“They don’t know me, don’t know us, and are just starting to get to know each other. This is the first step, not the last.”
“Don’t know us,” another voice said. James, I thought dreamily. “But that’s the plan, isn’t it? Help them explore each other and hope to hell they turn to do the same with us.”
“They will,” another voice said, much more confidently. Jackson. “I haven’t seen you with them for long, but fuck, they let you in on what just happened, leaned on you when they needed it. How can they hold ou
t?”
“Tristan can’t go back to the academy tonight,” James said. “Leaving Kit would damn near kill him. I’ll make a call, reassure them that he’s safe with me. Fuck them if it’s not OK.”
And so I finally got my surrender for the night, now drifting and floating on a calm sea, caught up in my mates’ arms.
Mates.
I felt Tristan the hardest, the sharpest, a razor bladed knife I kept close to my heart, unable to be relinquished, but it couldn’t always be intense, hard, brutal love. Tristan had always set the tone between my siblings and me, the three of us dancing to his tune, so it was no shock that his discovery of both sides of his nature informed mine. I never thought I’d have room in my heart for anyone outside of Tris, but doing this, going through this, I realised there was more to me than I’d thought as well. Before, I’d been a bad girl for going along with Tris’ lie, taking pleasure from the dysfunctional ways he’d used to deal with who he was, but now? I sucked up the warmth of all these bodies, all these beating hearts, and I didn’t want to let go of any of them.
Mine, my elemental little omega heart said. Mine.
Chapter 28
So apparently, claiming someone as your mate gives you a pretty mean hangover. I opened my eyes a crack, instantly screwed them shut again against the bright light streaming through the windows, then heard the characteristic flip of curtains, instantly making the room darker. I ventured another eye crack at that, seeing just vague shadows now.
“You okay, Kit?”
Not Tristan’s voice, I felt him beside me, my body curled into his, so I looked over his shoulder and saw a tense-looking Jackson standing there, shirtless. Damn, beta boy was packing something hot under those ubiquitous plaid shirts. Not quite the massive bulk of an alpha, but bloody close. I watched his muscles flex with almost clinical interest as he fiddled with the leather bands around his wrist.
“Here,” he said, moving around to my side of the bed and handing me a bottle of water, fresh condensation running down the sides. When I reached for it, he yanked it back, cracked the lid, then passed it over, holding it until I moved into more of a seated position.
“Kit…” Tristan mumbled sleepily, his hands grabbing for me. I squeezed one, feeling a warm flush as I drank the water down, but that searingly intimate sensation didn’t feel any different for having Jackson in the room, which made me curious. I patted the bed beside him, having no idea how the beta would respond. Neither did he, by his look of indecision, but while betas were less likely to be influenced by omegas, they certainly weren’t immune, as evinced by his move closer. He flopped down on the bed, almost exactly in the spot I’d patted, staring down at me with a quizzical look in his eyes as though asking me what the hell I wanted. I didn’t get a chance to answer, as Tristan woke up.
“Kit…”
Jackson watched our every move, no doubt hearing the urgency in Tristan’s voice as he came fully awake and sought me. I was pushed down onto the bed, covered by his body, those green eyes boring into mine.
“Kit.”
“Tristan.”
“Kit.”
He swallowed, his lips moving soundlessly, but I knew what was happening. I could feel him, feel the desperate burning rush of him inside my chest that was an exact answer to my own need. I reached up, touched the bite mark that remained on his skin, pink and perfect. It shouldn’t be there, that wasn’t how shit worked, but as I traced the outline, a low groan from my mate. Then he shifted my legs apart, making sure I knew exactly how he responded.
“I’m your mate.”
“You always were,” I replied, yet I felt a curious pleasure at his words. “This, this was just a formalisation of that.”
“Kit, I—”
“Maybe I should go.”
Jackson’s comment had an instantaneous effect on Tris, his muscles locking down as he caged me beneath his body, an honest-to-goodness growl bursting from his chest.
“Tris—”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Tristan.” I reached up and forced his eyes back to me, feeling him resist my grip. “I asked him to be here.”
“And he’s asking me to leave. It’s cool, princess. Just stay hydrated.”