Page 24 of Omega's Virtue: Part Two (The Hartwell Sisters Saga 3)

BEATRICE

My words broke into a sob.The most perfect moment, my bite still fresh and bloody on Jack’s neck, now marred by the most horrible conversation.

Jack’s recriminations stung—the words, all of it—, but I still found comfort in the heavy weight of my alpha on top of me.

Pax fisted Jack’s hair and forced him to look at me.

“You will be accepting of her reasons. Give her the benefit of knowing her own mind and put your indulgent self-flagellation to rest. Your mistake ten years ago—” He cut himself off before confronting Jack with his sense of unworthiness. Once he’d collected himself, he continued. “On another, I’d have called you out for a weak creature unworthy of her love. Knowing the circumstances don’t change…”

I held my breath. Fascinated by this side of Pax.

“Our long acquaintance, my faith in you, and knowledge you would never choose to leave her without believing it would be best for her protects you.”

“Pax—” I reached for him.

“We can consider the matter closed.” He shook his head and cupped Jack’s cheek with his hand, then gave him a quick, sharp slap. He turned his attention to me.

“Don’t hate him,” Pax said. “Look at him, Vixen. He would never leave you on purpose.”

Jack jerked away.

“Look at her, Jack.” he growled. “I want you to look at each other and have a nice, mature conversation.”

“But I don’t hate him. I hate not knowing the man he is today. We’ve lost time, and now, mated, society will expect us to live together. Act as a cohesive unit.”

I closed my eyes, shutting out everything but the sensation of Jack’s body, of Pax’s grip on my hair. Within this hazy world of feeling, everything made sense. Harder to understand was the world I faced when my eyes were open. The challenges my alphas seemed blind to. How could they not consider how much our lives would change?

“Not tonight then. Sleep,” Pax purred. “The Goddess knows we all need sleep.”

I bristled, but could imagine no other action while Jack’s knot was still inside of me.

At some point, his knot went down and his cock slipped free, and I woke up caught between two hard bodies, their arms reaching across me so that they were touching as well. On their shoulders the bites… What to call them? Mating bites? Did alphas marked by another alpha mean anything in our society? Would they last? Would there be scarring? And I had bitten them.

The symbolism could not be more clear. Bound together, tighter than any other mate pair or pack I had heard of.

We couldn’t be the only ones. My alphas couldn’t be the only alphas who had bitten each other.

Of a surety there had been others, were others, would be others, but in their arms, we were the only ones that mattered. Oh Goddess, how I wanted this to work. But every obstacle raised its ugly head. Jack’s distance, I understood. Whether to avoid me or his time in the army, our paths would not cross. But I’d been in society for nearly ten years and not once had I met Pax. Heard of him and his collection, yes. Been introduced, no. It could only mean that our circles did not cross naturally. His life was one of an urbane, unencumbered alpha, whose world revolved around alpha only spaces and pursuits. Even the betas he knew were threads within the tapestry of his dynamic’s society. A world I had never been part of.

I knew little of that world—had never concerned myself with it. The wound pinched as I shifted, trying to cool down my too hot body. I’d be better to ask Viola. She had spent time amongst alphas, knew their habits and interests better than I. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I would have the time to talk to my sister.

Tomorrow came slowly. When my alphas began to shift around me, I knew it time to escape before they could intercept me. I’d not been able to sleep again and yet was not tired. I wanted to be up and about, speaking to my sister about alphas and arranging the practicalities for our relocation to London. Or perhaps those things were to distract me from the very present desire to avoid the uncomfortable conversations started yesterday evening.

“Bea?” My sister’s timing could not be more perfect.

I sat up.

“Wa—”

“Viola. She needs to talk to me. It must be important if she is here.”

I spoke without taking a breath, grateful beyond measure I could escape while my alphas were groggy from sleep.

“If you um.” I gestured towards their morning arousal. “There are two of you.”

“Trix—”

“Viola needs me.”

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