Or could he?
“I’m allowed to say no,” I shot back. “I’m not sure what passes for conversations about consent in whatever piss pot town you’re from, but having the ability to say no is important to beta women.” His face fell at that and then fuck, now I was feeling bad. “Don’t try to force things.”
Well, not unless you were some kind of mysterious alpha in a hotel room, then ‘forcing’ me to have orgasm after orgasm was just fine. I shook my head to dislodge that thought.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and that jerked my attention back to the here and now. I blinked as I looked up at him. “Your house is your den. For an alpha or an omega, it’s usually the most important, most intimate space you have. Omegas make sure it’s an amazing space to be. Alphas spend their lives trying to protect it.”
And just like that, all good feeling between us evaporated.
“Well, I’m a beta and amongst ‘my kind’, it’s rude to invite yourself over.”
He blanched at my ice-cold tone, then looked over his shoulder to where Evie was making her way back to us.
“I’ll tell her there’s been a change of plans. We’ll work something out, I promise.”
“No, it’s done now,” I said. “Lunchtime tomorrow and for god’s sake, don’t be late. She’s…” My voice caught in my throat. “This has hurt her more than I thought it would and I don’t want her hurting any more. You have to be reliable and consistent, Ben.”
He grinned then, as if our terse words never happened.
“That shit I can actually do. I’ll be there, Lily. Don’t worry.”
Evie came rushing over, wrapping her arms around Ben before he scooped her up into his arms and held her close.
“I’m gonna need lots of cuddles to keep me going until tomorrow,” he said to her, and she flung her arms around his neck, both of them groaning theatrically with the effort. “You’re gonna be good for Mum though, right? Remember what we talked about.”
“An alpha is strongest when showing respect,” she replied, like it was a much repeated lesson.
I just stared then as Ben nodded, spearing me with his gaze before gathering up everything we’d brought with us and carrying it over to my car. I gave Sophie and Taylor a hug and promised to catch up with them later, which just left the three of us.
“My brothers want to meet you,” he told me as Evie scrambled to get her seat belt on. “You don’t have to get to know them, but…”
“Well, I met Jasper.”
“Right. I guess what I’m saying is you wanted to talk through these things first? If you tell me how you want this to play out, I can go back and give them a framework to work with, rather than having things happen like Jasper lobbing in, uninvited.”
“How… many brothers are you talking about?” I asked, then wrinkled my nose. “Do I have to meet Logan?”
“No one is going to make you do anything you don’t want to,” he said in a low growl. “Even if I have to pound that into their heads with my fists. Logan…” He shook his head. “Logan takes too much on, thinking all the family’s burdens are his and his alone to deal with. Having me be the one to start things off with Evie is freaking killing him.”
I snorted at the appearance of his bright grin.
“You want to be in control of this process? Then tell me what you want,” he said. “I’ll go back, make my case, ensure it’s made clear what needs to happen.”
“I…”
My voice caught in my throat because he didn’t realise what a difficult question that was to answer. He was an alpha. He reached out and took what he needed, but me? I’d been forced to deal with the pregnancy, then childbirth, then a baby, then an amazing but challenging child. My life was about realities I had to face and deal with, otherwise I’d lose everything, not about choice. He watched me then, searching my face, looking for answers, even when there weren’t any to be found.
“I guess I can meet them for coffee,” I replied, deciding on the default ‘get to know you’ activity of our age. “One at a time,” I added quickly. “I don’t think I could handle that many alphas in the one room.”
“Oh, I think you’d be surprised.”
His voice had turned into a deep purr, one that had my eyes jerking up to meet his. He winked at me then, fucking winked, before swooping in and pressing a chaste kiss to my cheek.
“There’s only two you haven’t met. I’ll let them all know and they can fight it out over who comes by next. See you then.”
I watched him bend over and stick his head in Evie’s window, kissing her cheek too and promising to see her tomorrow, but it felt like it was happening to someone else.
Sophie had been right. This was all such a seismic shift in my life that I felt like what had been solid ground was now shaky and uncertain. Daddy was home and I was starting to get an idea of how that might work. But I got in the driver’s seat, buckling up before checking again that Evie was, looking at her in my rear vision mirror.