by Kathryn Moon
“I think I’m lucky to still have my hair, and I better not tempt fate,” Matthieu said, still grinning.
I was biting at my own grin. He wasn’t that old. In his late forties probably, although I suppose plenty of men started balding before then. His hair did look thick though, and it was longer than Leo’s or Rake’s. It would feel nice to dig my fingers through—
Oh, you’re fucked in the head.
“I should go try and sleep,” I said, pushing myself away from the door.
Matthieu’s stare took one long track over me, and for the first time I saw hunger in his gaze instead of only study. The ache echoed in me and he turned his head away, nodding slowly, eyes blinking. When he looked at me again, his expression was mild.
“I’ll play you out,” he said, settling the guitar back into the cradle of his arms.
“G’night, Matthieu.” I turned away with the first subtle, falling notes.
I stopped on the landing, the music playing at my back, and leaned against the wall, sinking down to the cool floor and letting my eyes fall shut as I took slow, deep breaths.
Get your shit together, Lola.
I woke to a warm mouth on my collarbone leaving wet messy kisses. For a hazy moment, I didn’t know where I was, and strangely enough I wasn’t frightened. And then I took a deep breath, chocolate heavy on my tongue, and I smiled.
“Morning,” I said, voice scratching.
“Hello you,” Rake breathed against my shoulder. His erection was pressed to my hip, his hand passing up and down on my side, thumb caressing the underside of my breast with every pass.
“What time is it?”
“Early. Early enough,” Rake said with a soft nudge of his hips.
I grinned and giggled, leaving my eyes shut against the sunlight warming my face. I’d sat on the landing for a few more quiet songs from Matthieu before his guitar went silent and I realized I was at risk of being caught. When I’d tried to sneak back into the bed with Rake, I’d accidentally woken him up. Not that he’d minded, based on the way his mouth had immediately latched onto mine. By the time I’d fallen asleep, it was nearing two in the morning.
“‘Kay,” I said to Rake, stretching out on the bed and letting him roll on top of me. “But you do the work this time.”
He snorted, breath puffing against my throat as he slid his cock against my entrance, weeping pre-cum making his work easy. That really was convenient as hell.
“Deal. Can I use this too?” Rake asked. A moment later, a soft buzzing sounded and Rake’s chest pulled away from mine.
I gasped, eyes flying open and back arching, as Rake pressed the vibrator directly to my clit. “God, yes!”
He pushed into me and I moaned as he settled, the vibrator perfectly nestled between us, stimulation rolling over every sensitive inch of me as Rake fucked me with slow, shallow thrusts.
Three divinely intense orgasms and a thorough shower later, and I finally looked at the clock.
“Shit. That was not early enough,” I said, turning my back to Rake for him to pull up my zipper for me.
“You’ve got ages. The guys are still down in the kitchen, and if you leave with them you know you won’t be late.”
“Assistant beauty editors are supposed to be early, not on time,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Rake. “And definitely not arriving at the same time and in the same cars as their bosses.”
He snorted and nodded. “Okay, yeah, fair enough. We’ll get you a separate car then.”
“Or I just get moving faster and I grab the bus,” I said.
Rake wrinkled his nose. “I think we can do better than public transit, Lola. I’ll run down and get you some breakfast and arrange a car.”
“I’m presentable,” I said. “I can come down for my breakfast.”
Rake was on his way to his door, and he stopped and looked at me over his shoulder. He was dressed in sleep pants and nothing else, his floral tattoo twisted over the muscles on his back. “The guys are probably all there,” he said.
Oh. All the alphas. But the idea of the four of them didn’t make me tense the way it had even a week or two ago. I was already surrounded by their scents in this house, I should be able to face them over the kitchen island.
“Will they mind me being there?” I asked.
“Of course not, but—”
“Then I won’t mind either,” I said, squaring my shoulders as Rake’s smile bloomed over his face. I crossed to him and took his hand, following him out of the rooms and to the stairs.
“We can plan a car to pick you up from work too,” Rake said, wrapping his arm over my shoulders.
“Don’t worry about that, I have to run back to my apartment to grab a new change of clothes since I’m coming back tonight.”
Rake shrugged. “That’s fine. And you might as well grab a few changes, since I can guarantee Leo will want to talk you into staying the weekend.”
I chewed on my lip as we headed down to the second floor. “I think I should spend another night at my place after tonight. No, listen,” I said as he started to object. “Don’t you think Caleb and Cyrus will start to get jealous?”
Rake scoffed and then grew quiet, staring into the distance as he thought. He glanced at me and sighed. “Not jealous. But I suppose they might start to miss us. Caleb especially.”
I tried to swallow around the lump in my throat as I nodded. “So there. I’ll get some downtime on my own, and you guys will get some quality time with your alphas. It’s only fair.”
Rake grumbled something unintelligible, and then we reached the kitchen. All around the room, the four previously relaxed and slouching alphas straightened, eyes fixed to me, coffee cups halfway to their lips.
“I-err-we can-umm…” Caleb stumbled, a spatula in his hand as he stood in front of a skillet, eyes darting around the room looking for an escape route.
“Don’t mind me,” I said, offering them a tight smile.
“Mind her enough to get her a cup of coffee,” Rake corrected, squeezing my shoulders with his hands.
Tentatively, with a few calculating looks in my direction, he slipped to Cyrus sitting over a bowl of granola and fruit. Cyrus leaned in immediately and I watched them kiss, a firm press of lips and Cyrus’ dark hand holding Rake to him by the center of his back. It reminded me of the beautiful picture I’d seen the night before, and I passed them with a blush on my cheeks, nearly running into Matthieu.
The alpha stood in front of a steaming mug of black coffee, looking over to me. “What do you like in it?”
“Black,” I said, wiggling my fingers for the mug and sharing a smile with Matthieu as he slid across the counter to me. I hummed my thanks with the first sip. Along with everything else in this house being high quality, their coffee was especially good. I needed to ask Rake or Leo where they got it.
“Would you like some pancakes, lo- Lola?” Caleb said, and I watched as he flipped one small pancake in the air back into the skillet.
He and Leo must share their morning sweet tooth. “Yes, please.”
“Sit,” Matthieu said, nodding toward the last open stool at the island. Which would leave him without a seat.
“I don’t mind standing,” I said, looking at him. He arched one eyebrow in challenge, and I found myself sliding into the seat next to Wes, blinking at my cup of coffee. Had he just alpha’d me? Either I had a particularly weak will or Matthieu was an especially potent alpha.
Probably both.
I glanced to my left and found Wes sitting, tense with his arms locked in tight to his side, even though there was a good foot of space between us. In front of him was a plate loaded with egg whites and spinach and whole wheat bread. He didn’t have coffee in his cup, but what looked like grapefruit juice. A health nut then. He also had a paper folded in front of him, pen resting beneath a half-finished crossword.
“Wow. Risky move,” I said, pointing to his pen.
Rake laughed on Wes’ other side. “Not sure the word ‘ris
k’ has ever been used in association with Wes before.”
Wes’ lips quirked, and his massive shoulders softened slightly. “I wait until I’m sure,” he said.
I looked over the clues and at his answers briefly before grinning. “But you got thirty-eight down wrong. It’s Coe, not Poe.”
“‘Edgar Allen blank’s Ravenous’?” Wes read aloud.
“Edgar Allen Coe is a rapper with an album called Ravenous,” I said, smiling up at Wes’ baffled response. “They tricked you on purpose.”
He cursed, and Caleb slid a plate in front of me with three perfect sand-dollar sized pancakes, already dressed with strawberry preserves.
“Thank you. These look delicious.”
“Of course, I’m glad you joined us,” Caleb said, sharing his smile between me and Rake.
“We need to order Lola a car to the office,” Rake said, digging into his own plate of food. “She wisely pointed out that she probably shouldn’t arrive in the same car as Cyrus.”
Cyrus choked lightly on his breakfast. “God. Imagine Betty’s face,” he said, leaning over his plate to grin at me.
“I really don’t want to,” I admitted, and he laughed again.
This was…easier than I expected. I was at the end of the counter so I had room to move, but honestly, Wes had the kind of sweet and bright and fucking delectable scent that made me just want to lean into him. Except that wasn’t freaking me out. These alphas knew the boundary between us, and they respected it. I was safe, just like Leo had promised.
“I could drive you,” Wes said, and the kitchen went quiet. He cleared his throat and shrugged gently. “It’s on the way for me. You can sit in the back if you want.”
I glanced at the rest of the quiet men. Caleb’s eyes were on his immobile fork, and Matthieu was staring over my head at Wes. Rake and Cyrus were watching me.
“I don’t want to treat you like a hired driver, but if you’re sure you don’t mind offering a ride,” I said.
Wes nodded. “Definitely not. The service we use has a few alpha drivers, and I wouldn’t want you to end up with someone unfamiliar. As long as you’re—”
“I’m sure,” I said.
He’s huge. He could overpower you so fast. You don’t know what he wants. He could hurt you.
But he won’t.
I shut down the argument waging in my head with another bite of pancake, and Wes relaxed, digging into his own plate.
“Perfect,” Rake said. “Leo’s back tonight, and Lola will be here. Family dinner?”
“You’d better plan the meal though, and not leave it up to Leo to figure out at the last moment,” Caleb said with a playful glare at Rake.
And the conversation moved away from its awkward pause.
Wes was driving us out of the garage in his sleek black sedan, turning onto the road, when I looked into the backseat for the third time and it finally clicked.
The foggy morning, and the shining black shoes waiting in front of me. The long back seat of the dark car, and the close-cut blond hair of the driver.
“It was you,” I said, barely audible.
Wes’ hands flexed on the steering wheel, and his head twitched in my direction.
“You… Wasn’t it? You picked me up from the Hangmen’s club that morning?” I asked, staring at him in profile. “How is that… Why would it be you?”
I didn’t remember very much of that morning, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of whatever I might’ve been dosed with the night before, or that I didn’t want to remember. I couldn’t recall the face of the man who’d driven me away from Buzz and to the safety of David’s apartment, but I remembered the thick black sweatshirt I’d worn on the ride. My lungs were clogged with alpha scents, covering my skin, and it had taken most of the drive before I realized I was with another alpha.
Wes nodded and swallowed hard. “It was me. David called in a favor.”
My heart sank like a lead weight. “So the others—”
Wes’ head shook, his hand closest to me leaving the wheel and hovering between us like he’d meant to touch me and thought better of it. “No. No, I never said anything to them. It wasn’t anybody’s business but yours. I…”
I turned my face away from his, the city a blur outside of the window as I scrambled to control my breathing, keep my focus on the present and not the past.
“I’m sorry, Lola,” Wes whispered.
“Sorry? What are you sorry for?” I asked, my head whipping to stare at him. “I should say I’m—”
Wes let out a low growl. “Don’t you dare.” My lips snapped shut and Wes’ cheeks reddened, his eyes flicking to me. “I’m sorry for not going back to that place and burning it to the ground like I thought about doing when I dropped you off with David. Then you wouldn’t have this asshole sending you texts. The whole mess would’ve been over.”
His knuckles were white and red around the steering wheel, jaw ticking with tension.
Burning that motel and bar to the ground sounded like a beautiful idea. The very mention of it, and I craved the view, imagining flames eating away at the peeling wallpaper and turning those awful mattresses to ash.
“You didn’t know me then,” I said, studying him.
Wes was all squared angles and thick muscle. If Leo was bulkier than my usual type, Wes was about three of my usual type put together. He wasn’t handsome necessarily, but he was the definition of strength. The anger he’d revealed a moment ago was already bleeding away, leaving me in the car with the gentle giant I’d sat next to at breakfast.
“I had a guess of what had happened to you, and I knew what those men deserved,” Wes muttered darkly. “I’ll find him, and I’ll make sure he never so much as looks sideways at you again.”
Simple as that. Wes’ promise was plain and his voice was confident. I believed him too. I didn’t know why he was so determined to see me safe, but I believed him.
“Thank you,” I said.
His jaw clenched again and his shoulder jerked in an uncomfortable shrug. He glanced at me and the corner of his mouth twitched with an offered smile. “Dig into the front pocket of my laptop bag. Take a look at fifteen across for me?”
I reached down and pulled the newspaper out and Wes’ scent sweetened in the car around me, heady and syrupy. I relaxed into the deep seat, slipping my feet out of my heels and curling them under me.
Twenty
Caleb
It wasn’t easy to be an alpha around Lola.
She was curled up in an armchair in the den while Leo made them each a deep bowl of ice cream and fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. She had my blanket draped over her, even though the house was warm and her cheeks were flushed. I wanted to tear the blanket away from her and replace it with me. If she liked my scent so much, then I would’ve been more than happy to let her steal it directly off my skin.
I pushed up off the couch and headed for the kitchen before I accidentally planted myself in her lap.
This was the issue. Lola might not realize it, but she thrived under care. I’d seen the way she responded to Leo and Rake’s attention, even the little brief attentions the rest of us were brave enough to offer. And as an alpha, I thrived in offering care. It was starting to drive me a little crazy not to pick the woman up and carry her into a nest for a good cuddle.
She’s not an omega, I reminded myself for the thirtieth time this week. And even if she were, I already had an omega. It maybe didn’t help that Rake and Wes were out of the country for a quick international photoshoot.
“Want one?” Leo asked, waving an ice cream coated spoon at me and nodding to the bowl.
I released a low purr as I surrounded his back, wrapping my arms around his middle and dropping my forehead to the back of his neck. I sucked in a deep lungful of my beta and released my breath slowly, resisting the urge to groan as I found Lola’s slightly tart flavor on my tongue.
“Hey,” Leo soothed in a whisper, stroking his hand over the back of my arms. “You
miss me?”
“You know I do,” I said.
Leo sighed. “I’m sorr—”
“No, no I didn’t mean it like that,” I said, kissing his pulse and then releasing him, leaning against the counter to face him. “I miss you, but I don’t begrudge you or her the time you spend together. I just…”
Leo smirked and looked down at the ice cream carton. “For the record, I think you could be a little less careful around her.”
My eyes widened. “I don’t want to ruin this for you.”
Leo nodded and smiled. “I know. I appreciate that, honestly. But if this is going to work, it can’t be a lifetime of you guys walking on eggshells.”
“A lifetime?” I whispered. My heart gave a happy thump. Leo was thinking of Lola long term? Long long term.
I didn’t mind my pack’s tendency toward dating around; it didn’t change how we felt about one another. I was just less inclined to pursue physical gratification with strangers when I didn’t already have emotional groundwork laid down. Rake and Leo had been dating for three months before I got to know him well enough to realize I was as attracted to the beta as my omega was. And it had been Leo who’d given Rake and I our real introduction to one another. Rake had been afraid I’d try and tame and domesticate him, and I’d been afraid his emotions were too flighty for me to weather. We’d both been wrong.
With Lola, the attraction at the moment was more of a biological impulse. Take care of the vulnerable, nurture the one who needed tenderness. There were signs of a woman I wanted to know tucked away in the shyness—her wit, the moments of intense sensuality she revealed when she didn’t realize the rest of us were watching. If Leo was thinking of her as a permanent part of the pack, then I might have a chance to explore the interest.
“I…” Leo blushed, but he looked giddy too. Maybe he hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.