Page 62 of Knotty, Nice, & Holiday Lights
“And you’re only telling me about this super hot action you’re getting now?” She feigns indignance, but I know Bec well enough. She’s only messing with me. But those light blue eyes of hers are dimmer than usual, and concern shadows my happiness.
“What’s up, girl?” I ask gently.
Bec’s expression grows serious, if a touch sad. “I think I’m tired, babe. Of city life, of the rat race.” She swallows, her eyesgrowing even dimmer. “I’m thinking of going freelance. Maybe. I haven’t decided yet.”
Her sadness is something I can feel deep in my soul. This woman has been there for me through so much. She’s the reason I’m here, the reason I found my pack. I owe her everything.
“Listen, Bec. I want you to take time off for Christmas. You’re invited here for our holiday party.” I grin, then bowl her over when she opens her mouth to say something. “Don’t argue with me, just do it. You need this. Besides, you can visit Violet and her family while you’re here. You know she’d love to see you, too.”
Bec’s lips purse before she takes a deep breath, closing her eyes on the exhale. “You’re right,” she says at last. “I need time away from here to think.” Her eyes open, a spark of sass lighting them up again. “And I want to meet your men. Make sure they know what will happen to them if they don’t treat you right.”
We laugh together before laying out our plans. She’ll stay here at the B&B, and absolutely no work allowed.
“I won’t even bring my laptop,” she says, then winces. “Okay, laptop’s coming with, but I promise not to use it for work.”
“If you do, you’re only cheating yourself.”
“Truer words.”
Feeling horny is weird.
Sometimes, it’s just a small itch in the back of your mind. Other times, it’s an overpowering sensation that takes total control of your whole existence.
Like now.
I don’t remember making a pillow and blanket fort on top of my bed, but here I am, cozy and enclosed, only the smallest amount of light shining through the small gap in a couple of the blankets draped over the mountain of pillows I’d erected.
My brain is muddled, my body feels like it’s trying to move through cold gelatin.
I’ve never been so cold and so hot at the same time before, my insides burning, my skin freezing, as I lay naked beneath the blanket canopy.
One thing screams clearly inside my mind. The desire for my Alphas.
And as a whine builds in my chest, I call for them.
Chapter Forty-Four
Izzy’s call from upstairs has me sitting upright on the couch where I’d be lying, reading. My book now discarded, I run up the stairs as I hear footsteps pounding up from the basement and on my tail.
Even outside Izzy’s room, her scent hovers in the air, thick with want, with need. And my purr is instantaneous inside my chest, my cock stiffening. I look at Matthew and Will, now standing beside me. “Our Omega needs us.”
Their faces equally determined and lustful, they nod at me before I swing open the door.
Inside, the lights are dim, a pile of blanket-covered pillows taller than me atop Izzy’s bed. In one surprised moment, I marvel at the engineering of it, but a small whine from inside snaps my attention back to the issue at hand.
I knew this would happen eventually, but I’m not entirely sure how prepared I am. How prepared we all are.
I look to Matthew, the Alpha she’s known longest, might even have the strongest connection with. I expect him to take the lead, but instead he gestures with his head toward the blanket mountain, indicating I should approach.
At the foot of the bed, I pull the blankets apart, whispering Izzy’s name softly without invading the cocoon she’s formed. She’s barely visible in the darkness, but there’s a shadowy silhouette inside, and it moves a bit closer, until a sliver of light casts across Izzy’s beautiful, if bleary, face.
“Asher,” she breathes. “It hurts.” Her groan draws me closer, and I slowly push my hand through the gap. Her fingers touch mine, soft and tentative, before gliding over my palm.
“There, love. Your Alphas are here for you. May we help?”
Her head bobs quick, and I turn to nod Will and Matthew closer before looking back at Izzy. Without so much as a thought, I pull the long-sleeved tee shirt from my torso and slowly hand it to her. She snatches it, brings it to her face, and inhales deeply, those gray eyes glazing over at my scent.
Once Matthew and Will offer her their shirts as well, Izzy crawls all the way into her nest. Although I take this as an invitation, I am concerned that we won’t all fit in her pillow fort nest.
