Page 68 of Pack’s Pledge

“Of course you were,” Britt soothed. “You’re the CEO. And you were also the person who could tell that girl she would have her week off, and to let you know if she needed more time, and I’m sure that meant a lot to her.”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, well,” she said, putting her hands under my shoulders, shoving lightly at me to get me off her lap. I sat up, leaning toward her with one elbow on the back of the couch, and kissed her. “What was that for?” she asked.

“For being mine,” I said. “And for being ours.” She smiled. “For last week,” I leaned in, kissing her again, deeper this time. My heat. I’d had to reschedule my meeting with our newest employee, my company’s only other omega, because of it. Luckily, she’d understood. The girl had been surprised, when I’d requested a meeting—it wasn’t every day that a junior software engineer got called into a meeting with the CEO—but I’d thought it was important. I’d always been good at embracing my designation in the bedroom. The boardroom was a different story.

One I wanted to change. One Britt was helping me with: she’d encouraged me to set the meeting up in the first place, when I’d hesitated, thinking it was presumptuous. And she was always there, safe and warm and sweet, when I needed her just to touch me, to remind me that she knew me, who I was, what I was, and loved me. Not because of my designation, and not despite it, either. Although—

“It was good, wasn’t it?” she asked against my lips.

“Fuck, yes,” I said, and pulled her into my lap. “You know why?”

“Hmm,” she said, leaning back against the circle of my arms. “Because we weren’t stuck in the basement of a weird sex club-slash-medical facility?”

I let out a laugh. “I mean, that’s definitely part of it—”

“You don’t want to make a return trip? I still know some people, I could pull some strings…” she teased, leaning over toward me. My eyes dropped from her lips to her chest unconsciously, and when I dragged my gaze back up again, she was smirking. She rolled her shoulders back, grinding her hips against my growing erection. “Because ofthis, maybe?”

“No,” I said firmly, holding her still, “although I do love your body, baby.” I did. I wanted her, all the time, and not just because of my hormones, or my instincts, or whatever else it was—one of theomega thingsI was trying hard to feel more comfortable with—but because it was her. “Because we wereallthere. It feelsso goodwhen we’re all together. Our pack.”

She smiled, kissing me again.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “It does, doesn’t it.”

I hesitated. “But..?”

“But…” she said, blinking, looking away. Her teeth bit her bottom lip. “But, like you said. You’re getting old.”

“Hey!”

“We all are. And I wanted to ask you, before I mention it to the alphas… if you—”

“Yes,” I said, understanding at once. “Oh, Britt.Yes.”

“Yeah?” she asked. Nervous excitement filled the air between us. “And you think they—”

“Yes.” I nodded. “Definitely.”

She let out a deep exhale, a shuddering sound of relief.

“When are you going to tell them?”

“I don’t know. Soon.”

“Tell who what?” Britt jumped, but I smiled.

“Tell you that Britt and I are running away together, Adrian,” I said over my shoulder. “We’ve decidedagainstalphas.”

“Aw, and just as Conall’s finally growing into it. A shame, really.”

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Britt warned.

“I know, he’s shy,” Adrian said, nodding as he flopped onto the couch beside Britt and I, her over toward him so he could nab a kiss. “It’s cute.”

Conall had changed, since Britt had joined the pack, stepping up into the role he’d always held the title of: pack alpha. He was more confident now, now that he had his pack at his side, complete and whole and secure. Itwascute, watching him make a decision without second guessing himself. Pulling Britt onto his lap without worrying if she’d be embarrassed by him—us—or hurt. Asking me, without shame, to recommend a basic workout routine, and then positively crushing it, and then pushing me up against the wall myself to kiss me deeply, just because he could. Itwascute.

It was also really,reallyhot.

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