by Jayce Carter
The three of them could have done the basics, but hell, none of them had been in a state to do it.
No one had spoken during the trip. By the time the cops had arrived, they’d sorted through most of the issues. The omega and her young daughter, both shaken but strong, had gone with a detective friend of theirs to a safe house. The police had questioned the mother, but Bryce’s, Joshua’s and Kaidan’s word went far.
Joshua had stayed with the female and her daughter, Bryce rushing toward the house. He’d moved in the way that reminded Joshua that while Kaidan and he could be dangerous when needed, Bryce was a whole different beast.
The alpha had nearly reached the front door when Bryce had kicked it in. Blood had covered the alpha’s shirt, and at the time Bryce had had no idea whose it was. When the alpha had made the mistake of charging Bryce, they’d gone down together. Still, it was Claire’s scent on the alpha and the alpha reaching for something at the small of his back that had forced Bryce into acting.
He’d shot the man, then gone to find Claire.
At the hospital, she’d been unresponsive, unwilling to remove herself from Bryce. It had taken an injection by the doctor to calm her enough to examine her, to ensure she wasn’t injured.
Bruised ribs, a twisted ankle and a lot of other bruising was her reward for her bravery.
Joshua squeezed her hand. They’d come so close to losing her. The bruising at her throat said the alpha had strangled her and, according to Bryce, she’d been the one to shove Kaidan’s knife into the man’s gut.
In fact, without some serious medical care, the alpha might not have made it even if Bryce’s bullet hadn’t ended him.
Seemed their omega was tougher than they’d given her credit for, and Joshua couldn’t have been happier about it.
She whined softly, head turning, the trappings of consciousness causing her to shift.
Joshua stood and leaned closer, his lips near her ear. “Shhh, sweetheart. You’re safe.”
She calmed at his voice, her face turning toward him, her fingers tightening around his hand.
He lowered himself, brushing his lips to hers. It wasn’t anything scandalous, just a small offer of comfort, and she rewarded him with a contented sigh.
This was what he risked. Life was uncertain and she was a woman who would do what she thought she should. She’d rush into situations no matter what if she wanted to, and he doubted even three of them could keep her from it. She would be a risk, to herself and to his heart.
His dragged a thumb across her bottom lip, the swelling on her cheek—one of the battle wounds from facing off against an alpha—darkening the side of her pretty face. Still, she’d walked away from it, and he hadn’t.
His little omega had a bite, and while it scared the shit out of him, he was glad to see it.
* * * *
When Claire walked onto the back porch where Bryce sat, he had to keep himself still. They’d gotten home from the hospital when the sun had started to rise, and she’d slept the day away. Even in the dim backyard lighting, the colors that spanned her face forced him to remain calm.
He doubted a snarling alpha would make her feel good. After what she’d been through, she needed calm. She needed him to be steady. He needed to hide his reaction to her, to the bruises, to the situation.
She hesitated a few feet away. “Should I go?”
“No, why?”
“You’re growling.”
He cut off the rumble from his chest he hadn’t even noticed. “Sorry,” he said. “Thought I’d be better at hiding that.”
She still didn’t come forward, a large shirt bagging over her, showing off her legs from beneath the hem. It was Kaidan’s shirt and somehow she looked right in it, as if a little part of them wrapped around her.
He lifted his gaze to her face, to the uncertainty there. “Come on, omega, come sit down.” Bryce patted the spot beside him.
Claire came forward and all but fell onto the bench, a small slice of space between them. “No one’s yelled at me yet.”
“That bother you?”
She drew her legs up, wrapping her arms around them. It made her take up less space, made her seem even smaller. “It seems like…” She rested her chin on her knees when she didn’t go on.
“Seems like what?”
“Like maybe you don’t care.”
She really thought that? Bryce released a soft huff then dragged a light finger against the bruising on her cheek. “We care, but I think you’ve been beat up on enough for now. We aren’t in the habit of being too hard on someone already hurting.”
She leaned into the touch, eyes sliding closed.
Bryce gave up on being careful, on treating her like a fragile trinket. She’d taken on an alpha. She was tougher than she looked. He slung an arm around her and pulled her into his lap so she straddled him and tugged her closer. She did as she’d done when he found her, pressed her nose against his throat and filled her lungs.
He didn’t purr much, didn’t normally offer it, but he did then. The rumble, softer and deeper than a growl, slid between them as his way of easing her. She flattened her hands against his chest as she nuzzled his throat.
Finally, she sat up, back straight, gaze down. She didn’t try to move from her lap. “Thanks for saving me, but I’m sorry you had to…you know…”
She really thought ending someone like that would bother him? Hell, he was glad to have rid the world of that asshole. Bryce had a lot of hang-ups, but killing people who needed killing wasn’t among them. After seeing Tracy, after seeing the terrified young daughter, he was only too happy to remove their personal monster from their lives.
Neither of them should have to sleep a single night worried he’d come after them, that the piece-of-shit alpha might find them. If he could give them that little bit of peace? Worth anything he had to pay.
Bryce caught her chin and lifted her face so she looked him in the eye. “Trust me, ending him doesn’t weigh on me. Besides, you’d done enough damage on your own. You put Kaidan’s knife to good use.”
She nodded toward the bandage around his palm. “What happened?”
“Like I said, you’re dangerous with that knife.”
“I did that?” She caught his wrist and pulled his hand toward her, as if she could see past the gauze. “Are you okay?”
“It’s fine. No stitches or anything.” He couldn’t stop the frown as Claire held the hand, as she stared as if the wound hurt her.
He’d never had anyone care about him like that. His brothers cared, but not in the same way. When wounded, the three of them would snarl at each other and order pizza for every meal. They didn’t worry, didn’t check, didn’t hover—just assumed the others would heal.
Suddenly, Bryce had a vision of the next time he was laid up with an injury, having Claire there. She could be sweet, it seemed. She’d make sure he had whatever he needed, would curl up beside him so he could close his eyes, eased just by her being near, by knowing she was safe.
Claire pressed a soft kiss to the area of his palm above the injury and the gauze. “Well, thank you.”
“You really want to thank me? Explain why you ran off. No, don’t look down, don’t hide, just tell me. Explain to me why you’d face a vicious alpha, why you’d risk upsetting us rather than tell Kaidan what was wrong. You could have talked to us. You almost died in there.”
She sighed and adjusted in his lap. Despite the closeness, despite the fact he was hard and pressing against her, this wasn’t about sex. Sure, his body wouldn’t mind, but this was more important.
Finally, she pulled in a deep breath. “I got a text from Tracy telling me he’d found her. I’m the one who got Tracy to leave him, who told Tracy she could have a real life. She and Karen would have never been there if I hadn’t talked them into it. I had to go and do what I could.”
“Fair enough. I get it, I do, but you didn’t have to go alone.”
“Kaidan might have stopped me. He could have decide
d it was too dangerous, that it wasn’t worth it. He could have decided that because the alpha was her mate, he had a right to her. I’ve gone to the police before, and I’ve seen alphas talk their way out of these things.”
“But you’ve decided to stay here with us when you could have gone home. You do trust us, at least a little, so why run off?”
“I trust you with me, but that’s just me. If I’m wrong, only I pay the price. I couldn’t trust you with her, with Karen. They were relying on me, and I couldn’t risk them getting hurt because I’d made a mistake.”
Bryce’s lips tipped down at the weight in her voice, the weight on her shoulders. He got that, didn’t he? Despite him and his brothers being equal in many things, he always stepped up. He was in charge and held more responsibilities than the others. It tired him, and that shone in her eyes. She carried too much weight.
How had he not realized before just how much she took upon herself?
He set his hands on her waist and rubbed his against the curve of her hip gently. She was being honest, and he wanted that to continue, to continue to build the fledgling connection between them. “And what did you plan to do? I know you helped her out of the window and stayed behind. Trust me, I had some less than happy thoughts about you when I heard that part. What were you planning to do on your own? Kill the alpha?”
“I’ve done it before.”
Neither moved, the words sitting between them, whispered from her as though testing the waters, an admission she’d never offered before.
He went back to the gentle stroke of his thumbs against her. “I figured as much. Joshua and Kaidan both thought you’d had someone help, that maybe there was an intruder, but I knew you’d done it.”
“You know.”
“Yeah. We finally pinned down your past. I mean, all we got was the police report, but I figured you’d done it.”
“Why? No one else would suspect me.”
“Because sometimes people see what they want to see. Kaidan and Joshua see you as sweet, as someone who needs protecting. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not about to let you go somewhere dangerous alone—but I damned well see more. I’ve seen omegas cornered, seen what they do when pushed too far. You? You’re someone who has been pushed too far before. I figure he got what was coming to him.”
“I was showering after a fight one night, trying to wash blood from my face, and when I stepped out of the water, I had to look at myself in the mirror. I just stood there staring at this girl I didn’t recognize, beat to hell, cowering, and I don’t know what happened. I’d just had enough. I knew where he kept his gun because he’d taught me to shoot it, told me to use it if anyone came looking for an omega. Guess he never figured I’d use it on him.” The story came out quietly, handed over like a peace offering. “Not something many people want in a mate, huh?”
“Those people are idiots then, because there’s nothing I’d want more than to know my mate has bite, that she’ll do what she has to when she has to.”
She remained silent, her eyebrows pulling toward each other. “No one’s ever thought I was capable of anything before. I didn’t figure, out of anyone, that you’d be the one to think of me as strong.”
“Why not?”
“Because you act like everything I avoid. You’re dominant, you’re arrogant, you’re over-protective—”
Bryce pinched her ass to stop the tirade. “Be nice, omega. Yeah, I’m dominant. I’m an alpha, after all. And of course I’m protective. That goes hand in hand with being alpha. I see things and I try to keep them safe. That requires some arrogance, a belief I can do so. It doesn’t mean I don’t value them, that I don’t see their worth. You? You’re worth a hell of a lot, and yeah, I want to protect you, but not because I think you can’t take care of yourself. If you’d have called me about Tracy, I’d have gone with you. I wouldn’t have left you behind, wouldn’t have refused to let you go. I’d just have made sure you had me at your back when you did it. That’s all I’m asking for here. Not submission, not giving up your choices—just including me.”
She shifted in his lap, the action pulling a groan from him when she ground innocently against his crotch.
“Careful, now. You’re not ready for the things I’m thinking right, and you’re spread out in my lap and pretty damned tempting. Add to it I’m still pissed about what you pulled, and now might not be a good time to toy with me. In fact, I did mention to Joshua about putting you over my lap and spanking you until you decided to never pull shit like that again.”
Her breath pulled in quickly, and damn if her scent didn’t come rushing out, her hips shifting to grind against his cock again.
Still Bryce didn’t react. “You can’t play with me like that. You’ve made it clear you aren’t ready for me like this, that you don’t want me like this, not yet. Don’t start something you’re not really wanting.”
She leaned closer, resting her forehead to his, the action causing her cunt to press down onto her lap. “Please?”
“Please what? You have to be sure. Last thing I want is you regretting this, you deciding it’s proof you can’t trust me.”
She slid her hands up his chest, then slipped behind his neck. “When I was in that house, I was on my own. I was ready to die if I had to, but when I realized it was you?” She shuddered, a soft whine on her lips. “It made me realize it might not be so bad if I wasn’t alone, at least for a while.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to fuck me.”
Her lips brushed his, her tongue touching the seam of his lips. “I want to.”
“You trust me?”
At least she didn’t answer right away. She took a moment, even as she played her lips over his, as she stroked her fingers over the nape of his neck, over the muscles of his back. Finally, she pulled back enough to look him in the eye. “I trust you.”
And, hell, there it all was. Seeing that trust, the way she melted against him, the way she gave against him—it riled up every instinct in him.
“I’m not like Joshua, not like Kaidan. If you’re expecting us to be the same, we aren’t.”
“I know you’re not. I know exactly who you are, Bryce, and I’m still here.”
He allowed himself to lift his hips and pull her down, grinding against her cunt. “Tell me you want me again, omega. I want to hear you say it.”
She met his thrust, rolling her hips to grind back against him. “I want you to fuck me, alpha.”
And those words were all he needed to hear. If she wanted him, him give her exactly what she was needing.
Claire waited for anxiety to swamp her, but once she’d made the choice, it didn’t come. That worry, that fear, that guilt, it all had drifted away once she’d decided she wanted him.
It was as if it had grown in her indecision, and under the light of certainty, it wilted away.
And she was certain.
She didn’t know about forever, about tomorrow, about anything else. About tonight? About right then? That she knew.
When she’d first scented him, when she’d first realized he’d come for her, that sense of not being alone had overwhelmed her. It had made her realize that maybe this entire life wasn’t so bad.
The drastic difference between Bryce, Joshua and Kaidan and Tracy’s mate hadn’t ever been clearer. Where Tracy ran from her mate, where he threatened her at every turn, Claire had turned toward Bryce. She’d reached out when frightened, and he’d come without hesitation. He’d killed a man for her. He’d rushed into a dangerous situation—all for her.
And while he’d been angry about her behavior, she’d never actually felt unsafe. Not with any of them.
So while Bryce might seemed like James had been, while he was many of the things she’d thought dangerous, she’d come to realize he was the only safe thing in her life. That was something worth holding on to.
Bryce moved his hand from her hip to graze up her soft inner thigh. The sharp intake of breath said he’d found she wore nothing but the shirt. The in
halation turned into a growl so low and deep she might have been backed away in any other circumstance.
Not that he gave her a chance. He took the hand not on her thigh and wrapped it in her hair, the action causing her head to tilt back slightly. It again reminded her how different they all were. It wasn’t the guiding hand of Kaidan, but Bryce’s way of holding her still. It tugged against her scalp, but when she might have moaned before, she winced.
He frowned and released her hair. “Tell me.”
“Don’t pull my hair.” At his confusion, she continued. “The alpha pulled it, and my scalp is sore.”
Anger flicked through his dark eyes, sparking and making her glad he wasn’t directing it at her. He slipped the hand behind her neck and angled her head down to press a kiss. “Sorry, omega,” he whispered against her hair. “I should have been faster.”
She lifted her head, startled by the honest regret there. Instead of letting him dwell in it, she shifted her hips forward so his fingers brushed her bare cunt. “Keep going.”
At that, his lips tipped up, one of the rare smiles he offered. He moved up her cunt in a sure stroke, one that had her digging her fingers into his shoulders. The rough calluses of his fingers teased her more, but who was she kidding? She didn’t need teasing, didn’t need anything to get her ready. She’d been lying in bed, considering hiding for longer, until she’d looked out of the window to see him sitting there.
She’d known before she’d left the room that she wanted him, had draped a hand between her thighs as if she could quench that thirst all on her own, knowing damn well she’d never manage it. So she’d gone out there wet enough that he could have pushed into her immediately and she’d have welcomed it.
In fact, a part of her wanted that. She wanted that side of him, the one that took, the one she could give with. How many people could she feel that safe with? Bryce took, but only as much as he knew she could give. He was someone she could offer anything of herself without restriction because he’d never take too much, never harm her. She wanted to know what it felt like to walk into the house on a night when he was wound up, when he needed her. She wanted to feel him shove her against a wall, to pin her with a hand to her throat, to fuck her like they both needed.