We all jumped apart like naughty children, our attention on the figure standing in the doorway in an old T-shirt and some well-worn sweats.
“Well?” Len’s eyebrow jerked up.
Chapter 29
Len stared down at the three of us like we were a group of naughty children, not necessarily pissed, but alert. Definitely alert. His eyes flicked from one, to the other, to the next.
“What do you need to ask me, Jackson?”
“Ah, your omegas—”
“Not mine, not yet,” Len replied.
“OK.” Jackson sighed. “The ones you want more than your next fucking breath. They were going to kiss me, and I said I needed to check in with you.”
“I don’t own them,” Len grumbled. “Nor you.”
But Jackson wanted him to, I could see it in the way the beta’s head dropped, so as a good little omega, I had to say something.
“No one’s talking about owning someone else, well, ever.” I frowned slightly, picking at the scarlet nail polish that had begun to chip, but I looked up and met Len’s eyes as I continued, “You’ll never own us, no one will, but you could be hurt by walking in on us kissing your friend, something I should’ve thought about. I kinda got caught up in things.”
“Things?”
Len sat down on the edge of the bed, but he was a distance away from the rest of us.
“I thought this resolved things,” Tristan said, touching his mating mark absently. “I was prepared to thank you all and then we’d go on our merry way.” Len’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing in response. “But Kit thinks differently.”
Great, now all eyes were on me.
“I’ve bitten Tris, or Tris has bitten me, more times than I could count, especially when we first started having sex.” My hands rubbed up and down my arms. “Over and over, but it always healed up. In some ways, that was good. My father would have had a coronary. But…” I stared at the three of them for a minute. “What happened last night, it was just so much fucking more than I expected.” My brow crinkled. “We were more. I’ve…”
My voice cracked, the feeling, the memory, the emotion, all rushing back in, and it wouldn’t be kept out. I just looked at them blindly, able to see it all again, but there was a difference. There had been no barriers, not like there were now, which just made me more bloody determined.
“I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was as if I knew exactly where I was supposed to be, who I was supposed to be with. Was it just me? Was it just omega bullshit clouding my mind as I made Tris mine?”
The haze of sweetness that had carried me through since last night started to fray at the edges, a feeling of uncertainty starting to creep in. Christ, what if this was just my stupid biology kicking in, making me see things and feel things that weren’t even there? I pulled my knees up to my chest, as best as I could in the tight dress, and tried to think back to what had happened with a more objective perspective.
“Hey.”
The deep alpha rumble, the touch of Len’s hand, just let me know he was there. When I didn’t push him away, he swept me up and into his arms, and I knew then, for me at least, that this was real. I was a bad girl, an overly privileged little bitch who wanted everything, despite the riches I’d been given.
“No, you’re not.”
“Fuck, did I say that out loud?”
“I would’ve known what you were thinking anyway. Your scent, Kit.”
Len’s nose dropped down to my neck, and goddammit, tears pricked my eyes. I wanted—no, I needed this. To be held, to have something, someone, so much bigger than me making me feel small and safe and loved…
Wait, what?
That thought was spiky and snarly, so I threw my arms around Len’s neck and buried my face in him, breathing in all that calming solid energy in his scent, feeling the pain ease, even as I wasn’t sure I should. But I was tired, so fucking tired of fighting what I was, even for Tristan. Especially for Tristan, because part of him needed this too and no strap-on was going to solve that.
And like the Devil, once thought about, he was summoned.
I felt him behind me before his hand landed on my shoulder, and that same feeling of exquisitely beautiful energy filled me. I snuggled in tighter, pulling a low chuckle from Len, then a hand stroked through my hair, and for a second, I had everything I needed.
Kinda.