Page 20 of Pack’s Promise

“Until I’m in heat,” she said, and I almost couldn’t pay attention to Madison, through the tsunami of need that slammed through my bonds, but–

“Are you okay, Madison?” I asked, and I could see the effort it took for her to smile.

“Yeah, of course,” she said. “I’ll be in the room with the–the nest, then?” She got up, moving toward the door.

“Yes,” Lucas said, just as I said, “No.”

“You can’t expect to put her in theguestroom,” Lucas started.

“She’ll stay with me,” I said. “If she wants to.” Suddenly, I was the nervous one, looking across the room at the omega. Maybe she would want to stay in the nest; it was for her, after all.

“Okay,” Lucas said, “That makes sense. She can’t stay with me or Gray, not in her state,” I grimaced at his lack of tact, “but you’ll have our scents. Yeah, that should–that should work. Madison?”

She looked at me, and her smile, when she smiled, was so much more tentative than it had been at the coffeeshop. At the club. At that first dinner. She was nervous. Very. But she was here, and slipped her hand into mine when I held it out to her, leading her from the room with a backwards glance at Lucas. I just hoped that my alpha’s scents on me would be grounding, calming, that she would feel safe with me, an anchor in a storm of foreign pheromones.

Then I caught Gray’s eye, and he licked his lips, slowly, deliberately.

Suddenly I didn’t feel like I was a safe harbor at all.

I pulled her into my room.

CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE

Madison

Rian draggedme over the threshold, barely allowing me a glimpse of neatly made, dark blue bedding and modern, dark wood furniture before capturing my mouth with his. I pulled away.

“What happened to ‘get some rest, Madison’?” I chastised.

“Who said that?” he responded. “Not me.” He nipped at my lower lip once more. “We can, if you want to. If you want to sleep, I swear, we’ll sleep. That’s all.”

“But?” I asked. I had been feeling tired, until just a moment ago. Now I was feeling something else entirely. Something more akin to the way I’d felt in the car with Gray, or in the kitchen when he kissed me. I had obviously known that what he did with me wouldn’t be asecret, but it was still strange to me to be, I don’t know…public, with Rian, in front of his whatevers. Boyfriends. Pack mates. It was even stranger to imagine that I would be spending my heat with them, all three of them, and soon. Now, almost.

“But,” he said, pulling my body against his so I could feel his hardness, “if you wanted to, you could take a shower first.” He inclined his head over my bad, and I twisted around in his arms to see the doorway to a large en-suite bathroom. His hands were on my shoulders, nudging me in its direction.

“Alone?” I asked, already knowing the answer, but wanting to hear Rian say it.

“If you want,” he murmured, his mouth close to my ear. “Or, if you want, with me.”

The sudden upswelling of lust took me by surprise. Ididwant. I turned to him nodded, and he smiled down at me before kissing me again.

“Good girl,” he said, and I stumbled as he walked me backwards over the threshold from the warm hardwood of his bedroom floor to the cold tile of his bathroom, my heart fluttering in my chest. “Get the water ready, while I go get some things from the nest room. I’ll meet you back here.”

With a final kiss, he was gone.

My hands shook as I fumbled with the shower faucet, turning it on and waiting for the water to warm up. Was I really going to have my heat soon? The faint tickling sensation under my skin said yes, but I couldn’t quite force myself to believe it. This time, I wouldn’t be alone, but I didn’t know if that would be better or worse. No–that wasn’t right. It was impossible to imagine anything worse than last time. But still, I didn’t know what to expect. Even the immediate future–me, Rian, shower–seemed hard to fathom. I took off my clothes methodically and stood staring at myself in the mirror that hung above Rian’s spotless marble countertop, in his large, expensive-looking bathroom. I didn’t belong here, in this fancy bathroom, among the gorgeous men who lived here. It seemed like hours since I had ridden Gray’s fingers so shamelessly, so desperately, in the car, but my hair was still mussed, and I smoothed it down before realizing it would get wet in a moment anyway. It fell around my shoulders in a tangle. Even with my somewhat fuller-than-before breasts I was still thin, with none of the curves of a classic omega beauty. My face wasn’t sweet or delicate. I was pretty, I guessed… for a beta.

“You’re beautiful.”

Rian was standing in the doorway, watching me inspect myself in his bathroom mirror. He had a brand new toothbrush in one hand, and an unreadable look on his face. I had almost forgotten I was naked until I felt his eyes rake over me, from my messy brown hair to the chipped pink polish on my toes. I had meant to get a pedicure before my heat, but apparently, I’d run out of time. I’d run out of time to consider modesty, too, so I kept standing there, not bothering to hide myself.

“I don’t look like an omega,” I said.

“You look like…” He came to stand behind me, and met my eyes in the mirror. “You look like Madison.” He smoothed my hair away from my right cheek and bent to drop a kiss on it, his hands moving to rest lightly on my hips. The feel of his eyes on my body and his palms on my naked skin made me shiver. “You look perfect, to me.” I turned in his arms, putting my hands flat on his still-clothed chest. “And besides, I don’t look like an alpha either.”

That wasn’t quite the case, I wanted to say, as I unbuttoned his oxford shirt, each button revealing a few more inches of tan, firm chest: defined pecs, the faintest hint of abs under smooth skin. I slipped his shirt from his shoulders, letting it fall onto the floor behind him. But I knew what he meant, as he unfastened his pants, tugging them and his boxer briefs down and off.

His cock was already hard, bobbing inelegantly in front of him as he stood up, gesturing for me to enter the shower with one raised eyebrow and a half smile. It was big, and made my mouth water and my stomach clench both at the memory of the other day and the anticipation of tonight, but… it was the woman in me who wanted it, not the omega. Rian’s scent, yes, the silvery mark on his inner thigh I got a glimpse of as he stepped into the oversized shower–those had my omega eager and excited, slick accumulating between my legs. Tomorrow, though, those things wouldn’t be enough. I’d need–I would need Gray, or Lucas. Both.

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