Dad asked if he could help.”
“Sure he’s not just saying that because it’s for your own good?”
“My father would never lie to me. Never. If that’s what he was trying to do, he’d admit it. What you see with Lorenzo Oakes is what you get.”
“Good to know. Wish I could say the same about myself.”
Her expression saddens and she wraps her arms tighter around me.
“Your weapon is jabbing me, woman,” I grumble, trying to reposition her on my lap so the taser doesn’t dig into my side.
“Well…” she says, “Your weapon isnotjabbing me. And why not?’
She’s good at breaking tension. I laugh. She smiles, watching me laugh.
“Fuck, how’d I end up with you?” I ask, running my nose along her hairline from behind her ear to her temple, taking in her scent, her softness.
She grabs my face with both hands. “It’s about time you got to have a family again. A pack. Someone to love you. You have all that now.”
“If my wolf doesn’t fuck it up…” I add.
“Believe, baby.”
“Tryin’,” I tell her.
And the relief in her gaze is everything. I burn it into my brain, hoping a few brief memories won’t someday be all I’ve got left of her.
“That’s enough.”
“You got the shitty end of the stick, Cicely.”
“Um, no I didn’t. You’re hot. You have a big dick and you use it very well, I might add.”
I laugh.
She keeps going, “Plus you have a cool Airstream and like to travel. There’s also the fact that you’re sigma, meaning all the good stuff an alpha has but without having to look after anybody but me. I kinda dig that. More than kind of. Because I don’t have to share you with a whole pack. Though, if you do decide to help out around here as one of the pack alphas, that’s totally cool, too. Sounds like you have quite a few skills that’ll be useful to help our pack when there’s a need but with your business and yournature, we won’t have to give up freedom, and I don’t have to be mated to a beta. Win-win-win.”
“Interesting that you’re down for a transient lifestyle,” I point out, because I hate staying in just one place. Whether that’s down to my issues or would’ve been how I felt regardless is a mystery. But it never takes long for me to lose interest in the same scenery day after day and I doubt that’ll change.
“Oh, and your last name sounds pretty awesome attached to mine. Cicely Stone. I like it. No, love it.”
That hits strange, too. Strange and beautiful. Giving her my name, my protection. Inthisform, at least.
She keeps talking. “It’s been the downside of running the store. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it, it’s a good way to keep my finger on the pulse of everything happening around here, but I take off on mini adventures every chance I get. Now I’ll have reasons to do it more often. Believe me, I didn’t get the shitty end of anything. Are you completely opposed to settling down in one place when we have a family? As long as we do a couple vacations a year?”
“Not at all,” I say, though it comes out sounding choked. Because I’m feeling too much right now.
“Actually, that’s not a fair question from me, is it? Because you’ll have to go away for work a lot.”
