Page 76 of Broken Omega

One shift together and we were bonded by the end of the night, claiming each other as mates over our break, when the sexual tension between us just exploded.

It felt crazy, to make a decision to take each other as life-long mates after being together for six damn hours. That’s how quickly things can develop when it’s just meant to be.

I never felt a shred of doubt over that decision.

Things weren’t so simple with River, but I never doubted that bond, either.

This one is different, and it’s not just because it was unexpected. I didn’t expect to make mates out of my first and only partner at work, and I definitely didn’t expect to end up mated to someone we met on one of our calls, but I accepted those developments without the slightest hesitation.

Accepting Brooke would mean opening up our lives to a fourth person, and I’m not sure how to protect River from the changes that would bring.

He’s been through so damn much.

I can’t ask him to be okay with this.

It’s not what he wants.

Sighing, I put on sneakers and pick my keys off the table by the door.

I have energy I need to burn off and it’s going nowhere while I pace around the house.

Maybe I can walk it off.

FROST

Iget back home an hour after I left, and I don’t feel any more relaxed than I did before I went out.

As I’m locking the front door, Donnie steps out of River’s room. He creeps over to lean against the wall by the door while I step out of my sneakers.

“He let me in,” he tells me, quietly.

“I could tell,” I admit, giving him a wry smile. “I assume he’s sleeping now?”

“He passed out right after,” he says. “Well, almost right after.”

“That’s good.” If he’s sleeping, he’s relaxed, which means he’s not worried.

“I think he’s coming around to the idea of another mate,” Donnie goes on. “He didn’t realize she would be his mate, too. He probably won’t completely realize that until she’s ours.”

“He thought she’d be ours, not his?”

“Pretty much. I think he’s afraid that she’ll replace him or something. I tried to tell him it won’t be like that, but you know how he was when he met us. He had a hard enough time believing both of us wanted him.”

“Christ. I could kill his parents a thousand times over for what they did to him.”

“Yeah, they really fucked with his head.”

It took us months to work through the issues they gave him, and the shitty boyfriend he ended up with after they died wasn’t any better. I should have realized those issues might rise again. We’re talking about a huge change to all of our lives. We all need to be on the same page, or we can’t even consider the idea of accepting this woman as ours and inviting her into our lives.

Donnie lets out a sigh. “So, anyway, River’s going to be fine if Brooke becomes our mate.”

He sounds so damn sure. I decide to take my lead from him, instead of swaying on it for any longer.

Truth is, if we put off helping her out of her current situation, she might be lost to us completely.

“She needs to be rescued from that academy.”

“I know,” Donnie says. “She knows, too.”

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