Lola & the Millionaires: Part Two

by Kathryn Moon

  “Matt didn’t pressure you?” Leo asked.

  I grinned and shook my head. “If anything, I pressured him.”

  Matthieu certainly hadn’t been expecting me to take his knot, for starters. Leo couldn’t see the bondmark under the Howler’s sweatshirt I was wearing—my going away present from Baby’s pack—but I wanted him to hear me out before he saw it, so he’d know my decision was my own.

  “I’m sorry I ran like that,” I said. Leo opened his mouth to object, and I pushed on. “No, really. I was in a really ugly place in my head, and I let that give me a reason to ignore the obvious in that moment. This pack has done nothing but show me that I have a safe place here to grow stronger and…and belong.”

  “Rake got carried away, and the others encouraged him,” Leo said, frowning.

  I shrugged and whispered, “Let’s be honest, Rake will always get carried away, and the others will always encourage him. That’s why this pack needs us.”

  Sleepy and bleary as he was, Leo’s eyes lit up at that statement and his grin stretched. I pressed a quick kiss to my favorite dimple in the world and then leaned away before we could get caught up.

  “You’re staying?” Leo asked.

  “I’m staying. I… Indy and Buzz are not the only reason I have this…voice in my head that’s so determined to convince me I can’t find my place in the pack. My mom was feeding me that at a really young age too, and I guess…until you guys, there was never any proof to the contrary.” I blew out a deep breath and waved my hand between us. “Anyway. Therapy is going to be rough but worth it. I want to be happy, and I want to be a member of this pack.”

  Leo let out a soft strangled noise of relief and then caught me up, one persistent kiss after another pressed to my lips. “We will make that as easy for you as possible.”

  “You already have.”

  Leo sighed and sagged back into the pillows and I followed, folding my arms over his chest and resting my chin on the back of my hands.

  “I’m glad you came home. I…I tried to actually think about what would’ve happened if I’d met you first, or just never met Rake and the pack,” Leo murmured, tension radiating through him.

  I hummed and shook my head. “I want to believe we’d be happy, but I think without this pack, we might’ve had a much harder road to rediscovering our self-worth.” My nose wrinkled at the thought. “Not that the pack is what makes me worthy. Just that you’ve all been a catalyst for me digging that negativity out of my head and finding my own recovery. I think we are where we were meant to be.”

  Leo’s hands stroked my back. “I agree. That’s how I felt by the end too.”

  One hand reached up to my left shoulder and squeezed, right over my still fresh bondmark, and I hissed and sat up, shaking off his hands.

  “Oh, sorry, gorgeous, are you all—”

  I laughed and swept my hair out of my face. “Actually, I do have one more thing to tell you. Just remember the part where I said I pressured him, not the other way around.”

  Leo blinked at me and I lifted my sweatshirt up over my head, untangling myself and righting my t-shirt with its wide, open v-neck draping slightly off one shoulder. He stared up at me for a moment, and I shrugged my shoulder, waggling my eyebrows. It took a moment, a blank study on his face interrupted by a slight twitch of his eyebrows. Leo’s eyes widened and he sat up, jaw dropping as he stared at the fresh bite on my shoulder.

  “You—he… Lola, you’re bonded?” Leo gasped, reaching for my arm to draw me in as if he were checking to see if the bite was only makeup.

  “Yeah. I…I’ve been worried about you guys sort of catching my anxiety through the bond, but after talking to Baby and some of her alphas, I realized that’s not really how it works,” I said, blushing.

  Leo was still staring at the wound, his thumb stroking around the raised edges. It was a little ticklish, but nothing quite as strong as when Matthieu touched the spot.

  “Wow,” he whispered. His eyes grew even bigger as he looked at me, cheeks twitching with a smile. “Wow. You’re stuck with us.”

  “You’re stuck with me,” I said, grinning.

  Leo laughed, and I leaned in for his kiss when he raised his chin. “God, Rake doesn’t know yet, does he?”

  “I wanted to talk to you first,” I said. “But I do want a big cuddle. Matthieu called dibs on half of me though.”

  “I bet he did. It’s good to have your alpha close after the bite. Especially for us betas, it heals a little slower on us. Come on, let’s grab Matthieu and then see if Rake even notices when we get in the bed.”

  Leo rummaged for a pair of boxers as I ran to the other suite to wake Matthieu up. He hadn’t gone to bed but was lying back in an armchair, a lamp turned away from his eyes. His mouth hung open and he puffed soft breaths in his sleep. I perched myself on the arm of the chair and ran my finger down his nose, making him twitch and smack his lips.

  “Wake up, old man,” I whispered.

  Matthieu purred, a smile stretching over his lips as he blinked slowly awake. “How often do you think you’re going to get away with saying that?” he asked.

  I tilted my head and feigned thought. “Maybe about as often as I want.”

  His arms snapped around my waist, tugging me onto his lap, and I squirmed to get away as he growled happily, drawing me to his chest and planting his mouth over my bondmark. I turned to jelly in a half-second flat, warmth coursing through me and my eyes hooding with exhaustion and arousal.

  “You said we could sleep downstairs,” I gasped out before he got carried away.

  Matthieu paused and then pressed a chaste kiss over the spot. “You’re right, I did. Very well.”

  I let out an ‘oof’ of breath as Matthieu scooped me into his arms, carrying me to the doorway to meet Leo in the hall.

  “Good work tonight, Matt,” Leo said, grinning and tweaking my toe with his fingers.

  Matthieu hummed and nodded his head as I rolled my eyes. “Thank you, I thought so.”

  “Excuse you, I was very much responsible,” I said.

  Matthieu let me down by the stairs with another brush of his lips over my mark. Even that was enough to leave my knees a little weak. Hopefully I’d get acclimated, otherwise Matthieu would have way too much fun taking advantage of his new power over me.

  Power I’d granted, and gleefully. I smiled at the thought as we reached Caleb’s floor.

  “I’m going to go tell Wes you’re home,” Matthieu said. He pointed at Leo and I. “I expect to find my spot saved when I get back.”

  Cyrus and Caleb had Rake bundled between them, and just seeing the three of them made me feel more relaxed. I hoped Matthieu convinced Wes to come in too.

  “Just slip in,” Leo whispered to me. “I’ll get Caleb’s back.”

  He went first as I crawled onto the foot of the bed. Caleb didn’t wake, but as Leo curled against his back, Caleb’s lips curled up and he leaned in Leo’s direction. I wondered if that was the bond effect, and looking at the four men on the bed, I knew Matthieu was right. He wouldn’t be my only bond. I wanted to be so tangled up in this pack, there was no argument on whether or not I belonged—from myself or anyone else.

  Slipping up between Caleb and Rake seemed simple enough until I realized in the dark that I was dealing with a whole absurd tangle of legs. I hit one shin, and then a knee, and Rake groaned in the dark, huffing and rolling onto his back.

  “Can you not?” Rake hissed.

  “I’m not trying to,” I answered.

  Rake stiffened and then sat up like a shot, startling his alphas as he dove down the bed and tackled me backward.

  “Lola! When did you get home? Why didn’t you call us? How did you get back?”

  “Rake, give her a chance to speak,” Leo said, rolling and turning on a light.

  “Ohmigod, your hair! That’s gorg—wait, what is—” Rake’s eyes widened.

  Unlike Leo, it didn’t take Rake long to spot the bite mark. His face grew cartooni
sh in his excitement, and he gasped for an exaggerated length of time until I thought he might just pass out.

  “That sneaky French bastard,” Rake hissed. “He didn’t even invite us.”

  “I’m not sure a bonding is the kind of thing I’d want a big audience for,” I said.

  Which officially caught Caleb and Cyrus’ attention.

  “Rake, move.” Caleb pulled on his omega’s arm. “Let her up.”

  Rake ignored him, dropping on top of me and holding my face for a filthy, licking kiss. I sighed into his lips, and he relaxed against me, sucking my bottom lip before finally rolling away.

  "You're not getting rid of me now, Lollipop. I'm the barnacle on the ass of your ship from here on out," Rake murmured, grinning madly at me.

  I giggled at my omega and he helped pull me to sitting. As soon as I was up, Caleb was there, scooping me up in his arms. I snuggled in against his chest, taking a deep lungful of his scent and softening against him. Behind me, Cyrus held us both, his chest hot against my back. Cyrus lowered his head and I shivered as he ran his nose along the edge of the bite, sniffing at the bond.

  “Good,” he said.

  “Are you…you’re happy?” Caleb asked.

  “Happy to be home, happy to be bonded, happy to be part of the pack,” I said, which was basically the cliffnotes of my conversation with Leo, who was beaming at me over Caleb’s shoulder.

  “Where is Matt?”

  “Here,” Matthieu said.

  I twisted between Caleb and Cyrus to see Matthieu alone in the doorway. His smile tightened, and a soft thread of comfort tugged inside of me from our bond.

  “Wes apparently snuck out for a client,” Matthieu said. “He’ll have to be pleasantly surprised when he gets back.”

  I nodded and Matthieu joined us on the bed, Cyrus sliding out of his way so Matthieu could lay down on my left, the same side of me as the bondmark.

  “What are the rest of us supposed to do, arm wrestle?” Rake asked.

  “If there’s going to be wrestling, I’d rather you all get oiled up for it, but I really think I’m too sleepy for that tonight,” I said, grinning and holding my arms out.

  Rake was first to dive for the spot and to be honest, I don’t think any of the others planned on getting in his way. “I missed you, Lollipop. I was going to tell you not to do that again, but it seems kind of moot now. Also I’m really mad you changed your hair without letting me be excited, but I do love it.”

  “Thank you,” I said, stifling a yawn. “And you don’t need to worry. I’m settled.”

  Matthieu purred and kissed my shoulder.

  “I just needed to put my head on straight. I can’t always promise it will stay that way, but you’re right. I’m not going anywhere.”

  The pack rearranged themselves in the bed, Leo at Rake’s back, and then Caleb and Cyrus after him. I draped an arm over Rake’s stomach and Caleb reached back, linking his fingers with mine over Leo’s chest.

  “Good work, Matt,” Rake murmured, just as I was on the edge of sleeping.

  “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

  Matthieu huffed at my back, as close as he could get, and either it was his own exhaustion working or he knew a magic trick because in the next moment I was falling to sleep without an answer to my question.

  Twenty

  Lola

  I can think of a very small collection of perfect days in my life.

  One was a day at the beach with a friend from middle school and her family. I don’t remember the details now, I just remember there being a lot of kids laughing, an extravagant amount of ice cream, and my friend’s parents saying nice things about me as I pretended to sleep on the drive back.

  Another was a day with Baby, wandering around the city together in the winter and splurging with our Christmas bonuses. We’d had cocktails at lunch and appetizers, and we’d window shopped in the boutiques before shopping for real at the thrift stores. Then she’d invited me to her little apartment to stare out at the city and drink hot cocoa and paint our nails.

  The Sunday after I came back to the pack was also shaping up to be a perfect day. After sleepy shower sex with Leo and Rake, there was a buffet of breakfast foods from our three alphas. It was one of those pajamas only, movies running in the background while you napped on the couch, kind of days.

  There was just one thing missing. Or rather, one man.

  “Has anyone heard from Wes? I texted him this morning, but I haven’t heard back.” I was putting together a salad with Cyrus for our late lunch, while Leo and the others bustled in the kitchen around us.

  “He’s probably on a stakeout of some kind, he goes quiet during those,” Rake said, shrugging as he juiced a grapefruit.

  “Trust me, he’s not avoiding you,” Cyrus said, bumping against my side.

  I bit my lip and nodded like that hadn’t been exactly where my head went the longer Wes was out of the house. Cyrus watched me, giving me the distinct impression that I was becoming transparent around this pack. But, at last, that left me with a sense of relief. I wanted these men to be as aware of my needs as I was determined to be of theirs.

  And speaking of needs, I was getting flushed the longer Cyrus watched me. Our hands grazed over the mixing bowl as we added toppings, and Cyrus took special care to graze the back of my hand with his knuckles.

  Noted, I thought. Now that I was…

  I was part of the pack.

  It put another dreamy smile on my lips to remember it, and Matthieu sang down the bond to me, equally thrilled for the reminder.

  Now that I was part of the pack, the hesitancy between Cyrus and I was going to start thawing quickly. I was glad he’d moved up to Editor in Chief at least. Working with him in the Beauty Department with the two of us ogling each other would’ve been the least productive environment ever.

  “Salmon is ready,” Leo called to us.

  I grabbed the salad bowl and Cyrus followed, his hand cupping the back of my neck with a gently possessive grip on my right shoulder. His thumb stroked the back of my neck, swirling over loose strands of hair as warmth seeped from the touch into my skin and right down to my toes.

  Thawing indeed.

  I put together a plate and grabbed a seat between Caleb and Matthieu at the island, sliding one of my feet onto Caleb’s stool to play footsie with him. He had a plate from Leo in front of him and a notebook to the side that he was scribbling in.

  “What are you working on?” I asked.

  “Just putting together a list of the things we’ll need to take care of to move you in,” Caleb said, and then his head shot up, eyes wide and startled on me. “You are—it’s not presuming?”

  I smiled back at him. “I’m moving in, Caleb. You’re good. What’s on the list?”

  “Well, wrapping up your lease, of course. Arranging the movers. There’s just the issue of space,” Caleb said.

  My nose wrinkled and I shrugged. “I don’t have a lot at my place, and probably even less that we’d really need here.”

  “It’s that, but it’s more…we moved into this pack as six and now there’s seven. The guest room is nice enough, for now,” Caleb started.

  “The guest room is nicer than my apartment,” I cut in.

  “Old apartment,” Matthieu corrected, and then he leaned in and kissed his bondmark with a happily self-satisfied smile as I rolled my eyes and ignored the giddy thrill that ran through me.

  “But it’s as if we’ve just given you the leftovers,” Caleb concluded.

  “The green deck is Lola’s,” Rake said. “And how often do you really foresee us letting her sleep in her own bed?”

  “As often as she pleases,” Leo said, swatting Rake on the back of the head and then walking by and kissing the spot. “But I agree with Caleb, gorgeous. You need to claim your territory in the house. I could swap out my suite for you, and then we could take down the wall separating the guest room from my office. Or I can move my office into my suite.”

&nb
sp; “Stop!” I cried, laughing and shaking my head. “First of all, I’m not stealing your room, Leo. You designed that floor specifically for yourself and Matthieu. And I don’t need the guestroom to be bigger. That is plenty of space for me. I will take the green deck though. That’s my favorite spot in the house.”

  Rake stretched forward, arm raised, and I leaned past Caleb to answer his high-five.

  “We’re at least redecorating then,” Caleb said, somewhat sullenly as he rearranged his list. “And I like Leo’s idea of taking out his office. We could expand the bathroom then and give you a walk-in closet.”

  I gaped at Leo and Cyrus, who only shrugged back at me. Caleb was apparently a lot less gentle when it came to the arrangements of the house. I might’ve found the conversation more stressful if Matthieu wasn’t sitting next to me absolutely buzzing with pleasure at the entire conversation.

  “How would you feel about a canopy bed, Lola?” Rake asked, smirking.

  “She wants one,” Matthieu said, responding to my internal thrill before I could object.

  Caleb hummed and made a note.

  It was late evening, all but one member of the pack in the kitchen finishing dinner, when I finally heard the faintest sound of the garage door closing. I glanced at Matthieu, and his lips twitched at my spike of excitement.

  Wes never answered my texts, but now that he was home, it was probably just a matter of time before I could grab him. I had some very specific things I wanted to say to Wes. About his place in the pack, and mine, and ours together.

  Except the dishes were in the dishwasher and everyone was moving back to the living room, and I still couldn’t hear so much as any stirring on the stairs or from the elevator. Matthieu’s arms circled my waist, his lips hovering over my bondmark—his new favorite spot to kiss me.

  “You should go find him.”

  “Why hasn’t he come up yet?”

  “He’s used to being out of orbit with us. So was I, to be honest. He’s probably down having a swim or working out a bad day in the gym,” Matthieu said.