Page 88 of Into the Fire: After
Already he'd proven the truth of that statement.
She nodded again before diving into another hug. A moment later, she withdrew only to immediately throw herself at me. “I’m sorry, I’m so,sosorry. I shouldn’t have hidden everything from you. I didn't want to involve you in something that could risk your license and career and—”
“Deep breath, sweetness,” I said. Taryn knelt before me, and I held both her hands in mine. “I wouldn’t have helped you if I hadn’t wanted to.”
Tears filled her eyes. “All I’ve done since we got back is screw up.”
I kissed the knuckles on one hand, then the other. “This is something that affects you more than any of us. You have such a big heart anyway, and with all the bullshit that’s happened…I don’t blame you, not a little bit.”
Lin cleared his throat.
“Okay, yes, we should have brought it to the group,” I said. “That’son both of us, though. So I get half the blame on that one.”
Lin stood from his seat to take the spot Taryn had vacated, stealing one of her hands from me. “You, Taryn Maddox,” he said in his silken voice, “are one of the four most important people in my life. It just so happens that one of theotherfour is a rather poor influence on you.”
I rolled my eyes and kissed him on the cheek. He ignored me entirely, though the bond warmed just a little.
“I…I haven’t acted much like a pack leader, either,” he continued. “You’re not the only one who didn’t open up when they should have.” He met my eye then, and Brea’s, and Caine’s. “I’m sorry.”
Taryn all but fell onto both of our laps, wrapping one arm around each of our necks. Brea dove in then, wrapping her arms around us. Caine settled on Lin’s other side, and then we werea tangled, ten-armed creature, all of us murmuring sweet words and teary apologies andI love yousto all the others.
This wasn't the first round of confessions and apologies among us in recent weeks. This one, though, felt different. We'd each been fighting an army's battle on our own. At the bottom of this hug-pile, I felt deep in my soul that the distance between us all had closed. We'd finally found each other on the battlefield and, at last, stood united.
Caine's and Lin's bonds thrummed with raw love for me, for Taryn and Brea. Through them, I felt the barest echoes of my omega. We as a group had never been more connected. In that moment, though, my two missing connections were unacceptable.
I sat up and looked to Brea. “Bite me.”
Lin shot me with a quizzical look. “You may need to reread the room, Brooks.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No, like, I want to bond you. Now.”
“But—” She looked to Taryn, to the other men. She shook her head. “We all still have bonds to trade. Shouldn’t we…I mean…”
“We’re the only two who haven’t bridged the packs, so to speak,” I said. “You can talk with Caine and Lin about when and how you want to bond. As for me and Taryn”—I smiled at our omega—“all her alphas bonded her in heat. I plan to do the same.
“But you, Brea.” I turned my attention back to her. “We went through our own version of hell together, you and I. You are my friend and my alpha as much as the others. And I don’t want to wait to make it official.”
A drum beat behind my chest as Brea exchanged looked with the others. “Well? How do you all feel about it?”
Lin shrugged. “He didn’t ask us. He asked you.”
“Yes, but—”
“We are pack, Brea,” Lin cut her off. “Even if you never bonded me, you’d be my pack. I’m not worried about the when and how. So talk with your beta”—He nodded to me—“and you two decide your when and how.”
Brea met my eye then. Lovely Brea, with her greasy red hair twisted atop her head. Dried tear tracks staining her face from a day of petrified worry. An oversized sweatshirt that smelled like Caine.
My best friend. My voice of reason. My alpha.
Finally, after an eternity, she nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed. “Let’s do it. Now.”
I dive-bombed her, locking my arms around her neck as I tackled her to the ground in an ecstatic hug.
“Brooks, baby, let your alpha breathe,” she joked as she rolled me off her. Laying on our sides, she grinned at me before mussing my curls. “Bad beta.”
“Ooh, yeah, Alpha,” I said in a faux-sultry voice. “Call me a bad boy. Spank me. Tell me—”
“Brooks,” Lin sang, “hon,focus.”
