The Alpha Part One

Avanne Michaels

Black Dog Publishing LLC

Copyright © 2023 by Avanne Michaels

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

About the Author

I don’t like the idea of making anyone feel like they need to read this, but here are the places you can find me:

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https://avanne-michaels.square.site/

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This book is dedicated to Consuelo Garcia Rodriguez.

Daughter of Rosie Garcia, daughter of Josephine Garcia, daughter of Elvira Orta.

Thank you for getting knocked up with my friend in the eighties.

Little did you know that in your golden years you would be cursed with an extra child who can't say enchilada.

A note about this Omegaverse story:

There are no shifters in this book.

The completely fictional characters in this story live in an alternate universe where there is a biological hierarchical system in place. The alphas, betas, and omegas in this universe have basic human physiology, but operate with some very animalistic instincts.

Alphas in this universe join together to form packs with other alphas, betas, and omegas (if they’re lucky); some packs are familial in nature and others are purely functional. Alphas are stronger and are naturally very dominant creatures, and they make up a small part of the population.

Betas in this universe are not typically dominant and they naturally want/long for the security of being accepted into an alpha pack. Betas make up the majority of the population.

Omegas are precious. They are to be protected and treasured. They can be either male or female. Omegas are very susceptible to alpha orders and pheromones, and are slaves to their heat cycles. Male omegas go into heat less frequently than female omegas, but the frequency of the heat cycle of either males or females is completely individualized.

Only omegas can give birth to alphas, but beta/omega pairings are not discouraged. Mpreg is NOT a thing in this universe, not that I have a problem with it, it just didn’t fit this story.

Reproductive Pairing:

Alpha x Alpha = Zero offspring. Alphas cannot reproduce with other alphas.

Alpha x Omega = Alpha offspring or Omega offspring

Alpha x Beta = Beta offspring

Omega x Beta = Beta offspring

Beta x Beta = Beta offspring

Omega x Omega = Omega offspring. This pairing is the most rare, and difficult to achieve.

TW/CW:

There are some very intense themes and acts in this story, both sexual and violent. Kidnapping and trafficking happen in this book. The characters handle situations with fires/wildfires. A complete list of TW/CW can be found everywhere the author has online presence.

The Alpha Part One Playlist

Wildest Dreams – Taylor Swift * Lola Montez – Volbeat * Woman – Doja Cat * Starstrukk – 3OH!3, Katy Perry

Still Counting – Volbeat * Heathens – Twenty One Pilots * Whatever You Like – T.I. * Fantasy – Mariah Carey

Havana – Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug * Come and Get It – Selena Gomez * 3 – Britney Spears

Bang Bang – Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj * I'll Stand By You – Pretenders * Pretty Lady – Rebelution

Just Pretend- Bad Omens * Celia – Camila Cabello * Love and Hate – Camylio * We Found Love – Rihanna, Calvin Harris

In Love With the Night (feat. Camylio) – GATTUSO * Good for You – Selena Gomez, A$AP Rocky * Handcuffs – Prince Royce

In the Name of Love – Martin Garrix, Bebe Rexha * Say My Name – David Guetta, Bebe Rexha * I Got You – Bebe Rexha

Inner Demons - Julia Brennan * Battle Cry – Beth Crowly * Outlaw – Neoni * Silent Scream – Anna Blue

Never Be the Same – Camila Cabello * Check Yes, Juliet – We The Kings * Somebody Like You – Bree Runway

Wasteland – 10 Years * Trouble – Valerie Broussard * Middle of the Night – Elley Duhe * Killer – Valerie Broussard

High Tide – Moona Hoshinova * Lavender Haze – Tayler Swift * You Are So Beautiful to Me – Tommee Profitt

Game of Survival – Ruelle * Wicked Game – Ursine Vulpine, Annaca * River-King Kavalier Remix – ishop Briggs

Eres Mi Vida – Alessandra * Witch Woods – EMMY * I'm With You – Corvix

This playlist can be found on Spotify under the book title.

Contents

1. 1. Chapter One

2. 2. Chapter Two

3. 3. Chapter Three

4. 4. Chapter Four

5. 5. Chapter Five

6. 6. Chapter Six

7. 7. Chapter Seven

8. 8. Chapter Eight

9. 9. Chapter Nine

10. 10. Chapter Ten

11. 11. Chapter Eleven

12. 12. Chapter Twelve

13. 13. Chapter Thirteen

14. 14. Chapter Fourteen

15. 15. Chapter Fifteen

16. 16. Chapter Sixteen

17. 17. Chapter Seventeen

18. 18. Chapter Eighteen

19. 19. Chapter Nineteen

20. 20. Chapter Twenty

21. 21. Chapter Twenty One

22. 22. Chapter Twenty Two

23. 23. Chapter Twenty Three

24. 24. Chapter Twenty Four

25. 25. Chapter Twenty Five

26. 26. Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter One

The Alpha Part One begins roughly two-ish years after the conclusion of The Beta Part Three

Desie

The dress spread across the foot of my bed is beautiful. It's a deep emerald green that's going to look so perfect on me, and the cut is going to hug and accentuate everything in the best possible way. I bought the dress a year ago in anticipation of this night, and now that it's here I don't want to put it on. I want to take it outside and set it on fire. Today was supposed to be exciting. Happy. I'm far from happy, though. I want to run as far as I can, as fast as I can.

My brothers have been too patient with me and my unique situation for me to run away. I could never do that to them, or to myself. I'll be at that meet and greet Omega Mixer tonight regardless of the misery it brings me. No matter the heartbreak. I've put it off long enough. I just hope the twins don't come. It will be so much worse if they're there watching. I was supposed to be theirs, but tonight will officially take me away from them. And take them away from me. I'm so, so angry. I'm angry with my brothers for forcing this on me, with the council for their heartless rules, and especially with my boys. Michael and Benny have had years, years, to find a third, but they haven't. And now I have to pay for it. That isn't entirely fair, they're going to be as miserable and wretched as I'm going to be. But they don't have to give themselves over to a pack of strangers they don't want. That's all me.

"It's just a dress, Desir'ee," my oldest brother says, walking into my room uninvited and sitting at my desk. "It's gorgeous, like you. You're going to look like a dream. Everyone there is going to be drooling over you."

I know Mateo isn't trying to be hurtful. He's only trying to be sweet and encouraging like he always is when things are hard for me. He’s been taking care of me since we lost our parents when I was a little girl and he always tries to show me the silver lining of things. He knows exactly how much I hate this, but he's just as trapped in the situation as I am. I can't smile at his compliment, though. I don't want anyone drooling over me. I don't want anyone looking at me at all. "Did you tell Benny and Michael not to come?"

Mateo sighs. "I've been telling them to leave you alone for years, mijita. They don't give a shit. You know that. Did you tell them not to come?"

I shake my head. "I can't talk to them. Not today. It would hurt too much."

He gets up and comes to wrap his arms around me. Any other time a big hug from my brother would be such a comfort, but today it feels like nothing. "I'm so sorry this has to happen, Desir'ee. It isn't fair. I know it isn't. But you need to be with a good pack. A strong pack. A pack that can give you everything you need and all the things you want. If you don't go to the meets and find a pack in the next few months, the council will put you on the registry and then you won't get to choose. We've done everything we can to give you more time, but we're out of options now."

Just the mention of the West Coast Council and the rule of three alphas makes me simmer. The rule has been in place since I was a very little girl. Whatever the council was trying to accomplish when they instituted it couldn’t possibly be worth the situation it puts alphas like Ben and Michael in. Other territories don’t have the rule.

"Why couldn't they have just found a third?" I've been crying since last night, and my voice is thick with the tears I've been fighting all morning.

Mateo kisses the top of my head. "It's not as easy as just finding someone, mijita. It has to be right. It has to feel right."

I pull away from my brother's embrace and stomp to my window. "So, now we all suffer for it. Me most of all."

"They're going to suffer plenty, trust me. Seeing you with another pack is going to be fucking awful for them. I don't say that for you to feel bad or guilty. It's just how it is. If they had just left you alone this wouldn't have to hurt so much. They should have put distance between you when they knew they'd never find a third in time. We made enough deals and threats to last several lifetimes to give you, and them, more time. It's just shit luck that they couldn't find another alpha to complete their pack."

"It's such a stupid rule, Mateo."

He sighs again, much heavier this time. The rule of three that the West Coast Council has in place has been a constant discussion and argument in our family since I had my first heat cycle. I was fourteen, and the only thing you can do at that age is cry, be angry, and take suppressants until your system regulates itself. That's when the clock started on my future. From that first cycle, it was a constant worry that Benny and Michael wouldn't find a third by the time I turned eighteen. The pressure that worry put on the twins has been an intense weight for the past seven years. And for what? All that stress and worry, to just end up here, with me being taken from them anyway because no other alpha stood a chance against Rafe's memory.

"We can't change the rules, Desir'ee. We've been trying for years."

"I know. I'm sorry. I appreciate everything you have done for me. I'm just so sad. I don't want to go. The idea of letting other alphas touch me makes my skin crawl. I'm supposed to be with the twins. It isn't fair."

"No, it isn't. But you are going to look so beautiful. Try to concentrate on that. You can spend the whole day primping and fluffing and whatever else you do. Amber and Rose will come help you get ready. I'll order some food and wine and you ladies can have a day of it. Maybe it won't be so bad tonight."

"Maybe it won't be so bad if I'm black out drunk. That's the only way I'll be able to stand it." I mean that, too. I intend to drink way more than a bottle of wine before this evening.

"If I thought you meant that, I wouldn't send the wine. I need you to be at your best. It would kill me if you agreed to a pack that wasn't good for you because you weren't thinking straight."

Well, that is a good point. I don't want to make a fool of myself or allow myself to entertain a pack that would be a truly horrible fit because I'm intoxicated and emotional. "You don't need to send Rose and Amber. I'm not going to be good company. And get out of here with your common sense. I was prepared to get good and drunk for this meet until you came in here with all that. Leave me and my misery alone. I'll be ready to go by five, I won't make us late. I'm glad mi familia is going to escort me tonight. It might be better with the four of you there."

Mateo gives me another squeeze before he leaves me to sulk and stew. Every time I get too tempted to text one of the twins, I remind myself that sending that text will only perpetuate and compound our collective heartbreak. The rules about pack size and omega regulations don't have allowances for broken hearts, and we can't change those rules. As it is, we've bent them as far as they will go without breaking them.

I'm wrapping the last few tendrils of hair around the curling iron when there's a tap at my window and my heart plummets into my stomach. The only reason for there to be tapping at my window is if Benny or Michael are in the tree outside my room. I don't think I can stand seeing them, especially when I have to leave for the mixer in less than twenty minutes. I close my eyes and try not to hear the tapping become more insistent.

"Come on, Desie. I know you hear us out here. Come to the window."

I unwind my hair from the wand and turn off the iron when I put it down on my vanity, then start pinning back the front sections. I am not going to that window. If I see them, I'll start crying and ruin my makeup, and there's no time for me to redo it.

"Desie. We just want to see you." More tapping.

Refusing to even glance toward my window, I push the last pin into my hair a little too aggressively and give my scalp a nice little stab.

"Desir'ee."

I purse my lips together to stop them from forming the trembling frown I feel in my soul, then I stomp over to the window and yank open the curtains. "Why did you come?" I hiss. "You shouldn't be here. It just makes everything worse."

"You're so beautiful."

I glare through the glass into both sets of brown eyes staring in at me. "Shut up. It doesn't matter. You shouldn't have come." By the last word my voice is quivering and cracking and I have no hope of stopping the tears pooling in my eyes from dripping down my cheeks. "Why didn't you stay away?"

"We couldn't. We had to see you one last time before…" Benny closes his eyes and his jaw ticks. "We just needed to see you. We'll be there tonight, with you. Just to make sure nothing bad happens to you."

"My brothers will be there. All of them. Please, Benny, Michael. Please, don't come. I can't stand it if you come."

Michael clicks his tongue. "I don't care if your brothers will be there. We will be there. If we can't have you, then we can at least make sure nobody hurts you or gets out of hand with you." And that is the worst possible thing he could have said.

My tears turn into burning rage. "All you had to do was find a third," I hiss. "Anybody would have been better than nobody. Now I have to go give myself to the best possible option, before I'm offered up to the highest bidder. I couldn't force you to take a third, but you've certainly forced me into a life of misery. I should have listened to Mateo all those years ago when he begged me to stay away from you. If I had listened to him then my heart wouldn't be ripped to pieces now. Why couldn't you have just picked up a third? We could have been together."

"It doesn't work like that, baby."

"Don't you dare call me baby."

"We couldn't pick just anybody, Desie. We couldn't connect with just anybody." Benny's voice is shaking as much as mine.

"I'm about to have to connect with a whole pack of just anybodies, Benjamin. I have to start letting packs that I don't belong with court me because if I don't, I'll be put on the block. I can't do that to myself. I can't do that to my family. And I have to pick one of them. I have to submit to one of them. I have to give myself to one of them for the rest of my life. Don't you understand? You shouldn't have come here, and you shouldn't be there tonight. Please just," my shoulders sink and I let out a heavy breath, "go. Just go."

"We need to be there to protect you."

"No, you don't. Climb down from that tree and leave. You're going to make me late."

"What else are we supposed to do?" Michael clips.

"Find a third. Or a fourth. Find a whole other pack and join it, then come get me. Find them in the next two hours and bring them to this night from hell and fight the rest of them away from me. Save me from a miserable life without love or happiness."

Chapter Two

Benny

We should have done exactly what Desie said. We should have just brought in another alpha, anybody who wasn't a total piece of shit, to be our third so we could have claimed her. It's not too late. We could pick somebody right now and march into that meet and greet and dare another pack to look at her. Of course, that would mean letting a stranger touch her, but one stranger is way better than a whole pack of them.

"Stop thinking about it. We can't connect with just anybody. You know that. We've tried. It never works." Michael kicks a rock across the sidewalk, sending it skidding into the street.

"We could try again," I push. "Come on. You saw how torn up she was. You know how goddamned miserable we are. Maybe we could make something work. We can't just let her go, Michael. We can't. Rafe wouldn't."

Michael turns and shoves me. "You think I don't know that? Rafe would throw her in a trunk and drive to another territory before he let another pack have her."

I shove him back. "So, let's throw her in the trunk and drive. We can go East. All the way to the coast. It can't be as shitty as everyone says. Let's go back and drag her out the window. We have time." Michael just looks at me and shakes his head. "Well, what about Ethan? He's old enough now."

Michael's brows raise and he jerks his head back. "Fuck Ethan. You really want our idiot cousin touching Desie?"

"I don't want anybody touching Desie. But at least we know Ethan isn't an asshole. We know he won't be mean to her, and he'll be easy for us to manage since he's family."

"No, Benny. He might be our cousin, and not a prick, but he's not good enough for Desie." Michael grips my shoulders and gives me a shake. "It can't be Ethan. We can't be tied to him like that for the rest of our lives. Besides, he's already got that little smart ass, Jason, attached to his hip. We're absolutely not bringing that little shit into a pack with us."

Michael drops down to sit on the curb and drags his hands down the sides of his face and continues the motion down his neck. I sit next to him and stretch out one of my legs. There are a bunch of kids playing in the little park across the street. Normally their excited noise would make me smile and remember when we were kids, but not today. Today the memories spinning in my head are the bad ones. The ones where we lost Rafe. It's usually Michael's job to be the serious one and I'm the one trying to lighten the mood. Nothing can lighten the load today. "Rafe would hate us for this. He'd beat our asses for just letting her go. She's supposed to be ours, Mikey."

My brother doesn't say anything for a few minutes, then he jumps back up to his feet. "Come on."

"What are we doing?"

"We're going to put her in the trunk. Take our chances on the East Coast."

Thirty minutes later we pull into a driveway a few houses up from Mateo's house to get Desie. We were going to climb up that damn tree like we did earlier and sneak her out of the window, but Michael didn't think we'd have enough time to help her down before one or all of her brothers came running out of the house to stop us. So, we're going to do the gentlemanly thing and blow up her phone to get her to come outside and when she does, we'll snatch her and run. We're not throwing her into the trunk, though. That would be too dangerous. "Has she texted you back? She hasn't responded to me."

"No," is the tight-lipped response. "Keep trying." We both send text after text until Amber calls me instead of Desie.

"Can't you just leave her alone? This is already hard enough on her!" Amber barks into my ear. I can hear another girl murmuring in the background. "Stop texting her. There's nothing you can do now."

"We're here to get her. We're going to take her away from here. She shouldn't be forced to be with a pack she doesn't want. We can take care of her."

"You think running away and hiding is taking care of her? You think that's how a good pack treats their omega? By stealing her from the family who loves her and running away? You really think Desie would be happy living that life?" Amber starts shushing and softly purring when Desie's sob chokes across the line. "Stop texting. It's bad enough already. And now her face is going to be puffy and raw and it's your fault, just like this whole thing is your fault. You should have stayed away years ago when Mateo told you to stop coming around. If you weren't going to complete your pack, you should have just stayed the hell away."

"It shouldn't matter that we haven't found a third yet. We will. We just need more time, Amber. Sneak her out. We'll just take her for a little road trip and bring her back after we find our third. Maybe we'll find another pack, like she said."

"It's too late, Ben. Too late. You've already had four extra years while she finished school, and it was hard enough to get the council to agree to that. Just go. You're just doing more damage." Then the line goes dead.

"Goddammit," Michael hisses. "Her phone stopped receiving. She must have turned it off. What did Amber say?"

"That it's too late." I think I'm going to cry. I'm a grown ass man, and I'm about to cry. It is too late.

Michael slams his hands on the steering wheel. "The fuck it is. Come on."

We get out of the car, and I follow him when he runs through three lawns, jumping fences and flower gardens. When we run around the corner of Mateo's house to get to Desie's tree, we run right into a wall of Romero. All four of Desie's brothers meet us head-on. Sebastian grabs me around the waist and swings me around mid-stride, effectively stopping me in my tracks, and Lucas takes Michael to the ground.

After a short, violent struggle, Mateo kneels down to look straight into Michael's eyes. "You shouldn't have come. Can't you understand how much you're hurting her? The two of you have done so much harm. You wouldn't leave her alone, and you wouldn’t do what you needed to do to keep her. And now you've forced my hand."

Michael spits on the ground between them. "We haven't forced shit, Mateo. She belongs with us."

Mateo puts his hand on Michael's shoulder. "I'm not going to argue with you. My sister does belong with you. But you aren't a full pack. And the council won't register her with anything but a full pack of at least three."

"We've looked," I choke out. This is all so desperate. So wretched. I still might cry.

Mateo's dark eyes turn toward me, and he gives me a sad little smile. "I know you have, Benny. I know it can't be just anybody. I know that. Rafe was my friend. He was one of my best friends. I was so glad Desie was going to be with him. I knew the four of you were going to be a perfect, strong pack. But he's gone, and you haven't found someone to take his place. I bargained for extra time so Desie could finish school, but more importantly to give you two more time to complete your pack. Time's up, Benny. I'm sorry. I can't do anything else, and I can't let you keep hurting my sister. The only power she has in this situation is the power to choose one of the packs at these things. You don't want to jeopardize that for her. If you do, she could be passed over by all the good packs and then she'll just go with someone the council picks. That pack might not give a shit about what she wants for her future. That pack could take her away from us. Do you want her miserable for the rest of her life?"

Michael's shoulders slump and he leans into Lucas, changing the hold from an aggressive one to one designed to provide a little comfort. "She's going to be miserable, anyway, Mateo. You know she is."

"But if she chooses the right pack, she might not have everything she wants taken from her. She could still have her career. She could still have her family the way she wants it, instead of how some pack of strangers wants it to be. Do you want to take everything from her? Isn't it already going to be bad enough?"

The tears come then, and I can't stop them. I just dig my fingers into Sebastian's arms like it will help anything. Mateo reaches over and grips my shoulder. "I know. It's fucked up. Everything about it is wrong. But we're all stuck right now."

Gabriel, in his optimistic, nineteen-year-old wisdom, makes a suggestion. "The meets aren't just for omegas, Benny. You and Michael should come. Maybe there will be another alpha that you mesh with. You could find your third at a meet, maybe before D picks a pack. Maybe you can try to find a way to be less picky, too."

I look into Michael’s angry eyes. Why didn't we think about going to the meets ourselves? In all these years, we've never been to a single one. "We could go. It's worth a shot, right? Michael?"

"Not tonight," Michael clips. "She's too upset to have us there tonight, and we're too upset to be there. Mateo, I'm sorry to ask you for more favors, but will you keep her from picking a pack tonight? Encourage her to drag it out? Baby Gabe is right, the meets aren't just for omegas. Me and Benny might be a little older than the other un-attached alphas that will be there, but that might end up helping us."

Mateo blows out a breath and stands back up. He offers Michael his hand to pull him to his feet. "Yeah. I can do that. She wouldn't pick a pack the first time out, anyway. Just try to get something figured out quickly. I can only slow things down so far at this point. I want her to be happy. Now get out of here before Amber walks her out. She's already a mess, she doesn't need to see you right now."

"Yeah, alright. I know. Come on, Benny." Michael pulls me away from Sebastian. "Thank you, Mateo. We'll figure something out."

Walking away from Mateo's house back to the car was one of the hardest things I've had to do, but I did it. Now, two hours later, we're sitting on our couch nursing beers and sulking. Desie would already be surrounded by interested packs by now. I can imagine her in that dress, sitting at her table with her hair all curled, looking gorgeous while she tries not to notice all the attention on her. Desie doesn't think she's as beautiful as she is. She's self-conscious about her height, about her shape, about her big, pouty mouth. She hyper-fixates on all my favorite things about her like they're bad. It makes no sense to me. She's the most fuckable thing in the universe and she's shy about it. And she's sitting at a table right now that might as well be a stage, on display for men who have no business looking at her while me and my idiot brother sit here studying the event schedule the WCC puts out every month.

"Stop thinking about where she's at and help me figure out where we're going to be." I don't know how he does it, but Michael always knows what I'm stressing over. People say it's a twin thing, but I think it's just us. I can tell when he's rolling into a bad train of thought as well as he can read me. It was like that with Rafe, too, and we weren't related to him. I think it's more of a pack thing than a twin thing.

"I'm trying, but it's so messed up. I keep seeing her at a table talking to a bunch of assholes that shouldn't be near her."

Michael cuts me with a look. "Mateo is there. He'll take care of her." And that makes me feel like shit. I don't doubt Mateo for a second, I'm just having a hard time letting the image of Desie being courted by strangers dig into me too deeply.

"I know he is. I'm trying to get my shit together." I lean back against the back of the couch and rub my eyes. "So, we're going to all of them?"

"Every single one. We're bound to find someone who will work well enough. Maybe from a different town. It's Spring now, and there's always a bunch of departmental banquets and lunches in addition to pack builders and mixers. We'll actually go to them this year; the chief will be happy about that since he is always hounding us to participate. Even if we found someone from another station, we'd have something in common and they'd understand the life."

I hadn't considered that. On purpose. "I don't want another airtanker in our pack. I want at least one of us home with her when the fires start. If we all get called out to a job, then that leaves Desie alone. If the fires get all the way over here and we were all somewhere else on containment…no. I don't want another fireman. Not a cop or an EMT either. Maybe we can find a cook, or something."

"We're not asking for applications and interviews, Benny. We need to find somebody we can connect with. Desie will go to Mateo's or Lucas's when the fires start, we've already talked about that, remember?" He holds up the calendar we've been marking up. There are at least fifteen dates circled throughout the rest of the month.

"And the fights? We don't do many anymore, but I know we'll be called in for at least two this month." I pull up the last text I got from Alpha Flores. "Next week. You know we'll be called in next week. We'll have to miss the mid-week building session; and if we get our asses handed to us, we might have to miss the weekend mixer."

"Nah. We won't be that beat up, even if we don't win the match. Maybe if some of the council sees us at the meets it could make a difference and they'll let it slide that we don't have a third. It's a stretch, but not impossible." He crosses out the pack builder in the middle of next week. "Let's go get some dinner. We can't do anything else right now, anyway. We've got a plan now. It's going to be alright."

I let out a heavy sigh. I hope it will be alright. I don't know what we'll do if it isn't.

Chapter Three

Desie

"You promise you didn't hurt them?" Mateo might kill me if I keep asking him about my boys one more time, but I can't help it. I couldn't handle answering any of their texts. I was already trying so hard not to fall apart. Then Amber saw them running through the neighbor's yard and yelled for Mateo to take my brothers outside and I lost it. What were they even trying to accomplish, anyway?

"No, Desir'ee. Nobody hurt them. If anything, we helped them. And I hope they listen this time. We'll be at the omega mixer in a few minutes. Are you ready?"

"No."

He rubs the back of his neck and glances at Amber. She's been his omega since I was a little girl; so long that I don't remember her coming into our family, it's like she's just always been here. She's perfect for him, and she's perfect for Lucas and Tony, too. They're such a great pack. That's how it was supposed to be for me with the twins and Rafe. Now it's not going to happen and every time I think about it I feel like throwing up.

"Tonight isn't about making any choices, honey," Amber takes my hand in hers and rubs the back. "Tonight is just about looking and seeing. Maybe a few conversations. Nothing serious and nothing permanent. All you have to do tonight is be polite and throw around a few smiles. We'll all be right there with you. Nobody will get out of hand, and if anybody rubs you the wrong way all you need to do is point to them. Your brothers will get rid of them. Try to have some fun. There's supposed to be a decent band playing. You always enjoy the music. Just concentrate on that if things get to be too much."

Mateo sends her a grateful smile, but I can't bring myself to give her one of my own. I feel like I'm being delivered to an executioner's block in a pretty dress.

In less time than it should have taken, I'm taking Lucas's hand when he opens the door to help me out of the car. It doesn't feel real. I was never supposed to actually go to any of this, not in any context. I was supposed to attend them with my pack, with Michael and Benny and the third that never showed up. I was just supposed to attend a few of the mixers to socially establish myself with my pack. But here I am, twenty-two years old, at my first Omega Mixer looking for a pack that will work. I'd say a pack that was good enough, but no pack that doesn't include the twins will ever be good enough.

"Deep breath, D. You've got this. It's just a stuffy party with fancy finger food and a few people who want you to meet them. You don't even need to remember their names tonight if you don't want to. Just sit with us and have snacks until Amber and Tony drag you out to the dance floor. Rose will be here soon, Tio Carlos just texted me to look for her when she gets here. You girls can tear up the dance floor and we'll make sure nobody does anything more than look. You can have a little fun tonight if you let yourself."

I squeeze his arm and look up at him. "I'll try, Lucas. I promise. I don't mean to be such a baby about this."

"If you were happy about it, I would be worried. Let's try to think about the things you will like about tonight. You like music, even if it is a mediocre local band. You like trying new foods, and based on every one of these I've ever been to, there will be new things to try. You like dancing, and you love dancing with Amber. I'll even spin you around a few times if you want. Let's try to have fun, yeah?"

He gets a genuine smile and another squeeze. "You're my favorite, you know."

"Yeah, I am," he smirks. Then he takes another big breath with me as he walks us into the banquet hall.

I was expecting everything to be more, I don't know, posh. I was prepared for warm lighting and roses on the tables and little plates with one bite of food on them being passed around. Instead, the hall is done up for what looks like a high school dance. It's pretty, not overdone, not garish; but the more I look at it, the more it starts to resemble a teenager-decorated gymnasium, which is unfortunate and more than a little off-putting. For me. Most of the omegas here are at least four years younger than I am. They look right at home in this setting. What's making me feel most uncomfortable is the alphas and packs congregating at the bar and around a few of the tables. They're all several years older than me, making them way older than the majority of the omegas. I mean, that's not really an issue, especially considering Rafe was seven years older than me. But I know for a fact that Alpha Joseph Taylor is every bit of thirty-eight years old, and seeing him grinning at Angela Perez, who is all of seventeen, is bizarre and pretty disgusting. She looks thrilled about it, though. I guess she would be. Alpha Taylor will have a place on the WCC as soon as his hateful, decrepit father dies. Angela could do much worse, even with that age gap.

"Try not to look so horrified and disgusted," Lucas murmurs into my ear. "You don't have to talk to any wrinkled ball sacks if you don't want to. Angela's had her eye on him and his pack for two years. They're perfect for each other. They're just waiting for her birthday to make it official."

I shoot him a side eye.

"Don't look at me like that. People like what they like."

I roll my eyes. "I guess. Where am I supposed to go? Do I need to sign in or something?" I didn't see a sign-up table when we came in, and there are no place cards on any of the tables that I've seen. I thought it would be more organized and stuffy than this.

"You just pick a table where you feel comfortable and claim it. We'll follow your lead. You know that mixers are mostly geared toward omegas. Comfortable omegas are happy omegas."

He gets another side eye. "I am neither comfortable nor happy." Then I proceed to choose the backmost corner table I can find and sit down in a chair that will only give the room my profile. When I glance back at my brother, he's pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. Mateo and the rest of our entourage joins him, and Amber is the embodiment of annoyance. She stomps across the floor and stands in front of me, hand on hip, lips pursed, and eyebrows raised high.

"I know you're not happy. Nobody blames you. But you can't be obtuse. You can sit at this table in the back, but you need to at least face the room. Tony and Sebastian are ordering drinks. Once the band starts playing we're going to dance. All of us. They'll keep you and me in the middle, obviously, but we are going to dance. I know it's hard but can you try to have some fun with me? You haven't been out with us in ages because of school, but you're graduating in a few weeks! The hard part's over. Maybe we can consider tonight a celebration of that. Would that be so bad?"

I look out at the hall that's quickly becoming crowded. It's easy to tell which of us are omegas because we're literally surrounded by our families or other chaperones. Every one of them is rosy-cheeked and wide-eyed with excitement. I'm the only one who looks like I'm attending a funeral. Amber's right. I can celebrate my hard work tonight with my family and friends. I've worked endlessly for my degrees, and I've passed every single exam with flying colors. As soon as the ink dries on my diploma and licenses, I have a position in the natal unit at Bellton Medical. It might not be the best hospital on the West Coast, but it's nothing to sniff at. "Okay. I can do that. We can celebrate tonight. I'll do better."

"Good! Don't worry about anything else. Here comes Tony. Look at all those umbrella drinks!" She snorts a laugh. "I guess we're all drinking frilly drinks tonight."

I laugh with her. Seeing big, bad Tony and Sebastion juggling seven fruity drinks with colorful paper umbrellas stuck in them definitely improves my mood.

After Amber and I finish our drinks, we drag Tony and Lucas out onto the floor. The band sounds great and people are starting to enjoy themselves. The rest of my brothers join us on the floor and it starts getting easier to relax. None of the alphas in attendance have done anything more than send me a few curious looks, and I almost feel like I can let my guard down. I only think of the twins, and how they should be here with me, every other minute instead of every second. If I keep going at this rate, I might actually have a good time tonight.

"I'm going to go sit down for a minute," I yell into Amber's ear. "I'll get us some water."

She grins and nods at me, then resumes grinding against Lucas. Lucas manages to drag his eyes away from her body long enough to nod at Sebastian to follow me back to the table. I’m at the bar to get water for everyone and when Alpha Flores sidles up next to me.

"It's nice to finally see you at a meet, Desir'ee. Are you enjoying yourself?"

I glance over at Sebastian. He shrugs, but I see his shoulders tense. Sebastian hasn't found his pack yet, and Alpha Flores significantly outranks him. He's also older than Sebastian. But Sebastian is my brother and one of my chaperones for this shit fest, so that gives him the authority to tell Alpha Flores to leave me alone if that's what I want. Lucky for Sebastian, I love him enough to try to avoid putting him in a position to go up against another alpha on my first night out as an available omega. And Alpha Flores is definitely the type of man to hold a grudge against an unestablished young alpha trying to be a buffer for his sister. "I'm having a good time so far. I'm enjoying being out with my family." The bartender needs to hurry up with those waters. I need away from this man. He smells like stale cigars and he keeps looking down the front of my body like he has any right to.

"Did I hear someone congratulating you? What are you celebrating tonight?"

Where is that bartender? "Oh. Um. Yes. I'm graduating."

"What have you studied? Last I knew, you were working toward a nursing degree, but that shouldn't take a smart girl like you more than a couple years, especially if she fast tracked like I'm sure you did. Yet you've had two additional years in school. Did something go askew?" He turns his body so that he's fully facing me and leans into me as he speaks.

I fight off a shudder and the urge to crawl across the bar to put something solid between me and him. "No, nothing like that. I wanted a secondary degree in natal sciences, and it took a couple extra years to complete after the general nursing degree." Sebastian's arm curls around my shoulders and I lean into him, taking in his neroli and bergamot scent in an effort to not smell the rank stench coming off of the other alpha.

Unfortunately, Alpha Flores's eyes light up with interest. "A baby nurse! How sweet! That will come in handy when you start having babies with your pack."

A gag clogs my throat, and I don't care who sees it. "Sebastian, I think I need to sit down. Can we get someone to bring our drinks to the table?"

"I'll be happy to deliver your drinks," Alpha Flores offers in his sickeningly sweet, condescending tone, and the bottom of my stomach drops out. I don't want him at my table. I don't know what I did to gain his undivided attention, but as soon as I figure it out, I'm going to do everything in my power to never, ever do it again.

"Here you go, Sebastian. Need anything else?" The bartender slides several bottles of water across the bar to Sebastian with a wink. Sebastian grins at him and picks up most of the waters, leaving one for me to pick up.

"Thanks, Nick. How's Cera doing? Will she be here tonight?"

Nick the bartender nods. "Yeah. A little later. She'll be happy to see you here. Dom and Case are on the way, too."

"Nice," Sebastian nods. "You gotta work the whole night?"

"Nah. I'm clocking out when Dom gets here. Management doesn't like it when the pack hangs around the bar the whole night, and Dom doesn't like it when guests get shitty with me. You staying, or leaving when baby sister has had enough?"

I smile at Nick the bartender, and elbow my brother. "Baby sister had enough before she ever got here. I won't make Sebastian leave when I do, so long as you guys keep an eye on him."

Sebastian snorts, and Nick laughs. "Cera will keep an extra close eye on him."

A noise of irritation comes from the nearly forgotten Alpha Flores, and I look back at him. Being polite to him, even if I'd rather not speak to him, won't hurt me. And it will keep him from being petty. "I'm sorry, Alpha Flores. I couldn’t miss a chance to catch up with Nick. Please don't be offended, but I'm going to take these to the table for my family, they're leaving the dance floor now. I'll see you later." I offer what I hope is a sweet smile, rather than an over exaggerated one, and hope that he lets me take them without any more fuss.

"Of course, Desir'ee. I'll see you at plenty more of these little meets, now that you're attending them. I'm sure we'll get to know each other very well. Enjoy your night."

I breathe out a sigh of relief when he walks in the opposite direction of where our table is.

"Later, Nick," Sebastian calls, and leads me toward the back corner table I parked us in. After the interaction with Alpha Flores, I'm utterly convinced that a table hidden in the back was the right choice.

"What was all that about?" Mateo asks as he pulls out a chair for Amber and opens a bottle of water for her.

"Flores is going to be a problem, and I'm not affiliated or old enough to handle him. It's like he's been waiting for Desie to show up at one of these. Has he mentioned being interested in her to you?" Sebastian slouches back in his chair and drains half his water. "Dom's coming tonight, and Cera. So, that's another thing." At the mention of Dom, Amber smirks. Dom is her younger brother. We pretty much assumed that it was just a matter of time before Sebastian officially joined their pack. It just took Cera's eyelash batting to actually get it done. She's only been Dom's pack's omega for a few months, and Sebastian's been running with them since he was a teenager. It's funny that it only took an omega to convince him to join up with them after years of playing around.

"No," Mateo says flatly, like it tastes bad in his mouth. "He's never mentioned her. Not once. What did he say?"

"Not much. He called me a baby nurse and said he's sure we'll get to know each other very well. Unlikely. He smells like an old ashtray." Being referred to as a baby nurse isn't really offensive, but the way he said it was just so condescending. Like it was cute or funny to him. I worked hard for my education and position. It isn't cute or funny. If he calls me anything, he can call me a natal specialist; and I'd rather he not even do that. I'd much prefer it if he forgot I exist.

Lucas hums and rubs the back of his neck. "No, we're not giving you over to the Flores pack. Even if you wanted them, we'd put a stop to it. They're slimy." Slimy is a fairly accurate word to describe the way it felt to be near Alpha Flores.

"So," I start, and take a sip of my water, "are you going to finally and officially join the Taylor pack?" I nudge Sebastian's knee with mine.

The corner of Sebastian's mouth lifts and he glances back at the bar. "Yeah. Nick's their beta. Dom wanted to get everything settled with Nick and Cera before I got involved. He didn't want Cera to have to adjust to too much. Nick and Case have been telling him from the start that having me around wouldn't be a problem, but Dom's a stubborn ass."

"Yeah, he is!" Amber calls. "Bossy, too. The way he acts, you'd think he was the oldest instead of me."

Lucas knocks on the table and nods over at Sebastian. "I'm happy for you. You already know what living with a Taylor is like," he blows a kiss at Amber, "so it won't be a huge adjustment. They're practically family, anyway."

"Yeah, yeah. Family ties and all that. You ready to go back out, D?" Amber looks hopefully at the dancefloor.

"You and Lucas go ahead. I'll be out in a minute."

She nods and pulls my brother from his seat and out into the fray. I watch them for a minute, then I turn to Mateo. "I don't want anything to do with the Flores pack, Mateo. Whatever else happens, I don't want them."

Chapter Four

Michael

It would be easier to throw her in the trunk and drive off. It wouldn't be fair or pretty, but it would be a whole fucking lot easier than weighing every alpha I know against some internal, impossible standard that even I don't understand. It's not about Rafe. People think it is, but we were kids when we lost him. It was wrenching. Benny and me were completely devastated. We carried that devastation on our sleeves for so long, and parts of us will always mourn the loss of him, but the problems we're having right now don't have anything to do with him.

Nobody I know is good enough. Nobody from our station or any of the surrounding stations are good enough. We haven't been to any of the socials scheduled, but I'm not optimistic about that, either. Out of all these potential people, nobody's going to feel right, and I don't even know why. Being on a deadline just makes it worse. I always thought our third would just fall into place one day. Like, we'd see him on a job or at a bar and he'd just click with us, and everything would be perfect. Then we'd go get Desie and register our pack and our omega and she'd work at the hospital. Then we'd start our family. And name our first son Rafe.

That shit never happened, though. Now we have to find somebody to be just good enough so that we don't lose Desie. Sometimes I think about what might have happened if one of us had marked her during one of her heats, even though there's only two of us and we're not a complete pack. Would the council rip her away from us? Or would they let us keep our bond until we found our third? Maybe under probation, or something. I don't know. I don't know how it works; I just know that it's bullshit. Desie is our omega and has been since we were kids, it shouldn't be like this.

"Get up, Mikey. You stay in bed much longer and you won't be worth a shit the rest of the day," Benny shouts, beating out a rhythm on my door. "We've got a lot to do today, people to meet. Got to dress to impress."

Groaning, I roll over and grab my phone off the nightstand. "It's barely seven, you prick," I grumble, but I roll out of bed anyway. I have been hiding in my blankets for long enough, and we do have people to meet. I'm not trying to impress anybody, though. They can impress me. We're basically holding pack interviews today, whether anybody else knows it or not. We even dropped a couple shifts to give us more time.

"Hey," Benny yells from somewhere in the house. "I was thinking, let's ride over to Long Shop today. We haven't been over there in almost a year. There's probably a new crowd. It's worth a shot."

Fucking Long Shop. It's not a bad little town, but it's an out of the way, hole in the wall town. It's easy to do sideways shit in out of the way little places, we would know. That's where we first got involved with the fights. We were seventeen. Our mom had just died, and we were waiting for our dad to follow her. We were scared and angry. And hungry. We could have gone to Mateo's; we could have even gone to his and Desie's parent's place. They would have been happy to feed us. But we were also stubborn assholes with chips on our shoulders. We wanted to prove that we could take care of ourselves. Men like Flores and his associates can recognize kids like we were from miles away. It didn't take long for him to see his potential earnings in us. He came waltzing into our angry independence like a savior, but he's been nothing but a plague. We barely get any of the money he makes from us, and after we got hired at the station and stopped doing protection for shake down runs for him, he started getting shitty. Benny's right, though. We could find someone there, someone who might understand where we came from and where we are now.

"Yeah, alright. We'll head over around lunch. I've been thinking about Lito’s, anyway."

We pull into the parking lot at exactly one minute past noon. Benny jumps out of the car before I cut the engine and is halfway to the door before I pull the keys from the ignition. By the time I get inside, he's already claimed a place at the bar for us and is in the process of ordering chile verde. "Make that two," I say. "And two orders to go. Thanks." Then I turn my attention to the mirror behind the bar where I can see the rest of the restaurant. It's busy for mid-week, mostly older guys, only one female in the place. Lana, the waitress, is a beta and part of the pack that owns and runs Lito’s. I think she was friends with our mom when they were young, but we don't talk about Mom here. We don't talk about Mom, Dad, Desie, or anything else that we love when we're here. We learned that the hard way.

Lito comes out of the kitchen and grabs three beers from the cooler. He opens all three and puts one in front of me and Benny before starting on his own. Then he gets to business. "Haven't seen you boys in a while. Keeping your noses clean?" Benny nods, and I take a sip of my beer. "Good. I love to see the two of you, but I hope it's just for lunch. Have you heard about what's going on with the WCC?"

I shake my head. "We don't keep up with the trivial shit. But you're mentioning it, so it must be big."

Lito sends his gaze around the room, then continues quietly. "Minos is losing ground. That shithead Flores is gaining it. I heard about some shipments coming in and I swear to fuck it sounded too much like there was going to be people in those containers. Girls. Girls like the ones who have been disappearing right off the streets here. I've even heard a few stories about drivers catching glimpses of whole trucks loaded with girls at the weigh stations. And you know what happened to the Rivera boy. Awful shit."

The Rivera boy's name was Aaron. He was one of the only male omegas I've ever seen in person. Such a cute kid. He was walking home from school and never showed up for dinner. He turned up months later on the other side of the territory. He didn't survive what happened to him and based on what I heard from a few colleagues, whatever happened to him was really bad shit. "Yeah, I remember. Why are you telling us about all this?"

"Because my nephew told me he saw your girl last night. Flores was all over her. I know you boys have had it rough, but if I were you, I'd get my shit together and complete my pack. I don't know if that prick wants her for his pack or for his trucks, but he wants her. And there's the other thing." He gives each of us a hard look as he takes a heavy drink from his bottle. "The territories don't usually get involved in each other's bullshit, but omegas are coming up missing everywhere. Something big happened over on the East Coast. The council over there is sending some representatives, envoys,” he actually gives air quotes when he says it, “to meet with the WCC to see if what happened there is what's happening here. I heard Minos was pissed at first, but now that Flores is pushing his own agenda, Minos is glad to work with the East."

"What does the WCC’s East Coast drama have to do with us?" Benny asks.

Lito sighs like we're stupid. We might be. I can't see a connection between us and the drama, either. "You boys have done work for Flores in the past. I know you still take the occasional fight, too. I thought you'd want a heads up in case he decides he wants to handle the East Coast boys one way or the other. If I was him, I'd send the two of you on a house call. I've watched you boys grow up and I've watched you work hard to pull yourselves out of the sideways shit. I don't want to watch you get dragged back into it."

Damn. He's right. I'd send us, too. We look clean on paper, and we look good from a social standpoint. Nobody important would guess that we'd be who Flores sent to deal with anybody he wanted a message sent to. But we've already told him no more house calls. The only reason we still take fights anymore is the money. I know the fights aren't just about the action. Everyone does. It's a lot of ‘If my boy beats your boy, I'll look the other way when you do whatever bad shit it is’. Money is money, though. And me and my brother don't come from a financially blessed family, so we take the occasional fight and pretend like we don't know what's really happening. "Thanks for the heads up. Do you know when the envoys from the East will be here?"

"Next week. Minos is going to pull out all the stops. He wants to show them that the WCC and the Western packs are solid. It would be like Flores to try to ruin it."

"Thanks again, Lito. We're not trying to get mixed up in a bunch of territory bullshit," I tell him, and I mean it. We are not fucking with anything involving anybody from the East Coast.

A bell dings from the kitchen and Lito turns to grab our food from under the warming shelf. "I'll box up your to-go orders. I'm glad you came in. And I hope I don't see you again until next year. Tell Mateo I said hello."

"Will do," Benny says around the food in his mouth.

I take a bite of my own food and chew it slowly while I think. I really don't want to be involved in anything council related. I don't care what it is. We came here to try to find a third and we're handed a heavy bucket of information we can't do anything with. "We should bail on the fight next week."

"Can't," Benny says, taking another bite. "With everything going on, he'll get suspicious. It's already set up, so it won't have anything to do with the territories."

"It might have something to do with the girls, though, the omegas. You've heard as many rumors as I have. It's shitty that we've closed our eyes to it."

Benny puts down his fork and gives me all his attention. "It's shitty, but we need the money. We've been saving for a better house, better everything, for years so we can make a better life for…. for her. If we just pull out, hard stop, there will be repercussions, you know that."

"Yeah, I know. But we've been pulling back slowly. Let's make this our last fight."

"Think he'll let that go? He's a spiteful motherfucker, and we've made him a whole lot of money." Benny looks into the mirror as the front door opens. It's just a few guys, younger. I watch him weigh each one of them before he turns back to me shaking his head. "Maybe it won't matter. We can still toss her in the trunk and drive off into the sunset."

"She'd throw a fit if we tried to put her in the trunk. Let's make this our last fight. We won't announce it or anything. We just won't take any more. It won't be hard for him to find people to take our place, we haven't been taking as many for a long time, anyway."

After we finish lunch, we head back home. We were going to hang around Long Shop for a couple hours, maybe go down to the yards, but after we heard about all the territory drama, and especially that Flores was all over Desie, we didn't want to stick around. I know I shouldn't, but if I don't talk to Desie, at least to check on her, I might lose my shit. I send what I think is a light, safe text.

Hey. Just want to check on you.

I put in a load of laundry while I wait for a reply. I get one ten minutes later.

I'm fine.

How was last night?

I don't want to pressure her, or make her feel bad, but I need to know.

Ten more minutes pass before I get her reply. It was fine.

Two fines. I know her well enough to know that one fine is fine, but after the second one there's a problem.

Want to call? I can handle it.

I hope that's not a lie. I don't know if I can handle listening to her tell me all about a bunch of packs drowning her in attention, but I'll certainly try. The response is almost immediate.

No. I'm at work. Maybe later. Nothing happened. We focused on graduation. There was only one guy who came around, Seb got rid of him. I'll text you after my shift.

Well, that's at least something. Sebastian might be young, but he's not weak. And he's not afraid to ask for back-up from his brothers. I'm glad Desie's at work. She loves her job. It makes her happy and they work her schedule around her classes. I can't wait till she gets to be on the natal floor at the hospital full time. She's worked so hard for it and she's going to be so happy.

"Desie's at work," I yell, "she says Sebastian handled Flores. She says she's fine."

"How fine?" Benny calls back.

"Twice. But I think she's good. We should send her flowers or cupcakes before she leaves for the day."

Benny comes back into the living room from the kitchen where he was putting our take-out in the fridge and flops down on the couch next to me. "No. That'll make it hard for her. Besides, we're going to the meet this weekend. We can keep an eye on her and maybe one of the unaffiliated alphas will be a good enough fit so we can make our claim. If we find a third, even if it's at the same meet, we can tell every other pack to fuck off and fill out the official forms the next morning. If Minos is there, he can even sign off on it that night if he has time."

"You think it'll happen that easily? Just walk in there, see somebody good enough, and it's a done deal? We're not that lucky."

He gives me a little shove. "Don't be negative. There's power in positive thinking. We'll walk in there, meet our third and look him straight in the eye, give him a nod, then we'll go get Desie and pull her off the circuit faster than she can say fuck."

"Desie doesn't say fuck."

He shoots me a look. "You know what I mean. It's going to be great. We probably should have been going to these things way before now. We could already be a complete pack with one kid on the way."

A vision of Desie with a rounded belly comes barreling into the forefront and I physically shake it away. "No. Don't say shit like that. Even if it's what we want, you know her rules. No kids until she's settled at the hospital, and that might take a few years. So, here's what I think. We go to a few of these mixers but more of the pack builders since they are more of what we need anyway, and if we don't find our third, we just take her and leave. Not in the trunk, but I'm serious. Just load up the car and go. I don't give a shit anymore. I want to do it legitimately, for her sake, but at this point I'll do it however I need to. The WCC won't bother with us, we're not important enough. And Flores can fuck off."

Benny nods. "Okay. Yeah. We'll go, just to make it look legit, then we're going. Do you think she'll leave with us? Or are we really going to have to kidnap her?"

And that is the question. Desie would never want to leave her family, and we would never want to make her. But we're not going to let some other pack have her. She'll just have to hate me for it, I guess. "She's due to have her next heat in three weeks. If we haven't found a third in two weeks, we'll take her and run. We can take her being mad so long as she's safe and okay."

Chapter Five

Desie

I'm too tired to go to another event tonight. I don't care that it's the weekend. I don't care that it's my first official appearance as an available omega that my presence announced at the last one. Between the very last few days of unnecessary classes, my first few shifts at the hospital, and my lack of sleep due entirely to grieving the future I was supposed to have with Michael and Benny, I'm completely exhausted. The only saving grace is that Mateo and Lucas will be there with me. They promised to vet the packs that want to meet me, and they double promised that they would do their best to discourage Alpha Flores's interest in me.

Groaning, I grab my phone to check the time to see how long I have to rest before I have to start getting ready. An hour. I can rest for an hour, maybe an hour and fifteen minutes, then I have to drag myself up and into my closet. The last thought I have before I drift off is wondering what's going to happen at these things when I start having heat spikes. Usually, if omegas are going to events, they take suppressants in the week or so leading up to their heat. The trouble is that I took suppressants for my last two because I was studying for and then taking my last exams that were required for my license. I couldn't spare the time lost to spikes or actually going into one. If I try to take suppressants for three months in a row it might alter my system. Not to mention how angry the boys will be with me. Oh, the boys. I guess it doesn't matter if they're angry or not at this point and I'll have to cry about that later, but I still don't want to risk throwing off my cycle.

When I force myself out of my blankets, I only have thirty minutes to get ready. That's fine with me. I'm too tired to put an enormous amount of effort in right now, anyway. I settle on a simple, knee length black dress that ties at each shoulder. I slip on a pair of red flip flops and wind my hair up into an easy bun, then declare myself ready to leave.

"Really, D? Flip flops?" Amber raises her eyebrow. "At least wear real shoes."

I stick my tongue out at her. "These are real shoes, and they look nice with the dress. Besides, it isn't supposed to be overly formal tonight. It's just supposed to be drinks and appetizers. And I'm not staying for the whole thing. Are you sure you can't come?"

She twists her lips to the side sympathetically and tilts her head. "Yeah. I'm having spikes. Tony and I are going to have a fun night of romcoms while you and your brothers enjoy a night out. I don't want to bring up anything that might upset you, but have you heard from the twins? I heard they were over at Long Shop looking for trouble."

"They weren't looking for trouble. They don't have time for trouble."

She wrinkles her nose. "There's nothing but trouble to find in Long Shop. Have you heard from them?"

I shake my head and frown. "I haven't. But I'd feel better if I did. I'm worried about them. Even if it's going to hurt in the long run, I love them. I can't help it."

Amber wraps her arms around me and rubs my back. "I know, honey. It's bullshit, and unfair. Mateo tried to drag things out as long as he could, but he's out of wiggle room now. I'm so sorry, D."

A shaky breath fills my lungs and I fight the tremble in my lips and the threatening tears. It's more than unfair. Losing Rafe was unfair, and losing Ben and Michael is a beat down to my mind, body, and soul. "Oh, god. I can't cry again. My eyes are sore enough as it is. I'm leaving before I'm late. I want to get there in time to get a decent table."

"You're so brave, Desie. I know it's hard."

I pull away from her and give her a smile I hope will convince her to shut up about me being brave and things being hard. "I'm alright. I can't do anything for it, anyway. I"ll just have to make the best of the worst situation. Now let me go so I can get the table I want instead of the one available. I hope you and Tony have a fun evening." I wiggle my eyebrows at her suggestively in an attempt to further feign my alright-ness.

When we walk through the doors of the restaurant designated for tonight's meet a buzz of energy hits me right in the face. I catch snippets of conversations as I weave my way through the tables. Apparently, there are representatives from the East Coast Council here tonight. I might be curious and possibly even excited about that any other time, but tonight I just don't have it in me. I'm tired and sad, and I don't care about anything on the East Coast.

I choose a table near the large street-facing window and seat myself so that the window is on my left and I can see the bar if I look to the right. Mateo sits across from me, and Lucas takes the seat on my right. They both get to work scanning the gathering crowd for anyone who might be from the East Coast, and I get to work deciding which cake on the dessert menu goes best with which wine on the list. They're still going back and forth once I've made my cake and wine pairing, muttering quietly about which of the unfamiliar alphas here possess the most East Coast traits. I roll my eyes and lose a little of my patience. "For goodness sake! You won't be able to tell by looking at them. The alphas from here don't all look the same, and if you didn't know them you wouldn't be able to pick them out of a lineup. And what does it matter if they're here, anyway? They're not here to cause trouble or it would be a much bigger deal. Honestly, it just adds more stress for me, and probably the other omegas, too. And all the gawking and whispering is ridiculous."

"We're just curious, D," Lucas says, picking up the dessert menu I abandoned. "They've never come here before, not like this, not officially. Business doesn't count. Even Anacapa has their bourbon shipped in from Zaphir's. The people who are supposed to be here tonight are important."

"I don't care what they are. I'm not here to worry about anybody from the East Coast. I've got enough to deal with on my own. I don't see Alpha Flores here, yet. Does he always come to these things?"

Mateo and Lucas exchange a look, then Mateo answers. "No, not really. He only comes a few times a year. He talks to some of the omegas pretty consistently, but he's always been more interested in the young alphas who come looking for their potential packs. It's strange. All these omegas, and he spends more time vetting the younger alphas. I don't really like that he seems so interested in you. He called me a few days ago asking after you."

"What did you tell him?"

A waiter comes by to take our order and Mateo waits until he's a good distance away before he says, "I told him you have been seriously interested in one pack, which isn't a lie. Michael and Ben would be a pack if they had a third. He didn't seem to be put off, though. So, we'll just have to keep on top of it. Please, Desie, I know it's shitty and it isn't fair, but please try to find a pack that you don't hate. I don't want to deal with Flores if he gets it in his head that he wants you."

I sigh. "That's why I'm here, isn't it?" Then the worst thing that could happen happens. Benny walks through the door, followed closely by Michael. My mouth immediately loses every molecule of moisture, and it feels like a fist is tightening around my throat. I'm about to waste more money than I can afford on fancy cake I can't eat. I'm probably going to throw up on the table before it ever gets here.

"Shit." Lucas sees them before Mateo does. "I'm sorry, D. I didn't think they'd actually come."

"What do you mean?"

Lucas scrubs his face. "We might have suggested that they come to a few of these, you know, to try to find a third. But I didn't think they'd actually come, much less that they'd come to one you're at."

Awesome. Night ruined.

"We can leave, Desie. You don't have to stay." Mateo wraps his warm hands around mine where they are fisted on the pristine table cloth. "We can go before they see you. Right out the back."

Sighing, I count the seconds until one of the twins notices me. "No, it's okay. They knew I might be here. It'll just have to be horrible, and I'll just have to survive it." It takes Benny less than four seconds to make eye contact with me and he points me out to Michael immediately. None of us are smiling. None of us wave. I regret ordering the cake and the wine will be more welcome now. I'll get a box and take it home for Amber. The twins start moving through the growing crowd, making small talk with some of the alphas. They pointedly ignore every omega they come into contact with and take turns making sure I see it. What am I supposed to do? I can't ignore alphas if they want to talk to me. Maybe I should listen to Mateo and get out of here before this gets any worse.

Then the inevitable happens. Alphas from not one, but three separate packs approach our table. Desolate rage twists Michael's face as he flicks his gaze between my face and the intruding alphas, and Benny is destroying each of them with his murderous glare. My stomach twists violently and I clutch my brother's wrist. "What am I supposed to do, Mateo?" I whisper. "How do I do this?"

Mateo touches the tip of my nose with his free hand, and lets a gentle purr fill his voice. "It's alright. Michael and Benny are not going to come over here causing a scene, you know they wouldn't do that to you. And you're not going to do anything more than let people talk to you. Lucas and I are here with you, we won't let anything bad happen, you know that."

I take a breath and nod. "Okay. Thank you."

He smiles and rubs the top of my hand until I loosen my grip.

"Hello," one of the alphas says politely. He looks to be my age, sandy blonde hair, not too tall. "My name is Jeremy Dawes. Your name is Desir'ee, right?" He looks to each of my brothers before he touches the back of the chair beside Mateo. "Could I sit and talk with you?"

I look at my brothers, too. I don't want to agree to talk to another alpha. Everything about this feels so wrong. This table is oval in shape, there are six chairs around it, three of which are vacant. The chair next to me is empty, and I watch Jeremy Dawes consider moving around the table to claim that seat. I feel like such a traitor. If I tell this man he can sit with me, it will be a complete betrayal of the twins, of Rafe, and of myself. I feel the sting pricking my eyes, letting me know that I'm going to cry before I throw up.

Mateo gets up and comes around to sit next to me, never dropping his purr. "You can sit in that seat and speak to my sister," Mateo gestures to the seat he just left.

The Jeremy Dawes smiles a friendly enough smile and takes his seat. "Desir'ee? Have you ordered anything yet? This place has an amazing ceviche."

I shake my head and swallow around what feels like broken glass in my throat. "Yes," I sound choked, strained. I swallow, noting how Mister Dawes's eyes watch the movement, and start again. "Yes. My name is Desir'ee. Desir'ee Romero. And, yes, I've already ordered."

"What did you order, Desir'ee Romero?" One of the other alphas slides smoothly into one of the empty seats without asking. He's older than me by several years, but he carries it well. He's actually handsome, but the feel and scent of bad choices ruins it.

"Cake," I respond without smiling. He was rude enough to sit without being invited, so I'm not polite enough to pretend to want his company.

The third, and hopefully last, alpha stands behind the chair next to Lucas. He has beautiful, dark skin, a multitude of long braids, and he smells like raspberry truffles. He grins at me but doesn't touch the chair. "What kind of cake?"

I smile back at him. It's going to be hard to not be friendly with this one. Panic briefly seizes me. What if I end up actually liking him? Oh god. With the twins in the same room?

I swallow again. "Red Velvet."

"Excellent choice," he nods. "Coffee or wine?"

No good. This is no good. I can't not smile back at him. It's infectious. I haven't decided whether or not I find him attractive and likable enough to entertain the idea of furthering this encounter, but I could definitely see myself being friends with him. I fight back the urge to seek out Michael or Benny to see if they've noticed. Of course they'll notice if I actually like one of the alphas. "Pinot noir." I tell him. "Would coffee have been a better choice?"

He tilts his head from side to side, pushing his mouth to the side, then answers. "That's a personal choice. Me, if I were to drink coffee this late in the evening, I would have trouble sleeping. I'm David. May I sit with you while you have your dessert?"

I smile and nod up at him, then shoot a quick look to the alpha who sat down without an invite. "Yes. Thank you for asking. Which pack are you repping? Maybe my brothers will recognize the name."

"Walters. The rest of my pack will be arriving a little later."

"Walters?" The older, unnamed alpha laughs. "The ink hasn't even dried on your pack's registration."

"What does that matter?" I snap, forgetting that I have no business defending a pack I don't know anything about. "They're registered. And he wasn't afraid to tell me his name or his pack's name."

The older alpha raises his eyebrows as he weighs me. "You don't know who I am? Which pack I'm with?"

It takes every ounce of my flickering self-control to stop the words I don't care who you are from flying out of my mouth. Instead, I purposefully turn away from him and toward Mateo. "Who is this man? Does his pack matter?" If he wants to be rude, I can be petty.

Mateo's lips twitch, but he answers coolly. "This is Elijah Lopez. He is with the Flores pack."

"Well," I sigh. "That explains it, then. What do you do for work, Mister Dawes, David?" I make a point to exclude Elijah Lopez from my inquiry. Not only is he rude, but he's with the Flores pack. I don't care what he does for anything.

"I'm still in school. I'm working toward a legal degree. I want to be a lawyer," Jeremy Dawes answers, looking younger and younger with every word. "The rest of my pack is sitting just over there," he waves at a table of four other guys, all appearing to be no older than he is. "My pack has taken my name." Well now, a lead alpha. Who is still in school.

"When will you finish school?" Lucas asks politely.

"In two years. I realize we're younger than a lot of other packs, but don't hold that against us. We make up for our age in other ways." Then he winks at me, and I can't believe he was ballsy enough to do it in front of my brothers.

Lucas coughs to cover a laugh, and Mateo clears his throat. I would roll my eyes, but two more alphas stalk over and stand behind Alpha Lopez. One of them smiles, one of them smirks, and neither asks to join me. Alpha Lopez gives them a brief introduction. "This is James and Bryant. They're members of my pack." I don't know which one goes with which name. It doesn't matter, I'm not going to be spending any time with them after this interaction. "This lovely specimen is Desir'ee Romero. You already know who her brothers are." He doesn't bother mentioning the other alphas seated at the table.

I don't know what bothers me most, being referred to as a specimen, or his pompous, dismissive attitude.

"What about you, Desir'ee? Do you work? Are you still in school?" David asks.

"Oh. I just finished school, and I have a position at the hospital."

"That's right!" Alpha Lopez interrupts. "You're a baby nurse. Those are long shifts, do you think that will cut into your time too much?"

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean. How would my position cut into my time?"

A disgustingly condescending smile slides across his face. "Your time with your pack, sweetheart. The more time you spend working and taking care of other packs' babies, the less time you'll have for your own."

Mateo speaks up before I open my mouth to say something very rude. "Desir'ee is sure to join a pack that hold similar ideals and priorities as her own. We're all very proud of her."

"Yes," David says, practically sneering at Alpha Lopez. "That's a huge achievement. You should be proud. I hope you've celebrated your success."

I'm about to tell him that I've celebrated as much as I want to, but Alpha Lopez interrupts again. "Yes. I believe she was using the last event to celebrate. It is a big achievement, Desir'ee. Well done." Correction. Hearing him say my name is far more bothersome than anything else he's said.

"Thank you." He doesn't get even a hint of a smile, and he frowns a bit because he is definitely expecting one.

Then the cake I stupidly ordered arrives, along with Lucas's and Mateo's. Lucas dives into his, Mateo doesn't touch his, and I pick at mine, taking a couple gulps of the wine I probably shouldn’t have ordered, while I battle the urge to look for my boys. Mateo gives me a pointed look as he plucks my glass from my fingers and gives me his water, then takes over and guides the conversation from that point on, for which I will be eternally grateful. I'm too irritated, sad, and sick to actually carry a conversation, or even truly participate in one.

The young Mister Dawes pipes in occasionally, and David makes a true and genuine effort to speak to me directly and seems to be understanding of the energy I must be putting out. He notices it, they all do, but none of them are willing to leave the table and continue to speak at and around me. Alpha Lopez is the worst. After he realizes that I'm not responding to him the way he wants me to, he directs most of his attention to Mateo, speaking to him about everything he can to prolong the conversation. The alphas behind him are mostly quiet, but they're watching me so closely. They, as well as Mister Dawes, are particularly observant whenever I bring my fork to my lips, after a few bites I stop trying to eat it and put my efforts into dissecting it and moving the pieces around the pretty little plate.

Every minute drags on more wretchedly than the last. I want to find Benny and Michael and I want to drag them out of this restaurant to their car and then to their house. I want to nail the windows and doors shut and be left alone with them. I want to go home.

Chapter Six

Michael

We've been here less than half an hour and it's been more than enough time to watch Desie be swarmed with attention. I don't know who that younger guy is, but David Walters isn't half bad. Not that I want him anywhere near Desie. He just isn't a piece of shit. Not like Elijah Lopez and his pack. Those guys are all bastards, and they're way too interested in Desie.

I've watched her go from anxious, to annoyed, to relieved, and right back to a level of anxiety that looks close to shutting her down. She was doing mostly fine until Lopez and his pack closed in on her. Thank fuck for Mateo. He's right there on top of it, Lucas, too. Every so often, one of the two of them makes eye contact with either me or Benny and I appreciate that so damn much. The look he shot me when Desie went from nibbling her cake to playing with it said plenty. Desie isn't doing well, and he needs to get her out of the situation she's in. That much is obvious without a glare from big brother. She needs an out that won't get her ostracized from getting invites, she's miserable, she hates the Flores pack, and every bit of it is our fault. All of that is perfectly clear. And she hasn't looked at me or Benny. Not once.

We make a slow circuit of the room, not coming too close to Desie's table, then we go to the bar. It's easy enough to put ourselves on the side of the bar that faces the entrance and also gives us a clear line of vision to keep an eye on Desie. We each order a milagro and scan the room again.

"Do you think Flores will show up tonight?" Benny asks, glancing again in the direction of Desie's table.

I shrug. "I don't know. Maybe, but I doubt it since Lopez and the rest are here. He probably sent them while he tends their other interests."

Benny nods and takes another look around the place. "I don't see anybody who looks East Coast. There are a bunch of young packs here, though. More than I expected. I was hoping there would be more unaffiliated alphas, or at least some partial packs like us. I hope all these things won't be like this. We'd have better luck with the assholes in Long Shop. Or even the station."

All I can do is agree with him. We are unexpectedly some of the oldest alphas here. Also interesting enough is the number of fully formed younger packs. We definitely should have been coming to these, now I'm afraid it might be too late. A growl is issued from the direction of Desie's table, and I look over to see Lucas snarling at Lopez.

Lopez isn't bothered, he's casually leaning against the back of his chair with half a smirk pulling at his face. I watch his lips form an apology directed at Desie, but she doesn't see it. Her eyes are glued to the table. And that pisses me right off. It pisses me off enough that I'm on my feet and stepping toward her but Benny hooks my arm and tells me to sit my ass back down.

"Lucas has it under control. Mateo is there. They know we're here if things take a turn. All we can do over there right now is make a claim we can't back up. Not yet. She's uncomfortable, but safe. She's probably just as pissed off as you are. We'll find out what he said later, and we can deal with it if we need to."

I drain my glass and wave the bartender over for another. This is bullshit. She shouldn't be over there alone, listening to whatever fucked up thing Lopez said. She should be at home with me and Benny, letting us take good care of her.

A wave of whispers and murmurs moves through the room then. I look toward the side entrance where everyone else is staring and watch Alpha Minos make a grand entrance with a huge grin and his omega on his arm. The rest of his pack follows behind them to their reserved table. Everyone whispers about what a sideways person Minos is, but I don't get it. Every encounter I've ever had with him has been nothing less than pleasant. He donates to the equipment fund every year without fail, he has a new playground built somewhere in the territory at least once a year, he makes sure our schools are well-funded, and he's incredibly jovial and polite. People say he's hiding all his back-handed activities with good deeds and a nice demeanor, but I don't know. He doesn't feel bad.

"Do you believe all the shit people say about him?"

Benny shrugs. "I've never seen him do anything to back up all the rumors. As far as I'm concerned, he's alright until he isn't. The only problem I have with him is his refusal to leave the omegas be. They shouldn't have to choose a pack if they don't want to. Remember when he put the rule in place?"

"Yeah. He said it was to protect them and make sure they were cared for. But it's caused more trouble than it's ever fixed. And the no less than three alphas rule is bullshit. I don't care about the reasoning."

Benny sighs. It's a worn and tired topic for us. "Three, in case of a disagreement. It's a solid rule, it just doesn't help us right now. Not that you and me would disagree to the point that we'd need a tie breaker."

"Yeah, yeah," I say. Then the front doors open, and the man who walks through them goes straight to the other side of the squared off bar. He's tall, taller than either me or my brother. And he's a ginger. With a fucking eye patch.

He scans the room with a strained expression that might be close to the one I'm wearing. His gaze lingers on Desie for a moment and his strained expression turns into a full-blown scowl. Then his bright blue eye settles on me and Benny, and I swear it feels like an electric shock.

Chapter Seven

Seth

How do they not see how much she doesn't want them? Even from my vantage point at the bar, it is completely obvious that she is uncomfortable with the crowd of older alphas puffing out their chests at her. She doesn't care, she's too busy watching the twins at the other side of the bar. They're closer to her age, maybe a little older, and they are fucking livid. One of them is drinking something clear and the other is simply glaring across the room. Not at her. At the alpha who must be in his mid to late forties smirking at her. Why don't they just go over there? They're young and strong enough to stand in front of her. That's what I'd do. I don't mind causing a scene like that when it needs to happen. What are they waiting for?

The twin who has been nursing his drink turns his gaze on me. He watches me for a minute, never breaking eye contact when his brother leans into his ear to speak to him. He nods and holds my gaze long enough to ensure that I'll follow his when he moves it back to the omega across the room, then back to mine. He nods at me. I nod back. Then he and his brother are walking around the bar to sit on either side of me.

"We don't know you."

"I'm not from here."

"You don't know her."

"You do." I take a drink of my water and plunk the glass down.

He nods again and glances over at his brother, who also nods. "You here alone?"

"For now. I only landed a few hours ago."

"Is your pack going to be joining you?" His eyes narrow.

"No. They couldn't make the trip."

"That's our girl. Our omega."

I look back across the room and meet the girl's eyes. She blushes and turns away. "Why are you over here, then?"

"Can't do much at one of these functions as a pack of two. Rules. Sanctions."

Ah. That's what it is. What horseshit. I'm only going to be on the West Coast for a few weeks. I don't know how much help I'll be for just a few weeks, but she shouldn't have to suffer the attention of decrepit, pompous old men if she doesn't want to. Nobody will fault me for trying to help. "What do you propose?"

"Temporary alliance. For the night. You seem solid enough, and we're looking for a third, anyway. Nobody will think anything of it."

I sigh and look back over at the girl. She ducks her head the minute our eyes meet. "Deal. Let's go get your girl."

Jesus. Fuck. What am I doing? I have no more business aligning myself with these two alphas than I do flying a goddamn plane, but here I go walking across the floor with them flanking behind me like I have every right to.

I couldn't ignore the omega sitting at that table even if I wanted to, though. She's so … everything. Even sitting, it's obvious that she's an absolute knockout. Dark, glossy hair. Full, soft, lips that I can practically taste. Big, dark brown eyes moving up and down my body like I'm a fucking steak, until I catch her and she looks away. Yeah, I have no business doing any of the shit I'm doing. Kaleb is going to have a field day when I tell him about this.

"Names. I need to know your names,'' I whisper.

They each softly say their names so only I can hear them, and I nod.

I'm about to cause such a fucking scene, which is the exact opposite of what I'm supposed to be doing. I might have had a chance at pretending like that omega isn't some kind of beacon or magnet if she wasn't in so much distress. I can taste it in the air. It's ridiculous that the alphas surrounding her seem able to ignore it; especially the ones who are obvious relatives.

One of the twins whispers from the left. “Her brothers are sitting with her, on her side of the table. The older asshole is just that. An asshole. He might be a problem. The other's, not so much.”

I nod at him, not looking away from the omega. “He's not a problem. I outrank every alpha in the room except for Minos.”

“It isn't just about rank,” the other twin whispers. “He's got his hands in some things outside the council. He can cause problems.”

He can try to cause all the problems he wants. I've got the entire East Coast Council backing me. I'm a sitting member. And I'm all too familiar with backdoor operations. Fuck that guy. He's making her more upset than any of the others. “He's not going to do a single sideways thing. I'll make sure of it.”

Neither of them say anything else until we get to the table. I look around at the three seated alphas and decide the kid can go. “Good evening, Miss...?”

“Desir'ee,” she supplies, a gentle blush heating her cheeks.

“Desir'ee,” I say, enjoying how her name feels in my mouth. What the fuck is wrong with me. I can't be over here going after omegas. I'm here to save omegas. Well, technically, that is what I'm doing. “Would you mind if we joined you at your table?”

She shakes her head slowly.

“I need to hear you say it, darlin.” Jesus. I've been with Kaleb's pack so much in the past couple years that I've got Trent's heavy accent falling out of my mouth.

I can see the effect it has on her, though. Her blush deepens and she clears her throat before she speaks again. “We'll have to bring over more chairs."

"That's alright, the kid's ready to rejoin his pack. Aren't you, kid?" I turn my full attention to the young alpha. I don't mind posturing when I need to, but he's got no chance with her, anyway, and he knows it.

"Yeah," he says, giving her a wide smile but flicking his eyes back to me. "It was great hanging out. I'll see you around, Desir'ee."

After he takes his leave, I sit down in his chair, adjusting my posture into a power pose and spreading out to take up space. This is all about the show, and I'm the focal point. Any other time, I would have offered one of the twins the place at the table. She's their omega, one of them should be sitting at the table; but it's a bigger power move if I sit. It makes it look like they've just been waiting for me to join them and now we've come as a unit to stake a claim on our omega. It just looks better for me to be the one sitting at the table.

"No," I smile across the table at Desir'ee, "he won't. How's your night going, sweetheart?" My god, now Alex is speaking through me.

"I'm..." she starts, her eyes darting from mine to each of the twins at my sides, "not sure." A different scent fills the air. Still anxious, incredibly anxious, but also interested. Hopefully that will work in our favor.

I give her my best smile, feeling my cheek brush against the bottom of my eye patch. "Well, let's see if we can't fix that. My name is Seth Pratchett. I'm from the East Coast. You already know Ben and Michael. Would you mind introducing me to everyone else, Desir'ee?" I want to see who she introduces first. If she introduces the older alpha before she introduces her brothers, I'll know exactly how concerned about him I need to be.

"These are my brothers, Mateo and Lucas," she nods at the alphas on her side of the table. "This is David, he's with the Walters pack," she waves a hand toward the friendly alpha sitting on the other side of the table. She doesn't introduce the older alpha at all. Her brother, the oldest I think, sighs deeply, and I force back a smile. Talia would like her.

If she doesn't care to introduce him to me, I don't care to introduce myself to him. "Nice to meet, y'all." Trent would be so proud. I'm beginning to wonder how much of Kaleb's pack's vocabulary and mannerisms are going to linger or become permanent, I guess the darlins, sweethearts, and y'alls are answer enough. "I got here a little later than I wanted to. Have you already placed your dinner order, Desir'ee?"

"I'm not very hungry," she says.

One of the twins snorts and the other scoffs.

"I did order cake, though," she adds quickly, her gaze again flicking between them.

"Well," I hum, giving her another half-smile, "I'm starving. Would it be alright with you if we had dinner with you?"

Her eyes widen, but she nods. "Okay. Yes. That would be okay."

The air sours, the older alpha's discontent with being blatantly ignored and his attention disregarded is obvious. He can just sit there in his stink, because he doesn't get my attention until Desir'ee gives him hers. "I've never been here before, darlin. Would you mind ordering something good for me?" I look back at the twins. "You guys hungry?"

Ben, I think it's Ben, anyway, is smirking, but Michael answers for them. "We'll get something later. Do you need a menu to pick something for Seth, or do you already know what he'd like, Desie?"

Fuck me. It's all I can do to keep from laughing. He just handed her a loaded gun with that question, perfectly setting her up to say something wonderful if she has the guts. Which, of course, she does.

"I know what he'd like," she says, after an audible gulp. Then she shakes her head slightly and waves over a server. The air turns even more and we all collectively continue ignoring it.

The server greets her with a smile. "What can I get for you, Miss Romero?"

"Hi. Could you bring Alpha Pratchett," she tilts her head at me, "enchiladas suizas."

After the server leaves with the order, I smile at Desir'ee again. "Thank you. That sounds wonderful. I'm sorry if I interrupted your conversation. I know I wasn't invited to sit at your table, I apologize for that, too. I was just too eager to meet you after Ben and Michael told me about you, I hope you don't mind, too much."

"Actually," the older alpha finally speaks up, "you did interrupt. We were congratulating Desir'ee on her recent graduation and discussing her future. Where are you from... Sam, was it?"

I could laugh at his attempt at intimidation. "Alpha Pratchett. East Coast Council."

"You mean representative," the older man chuckles, the alphas standing behind his chair smirking along.

I spread my hands out on the table in front of me and really look at him for the first time. Older, not weak, not out of shape, graying hair, no stubble, sharp suit, definitely throwing arrogance and sideways energy around like a shield. He and my father would have gotten along just fine. That thought brings a slight snarl to my top lip. "I mean what I said. I sit on the East Coast Council. And I doubt you'll have anything to do with Desir'ee's future." I stare at him for another second or two before I pointedly look away from him and back to Desir'ee. "It looks like you've been playing around with a slice of red velvet cake. You don't like it, darlin?"

"My name is Alpha Elijah Lopez. I'm with the Flores pack," the older man interrupts before she can answer me.

I look over at him, hopefully for the last time. "I don't give a fuck." I glance back to Desir'ee, "apologies. I shouldn't be so crude at the dinner table."

"You disrespectful assho – " Mister Lopez starts, but I cut him off.

"Are you really going to sit there and insult a councilman? An East Coast Councilman here under gracious, and roomy, protections from the Head of the WCC? More importantly, you've disrespected an omega too many times to be overlooked. Why are you even sitting here? That kid had a better chance with her than you do."

He gapes at me for a beat, but gathers himself quickly, puffing up his chest and looking down his nose. "Desir'ee should be grateful to have my pack's attention. Alpha Flores asked me to hold this seat until he arrives tonight."

"Did Desir'ee invite your pack to her table?" Everyone else might be afraid to ruffle this asshole, but he means exactly shit to me.

"No," Desir'ee says flatly. "She didn't."

God, Talia would love her.

I hold his angry glare and speak very clearly. "There you go. We didn't come over here to pick a fight with you, but Desir'ee is uncomfortable with you at her table and she's too polite to ask you to leave; so, we'll be more than happy to find you another place to sit."

"You don't know the trouble you're causing. For her or for Michael and Benjamin." He believes what he's saying, so do several of the others if the sudden, sharp scent of anxiety is anything to go by.

I keep holding his gaze. "I'm not causing a single thing, but you're publicly making an omega uncomfortable at an event and threatening a councilman. There are consequences for those things, but I'm willing to let go of the threats and insults to me if you and your pack leave this table. Right now. You'll still owe Desir'ee an apology, though." That's the last polite out I'm giving him.

Of course, he digs his heels in. "You know nothing of how things work here. You are an outsider. You hold no authority in this territory, not any real authority."

And that's about all I can stand. I don't care about being insulted; I care about the threat. "Listen, if you want to measure dicks, we can do it. But I promise you, mine is longer," I run my tongue over my teeth, "and thicker."

His mouth tightens in a flat, little line as my tone shifts even more into alpha influence. "It wasn't my intention to threaten a councilman, even an East Coast councilman." He looks to Desir'ee, "I never meant to offend you, Miss Romero. Alpha Flores is very interested in you, and I merely wanted to hold a place at the table for our pack to express our interest. Please forgive my rudeness." He gets to his feet, nodding at the two alphas standing behind the chair. He turns to walk away, but pauses beside Michael, or Ben, there's got to be a way to tell them apart. "I'll be in touch, boys," he says lowly, then he goes.

David, who has been silent up until this point, lets loose a whistle. "You sure know how to make an enemy, don't you?"

"He doesn't know me well enough to be an enemy," I say, watching as the departed Alpha Lopez pulls up a stool at the bar.

"That won't matter when the Flores pack decides you're a problem. They hold a lot of sway in this territory, even with the WCC. Councilman or not, you should watch your back." David smiles, and it's good natured. I can see myself liking him.

Ben, I'm almost seventy-five percent sure it's Ben, puts his hand on my shoulder in an unexpected physical show of solidarity. "We'll watch his back."

That's good enough for David. "Well, it was really nice talking with you, Desir'ee, and meeting you, Alpha Pratchett, but it is overwhelmingly obvious that there's no reason for me to be at this table. I hope to see you around." Then David makes his way across the room, leaving an empty chair on either side of me. The twins sit down almost in unison.

"Fucking hell, Michael. What the fuck?" the younger brother exclaims, dragging his hands down his cheeks. "What the fuck are you going to do now? Is this guy for real?"

"Yes," I say, smirking just a little. "I'm for real. I am a sitting member of the East Coast Council, here on official council business. Alpha Minos invited me here tonight so I might get a feel for the West Coast."

"Uh-huh," Desir'ee says, an eyebrow arching high. "Benny. You couldn't have warned me? I've been sick about this for days. And you," she levels me with a look. "What are you trying to do, get my entire family wiped off the planet?"

"Not at all," I say. "He had to go. You were so uncomfortable. I couldn't tolerate it. I will answer for any repercussions that come of this."

She looks back and forth between the twins again. "He's not going to be here long enough to clean up this mess. Did you plan this? What are we supposed to do now?"

One of them looks like he's working up an answer, but the server arrives with my food. It smells and looks like heaven. I didn't lie when I said I was starving. "This was the perfect choice for me, darlin. Thank you." I pick up my fork, but I hold it over my plate. I can't eat it. Not alone. It's been more than two years since everything went down with Jay and Derek. Feeling the twins beside me, with me, flanking me, has so many feelings rushing through me. I've known them for less than half an hour, but I don't think I can eat a bite of this food while they don't have anything in front of them. Not to mention the fact that the omega across the table still has an entire piece of cake in front of her that she isn’t eating. I have no real connection to these people, nothing solid that would merit this type of reaction, but I don’t think I can take a single bite of this food now.

Desir’ee is watching me with her soft brown eyes and I see the moment she understands. There’s no explanation for that, either. She’s known me for the length of one awkward conversation, but somehow she understands. She slides her pile of cake and crumbs in front of the younger of her brothers and takes his empty plate, wiping the crumbs from it with a napkin before she pushes it across the table toward me. No words, just silent understanding.

I put the sauciest, cheesiest portion onto the plate and slid it back to her. A level of relief is immediate, but I’m still bothered by the twins. I turn my head to the right, I genuinely have no idea which twin I’m talking to. I’ll need to get a handle on that with a quickness. “You’re not hungry?”

He looks around me to his brother and they come to a silent agreement in a few moments. “We’ll eat later. You and Desie eat now. We’ll watch.”

As soon as he says it, I realize I’m having that problem, too. I can feel the Lopez asshole staring a hole in the back of my head. Knowing the twins will keep watch while Desir’ee and I eat is like a balm soothing me.

Throughout this entire sequence, Desir’ee’s brothers have been exchanging looks, having full blown conversations with their eyebrows. They probably think I’m insane. I don’t care, they can think what they want. This is the first time I’ve felt safe and secure eating outside of Kaleb’s house since I was a kid at home before everything went to shit with my dad. I might never get this feeling again and I’m going to enjoy every bite.

Chapter Eight

Desie

I'm really going to sit here and eat this man's food.

I wasn't even remotely hungry before, but now that I have the plate in front of me, I'm suddenly starving. The first bite is close to heaven, and I chew it slowly to give me a little more time to try to think through what exactly is going on with me right now.

Okay. Mister East Coast Council is gorgeous. The eyepatch just adds to it, and I've never seen eyes as blue as the one he's watching me with. All that thick, wavy, red hair has my fingers itching, too. I might actually die of curiosity before I work up the nerve to ask about the missing fingers. I want to know every possible thing there is to know about this man, starting with why I feel this insane need to take care of him. I want him to be alright in the same way I want my boys to be alright and there's absolutely no good reason for it. I barely know his name, for goodness sake.

"How long are you going to be on the West Coast, Mister Pratchett?" Mateo asks.

Alpha Pratchett reluctantly looks away from me and at Mateo. "I've planned for a few weeks, but I'll stay as long as I need to. They can live without me until I get back."

Mateo gives each of the twins a hard look. "This is your solution? Aligning yourselves with an alpha who's leaving in a few weeks?"

"What were we supposed to do? You guys weren't telling Lopez to fuck off and Desie was so upset she was about to throw up all over the table. He was just as worked up about the state of her as we were." Michael returns, gesturing to Alpha Pratchett, his opinion of everything that happened at this table evident in his tone.

"We were supposed to tell Lopez to fuck off? Really?" Lucas asks.

"Yes," Alpha Pratchett says firmly. "Yes, you were. I normally never interfere with family or pack matters, but Desir'ee should never have been forced to tolerate his presence at her table for that length of time." He closes his eye and takes a breath. "And, please, call me Seth."

Lucas opens his mouth to say something else, but I interrupt. "This is really good. Thank you for sharing with me."

"Of course," Alpha Pratchett, Seth, says. "Thank you for sharing with me. It makes it easier for me. How long have you known Michael and Ben?"

"Forever. My whole life," I take another bite. I can see questions forming in his mind and I don't know if I'm ready or willing to answer any of them right now.

He takes another bite, too, giving Mateo another opportunity to ask his own questions.

"So, you'll be here until Ben and Michael find a third? And I'm supposed to just let it happen? Just let my sister's future be blown up in the air by the identical idiots and a stranger from the East Coast? What kind of brother would I be to let that happen?"

Seth puts his fork down on his plate and tilts his head to the side. "You're the kind of brother who was too afraid to tell an old man to stop perving over your little sister. I don't say that to be rude, please don't think that even though it sounds rude. I have absolutely no intention of taking advantage of your sister in any way. I'm only standing in as a placeholder until they figure things out now that I know what is going on. I won't make any trouble for Desir'ee, or any of you."

"You've already made trouble," Lucas whispers. "The Flores pack doesn't get told no, and you embarrassed Lopez on a personal level. They're powerful and have connections to really dangerous people. They're dangerous enough on their own. They will retaliate, and you're untouchable. Who do you think they'll come after since they can't get to you?"

That's exactly what I'm terrified of. "The twins. They'll go after the twins."

Seth meets my worry with a small smile. "Are they stupid enough to risk going after your twins if they think they're in my pack?"

I look over at Mateo, then back at Seth. "Yes. They definitely are. What will you do if the Flores pack comes for Michael and Benny?"

"Stop them."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Simple as that? You'll just stop the entire Flores pack and all their affiliated bad guys, no big deal? Just put yourself on the line for people you only just met? What if they come for them tonight? What can you do that would stop them?"

He smiles at me, with his whole being and all his freckles. "My god, Talia would love you."

And just like that, every jealous, possessive, greedy feeling I've ever had over the twins comes roaring to the forefront because he said another female's name. "Who's Talia?" If he says she's his omega I'm going to throw this plate of food at his face and kick the twins’ kneecaps in when I storm out of here.

Benny bites his lips to keep from smiling and Michael shoves his tongue into his cheek. I am fully aware that every emotion I feel is broadcasted on my face, loudly. I am also fully aware that there is no reason in the entire universe for me to have this reaction; but knowing that won't keep it from happening.

"Talia is a very close friend. I work closely with her pack. One of her alphas, Nathan, is the reason I'm here. Corso, another of her alphas, is sitting in my place on the council while I'm away. They're really good people. They're closer to me than my own family. I think you and Talia might be friends if you ever met. She doesn't have much of a filter, though." Warmth shines in his eye as he talks about the people he has back on the East Coast. Jealousy might still be lurking in the back of my mind, but hearing that Talia is a friend with her own pack doesn't hurt. That is, until Ben opens his mouth.

"Didn't you say you had a pack back home? They couldn't make the trip, right?"

If it was possible for a freckle-faced ginger to go pale, Seth Pratchett manages it. He closes his eye and takes a few breaths before he answers. When he opens his eye again, it's no longer warm. "My pack couldn't join me on this trip because they," he takes another breath, "didn't survive a COT operation. It was a little over two years ago. I don't enjoy talking about it."

The anxiety and pain flowing from him, naked and raw, hurts me. Actually, physically hurts me; and before I realize it's happening, I start softly purring to try to combat his sorrow. Michaels jaw clenches and twitches, and Benny's eyes snap to mine. I don't want to see my brothers' reactions. I've only ever made this sound for the twins, and now I'm making it for a man I've only just met. What is wrong with me?

Seth smiles softly. "Thank you for that. It's very difficult for me to think about. It has gotten better with time, but you never truly get over that kind of loss. No matter the circumstances. I'll be alright now."

I slowly let the purr fall away, never dropping my eyes from his. I can't ask for the details, it would be rude, even for me. And I'm a horrible, evil person because I'm glad he doesn't have a pack waiting for him to come back home. Some part of me is spinning around in circles, giddy with the thought that he could just stay here. Get a grip on yourself, Desie. He can't just abandon his life on the East Coast because you've got butterflies in your stomach. He's on the council, for goodness sake. He can't stay here. He's just doing us a favor.

"I'm sorry," Benny says. "I didn't mean to get in your business."

Seth offers him the same soft smile. "It's okay. I'm fine, it's just hard to remember." Then he rubs the back of his neck and raises his eyebrows. "I hope you won't think I'm stupid, I swear I'm not, but I don't know which one you are. Are you Michael or Ben?"

"Ben," I answer for him, scowling at Benny when he laughs.

Seth looks back at me. "How do you know? I know a set of twins and the only way I know one from the other is one of them loves me and the other gives me constant side-eye."

Benny can't contain himself at that point, his dimples popping with his laughter. "What did you do to deserve that?"

Seth sighs, shaking his head. "I really don't know. I think she was born solely to give me dirty looks. She still shares her toys, though, so at least she doesn't hate me."

Benny laughs harder.

"They're little girls?" I ask. "How old are they?"

"Two. Yes, girls. They're so adorable. I miss them."

The butterflies swarm, and I shove them back and down as hard as I can. I can't swoon over a man just because he says he misses those babies. I can't swoon because his face went from grief to adoration in less than a second over those little girls. He's only here for a few weeks, and Michael, Benny, and I need to take advantage of every minute. "Are they your nieces?"

His mouth draws to one side before he answers. "In a way they are. I don't have any siblings, but I imagine I love them like you love nieces."

"You don't have any siblings? None?" I'm sure the foreignness of the concept is obvious in my tone.

He shakes his head. "Nope, it's just me. Do you have more siblings than are here tonight?"

"I have two more, Sebastian and Gabriel."

Seth smiles again. "I always wanted a brother."

"Well," Mateo says, bringing attention to the fact that he's still there. "This night has ended nothing like I thought it would. We're going to get you back home, if you're finished, D?"

I look down at my plate. Somehow, I have finished everything Seth gave me without realizing it. Disappointment rings dissonantly in my chest. I might not see Seth again. He can pose as the twins' third without my presence. Why does that feel so terrible?

Seth's smile fades. "We will follow you out. I don't anticipate any issues with the other pack, but I would feel much better if we see you to your car."

Mateo nods, as do the twins. I knew they'd follow me out, and likely follow me home to make sure I get inside safely, but I didn't expect it from Seth.

"I guess I'm finished. It was nice meeting you, Seth. I hope you have a nice time on your visit. I don't know if I'll see you again but thank you for tonight." I can feel how sad the smile I offer him is.

"I hope to see you again before I have to leave, Desir'ee."

"Okay," I say lamely.

He and the twins follow us out. He watches intently as each twin gives me a small kiss on either cheek. The butterflies try to convince me that he's watching because he wants to give me a kiss of his own, but I swat them away. I don't have the luxury of entertaining thoughts like that or swarms of butterflies. He's temporary. He's only trying to help.

Benny calls me later, the minute I step out of the shower. It's a video call. Normally, I'd be thrilled to tease him through the camera wrapped in a towel after a steamy shower, but not right now. The evening was socially and emotionally exhausting. I don't have it in me to tease the boys tonight. I wait for the phone to finish ringing, then I call him back, no video.

"Why didn't you answer on camera?"

I roll my eyes. "That's how you answer your phone?"

"At least I answered. We just wanted to check on you and tell you goodnight."

We. "You know, Benjamin, it's always we, but you're the one who calls. Am I on speaker?"

"Yeah. What are you doing?" I hear the sound of their fridge door opening and shutting.

"Getting ready for bed. I just got out of the shower." I put on my biggest, softest tee shirt and lay on my stomach on the bed, listening to Ben hand Michael the beer I know he pulled from the fridge.

He groans, I can imagine his hand dragging down his face. "Wish you would have answered on camera. After today, seeing you all warm and steamy and mostly naked would make me feel so much better."

Uh-huh. "What's going to make me feel better, Benjamin? I went through a lot tonight. What's supposed to make me feel better about everything?"

"You want me to get in the shower and call you. I can give you a really good show if you need one, baby."

My eyes are going to get stuck in the back of my head if I don’t stop rolling them so much. "As pretty as you are, that wouldn't make me feel any better tonight. You couldn't find the opportunity to give me a heads up? Where did that guy come from, anyway?"

"Ouch, Desie. You hurt my ego."

"I said you were pretty. Where did he come from?"

He sighs into the phone. "The East Coast, apparently."

No. No they didn't walk some random stranger over to my table to give me false hope. They wouldn't have roped a member of the East Coast Council into our situation. "Are you telling me you don't know anything about him and now he's involved in our problems? Please tell me that's not what you did."

Nothing. No response from the other end of the call.

"Ben. Tell me you know more about him than that."

"I know he likes you," he says quietly.

And that's what he's concerned about. Not the fact that I had to deal with that Lopez jerk for half the night before he and Michael pulled someone out of thin air to do anything about it. "So what if he likes me, Benjamin? It's not like that matters. You dragged a complete stranger into our business."

"He gave us a little more time, Desie. Can't you be happy about that?"

"She's happy about something, alright," Michael says.

No, he doesn't get to behave like a sullen little boy because I didn't hate the stranger they brought into the middle of all this. "Why are you being ugly, Michael?"

He doesn't immediately answer, and he remains quiet. Fine. We can both be children. I'm not going to beg him to answer me, and I'm not participating in the rest of this conversation until he does.

After a minute of silence, he sighs and says, "I'm jealous."

He cannot be serious. "Of what?"

"You purred for him."

He's serious. It's an involuntary reaction half the time. I couldn't help it. "I purr for you and Benny when you need me to."

"But there's a reason for you to purr for us. You just met him."

Now it's my turn to sigh. "Pain is pain, Michael. He is in a lot of it. I couldn't help my reaction to it. You didn't feel it at all? You're usually more intuitive and empathetic than this."

"I'm only empathetic when I need to be."

He's being purposefully obtuse. He and Benny brought Seth over. I'm not going to feel bad about my reaction to him. "You didn't feel the drop when he was talking about losing his pack? Nothing?"

"I felt it."

"Then you understand."

Benny says something too quiet and muffled for me to understand, and Michael makes a frustrated grunt. "Yeah, I know," he says, not to me. "But it's too fast for all that. She's just extra sensitive to people's emotions. We should have talked to him a little longer before we brought him over."

"He was going to go to the table with or without us," Benny argues. "You saw it as plainly as I did. He didn't like it any more than we did. Maybe there's something there."

"Or maybe he's extra sensitive, too," Michael counters.

I've had enough. I'm tired and emotionally drained. I don't feel up to the juggling act tonight. "You two can argue about Seth until the sun comes up tomorrow. But I’m not, I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

"Don't go yet, Desie," Benny says. "We're upset, too. I'm glad Seth was there tonight. It was lucky. And he's giving us more time to figure something out."

I don't mention that it felt very much like it would be all squared away by morning if Seth wasn't East Coast. I do try to make all three of us feel better before we end the night, though. "That makes me feel better. It felt good to be at a table with you and Michael, I mean, after that Lopez jerk left. It was nice to feel legitimate."

"We are legitimate, Des," Michael says, a small bite in his voice. "You know we are."

I sigh again. "Feeling legitimate and being legitimate are two different things, mi amor. We need three alphas to be legitimate enough to register. I'm not nagging you, I never have. But you see how serious it is, though, right? You see what I'll have to do if you don't find a third by the time Seth goes back, right? Please, Michael, Benny, please. Please don't put me back into an impossible situation."

Chapter Nine

Benny

"I know what we said, but what if it could be him?"

Michael snorts, draining the last of his bottle. "He's not from here."

"So? Desie liked him. And he made sure we ate."

He did, too. And we couldn't come up with a reason not to follow him to the ramen place after we shut Desie up in Mateo's car. We didn't really even want to. I didn't, anyway. It felt right to go have a meal with him after he stood with us for Desie. Stood in front of us, rather. His East Coast council weight was a nice thing to throw around with Lopez, even if me and Michael will have to pay for it later.

"Desie did like him. She purred for him."

He'll let that bother him for the rest of his life if he puts his mind to it. "She purred for him because she's a perfect omega. Don't sit there and pout about that. What if he's the one? He lost his pack. We lost Rafe. We need a third. Desie likes him. He doesn't like Lopez. And he's got weight to throw around. Just think about it for a minute."

Michael peels another little strip from the label on his bottle. I watch his jaw ticking as he thinks. He grinds his teeth in his sleep, too. Desie can't stand it. "He gave her the better part of his food, and he did pay the bill for our food. But we've only known him for a few hours. I can't set myself up like that. I don't want to put that on him, either. He's only here on council business. We can't just swoop him up and keep him here."

"Why not? What if he needs us as bad as we need him, Michael?" My hope and optimism have gotten my ass kicked plenty of times in the past, but this doesn't feel like one of those situations. "You know it felt, I don't know, right walking and sitting with him. Like it did when we were young with Rafe."

His nostrils flare and his lip curls slightly. "He's not Rafe. And he’s missing body parts. People don’t lose fingers and eyes in innocent accidents.”

“Well,” I say, leaning back against the couch, “if he runs with COT units, he’s lucky that’s all he’s missing. We’ve heard about COTs before, maybe Seth is part of all that. If he is, it wouldn’t do anything but help. Having a COT to back you up wouldn’t be so bad, and he’d really be able to keep Desie safe. Think about it.”

I don't know what else either of us would have said because Michael's phone rings. It's Lopez.

"Enjoy your evening, boys?"

Michael and I look at each other, eyes hardening. Michael takes a breath and answers. "We're still on for the mid-week rounds."

"Of course, you are," Lopez says smoothly. "You have debts to pay. Not even the East Coast council can change that. I didn't appreciate the interruption with the omega, though. Flores wasn't happy."

If my optimism occasionally gets my ass kicked, Michael's temper tries to get us killed on more frequent occasions. But Desie has never been used as a pressure point for us before now and I’m feeling my temper rise right with his. Michael snarls, audibly growling into the phone. "Desir'ee Romero isn't part of our debt."

"No, she's part of something else entirely," Lopez taunts. "Flores has been shopping around for the perfect omega and he thinks he's found it in her."

"Fuck you and fuck him. Leave Desie alone."

Lopez laughs. "Control yourself, Michael. Remember who you're talking to. We didn't know you had a claim on the omega, but we certainly do now, don't we?"

"Leave her alone," Michael grits through his teeth.

"You don't even have a registered pack. The councilman from the East Coast isn't here permanently, and we aren't stupid enough to think you're stupid enough to try to run off to another territory while you still owe us. By all accounts, we have more rights to pursue Miss Romero than you do. And we will pursue her."

"She's our omega, Lopez. She's always been ours. We would have already been registered with her as our omega if Rafe hadn't been killed. Leave her alone," I argue. My temper might not be as quick as Michael's, but it's just as hot. If he keeps threatening us with Desie, a debt won't be enough to stop us from creating a much larger problem than the ones we already face. We're almost paid up anyway. The money we still owe isn’t worth the risk to her. Shit, if it comes down to it, we can sell the house or our car. I don’t care. Sell it all, pay them off, and get the fuck out of here.

Lopez laughs again. I don't hear anyone else in the background, so this must be a conversation he wants to keep private. Secret. Sometimes, I wonder if these private, secret conversations could ever amount to leverage against him, but we've always had too much debt hanging over us to wonder about it for too long. "Surely you're not dictating what a fully-formed, legitimately registered, strong pack with lots of connections should do in regards to an unclaimed omega? And Rafe, well," he sighs, and I can imagine him looking at his fingernails like a stereotypical bad guy in a movie, "Rafe would have made a completely different life for you boys, wouldn't he? That was very unfortunate. He was my nephew. Had he made it into adulthood, I would have a different sort of relationship with you. And now Miss Romero. Don't be late to the rounds. And don't come tired." Then the call drops, leaving Michael and I seething and nearly frozen with fear.

"They can't have Desie, Michael. We can't let that happen."

Michael's eyes close, his hands forming tight fists over and over again. "We won't. She'll have to stay home for the next mixer. Lopez is always at the fights, but Flores never is. We can't leave her to deal with him without us, especially after what happened tonight."

"We could call Seth, see if he'd be there. He gave us his number."

He thinks on that, still working his fists, then says, "I don't know. I don't want to lean on him unless we have to. He's giving us room to find a third, not be the third."

"He could be."

Michael doesn't have anything to say to that.

We have one twenty-four hour shift at the station before the fights Lopez has us down for this week. The most exciting thing that happens is getting a call to get a kid's head freed from between the bars on a balcony. That's the third kid to get their head stuck this month. I know kids do silly shit, but I don't remember a single instance of the fire department being called to pry a kid's head free from anything when we were kids. We did other stupid stuff, like starting an actual fire that one time, but none of us ever got stuck anywhere.

"Are kids just dumber than they used to be?" Sometimes it's like Michael can hear my thoughts. It's probably the twin thing.

"Probably," I laugh. "Did Desie text you back yet?"

Desie is working a forty-eight hour shift at the hospital. In theory, working twenty-four or fourty-eight hours in a row is supposed to give you more off time, but I think it would be better if she worked a regular nine-hour shift five days a week. It worries me when she doesn't text us back for hours and hours. Now with the added stress of the Flores pack being interested in her, I'm a nervous wreck. Which makes it even better that all we had to do is take care of that kid. I would have been a distracted liability if we had to go on an actual call.

He checks his phone. "No, but she's alright. She'd let us know if she wasn't. Come on, let's go home. We need to sleep before tonight. Maybe we can swing by and take Desie some dinner before we head over to the Backhouse."

Desie asks us to bring her that big-ass sandwich from Joe’s that she likes so much- salami, ham, lettuce, tomato, red onion, jalapeno, banana peppers, mayo, and four days of heartburn smashed neatly into the center of a garlic roll. No surprise, it's her go-to take-out order. We sit in the hospital cafeteria to eat with her like we've done a hundred times, but there's a tightness to it this time. We were on borrowed time before, but now it feels like a noose.

"What are you guys going to do tonight?" Desie asks between bites.

Michael doesn't miss a beat. "We might go watch a fight." We don't like stretching the truth like that, but if she knew how often we were actually doing the fighting, she might kill us. She doesn't even like the idea of us watching them.

"I hope you're not placing bets." She says, completely serious. "I don't care what the potential pay-out is, if you don't have the money to cover the loss, it isn't worth it. It's awful betting on those poor guys getting beat up, anyway."

That's another thing we haven't told her the full story of. She doesn't know what we owe or who we owe it to. All she knows is that we lost a few bets when we were younger and we had to pay them off. She has no idea that Flores paid off the mortgage so we could keep our parent's house. Then he paid off the loans our dad and uncles took out when Mom got sick. Then the cancer took her, and Dad couldn’t live without her. We know Dad loved us, he just couldn’t survive without her; and we get it. I wouldn’t last a month if anything happened to Desie and Michael would be right there with me, and that’s without a proper bond. At the time, we thought Flores was doing it to save us, to help us, but now we know the truth.

"No, D, we didn't place any bets. We're just going to the fight. You're off work in the morning, right?" Michael says, wording it in such a way that it isn't technically a lie. An omission still doesn't make a truth, though.

Her eyes narrow and her mouth draws to one side, "yes. I am. Please stay out of trouble tonight. And don't find your third at a fight, if you can help it."

"At this point, I'll pluck him off the sidewalk if he feels right," I tell her. "We should go to the beach in the next couple weeks."

Her mouth tightens as she moves her attention to me. "Why are you trying to distract me? What do I need to be paying attention to?"

"Nothing, Des," I smile, "I just know how much you like the beach. I want to go with you before the fires start. That's all." I don't mention the noose swinging over us, or the fact that she's going to go into her next heat right before the fire season starts.

A sour look pinches her face. "I didn't want to think about the fires."

Michael takes her hand and lifts it to place a kiss on her palm. "I know, baby. But we've had a lot of rain this year. They won't be as bad as they could be. We should go to the beach. I'll get you a new swimsuit to wear."

Desie laughs and cups Michael's cheek. "No, absolutely not. I don't want to wear what amounts to dental floss and a couple knee patches. I can just wear one of the ones I already have, thank you. We can go next week, if you want."

"The white one," Michael says, and Desie rolls her eyes.

"Do us a favor, though, okay?" I ask.

"What do you need?

"Don't go to anything unless we can be there. We don't trust the Flores pack."

"No, we do not," she agrees. "I didn't want to go, anyway."

She has to go back to work, and we leave for the Backhouse. On the way there, I get a text from Seth Pratchett.

Are we going to the next event? Minos just asked me if I was going to attend.

We. He asked if we were attending, not if me and Michael were going, but all three of us. It might be my stupid optimism trying to kill me with hope, but it feels good that he asked like that, no matter the reason.

"Seth just asked about the next meet and greet."

Michael glances away from the road. "Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe he's just trying to be helpful. What should I tell him?"

"The truth. Tell him we aren't going."

Okay. I text him back.

We aren't going. Neither is Desie.

The reply comes quick.

Good, good. I'll check in with you later. I have a thing tonight.

A thing. It shouldn't, but a dark feeling creeps over me.

Do you need us?

The reply comes much slower this time.

No, but thank you. It's just something I need to look into while I'm here. I'm good.

The dark feeling doesn't fade, but I don't know what to do about it. If he says he's good, I'm not in a position to tell him he isn't.

"What?" Michael asks, turning into the parking lot.

"Nothing," I say, looking down at the text again. "Just a weird feeling. He says he'll check in with us later."

"What kind of weird feeling?" He parks the truck next to the door and looks at me as he pulls the keys from the ignition.

"I don't know. He said he has a thing he needs to look into tonight. I just have a weird, heavy feeling. I don't know."

He pulls in a breath and rubs his chest. "It's fine. Let's just get tonight done. We'll check in on him later."

Chapter Ten

Seth

"I don't know, Kaleb. It's not like we thought it would be. I don't think Minos is what we thought he was. I'm obviously still watching him, but he's not trying to hide anything. His whole operation has been an open book for me. He took me on a tour of the offices and showed me everything. I think he's introduced me to everyone he knows. He's answered every single question with complete truth, even offering more information. It's like he wants me to see how things really work over here."

I can almost hear Kaleb nodding across the distance. "Right, good. Just keep on him. Nathan has another name he wants you to listen for. Lopez. I'm not sure of the first name, but that name has been circulating. We think they might be working together."

"I actually just met an asshole named Lopez the other night. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he’s connected to the omega trafficking. He seems like the type of asshole my father would have gotten along with. I'll see what I can see. How is Talia? How are the —"

I have to stop myself from saying babies. Not only are they not babies, they're toddlers now; but we don't talk about them in a plural sense outside of the manor. It’s too risky. If the wrong person found out about the girls, it could put them in danger. Birthing multiples isn’t exactly unheard of, but having three babies and two of them being twin omegas is. Our hope is that we will be able to take them places soon. Parks. Playgrounds. Libraries. I’m just glad the manor is huge and they have plenty of opportunity for development and enrichment between all the adults they have wrapped around their grubby, little fingers. "How is Dutch? Has he made it past the barricade Trent built?"

Kaleb laughs. A good, hard laugh. "It kept him off the stairs for a day. I saw a gray streak in Trent's hair last week. Talia… and the others… are doing well. She's starting to really progress. I don't know if she's going to kill Corso first or Trent. They're both driving her crazy. Devon took her to the range yesterday to get her out of the house and away from the hovering for a while. I don't know how much shooting she actually did, though."

"They just took the one… gun… though? Right?" Before I left, she was three weeks out of her heat and had scheduled an appointment with Obi for an ultrasound. Trent and Devon were pretty sick with worrying about how many babies she might be carrying despite her assurance that this was going to be a much more typical pregnancy since it was an alpha-omega pairing. Personally, I'm with Trent. It's not my baby and she's not my omega, but I'm still worried shitless. And now that I'm not in a facility fighting for my fucking life, I have plenty of energy to feed that worry. I might not climb the literal walls like Trent does, but that doesn't mean I don't feel the urge to do it.

"Yes," Kaleb says, relief evident, "she just took one gun with her. It's in good shape, too. Corso is intolerable." I love that we're using firearms as code for baby talk. I really do.

"Good. Okay. So, keep on Minos. See about Lopez. Anything else?"

He's quiet for a moment, then I hear muffled talking, then Dutch is screaming in my ear. "Hang on, buddy," Kaleb says, "let me put it on speaker and you can say hi. Okay. There you go, now you can say hello to Seth."

Dutch has two volumes, asleep and evacuation siren. We have all learned to hold the phone away from our ears when we talk to him. Now is no different. "Come home!" he yells.

"I'll be back before you know it, buddy. Are you being good for your mama?"

"Yes!" he yells. I don't believe him.

"Good. Keep being good. Take care of everybody while I'm gone, okay? Want me to bring you something when I come home?"

His squeal rings in my ear well after it stops coming out of his mouth.

"Okay, okay. I'll bring you something. But you have to be good, okay?"

"I be good!" he shouts. I still don't believe him.

"Alright, Dutch. Go see what Daddy is doing," Kaleb says, sending Dutch off to find any Daddy in the manor who isn't him. "I don't know if I'll survive living in a house with two Trents. Okay, I think just keep doing what you're doing, with the addition of Lopez. How is it over there, otherwise?"

"It's good. Scenery is nice."

Kaleb chuckles. "Scenery, huh? Have you hit any beaches yet?"

"No. My pale ass doesn't need the blisters. It is pretty out here, though. And the food is amazing. I'd love to get Trent out here and watch him clean out your bank account and put a few restaurants out of business. Okay. I'm going to go. Hug the girls for me?" Shouldn't have let that slip, but sometimes it happens.

"Speaking of girls," Kaleb hums, "maybe you could find one out there to help relieve some stress."

I try to not let it be a sore spot for me, but I can't help bristling internally anytime someone suggests me having sex. They mean well, especially Kaleb, but I just can't. I have tried once since I came home from the facility, and it was a disaster. I don't know if I'll be able to ever touch a woman again, sex is out of the question. I even have a hard time with Talia's gentle attempts at affection. The only ones I don't ever have to worry about teasing me about finding a girl are Jasper, Reid, and Devon; and the others don't mention it often when one of them is around. Especially Jasper. It's almost relaxing to be around him because of it. Almost.

"Yeah, I'll put that at the top of the list," I try to make it sound like a joke, but it still comes out stiff and forced. I have to remind myself every time that they're only trying to help. "Alright. I'm going to get off the phone. Oh! Wait, a minute. I forgot. Minos gave me tickets to go see a fight tonight."

"Like boxing?" Kaleb's interest peaks.

"No, I think it's more of a martial arts type of thing. Maybe bare knuckle. I'll let you know. He was really intent on me going. I figure he isn't showing me all this stuff for the fuck of it, so I'm going. If it's any good, maybe you could come out for the next one. The flight wasn't too bad."

"It's okay to be homesick, Seth," Kaleb says gently. "This is the longest you've been away from us since moving into the apartment. And it's the farthest you've ever been from here. If I can come out, I will."

How did he know? I thought I was doing a pretty fair job of keeping it from being obvious. "Thanks, Kaleb. I really am getting off the phone now. You know, before I start getting emotional, and all. Talk to you later."

Never, in a thousand years, would I have guessed that I would be homesick for Talia's pack. They should have killed me the second we left the rogue compound a couple years ago. They didn't kill me, though, and they didn't abandon me. They stood by me through the counseling and the therapy and the horrible fittings for glass eyes, and then they turned the space over their garage into an apartment for me to live in once I left the facility. Somehow, they have become more of a family to me than my own parents ever were.

I put the address on the tickets into my phone and follow the route to what looks like a run-down warehouse. The parking lot is packed, though, and the outward appearance of the building is a deception because the people walking into it are dressed, as Devon would say, fancy. I am not dressed anywhere near what they are. I am wearing jeans and a dress shirt. I guess I'll tuck it in.

I give the guy my ticket to check on the way through the door and push my way through the people crowded in the lobby, heading toward a sign that says arena. My seats are pretty great, I really do wish Kaleb was here to sit in the other one. If I had one more ticket, I might have asked the twins if they wanted to come with me. They look like the type to enjoy a good fight. A vendor walks through with popcorn, of all things, so I buy a box. Trent would have bought popcorn, so would Alex. My god, I really am homesick.

The first fight is good, but gets dirty toward the end. I don't know what rules they're going by, but I don't think they were following them. The guy I would have bet against ended up winning, which is why I don't make bets. Know your strengths, and all that. The next couple fights are over fast, then it's time for the main event. The announcer calls out the names of the fighters, but all I can understand is that it's going to be something like a tag team match. I've never seen a tag team fight like these are. Based on what I can make out about the rules, I think someone is going to be very, very hurt before the bell rings.

The first team makes their way to the ring with their music blaring. They're tall and thick. They look brutal, but also like they might be slow or tire quickly. When the music starts for the second team to come out, the crowd loses it. The screams and whistles drown out the music and I can't see them walk down the aisle to the ring because everyone is on their feet.

The announcer squawks something else and the crowd quiets. I still can't tell much about the second team. They are wearing pitch black hoodies with the hoods raised and matching red shorts. They're leaning over the top rope, talking and nodding to a younger guy. They nod at whatever the guy says, then go to their corner to wait for the bell. When they take their hoodies off, a big loud, "what the fuck?" comes shooting out of my mouth, causing several of the people around me to give me looks.

It's the twins. What the fuck are they thinking? Neither of them said anything about this, not that they would have mentioned it to a complete stranger, but this is the kind of thing guys brag about. Especially with the way the crowd loved them. No way does Desir'ee know about this. No way would she be okay with it. No fucking way.

The bell rings, and one of them steps through the ropes to touch taped knuckles with the fighter from the other team. They're roughly the same size. It's going to be a good fight, unless one of them cheats like the guys from the very first match did. I wish I knew which twin was in the ring, not that I'd be able to tell from this distance.

The fight is hard from the first punch. And dirty. Immediately dirty. I had hoped that the twins would fight fairly, but I guess you can't win a fight fair and square if you're the only ones fighting by those rules. Every hit one of the twins takes feels like a personal blow to myself. I'm becoming more and more angry as the fight goes on, and it goes on for a very long time. By the time it becomes obvious that the twins are definitely going to win, they're both bloody and I am literally shaking with anger.

I'm angry because they're so worried about making sure their omega is alright, but here they are risking themselves in such a stupid, careless, fucking selfish way. I'm angry that they're probably keeping it from her. I'm angry that they're putting themselves in this kind of unnecessary danger. There is no reason for any of this. It makes no sense. And now I'm angry because I give a shit. I have no business giving a shit. Knowing and understanding that doesn't stop me from rising from my seat and finding a way back to the locker room with a sign reading HOME over the door. I can smell their dark floral and stormy scents coming from the duffel bags on the bench. I'm going to sit my ass right there between those bags and wait for them to waltz in here after their win. I don't know what I'm going to say to them, but it isn't likely to be polite.

They quietly enter the room. I expected them to be excited, happy for their win, but they're almost sullen. They don't bother looking around, they just start unraveling bloody and ragged tape from their hands and tossing it in the trash by the door. When one of them turns to see me sitting on the bench watching them, he just stops and stares back at me. His brother notices after a minute, and we have a nice little three-way staring contest until I end it.

"What the fuck." It was supposed to be a question, but it didn't make it out of my mouth with the question mark on the end.

They look at each other, then one of them shrugs. "We fight."

"Yeah," I say, "no shit. Why?"

They exchange another look, and the other one sighs. "Because we have to. We're almost done."

"What does that even mean?" I ask, then shake my head. "I don't know if it matters. Why go through all that the other night if you're just going to put yourselves at risk like this? Your omega doesn't know about this, there's no way she knows. She'd never stand for it. What happens to her if one of you, or both of you, get seriously hurt or killed in one of these fights? I've seen boxers take blows to the head and die from it the next day. What happens to her?"

"Mateo would take care of her," the first one says.

"Wrong," I bark. "Wrong. He can't take care of her now. If you don't find a third, which is stupid fucking rule by the way, then the council places her with a pack? Is that right?"

They look at each other again.

"Is that right?" I repeat.

The second twin nods. "Yeah, but that's why we're doing the fights. So we can get away. Some shit happened when we were young. It messed everything up, then we made some bad choices that we didn't know were bad at the time, and now we have to pay for them. We're almost paid up."

"How much more do you owe?"

"A couple thousand. We're almost done. Just a couple more fights and that's it."

I give each of them another hard look. Fuck it. I have the money. "I'll pay it."

"Then we'll owe you."

"No, you won't. I don't care about money. This is stupid. She deserves better. Do you have real jobs, or is this it?"

"Hotshots."

“What are those?” I’m not sure I want to know.

“We fight wildfires during the season and in our down time, we belong to Engine Twelve.”

You've got to be kidding me. Literally out of the frying pan and into the actual fire. "Y'all are just full of good news, aren't you. Firefighters on the East Coast don't make a lot of money, no wonder you do the fights. Who do we pay?"

"It doesn't work like that," one of them says. "It isn't just about the money. We know things. It's going to be hard to make a clean break. We have a plan."

"A plan." I repeat. Have I ever sounded that stupid? I'm sure I have, on multiple occasions, but I now have a firm understanding of why the vein in Devon's temple throbs all the time.

"Yes," one of them, probably Michael, says, starting to sound angry. Michael is the more serious one, quicker to anger, quicker to act on it. I think. I really need to find a way to tell them apart. "A plan."

"Well, what is it, then?"

"Why? Why does it matter to you? It doesn't have anything to do with you?" he fires off.

"You're Michael. Right?"

No answer.

"Right? Just fucking tell me. You're Michael because Michael is the bigger ass."

One of the twins fights back a smile. I point at him. "And you're Ben. You two, and Desir’ee, matter because I'm involved, regardless of how long I'll be here. I'm going to be here for weeks, and then I'm probably going to come back for weeks at a time every few weeks. What's your plan?"

Ben, it's definitely Ben, looks at his brother. "That changes things. It could work."

Michael's jaw ticks as he stares straight into my eye.

"What could work? You're bleeding. Do you need stitches? This doesn't seem like a go to the hospital for stitches situation. I can do stitches. Do you have a kit?" I can't believe I'm clucking at two grown-ass men like a mother hen, but it bothers me somewhere deep to watch Michael's blood dripping down his face from the gash on his brow. It wasn't that bad when he walked in here, but it's really starting to bleed now.

Ben comes over to dig around in one of the bags beside me on the bench. "He needs them, and he is an ass. I usually do it, but my eyes are starting to swell."

Yeah, no shit. The whole time we've been talking I've watched them grow puffier and darker. "I'll stitch him up real quick, then I'll take you home."

"I'll sew myself up," Michael clips. "And I'll drive us home."

Ben looks back at him, rolling his eyes. "Don't be a dick. This could work, Mikey. It really could. Just think for a second. Everything fits." He hands me the kit and goes to the sink to scrub off his hands and arms.

Michael weighs it for a minute, but eventually he stalks over to the bench. I stand up and motion for him to sit down, and Ben comes back with a damp cloth. I wipe away the excess blood to see how bad the cut is and hiss. "It's deep. Did he have something in his tape that would cut like this? A fist wouldn't make this kind of wound."

"They always put shit in their tape. I still beat his ass, though. Motherfucker."

I tilt his head back and to the side, blindly reaching for the things Ben hands me from the kit to clean and stitch Michael up. "That's not really the point, though, is it? Has Desir'ee ever seen you beat to shit like this?"

Silence.

"That's what I thought. What's your plan?"

Chapter Eleven

Seth

Their shitty plan is stupid, but I can see how they came up with it. They're right, it isn't about the money, and it's most likely tied to Minos through the Lopez asshole. It's about what it's always about, power and money.

"So, for clarity, your plan is to fix an already fixed fight without anybody noticing, pay Lopez triple what you owe him so he'll hopefully leave you alone, find a third – still a stupid rule, claim Desir'ee without her finding out about any of that bullshit, relocate to the other side of the territory – without her family stopping you, in the next ten weeks, preferably in the next three weeks?"

"That's not what we said," Michael grouses.

I raise my eyebrows. "That's exactly what you said."

"If we fix the fight, or the books, we'll be able to give Lopez enough money to get him off our case. And by the time he remembers he still wants us involved in his bullshit we'll be gone," Ben insists.

"And he won't look for you? He won't flag anybody with a variation of Desir'ee's name and description in every hospital in the territory, because wherever she is, is where you'll be? And your third won't mind uprooting his life to run away from Lopez?"

"We aren't running away," Michael growls. He starts yanking his shoes on his feet, taking out his frustration on his laces.

Maybe he doesn't think so, but that's exactly what they're trying to do. "You can't run away from a guy like Lopez. He isn't going to be distracted by a bunch of extra money because he doesn't give a shit about the money. I know. I grew up around assholes like that. He wants to keep you under his thumb for a reason. Probably to take the fall for something."

That stops Michael. He straightens and gives me a slow, serious look. "Okay. You drive us home. You ready, Benny?"

"What? What's wrong?" Benny asks, grabbing one of the bags. I grab the other one and go for the door.

"Nothing," Michael says. "We just need to get out of here. That's all. Let's go."

When we get in the truck, Benny takes shotgun and Michael gets into the second row of seats in the cab. We don't say anything else until we're out of the parking lot.

"I don't trust Lopez not to bug the locker rooms. He ends up knowing too much shit he shouldn't know," Michael says, looking at me through the rearview mirror. He moves his eyes to meet Ben's. "You really think it will work?"

Ben nods. "Yeah, I do. It'll be hard to figure out, but I think it will."

Michael nods, then gives his attention back to me. I'm watching the road, but I can still feel him looking at me. "You know our bullshit, now tell us yours. What happened to your fingers?"

To my credit, I don't swerve off the road. I don't even tap the breaks. Most people ask about the eye before the fingers. "I lost them during a COT operation at a rogue compound."

"Like your pack," Michael says quietly.

My chest tightens and I can feel Derek's body sagging in my hands all over again as he bleeds out. I can hear the sound of Nathan ripping Jay apart. But I can also feel Talia's and Jasper's hands rubbing my back, and I can hear her purring to try to comfort me. I take several long breaths before I answer. My words still come out ragged, though. "Yes. I lost the fingers, the eye, and the pack at the same compound."

"What happened to them?" Ben asks.

"They were killed."

"I'm sorry," Ben offers. "We understand about that."

I sigh, wishing I could stop the conversation. "I don't think you do. They were… bad. They were bad men. Bad alphas. I didn't know how bad they were until I was neck deep in it. I refused to help them do some very disgusting things, so they hurt me and tried to hurt the people who were trying to stop it all from happening. I…" Breathe. I can breathe.

"You don't have to tell us what happened. We get it was bad," Michael says from behind me.

"No," I continue, "no. I need to get better at talking about it. The COT team I mentioned, part of them ended up being held with me at the compound. When their people came to break them out, they found me, too. Jay and Derek, my pack, were trying to take and hurt the COT unit’s omegas. I helped the COT team… I helped them kill Jay and Derek. Talia says I didn't help, she says I kept them from hurting her while she did it; but it feels like I killed them myself most of the time."

Silence eats up the miles as I drive us across town. I don't know where the twins live, I'm just driving. Now that I've said it all out loud, it's like there aren't any more words in my body. Other than Kaleb and his pack, and the doctors, I haven't told anyone about what happened at the compound. I don't know why I told the twins. Ben even gave me the option not to.

Michael catches my eye in the mirror. "It's hard to go against the people you've always gone with. It's harder to realize the people you run with are not who you think they are. You're not like them, though. You probably think you are sometimes, but you aren't. If you were, you'd still have your eye and all ten fingers. And the eye patch makes you look like a badass."

"It makes me look like a fucking pirate."

They both laugh. I don't know if it was all that funny but laughing with them about it makes me feel better.

We don't go to their house directly. We go through a drive-thru to get an entire box of tacos. Then we go to their house and eat all of them. All three of us are leaning back against their couch rubbing our overly full stomachs when Benny invites me to go to the beach with them in a few days.

"You'll love it. Desie is coming, too. We want to go before she starts having heat spikes."

I lean my head back and scrub my handover my face, careful not to dislodge my patch. I noticed her sweet mint scent as soon as I walked through their door, like candy canes and sugar cookies. I half way expected her to be waiting inside. "It won't bother you for me to go when she's so close to going into heat? You said, what, two weeks?" I don't open my mouth about my inability to handle being around an omega in or around their time of heat. That's not something I'm ready to share. Not yet.

"Nah," Michael says, leaning up to pilfer through the wrappers littering the coffee table. He can't seriously be looking for another taco. "She likes you. And I think it would be fun to watch you turn into one solid freckle."

"I don't have trunks."

Benny turns toward me rolling his eyes. "You can wear a pair of mine. You should wear a tee shirt, though. He might like to see you fry, but I don't want to watch Desie baby you when it happens. If she's rubbing lotion or whatever all over anybody, it's going to be me."

"Will you guys be in better condition by then? If she sees you looking like this, I can only imagine her reaction."

Ben shrugs. "We'll be good as new by the weekend. We have to go to another mixer on Saturday."

"Do we, though?" Michael asks. "It looks like we have a third. Wouldn't it be stupid to be there if everyone thinks we've already got a third and our omega and we're just waiting to register?"

He's not wrong. It definitely looks like I'm their third. It would be ridiculous if they were there looking around for a possible third, and everyone at the last one saw us do everything but piss on Desir'ee's table.

"I guess we don’t," Ben says. "We could go to the beach this weekend instead. We could catch the first night of the festival."

"What festival?"

Ben smiles over at me. "We have a festival this time every year. It takes over the whole town. There are concerts and so much food. Parades. Stuff for the kids to do. The first concert is this weekend. We'll hit the beach all day, go have dinner someplace, and then go to the park for the concert. It'll be amazing. We take Desie every year. It'll be better this year because you can watch from the balcony and me and Michael can dance with her. We won't have to take turns this time. It's going to be great." The last words are yawned, and he winces when the split on his lip stretches.

"Okay. If you're inviting me, I want to be there. Just text me and let me know where to be this weekend and when. I'm going to head back. I'm getting too old for all nighters." I wave Benny off when he starts getting up to walk me out. "I'll lock the door behind me. Text me if you need me for anything."

I have nothing planned in the days leading up to the beach trip. Minos calls once to invite me to the weekend agenda. He's disappointed when I decline, but he perks up again when I tell him about my plans for the beach and the concert at the festival. With nothing else to do, I go shopping. I get Iris and Zetty little dolls with flower crowns, and I spend too much time debating whether or not Dutch is old enough for a slingshot and if Trent will kill me if I get it for him. Ultimately, I get Dutch a doll, too. I was never allowed to have a doll or a teddy bear or anything. Studies have been done that show the positive effects having a doll has on boys. If I had a doll growing up, maybe I would have turned out better.

Saturday morning finally comes and Ben texts me with the address and tells me they'll be there after they pick up Desir'ee. Butterflies swirl around in my stomach the whole drive over. I feel like a teenager going on a first date. It's silly.

I text Ben after I get the car parked. I brought a blanket and a cooler with drinks, and sunblock. The one time my parents took me to the beach, that's what my mom brought. I haven't been since then, so I'm not really sure what else I'm supposed to bring. I did buy new swim trunks, and a long-sleeved shirt that's supposed to block UV rays. Call me a baby, but I'm not trying to deal with the sunburn I'm asking for by just walking on the sand.

Ben sends a text telling me to pick a spot I'm comfortable with and they'll find me, and another saying that they should be able to see me from the freeway. My stomach takes flight again because of the teasing. If I'm not careful, I'll get attached to the idea of the twins. Which brings my mind around to what they kept saying to each other the other night. Would it work? Me? My own optimism has my wishful thinking going wild with the thought that they were talking around the idea of me fitting in as their third. That couldn't work, though. I have to go back to the East Coast, and they can't come with me. Desir'ee definitely couldn't. She just started a new job at a huge, but understaffed hospital. I couldn't ask her to relocate, it wouldn't be fair to her. And that's assuming she agrees to me as their third, which may or may not be what they were even talking about.

My mind is still spinning when I trudge a path through the sand to the most uncrowded area on the beach. There isn't going to be a place where I'll feel comfortable, so I'm going for less than packed. Conversations are filtering through the sounds of the water. I'm catching excited snippets about the festival and the concert tonight, bits about the mixer event happening this afternoon, and even a few words about myself as the East Coast rep with an eyepatch. Apparently, the girls do think the eyepatch is hot. Then I hear my name shouted and I turn around and choke on my tongue. I'm still coughing when they reach me. The twins are smiling these shit-eating grins and Desir'ee's ignoring all of us in favor of the waves.

I could tell she was beautiful at the meet and greet, but she was mostly sitting behind a table and wearing a sweet, little dress.

Fuck. Me.

Today she's wearing a white swimsuit that is only a one-piece in name. It shows so much more skin than it covers coming up high on her hips with this sweet ruffle that does nothing to hide her cleavage, and the shape of her… Fuck. Jesus. I'm going to die with the image of her thighs burned into the back of my eyelids. Her hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, and the icing on the cake is the bright red sunglasses perched on her nose. The longer I look at her the sexier she gets, and now I'm full-on staring.

“Fuck.” I look away, but, almost involuntarily, my eye goes right back to her body. “Goddamn.” I mutter even more eloquent curses while I look around for the blanket I'm still holding, or literally anything to wrap around her.

Ben and Michael are still smiling hard. Correction, Michael is smirking. “I know, right?” he asks, not bothering to hide how his own eyes rove over her.

Then I notice how hard the asshole sitting on a towel a few feet away from us is looking at her. “Water's over there, motherfucker,” I bite out, pointing at my eye and jabbing my finger in the direction of the ocean. If he doesn't get the hint, I'll just break his nose, that's all. It'll be fine.

“What is your problem?” Desir'ee asks, tipping her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose to look at me with raised eyebrows.

“You're kidding, right?” I scoff, then to Michael and Ben, “she's joking, right?”

Ben throws his head back laughing, and Michael smirks even harder. “She is not. Fucking gorgeous, isn't she?”

“Yes,” I growl. “But it's going to look bad when I spend the rest of my time here in detainment.”

Desir'ee scowls for a beat, then she's laughing as hard as Benny. “Just behave yourself and you won't end up in detainment.”

“So long as every other asshole on this beach behaves themselves, I think I can manage. Maybe.” I can't seem to stop moving my gaze up and down her body. It's absolutely rude and disgusting behavior, but I can't stop it. “Shit.”

“Just pretend like we're the only ones here,” she smiles sweetly. “I'm going to go get wet.”

Benny gets up to go with her, leaving Michael and I to watch them walk toward the shoreline.

“She’s used to being looked at. You get used to it,” he assures me, his eyes glued to her ass.

I pry my attention from her and gawk at him. “You get used to it, I don't think I can. It's such bullshit.”

“What's bullshit?” he asks.

“I've never missed the eye until just now.”

It takes him a minute, but when he gets the joke he laughs hard enough to snort.

It's absolutely impossible to pretend we're the only ones at the beach. Every asshole with eyes and a dick stares at Desir'ee every chance they get. I have no business feeling as territorial as I do; and when she finally, blessedly, declares she's too hot and she wants to grab some food, I'm nearly exhausted from trying to keep my temper in check. Michael and Ben don't seem to be having the same problems I'm having, and they do have the right to feel territorial.

That's not entirely true, though. There was a potential issue once in the afternoon when Michael was in the water with her. Ben informed a couple of guys who were talking about what they'd like to do to her that he'd drown both of them if they said another word. They gave a little pushback, making comments about her being up for grabs, until he issued a warning growl that I joined in on. They left the beach after that.

"I need tacos," Desir'ee announces. I turn in the direction of where my truck is parked, but she stops me. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To get my truck. I'll meet up with you guys before tonight. I need to get cleaned up and all before the festival."

"Negative," she says. "You're going with us. We can swing by your place so you can get changed. We need to get you a mask, anyway. Then we'll go to the amphitheater. The boys can bring you to pick up your truck tomorrow."

"Masks?" Why do I need a mask for a concert?

She grabs my hand, smiling, and pulls me down the sidewalk, the twins falling in behind us. "It's part of the show. The band, Oscuro, it's their thing. They wear masks, the crowd wears masks, it's awesome!"

It's fucking dangerous. "Are the masks a requirement?"

"They are if you're coming with me," she smiles. "I know exactly what to get for you! We'll get new ones, too, so we can match. We can stop by the shop near Bellton on the way to the concert. Tacos now, though."

So, we get tacos. Then we go by the twins' house so they and Desir'ee can change. The swimsuit almost killed me, but what she comes out wearing is going to get some other people killed.

"I hope the back doesn't ride up too much," she says, twisting around and smoothing the floaty, cream-colored material down her ass and the very tops of her thighs. I think they call it a romper or a bodysuit. Hell, I don't know. It's a pair of very short shorts attached to a top that must tie behind her neck. And flip flops, can't forget the flip flops.

"Please," I say, contemplating getting on my knees to beg, "please, don't you have something else here? Anything?"

Her face falls, her lips dropping into a full, beautiful pout. "You don't like it?"

"No," I assure her. "I love it. I really love it. And so will every other asshole we come across tonight. A dress? Some jeans? I really can't go to detainment, Desir'ee."

The pout is immediately replaced with a small smile, then a wicked one. "I think I still have a very pretty lace nightgown here, or what's left of it. Michael, do you still have it? I remember you said you were keeping it."

"No," I bite out. "No. What you're wearing is perfect. It looks really good. No need to change into anything else." Goddammit. I'm really going to end up in detainment. Kaleb will have to make some calls to bail me out, then he'll give me shit for the rest of my life about it.

Desir'ee has decided that a fox mask is perfect for me, and therefore us. Her reasoning is that I have pretty red hair and cute freckles and with my dark eyepatch I look like a fox. Now we're all foxes of varying colors and the amphitheater is too big for me to keep everyone safe. I'm supposed to keep watch while Desir'ee and the twins are down on the ground in front of the stage. Michael said they usually take turns dancing with her while the other one stays up top watching. Part of me thinks it would be better for all three of us to be surrounding her, but that part of me is keeping its mouth shut because watching them with her is spectacular. The way they all three move together is almost too perfect. It's definitely too sexual.

My dick has been rock hard off and on all day for one reason or another. I'm not into guys, not even a little bit, but watching the twins dance with her between them, the three of them grinding against each other to the music, is fucking hot. And mesmerizing. And for some insane, bizarre, no-excuse-for-it reason, satisfying. I am enjoying watching their pleasure in each other, their happiness, in a way that is not sexual at all. I'm so caught up in watching them that I don't notice someone standing next to me until they touch my shoulder and I turn toward them with a snarl.

It's Minos, his elaborate lion mask pushed onto his head. And he's laughing at me.

"Thinking of putting down roots, Pratchett?"

I return to my watch, trying to appear much more at ease than I am. "It crossed my mind."

He follows my gaze to where Desir'ee and the twins are. "Ah, yes. Desir'ee Romero. I knew her father. He was a wonderful man."

"Was?" I ask, tilting my ear toward him. I haven't asked about her parents. I knew she lived with her brother's pack, but I didn't want to dig into a past she didn't want to share.

"Yes, he passed about ten years ago. Terrible thing. I wanted him for the council. He did so much for the community, he would have been perfect for it. I was after him for years, but he didn't want the hassle. He just wanted to live his life."

That sounds exactly like Corso, and now he's sitting in a council seat he never wanted because of me. "What happened to him?" I ask, still not looking at him. I hope he doesn't think I'm being rude, I just really don't want to split my visual attention.

"He was killed. I've been quietly investigating for years. There are a handful of people who I think may have had a hand in it, but I'm not sure enough to make the accusations. It was bad. The whole pack was lost, except for her mother. Consuelo, Desir'ee's mother, just left one day. People assumed she had a nervous breakdown or something similar due to the loss of her pack, but I know better. She would have never left her children, especially her daughter. I think it's all connected."

That's enough for me to give him my full attention. I look at him for three or four full seconds, meeting his solemn eyes, before I turn back to my post. "Why are you telling me?" I'm not from here. I'm not part of his inner circle.

"Because you have an interest, and because the WCC paints a pretty picture, but that's all it is. I need a set of outside eyes." He pauses, then chuckles. "Well, one outside eye."

That's why he's been showing me everything.

"You see that pack there, the tall blonde in pink with the old men in suits?" he points to a group of dancers in the crowd. "That's my pack. We're entirely too old for her, but she loves us. We weren't expecting her. She's from the Southern territory. I heard you met Lopez. Have you met his lead alpha, Flores?"

I shake my head.

"Flores introduced us to Mallory. Brought her to a poker game. He's introduced several omegas to other council members. We've all been very blessed."

Blessed, indeed.

"Anyway, I usually watch my pack from the other side of the ring. I just wanted to come say hello. I'm very glad you found your way here tonight. I'd actually like to get together with you next week for a poker game. I don't know if Flores will be in attendance. I never know where he'll pop up. Nice mask. It's suiting."

Minos leaves me to stand guard over a pack that isn't actually mine, in a place I don't belong, with my mind spinning with more questions than I have any hope of answering.

Chapter Twelve

Desie

This cannot be happening. Not after I've made so many comments about omegas going into heat in public and how irresponsible it is. I'm not in heat, not yet; but I've had two minor spikes during this shift already and I just know that it’ll be in full swing by dinner time. I knew it was coming, I've been having and handling spikes for a few days. Usually, I'll have a couple weeks of build-up, but this one is coming on all at once. This is happening because I skipped a couple so I could pass my exams and graduate. I know that. I understand it. It's a price I was willing to pay when I was paying it, but now that I'm in the middle of my shift at the job I worked so hard to get, I'm doubting my decision-making skills. Michael was right. He told me it was too long to take suppressants. He begged me to only skip the heat cycle near graduation, but I wouldn't listen.

This is going to be a big one. I need to get somewhere, anywhere, other than the floor I'm working on, and I need to get there fast. I doubt I'll make it to my car, the parking garage is way too far away, but I could make it to the empty room at the end of the hall. I can shove a blanket in front of the door to block the scent as much as I can and lock it. And I'll call Benny because he won't say I told you so.

I make it to the empty room without doubling over, but it's an effort. I pass several other nurses and one doctor who all avert their eyes, the scent is probably already strong. After I lock the door and cover the crack at the bottom, I go to the ensuite bathroom and shut and lock that door, stuffing a towel under it as well. Then I call Benny.

"Hey, baby," he purrs into the phone, and whatever sound I make in response has him cursing on the other end of the call. "Fuck. Michael, we have to go. Now. Ramirez, can you tell the chief we had an emergency? Yeah, I'll call him later. Come on Michael, just leave it. We have to go. Where are you, Desie?"

"No, no. You don't have to leave the station. It's just a spike, but I'm leaving as soon as it's over. I just wanted to talk to you during, it helps." I don't want to cause trouble for them at work, not over a spike. This was their week to be in-house. Usually, when they have shifts, they hang around the station watching old movies and sleeping in the bunks for the night; but when they're scheduled in-house, that means they're there for at least three days and they're in charge of equipment maintenance. I don't know the hows and whys of being a firefighter, and right now I don't care. I just need to listen to him while I breathe through this spike.

"Alright, just stay on the phone with me, baby. How much time do you think we have before we need to be home? Our shift is over at six, but we can leave early if you need us to."

"I don't know, I think I'll make it until six." The last words are said between panting breaths. "I'm going to your place as soon as I can leave."

I listen to Michael asking about what's going on and Ben explaining it to him. He starts to purr while he talks, and it helps even though it's distorted through the phone call. Michael tells him to put the phone on speaker so they both can talk to me, then he tells some guy named Elijah to fuck off and mind his business. "Do we need to come get you, Desie?" he asks.

"No," I whisper, "just talk to me. About anything. I just need to hear you. I'm okay." I'm not about to shove my hand down the front of my scrubs. It took me a few unsuppressed heats when I was finally old enough to handle them to understand that trying to get myself off during a spike just makes it a million times worse. I can usually handle them with breathing exercises, but listening to the boys helps it go faster.

"Okay, baby," Benny says, still purring. "We had to replace one of the big hoses today. The connector was—"

"Don't talk about hoses," I interrupt, and drag a breath in through my nose. One of them snorts on the other end of the call, but neither of them comment on my adolescent word association.

Michael finds something to tell me about that actually is helpful. "I put a new blanket in the dresser last week. It's light purple with gray spots."

"Is it fuzzy or smooth?" Michael is always finding things that I might like for a nest, and whatever he finds is almost always perfect.

"Fuzzy. It has a silky border, just like the blue one you like. I like the shade of purple it is, too. I think you'll like it."

Ben starts telling me about his plans to wash and detail his car, in great detail, and that's almost as good as thinking about the nesting materials I have folded in the dresser at their house. By the time he's finished going through how he's going to clean every surface in the car the spike is over. I'll definitely need a change of clothes I brought with me, but it's over.

"Okay. I'm good now. Thank you," I tell them. "I'm leaving here as soon as I change. I'm going straight to your house. Do I need to stop and pick anything up for the house?"

"No," Michael says. "Please, just go to the house. Please, okay? If you need anything, text us, we'll get it. And if we need to leave early, just let us know. Don't forget to let Mateo know what's going on. We don't need him worrying himself to death and beating down the door again."

No, we do not. That night is still one of the single most embarrassing moments of my life. During one of the first heats I spent with the twins, Mateo didn’t realize I was with them. He had been waiting for me to get home, pacing the floors for who knows how long, and by the time he started pounding down their door he had worked himself into a rage with worry. I’m confident he was as horrified as I was when Michael answered the door in nothing but a towel while Benny was making me scream. Horrifically scarred. From that moment on, we made sure to let my brother know when I was staying with them, heat or not.

"Okay. I'll check in with you in a little bit. You guys are wonderful. Bye." I end the call and send a text to Joli, she should still be at or around the desk, to ask her to bring my bag to the room I'm in. Then I send another to my brother. He never knows how to respond to me going into heat even though he's had five years to adjust to the concept. All I get back from him is an order to go straight to the twins' house and to text him when I get there.

I do what Michael and my brother asked me and go straight to the house. I was tempted to stop and pick up some easy foods for the next few days, but I got a little twinge of a cramp while I was sitting at a traffic light and broke every speed limit sign to get there as fast as I could. I text everyone as soon as I lock the door behind me and head straight to the extra bedroom in the back of the house.

The back bedroom is where I keep my things. If I lived here, it would be my bedroom. I have extra clothes here, and all my nesting materials are in here, folded neatly in the heavy black dresser that belonged to their mother. My abdomen keeps pinching with small, stinging little cramps every few minutes. I'd normally take a shower after work, but I find the new blanket, a fuzzy blue one, and the brown throw with the satin edges. And I need to see if I like the new purple one. I keep falling deeper and deeper into the never-ending task of finding the next necessary thing until I hear the door unlock.

I look around me to find my nest half built, but not where I usually make it. I always make it on the floor in Michael's room, under the window. I always pull the mattress off his bed and drag it over, then I stack, weave, and tuck things around it until it's perfect. I've always done it that way, ever since my first heat. I vaguely remember how worried Benny was the first time, about me rearranging the room by myself. I mostly remember Michael leaning against the door frame, smiling, watching the process and staying out of my way while I pushed and pulled Benny out of it.

The nest I've just built is in the back bedroom. And it's huge. It's so much bigger than the nests I usually put together. It takes up almost half the room. And somehow, inexplicably, both Michael's and Ben's mattresses are at the base of the nest. But I need something better than a couple sheets to hold them together. "I'm back here!" I call out and sit back in the middle of my creation to wait for them to come see what I've made.

Michael stops in the doorway and Ben peers at me from over his shoulder. "That's a much bigger nest that you usually make," Michael says, smiling. "Do you have enough stuff for it? Want me to bring you some things?"

I nod, looking around me.

"Okay," Michael says. "Benny, let's go get some more things for Desie's nest. Can you get the flannel sheets from the winter closet? I have a few things in my closet that might be good. We're going to order some food, Desie. What sounds good to you?"

"You know what I like," I say, my attention going to the unacceptable crack between the two mattresses. I set to work trying to fix it while the boys come and go, bringing me all kinds of different things with different textures that all smell like them. No matter what I add, the nest still seems incomplete. And loose. I can't fix the crack.

"Desir'ee!" Benny barks, making me jump and whirl around to yell at him for yelling at me. "Desie, baby. I need you to eat this food. I heated it up for you again. Please, just half of it. Michael and me already ate, I promise. Here, come on." He tugs my hand, trying to pull me over to the dresser where he left the plate of tacos, the scent of them heavy in the air, polluting the mixture of smells of us coming from the nest.

Any other time I'd be more than happy to eat a plate of tacos. I turn back to the nest, pulling against his hold. "I need to find something to hold them together first. Then I'll eat. I promise."

"Eat now, Desir'ee." Michael says it softly, but every syllable is crackling with an alpha command and my feet take me across the room to the plate of food without my permission. I shove a bite into my mouth and glare at him while I chew it.

"I'm sorry, Desie. I am," he says, still speaking gently. "We just need you to eat while you can. We've been trying without the command for hours, but you're stubborn as hell when you want to be. What do you need? Tell me what you need, and I'll bring it to you."

I usually put on a show of being angry and offended whenever one of them uses the alpha tone on me, but secretly, I love it. I love it so much. I don't know why, but it makes me happier than it probably should that they have the ability to do that to me. And he's always been good at finding the right things for my nests, another thing that makes me so happy. "I need to wrap something around the mattresses so they'll stay together. I tucked a few sheets around them, but that won't work."

I watch his eyes drift to the side as he thinks, then comes back with a smile. "I have rope in the trunk, and some bungee cords. Would either of those work?"

"Why do you have rope in the trunk?" I ask with my mouth full.

"We were going to kidnap you."

I choke. I sputter. I cough. Then I squeeze my thighs together in an attempt to contain the flood of slick that drips down them.

Michael laughs. "We can still kidnap you, baby. Tie you up, throw you in the trunk, drive you off into the sunset and do all kinds of unspeakable things to you."

"Wicked, awful things," Ben chimes in.

"Go get it," I whisper. Then I ask, "when were you going to kidnap me?"

"Week before last," Michael says before he walks out the door, nonchalantly, like it isn't the first time he's talked about it.

My eyes keep straying from the food to the nest. I've eaten half the food, my stomach might rebel if I eat anymore of it. "Why were you going to kidnap me? I'd go with you without being kidnapped."

Ben runs his fingertips down my cheek and gently wraps his hand around the side of my neck. "We were going to take you to another territory, Desie. We were going to take you as far from here as we could to keep anyone from taking you from us. Seth is giving us a little bit of a window to find a third. We're going to take anybody that the three of us can agree on, at this point. We can't let you go to another pack."

"I thought…Why can't Seth be the third?"

Ben sighs and kisses my forehead. "Because he's got to go back to the East Coast. We can't really take you away from your family, it would be wrong and you'd never stand for it. He can't stay over here. He's on the council over there and he'll have to go back. The distance would hurt you, and us after the pack bond is in place. It wouldn't work."

No, that doesn't feel right. Seth could be our third. He should be our third. He fits. "It would work, Ben. It would. We could make it work."

"Don't worry about that right now. It's going to be okay," he says against my hair.

As if on cue, my stomach cramps and fire races across my skin so fast that goosebumps break out. I lean into Ben's body, breathing in his cool, stormy scent. As much as I wanted to get the nest more secure before I pulled them into it, I don't think that's happening. "I need the nest."

Ben scoops me up and walks us over to the nest while I burn hotter and hotter by the second. The nest isn't quite finished, but that's just going to have to be okay for now. I pull him down with me into the center of the nest and he lets me push him over onto his back.

My heats always start the same way, and this one is no different. Before Ben is even settled, I've yanked his shirt over his head and I'm dragging his jeans down his legs. His length bobs and slaps against his stomach as he adjusts himself against the pillows. It's beautiful.

"You look at me like that every time," he purrs, "whether you're in heat or not. Like my dick is the best thing you've ever seen."

"It is," I tell him, licking my lips. And Michael has one almost identical to it. There are only two differences between them, and one is the curve Michael has. Sitting between his knees, I lean forward and wrap my hand around his base and give him a firm stroke upwards, stopping just below the head. Precum leaks from the tip and slowly drips down to meet the ring of my fingers.

I bend down to lick it off, but he reaches down to catch my hair, using it to tilt my face up to look at him. "No kisses first?"

"Do you want me to kiss it, Benjamin?" I ask, my eyes not straying from the sticky drops I'm slowly working out of him.

He laughs and groans at the same time, raising up on his elbows to watch me. "Yes, but that's not what I meant."

Then Michael walks back in with a rope coiled around his arm and it might be one of the hottest things I've ever seen.

"Want me to tie up the mattresses with this, or you?" He gives me a smile that lifts the left side, just making him hotter. I think I might enjoy being kidnapped and tied up. Not now, though.

I shake my head and go back to stroking Ben. "The mattresses. Me later." They both laugh, but Ben's stops abruptly when I lick across the head of his cock. "Hurry, Michael. Make it tight," I tell him, moving my lips against his brother's warm skin.

Ben's head is thick and takes up most of my mouth when I suck him inside it. I love how I can feel the nest moving as Michael tugs and ties the rope around the outside of the mattresses to secure them together. I didn't touch it before he tied it on, but he'd never bring me something rough for our nest. He'd never bring something that could splinter or scrape. Being able to trust him with our nest wraps around every one of my omega instincts in the most amazing way.

"God, I love it when you purr with me in your mouth," Ben sighs. I smile around him and roll his balls, urging him to give me more of the precum that makes the cramping feel better. The more I stroke him, milking him from base to tip, the more he gives me. I could get lost in the taste of him.

Which, apparently, I do because Ben is trying to tag Michael in. "Wait, wait, wait," he hisses. "I need a minute before I can go again. Michael, come on."

Michael gets his belt undone, but then his phone rings. It's my brother. "Yes, Mateo. We're good…Yeah, because of all those suppressants…I know, we told her but she doesn't listen to anybody…That would be great, I appreciate it, just leave it by the door, we'll get it…Yeah. I'll tell her. Thanks…Yeah. Bye."

He ends the call and looks down and Ben and I to tell us what Mateo said. "He's going to have Sebastian drop off a case of water and some snacks. Amber's making some stuff, too."

Michael unbuttons his jeans and starts dragging the zipper down, then his phone goes off again. He picks it up off the dresser and his top lip curls into a snarl when he sees who's calling.

"Who is it?" Ben asks him, running his fingers through my hair. Michael holds the phone out so we can see the screen as it continues to ring and Ben growls.

He pulls me up and across his chest. "What does he want?"

Michael answers the call. "Lopez." He's quiet as he listens to whatever is being said on the call, his face going darker with every second. Finally, he says, "it would be a very bad idea for anyone, and I mean anyone, to come here. Now isn't a good time to make threats." Then he hangs up.

"What did he say?" Ben asks, holding me tighter against his body.

"He said to make sure the doors were locked."

Chapter Thirteen

Michael

I need to be sliding my cock inside Desie right now with her ankles wrapped around my neck, not dealing with this Lopez bullshit. My head is so thick with pheromones that I can't think straight enough to figure out the best thing to do. Moving her to a different location is obviously out of the question for obvious reasons. You don't disassemble a nest when an omega is in heat. You don't disassemble a nest period.

I don't know what Lopez's insinuated threat could amount to. It could be completely empty, but it's just as likely to mean I need to do a lot more than lock up the house. The problem with doing that is that Desie is officially in full-blown heat. It came on so fast, there was hardly any build-up for her, I'm just glad her stubborn ass got out of the hospital before it happened. If Lopez sends his people here while Desie is in heat and we are fighting rut, it's going to end badly. For us. Lopez will send more people than Ben and I can handle on our own, even with the extra aggression that comes with being in rut. If he sends people here, we'll probably end up dead because that's the only way anybody could get to her.

Desie reaches for me, and I can't do anything but go to her. That's how it's always been. If she needs me, I go. No matter what she needs, I go. Right now, she needs me to fuck her. She'd probably call it something nice, like making love, I know what she needs, though. She needs it slow, deep, and hard, and I'll give it to her. Ben was patient and sweet while she sucked the life out of him off and on for two hours, purring around him, wriggling her ass around in those hot pink scrubs, but now it's my turn.

"Let's get these clothes off, baby. You'll feel so much better." I step into the nest with my own pants still hanging off my hips. Desie likes to be the one to take them off, even in her heat. She says it's like opening a present every time. She lets me peel off her shirt and rolls over onto her hands and knees for me to pull the pants off. She's right about it, though. Watching her ass being slowly revealed as I tug at the material is exactly like opening a present. Desir'ee is beautiful, everything about her is perfect, but her ass is magical. The perfect shape, and it trembles in the best way when you spank it. Fuck, and it's attached to her perfect, magical thighs.

She rolls back over, arching up so I can pull her tank top off. Somehow my pants come off and when she reaches for me again, I fall into her. Her legs wrap around my hips and she locks her ankles together behind me as I fill her mouth with my tongue and my hands with her hair. I can never kiss Desie without it seeming like I'm trying to consume her.

"Now," she mumbles against my lips. "Now, Michael."

Like before, I do what I always do. I give her what she needs. When she's not in heat, I like to take my time with her, drag every moment and action out until she's begging and making demands. But she's peaking right now, and neither of us could stand the torture of me taking my time. She's wet, so wet with slick that I barely need to do more than shift my hips and I'm sinking inside her.

She gasps for me, clutches at my shoulders, rakes her nails down my back, hisses at me to go faster.

"Shhh," I coax, kissing her lips again, pressing my forehead against hers. "Let me take care of you."

I roll my hips, slowly pushing deeper and deeper, grasping one of her breasts so I can lick across the nipple. She thinks she wants it fast and hard right now because of what her body is saying, screaming for her to do anything to cool it down, but I know my girl. There's nothing we can do to freeze the inferno that is her need to come, but we can build it up slowly. That's what she needs, no matter how she tries to convince us otherwise. She'll need us to go hard later, by tomorrow, but it's all about the build right now.

I reach back to pry her ankles apart, and come up on my knees, gripping the backs of her thighs so I can spread her as wide as I can. This is my second favorite view. The first is the view of her ass when I fuck her from behind and I'll spend plenty of time enjoying it in the next few days. Looking down, I can see everything. Her flushed cheeks and parted lips, the blush leading down to her breasts, her soft, feminine belly, fuck, I love looking at her. I love the way her body moves and the sounds she makes when I move it.

One of her hands comes up to cup her breast and she traces the tattoo spelling out her first name that stretches from hip to hip across the lowest part of my stomach with the other one. She smiles, keeping her gaze trained on my body. "You like to watch, don't you Des? You like to watch how I take care of you?"

"Yes," she moans. "Don't stop."

"I won't, not till you need my knot. I can fuck you like this for hours," I groan the last word as her body tightens around me. "Fuck, Des. You feel so fucking good. I can't wait till I can put my mark on you." Those words trigger an almost automatic orgasm for her, and she soaks both of us and the nest with a flood of slick. God, I love fucking her.

I, we, only say that to her when she's in heat. We've been too afraid to say it out loud any other time. We all want it so bad, and we know how dangerous we've been. Nobody but me and Benny have ever touched her, we operated under the stupidly optimistic umbrella that it would just work out for us to keep her somehow; that our third would just appear one day and we'd claim her and then we'd be set for the rest of our lives. He never showed, and now the true terror of losing her has us contemplating desperate things. She might think it was a joke, but I will absolutely put her in my trunk and drive her as far away as I need to to keep her if I have to. Seth is buying us even more time, even after all the time Mateo bought. We can't fuck it up, because we'd rather do it right than drag her away from her life in the back of my car.

"Do it," Desie pants, "please." She turns her head to the side and arches her neck. That's how she's always wanted it, my mark just above her shoulder, Benny's stacked right above it, and our third's on the other side. I want to give it to her so bad; I've nearly bitten through my lip more times than I can count. It's getting harder and harder to stop myself from doing what our instincts are screaming for.

If it wasn't for the rules Ben and I have in place, one of us would have marked her a long time ago. Only one of us is allowed to be in her nest at a time. One of us has to keep a clear head and we take turns being that person. We can't both let go and let the rut consume us. That's how we keep Desie safe. I've seen more than one bond broken when an accidental mark was placed. It was one of the most disturbing and horrific things I've ever witnessed. I won't have that happen to Desie or to my brother.

I reach down to thumb her swollen clit. "Soon, baby. Soon. Are you ready for my knot?"

She whines, nodding her head slowly.

"Let me hear it. Tell me you want it."

"Give me your knot, Michael," she moans. "Please. I need it." She meets my slow, undulating thrusts stroke for stroke and rakes her nails down my sides. "Give it to me."

Lowering myself so I can hook my arms behind her knees, I push my knot into her. It's not as big as it gets, not yet, but that's better for her. I bury my nose into her shoulder and circle my hips, letting her feel the stretch. "There you go, baby. Don't I take good care of you?"

She makes a noise that makes my balls clench and I swell even more, getting closer and closer to locking us together.

A low growl vibrates my chest, and she answers it with a moan, tempting me again with her neck. I open my mouth to suck and lick a mark onto her shoulder, carefully not touching her skin with my teeth. Such a tight line to walk. She starts to writhe and cry out another orgasm and I push deeper, properly lodging my knot behind her pubic bone, growling deeper, louder in my pleasure. So good, so good.

"Michael!" Ben barks from behind me. "Stop. Don't."

Now I'm growling with irritation, low and menacing enough for Desie to whimper. She's blinking up at me with big, brown, dilated eyes while I gather myself and my restraint. I look down to see the huge red mark I put on her shoulder. There are imprints of my teeth, not enough to break the skin, but prominent enough that I understand why Ben called me back to the surface.

"I'm good," I purr. "Thank you, Ben." I kiss Desie's forehead, then her mouth. Her blinks are longer, heavier. This is the best part. "It's okay, baby. Go to sleep. I've got you. We have you."

I purr for her until she succumbs to the lethargy that takes her once she's knotted then I rearrange us into a better position for her to rest. Once we're settled, the threat of Lopez comes roaring back to the front of my mind. There's only so much we can do for it right now. And one of those things is either a very good idea, or a very bad one. Either way, it's the one with the best chance of working out.

I comb Desie's hair back from her face and kiss her temple and look at my brother. "Call Seth."

Chapter Fourteen

Seth

"No."

There's silence on the other end of the call. Well, relative silence. Ben must be standing on his porch; I can hear the sounds of his neighborhood. I can only imagine how stressed he and Michael must be trying to take care of Desir'ee inside a house surrounded by a busy neighborhood. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the seclusion of Corso's property. Devon would lose his mind in that setting, I can just see that vein throbbing right now.

"Please."

Fuck.

How am I supposed to refuse Ben now?

For him to beg…

No. I can't. It's hard enough when Talia goes into heat and I'm holed up in my apartment. I can't. It's too hard for me. I hear or smell her, or any other omega approaching their cycle and I panic. I can hardly stand to get out of bed when Talia or Jasper are in heat. I can't. I'd be useless to the twins and Desie. I can't function with thick walls and open air between me and an omega in cycling, I'd never make it inside the same small house. Hell, I can barely call it a heat, I have to call it a cycle or something to keep the panic at bay.

"Ben... I… I just…can't. I'm sorry."

"Why not? You don't have to do anything but be an extra presence with a set of eyes." He laughs after he realizes what he said, "you know what I mean."

I do know what he means, but I still can't do it. And I can't bring myself to tell him why not. All I have to do is think hard enough about that table squeaking and I shut down. I haven't told anybody, not even Kaleb, and certainly not any of the doctors, but I can't even have sex with anyone outside of a cycle. Not an omega, not a beta, not an alpha. Not anybody. And I've tried. I haven't been able to really function sexually since what happened with Talia.

"Can you just sit outside?" Ben asks, dragging me back from the past. "You don't even have to get out of your truck. You can text us if you see anything. Just knowing you're around would keep him away because of who you are."

That… might make a difference. Maybe. Fuck. "He?"

"Lopez."

Goddammit.

I don't know how to handle this. Ben's right. All I have to do is sit on their porch with all my diplomatic immunity and council weight and nobody will fuck with them. But I don't know if I can do it. Fuck. If Lopez comes at them while Desir'ee's cycling, he'll bring everything and he'll take her. And that will destroy her. The twins, too. It's so little to ask, but still so much. Fuck. Ben doesn't understand what this is going to cost me. "I'm coming. I'll sit on the porch. Don't open the door when I get there. I'll text you so you know I'm there."

"Thank you," he says, relief heavy in his words. "We'll put out some blankets and food and stuff for you."

"No!" I hear the bite in my tone and soften it, he doesn't understand. "No," I say again, "don't. I'll bring my own, I'm good. Don't open the door. Could you put on some music or something? Will that stress her?"

There's a pause, but he does respond. "No, she's pretty far gone. Nothing like that would bother her anyway, we're used to noise. You sure? We've got extra stuff we can give you."

"I appreciate it, but I'm good. Just keep the doors locked and shut. I'll be there soon."

I sit in my rental truck for about two hours after I text Ben to let him know I'm here. I'm terrified that I'll still hear or smell something that will render me incapable of doing the job they're trusting me with. It's the dead of night now. None of the kids from earlier are running around screaming at each other and their parents. The traffic has died down to nearly nothing. If I could just stay in the truck for the next few days, I would. But I can't. My legs are beginning to feel buggy and I'm going to need a bottle or a bush sooner rather than later. I open the window and sit in the cab for half an hour longer before I steel myself and get out.

I don't smell anything, can't hear anything that might cause a problem, so I get out to see if I've got an empty bottle in the back of the truck. A car goes by at a crawl. I don't want to be paranoid, it is late at night, but it definitely slowed down past the twins' house. If anything like that happens again, I won't have a choice. I'll have to take up a prominent and obvious position on the porch.

I walk down the sidewalk a few feet and come back to take a lap around the truck when, sure as shit, the same busted little shitbox comes rolling back down the street.

Goddammit. Fuck.

The beep of the truck alarm setting echoes off the houses in the neighborhood might have the same effect as nails being hammered into a coffin. It feels the same. Suffocating. Piercing. Confined. With every step I take toward the house my blood pressure increases and by the time I take the three steps up onto the porch, my shirt is clinging to my back with a cold sweat. I'll just sit on the porch. Right there in that ratty, old lawn chair. I'll sit here long enough to be seen and then I'll go back to the truck.

It's going to be okay. It's going to be fine.

If I pull the chair to the center of the porch, right in front of the door, it will be painfully obvious why I'm here and what I'm doing. So, that's what I do. I sit there in that nearly threadbare canvas chair for what feels like years with my elbows propped up on my knees, just waiting to see if that car drives back around. Maybe it wasn't the same car after all. Maybe I was just imagining that it slowed down when it went past. I'll sit here and collect dew and damp until I'm sure the twins and Desir'ee are safe, then I'll go back to the truck.

Wishful thinking. The same car crawls down the street again, closely followed by a much nicer one with blacked out windows. They don't exactly stop in front of the house, but they slow down enough that I know I made direct eye contact with whoever was in the backseat of the nicer car. I felt the dissonant chord of it travel down my spine. They were here to take her. I don't know what they were going to do with the twins, other than kill them because that's the only way anyone could take her from them, but they were definitely going to take her. They saw me, though, and left. Good. Motherfuckers. This might be the first time in my life that me just being me has been a good thing. Well, the second time. The first time was at the dinner mixer.

I text Ben. They need to know someone is watching their place.

The same car drove by three times. I'm on the porch. Everything is good. Yall ok? Need anything?

A few minutes go by and Michael texts me back.

What did it look like?

A shitbox, but that isn’t very descriptive.

Older. 2 door. White. A few rust spots. The second car was newer, nicer. Blacked out windows. 4 door. Whoever was in the back was going to be a problem. I’ll let you know if they come back.

I don't know how much time passes before he sends the next text, but I don’t like what he says.

Come inside. They saw you. They know you’re here. No reason for you to be out there. It’s going to rain.

Going inside isn’t an option. Being out here is safe.

I’m fine. I’ll keep watch.

Hopefully that will be the end of it. It doesn’t smell like rain and outside is much better than inside. I’m not about to go back to the truck, though. If anyone comes back by, I'll never get from the truck to the door in time to help.

The sun starts to rise, turning the sky from inky black to muddy purple. I start hearing alarm clocks blaring from nearby houses and the kids start yelling again. And just as the first school bus rolls by, the sky opens up, just like Michael said it was going to.

It’s not a nice, friendly, slowly increasing rain, either. It’s coming down in sheets and standing up on the streets. My phone dings with a notification. It’s Michael.

Drag your freckled ass into the house.

This is a very bad idea. A very, very bad idea. There is no right choice. If I stay on the porch, I’ll be drenched and for no reason. I can’t see shit out here, anyway. And if I go inside… Well, I’ll have any number of panic attacks or episodes because Desir’ee doesn’t seem like the quiet type. Going back to the truck to wait out the rain isn’t an option, either. Because I can’t see shit.

Okay. I’m going inside. It’s going to be fine. They won’t be in the front room. Desir’ee likely made her nest in a bedroom. I can stay on the chair by the front door. It’s going to be fine.

It’s going to be fine.

The door isn’t locked, which pisses me off, but what were they going to do, stop what they were doing to let me in? The scent inside the house is the best and worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I can pick out the individual notes of each of their scents. The heady musk of magnolias mixing with the electric aroma of ozone and rain, both saturated in Desir’ee’s crisp and sweet scent. Each one is appealing in some way, and the combination is supremely comforting and alluring. It is more than obvious that she’s in heat, and that one of both of the twins are pretty far into rut, but it isn’t the overwhelming, horrible thing I thought it might be. No, the overwhelming, horrible thing is the sound she makes after I’ve been in the house for a few minutes.

The sound itself is the most delicious and pleasing thing I’ve ever heard. If I were to go deaf right now, this very second, I would be satisfied knowing it was the last sound I heard. But the effect it has, the way it crawls into me, sinking into my very bones, leaves me covering my ears, beating at them to drown it out.

This was a very bad idea.

Chapter Fifteen

Ben

Seth is in the house. I can smell him. Desie can smell him. We can all smell him. And he smells like pure terror.

“Go check on him,” I tell Michael. It’s his turn to be out of the nest. “Take him some water and an apple, or something.” I’d do it, but it’s going to take way more than Seth being scared of being in our house to get me to leave this nest. As soon as this is over, I’m going to need to know why he fought so hard to stay outside.

Desie is all omega instinct right now. She’s lost in it, and lost to everything but her needs. She’s still aware of some things, though; apparently including Seth. Her nostrils flare and twitch as often as mine and Michael’s do, and she keeps looking toward the door.

Michael buttons his jeans and grabs a couple bottles of water from the dresser and an apple, and a small bag of jerky, then he walks out into the hall as efficiently as he can. I tried to stress how uncomfortable Seth seemed to be about coming inside, but hell, at this point I’m not sure I really understood how he truly might be.

Anxious and upset or not, the house feels different with Seth inside it. In a good way, I think. It feels, I don’t know, full. It feels like Michael and I can take the same breath at the same time without needing to take turns.

Desie lets out a long, high-pitched whine, bringing my full attention back to her. “What’s wrong, baby? What do you need?” I ask, not really expecting all that much articulation. That was one of the more pleasantly surprising things we discovered together after the first time we helped her through a heat. We had to wait three long fucking years before we felt comfortable offering to even help her. We wanted to wait another, but Amber threatened to rip our balls off if we didn't try when she wanted to stop taking suppressants since they made her so sick. It was torture, knowing she was suffering, but she was too young and, honestly, so were we. Neither of us were mature enough to handle an omega in heat or out, we didn't know what to expect from her. All omegas are different. We studied. Some are soft and cuddly, some are aggressive, some are quiet, some tear the walls down. We didn't know. And the fact that Amber came to us to "ask" us to take care of Desie had us thinking she would be more on the aggressive side. I'm not afraid to say I was nervous about it. I'm not afraid to admit I was a little afraid. But she wasn't aggressive, not in the typical sense.

Desie is every single good and desirable thing an omega could ever be. She's vocal but doesn't scream at us. She's demanding without being onerous. She's needy, but not suffocating. She's perfect. But for the three days in the middle she's all instinct. Some omegas fight it, they don't like to lose that much control of themselves, but Desie thrives. She gives herself permission to be fully immersed in what her body wants and it's the most beautiful and perfect thing. She's amazing.

She whines again, looking toward the door. The discomfort that comes with her heat is coming at more regular intervals now, she's on a slow climb to the top of a wave right now, but she's unsettled. Usually at this point she's rolling with the waves, moving through them with precision without help. Something is just a smidge out of place. Even I can feel it. "Michael will be back in just a minute, don't worry. He isn't going far." She understands that we have to take turns, that hasn't been a huge issue for a while now, just a little occasional blip.

She shakes her head, blowing out a breath, her face scrunched in an adorable pout. "That's not it." She runs her hand across the blanket spread under us, smoothing it. "He doesn't like it."

I rub my nose against hers. "Michael loves your nest. He loves every nest you make for us."

She shakes her head again, frowning, but doesn't say anything else. That bothers me. "What is it, Desie? Tell me what's wrong. I'll fix it if I can. Just tell me."

She pulls her lip between her teeth and closes her eyes before she answers. "The nest is wrong. He won't come in because it's wrong. He doesn't like it."

"No, baby. Michael loves—" I stop talking, too many thoughts coming at me too fast. It's Seth. She wants Seth in her nest. She wants him to be our third, really wants it. Wants him, wants him, enough to make a nest that will accommodate him being with us. Holy shit.

I roll us over, arranging us so that she's laying on her side in front of me, and purr into her ear. "You're not talking about Michael, are you, baby? You made this nest for Seth, didn't you?"

She makes a small sound in her throat and nods. "But he doesn't like it."

How can I explain to her that something is going on with him that has nothing to do with her? Outside of all this, she'd be perfectly, rationally understandable, but right now all she feels is rejection. If I let myself think hard enough about it, I'm feeling a little bit rejected myself, but not by her. The best thing I can do for either of us right now is distract us from that and focus us on her. Seth is likely to hear every word I'm about to say, and I don't care. I can't take Desie feeling like someone doesn't want her when it's so far from the truth.

"He's watching over us right now, baby," I say just behind her ear, reaching around to cup her breast and run my thumb over her nipple. "He's sitting by the door to make sure we're safe. He'd love this nest as much as me and Michael do if he saw it. He's just staying away so he can take care of us. That's what you need, isn't it? For him to take care of you?"

She grinds her ass against me and makes that little sound again, so I keep going, laying it on thick.

"That's what he's doing. Me and Michael are taking care of your body, keeping you full of us, and Seth is standing guard, keeping us safe. That's what a good alpha is supposed to do, isn't it? Take care of his pack?"

She groans, arching her back. "Yes," she hisses between clenched teeth. Her sugary mint scent grows heavier, and she releases more slick, making it easier for me to slide my cock between her thighs.

I grip her hip and pull her against me, thrusting against her so that the head of my dick and part of my length strokes over her clit over and over. "That's what Seth is doing," I don't miss the way her hips snap when I say his name. "He's being a good alpha for you while I take care of you." I don't even care. I have no idea what Seth is actually out there doing, but I can talk shit about what I wish he was doing all day if it makes Desie feel better. "He'll see your nest later, we'll get him to come look at it when you're resting. He'll want to check on you," I purr, moving my hand to the back of her knee to lift her thigh, spreading her apart.

"He will?" she sighs, reaching back to touch my jaw. Then she cries out when I push inside her as deep as I can get.

"Yes," I growl. "He'll want to check on you. He'll want to know that you're okay, and that me and Michael are doing what we're supposed to do. Seth needs to know that you're being taken good care of." Fuck, I hope at least half of what I'm saying is true. The more shit I talk, the more I want it to be true. Seth would be standing guard right now if he was our third. He'd be watching over us. Michael and I could do what we've always wanted to do. We could really, truly let ourselves go. We could take care of her the way we're meant to.

Desie arches deeper, grinding her ass against me, throwing back her head, subconsciously offering me her neck, making my mouth actually water for the feel of her between my teeth. "Please," she breathes, "please, Benny."

I fuck her harder, deeper, feeling my swelling knot fight against her entrance with every thrust. "Fuck, Desie. You feel so fucking good. I love you so much, baby. We're going to be okay. I've got you. We've got you. We'll take care of you."

"Seth, too?" she asks. I pause, waiting for the discomfort of hearing his name in her mouth while my cock is inside her, but it never comes.

Okay. Alright. It feels right to hear her say his name with such want. It feels right to talk about him being with us. It feels good. Okay. "Yes. If you want him. Yes," I tell her, firmly nailing the lid on our collective coffin.

She grips the back of my head, trying to pull my mouth into the place where her neck meets her shoulder. "Please, Benny. Please."

I could do it. I could sink my teeth into her right now. I could mark her. I could claim her at this very moment.

I open my mouth, swirling my tongue over her flushed skin, and she moans, long and loud. I fuck into her harder, forcing my knot into her tightness. "He feels right, doesn't he?" I say against her neck, asking for myself more than her. She turns her head just a little farther, giving me even more access. "Fuck," my voice is barely above a growl now. I could do it. It would be the most normal and natural thing in the world to put my mark on her.

Michael steps back inside the room, letting in a small draft of Seth's metallic gun oil scent, and that's the last trigger I need. I'm so tired of fighting it. So tired of pushing my need away. I'm so tired of feeling incomplete. I set my teeth into Desie's flesh and hold her still when she jerks against me as we both cum, my knot keeping every bit of it inside her.

Michael stares into my eyes, his own wide with shock. I can't give him anything right now, not with Desie flowing into the bond I just created with her. I'm going to drown in her. I want to be full of her. Everything she's feeling comes pouring into me in a magnificent rush, leaving me to float on waves of emotion. Need is heavy in the current, but so is joy, relief, worry, contentment, love. She tells me she loves me, but to actually feel it is breathtaking.

After long minutes, I release my jaws. I probably held the bite for too long, but I couldn't bring myself to let go. I lick the wound I made on her neck and look deep into my brother's startled expression while Desie cuddles into me as her sleep deepens. As soon as I'm able to actually speak, I say softly against her hair. "You'll mark her when she wakes up. I'm tired of waiting."

What else can he do? If I mark her, he marks her. Both of us or neither of us.

He nods, but he says even quieter that I spoke, "Seth isn't alright. There's something wrong with him. It looks like he's been trying to rip his ears off. It was a mistake to ask him to come here."

"No, it wasn't," I tell him. "He'll be alright. We'll make him alright. Did he take the water and stuff?"

Michael sighs. "He did, but it was hard to get him to drink it. He was soaked in sweat but freezing cold. I put Mom's blanket around him. He won't move from the chair by the door. He says he's good, but he doesn't look good. He's still watching, but he's not okay."

That's not anything we can fix right now. Desie is our priority. Seth's too, obviously, even though he's going through something. The fact that he's still vigilantly standing guard despite his troubles just further cements the idea that he's the right one for us. "We'll keep checking on him. Come lay in front of her. You need to mark her as soon as she wakes up. I can't wait for you to feel it. I never imagined it would feel like this."

Michael takes off his jeans and stretches out along the front of her body, caging her between us like we've done since we were kids. Not every time, but most times, it makes me remember the first time we did it. Desie was six or seven, we were ten, maybe eleven, and Rafe was fourteen or fifteen. A bunch of older guys came out of nowhere, trying to snatch kids from the park. Rafe, Benny, and I were already a solid pack, even back then, and when we saw Desie standing there in front of the swings crying, screaming for her brother, something just clicked. We ran for her and took her under one of the wooden play structures on the playground. Rafe told us to hold her, so we both did. We put her between us, tears, snot, and all. We made a shelter for her with our bodies while Rafe picked up the biggest stick he could find and stood in front of us. This feels the same. It's okay that Seth is going through something, we'll figure it out. He's the piece we've been missing.

My knot finally goes down, and I feel Desie wake before she ever opens her eyes or makes a sound. "Hey, baby. You feel okay?"

She stretches, rubbing her feet against my shins. "I feel wonderful. I can feel you."

"I can feel you, too. You're going to feel Michael soon."

She purrs, reaching for him, and I stay right where I am. He can take her without me moving. I want her to stay between us, Michael won't mind. He likes having her between us as much as I do, whether we're fucking her or not.

"You want my mark, too, Des?" Michael quietly teases her. "Did it feel good when Benny bit you?"

"So good," she sighs. She hitches her leg over his hip. "Now you."

"Now me," he repeats, bending his head to kiss her. That's another thing I'm glad for. Desie still likes kisses when she's in heat. Amber doesn't. I'm not supposed to know that, but it's information Desie let slip when her brothers first claimed Amber and brought her home. Desie spent two weeks at our house doing not much more than going to school and bitching about the interruption in her routine and how offensive it was that Amber refused to let Mateo kiss her during her heat. I think she might kiss us extra purely on principle.

It isn't awkward to lay next to Desie while she's with Michael. It isn't awkward when I drag my fingertips down her spine or across her hip, and it isn't awkward when I grab her thigh to help give Michael more room when he finally thrusts inside her. If anything, it makes it better for her. She loves for us to touch her at the same time. I can help hold her steady while he pleasures her, and it isn't even a little uncomfortable.

"I'm going to put my mark on you, baby," Michael rasps. "Right above Benny's. And everyone will know you're ours. Everyone will see our bites. Everyone will know you belong to us."

Desie lets out a breathy moan and offers him her neck while she reaches back to dig her nails into my hip. I have a moment to wonder if I'll be able to feel Michael through my bond with her before her body rocks as he thrusts one last time before he places his bite above mine. Her body spasms and Michael's fingers tighten in her hair to keep his teeth from tearing her skin as she moves.

When he releases her, he meets my eyes over her shoulder. "I didn't know it would feel like this. I can feel you through her, more than the twins thing."

I just grin at him. I'm sure I look drunk. Maybe I am, but this is the most whole I've ever felt in my entire life.

Chapter Sixteen

Desie

Even the bliss of coming out of my heat tucked between the twins with their fresh marks on my neck isn't enough to drown out the horrible emotions seeping in from the front of the house. I vaguely remember Michael and Ben talking about it when Seth got here and off and on while I was in the middle, but they didn't say anything that might have prepared me for this.

Something is very wrong with Seth. I hope he hasn't been like this the entire time. I'll never be able to live with myself if he's been in this amount of distress for however many days it's been. A few hours would be too much.

Michael stirs when I get up from the nest. There's blood in it. I've never had blood in my nest before, not even the first one. I know the reason it's there, and I'll never complain, not ever, but I don't think I like blood in my nest.

"Where are you going?" Michael whispers groggily.

"To check on Seth. Something's wrong."

He groans into one of the pillows. "Hang on a second. We'll come with you. Ben," he nudges his brother's shoulder, "come on. Desie needs to check on Seth."

They can drag their feet as much as they want, I'm not waiting. It's actually hurting me to stay in this room while Seth is in there in this much pain. I pull on the tank top I was wearing when I got here and grab a pair of panties from the dresser. That's all the clothes I'm willing to put on. I'm still too hot and sensitive to wear much more than that.

The sight that greets me when I emerge from the hall into the living room stops me mid-step. Seth is broken. He's sitting on the chair beside the front door hunched over his thighs, his elbows propped on his knees and his head held up by the grip his fists have on his hair. His eye is wide open, but he isn't seeing anything but the floor; and his breaths are coming much too rapidly. His normal scent is buried under layers of what feels like horror and regret. His mouth is moving, but I can't make out what he's saying. The only word I can understand is sorry, and he whispers it sporadically and frequently.

The twins come up behind me, each putting a hand on my waist. "How long has he been like this?" I ask them.

Michael answers. "He wasn't this bad last night when I checked on him. He wasn't great, but he said he wasn't leaving until it was over. He hasn't been like this or I would have got him out of here."

"What's wrong with him? Did he say anything before?"

"No," Ben says. "We just knew he didn't want to come in, but then those cars drove by and he wouldn't leave from by the door. All he said was to take care of you, and that he'd be fine."

Fine. Nobody who has ever said they were fine was fine. Nobody. Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, emotional, maybe, but never, ever fine.

I take a step into the living room, but Michael grabs my shirt, keeping me from going farther. "Desie."

"Let go, Michael. He needs help." He lets me go, but worry and frustration trickle through my new bond with him. That brings a smile regardless of the situation in front of me. I've wanted a bond with him and Ben for so long, I can't help the little jolt of joy that comes with feeling something through it.

The closer I get to where Seth is sitting, the deeper the feel and scent of sorrow becomes. I move slowly, I want to give him plenty of time and opportunity to recognise that I'm coming. But he doesn't move. Not even when I'm standing right in front of him, my toes almost in-line with his.

"Seth," I say softly, like I'm trying to coax a terrified, wild animal.

He doesn't answer, his only response is to move his lips faster.

"Seth," I try again, daring to reach out and stroke down the back of his head, letting my fingers brush against his where they're tangled in his hair.

He doesn't move, doesn't quiet.

I do then what I'd do for Ben or Michael. I purr. I can’t do it loud, even on my best day, most omegas can’t, but it’s usually enough to comfort them when they need it; and it did help Seth before at the restaurant.

Empathy and support flows into me from both twins, encouraging my efforts when Seth doesn’t immediately respond. I keep at it until his head jerks once to the side, the movement small and harsh. Then his hands slowly unravel from his hair and come down to rest at the back of my knees.

I can stand here like this with him all day. Ben stands on one side of him, Michael on the other. We can stand here with him as long as we need to.

Chapter Seventeen

Seth

It’s the squeaking again. The wheels on the cart. Whenever this happens and I get trapped like this, that’s all I can hear. It’s playing on repeat in my head. I hear the squeaking and the hateful murmur of whatever Jay, Derek were saying behind me and my father screaming at me over the phone to be an alpha. I can never pull myself out of the circuit once the squeaking takes over.

I walk in, stop Jay, then take his place because it seems like the best thing to do in the situation, then wheel her out while trying to tune out what they’re saying. As soon as the door shuts behind me and I turn to lock it, it starts all over and I’m opening the door to the room they had her in. Over and over. And all I can hear is the squeaking of the wheels.

I can’t make it stop. I can’t make myself stop. I should have done a hundred different things, but I couldn’t think fast enough. Taking Jay’s place seemed like the fastest and safest way to get her out of there. If I had more time to think it through, if I would have been stronger, better, I could have stopped it. I should have told my father to fuck off all those years ago. I should have fought Jay and Derek. Hell, I should have fought to disband our dysfunctional pack when the connection just wasn’t there. I should have done anything besides what I did. And I can’t take it back.

Then another sound filters through, feeling like snow covering everything, muting things, making everything quiet and peaceful. The squeaking slowly quiets, being slowly drowned out by this new sound.

My mind jumps to the compound when Talia and Jasper saved us. Saved me. Talia purred for me. She and Jasper comforted me when their pack was dealing with mine. This feels the same way.

I jump again to the restaurant a few weeks ago, when Desir’ee did the same thing. Desir’ee. This is her sound. I can smell her all around me. I smell Ben and Michael, too; but all that matters right now is her.

Without thinking, I wrap my arms around her, clinging to her like the lifeline she is. I breathe in her scent as deeply as I can while I fight my way back to the surface of the present. I’m in their living room, not that compound, not the holding cell. I’m sitting in the chair by the door. I chose it because it was the best vantage point that was the farthest away from the bedroom they’ve been in for days. The squeaking abruptly stops and all I can hear is the sound Desir’ee is making. For me. I don’t deserve it. I’ll never deserve it.

“Shhh,” she soothes. “We’ve got you. It’s okay.” She runs her fingers through my hair again, gently scratching my scalp. I can feel Michael and Ben stronger than before, their presence solid like sentries on either side of me. One of them places a hand on my back and the other one squeezes my shoulder, and I all but collapse against Desir’ee, holding her tight, pressing my face into her stomach while I weep.

Deep, wracking, wretched sobs drag out of me and she holds me the whole time, making soothing noises, comforting me with touch. All of them do. Every tear that forces its way out of me is soaked into the shirt she’s wearing that smells like them. They catch every horrible, choking sound that I make and take it from me.

I don’t know how long I let myself go, but when I can breathe again I’m exhausted and leaning against Desir’ee, giving her most of my weight. She never falters, not once. She holds me and lets me breathe without saying anything. The twins don’t say anything, either. They wait for me to decide what to do next and when to do it. I don’t want to. I don’t want to move or speak. I want to stay like this forever. But I can’t. I know that.

“I’m alright,” I whisper, still unable to pull away from her warmth.

“No,” she says, still petting my hair, “you aren’t. But it’s okay. You’re with us, we’ve got you.”

“I ruined your cycle,” I say, my voice rough. “They marked you. I ruined it.”

Desir’ee bends over and kisses the top of my head, her scent clouding around me, blocking everything else out. “You didn’t. Nothing can take away from what I feel with them, I promise. You needed me, you needed us. That’s all.”

I might cry again. I pull in another breath and let it out slowly before I look up at her. Deep pools of acceptance meet me and it’s almost too hard to look into them. “Thank you.” I don’t know what else I can say. It doesn’t come close to expressing what I feel, but that’s all I can manage.

She smiles down at me and tucks my hair behind my ear, or tries to. It isn’t quite long enough to stay. “I’m sorry we put you in this position. Thank you for coming.”

“Don’t,” I whisper, “please don’t. Don’t apologize. I’m glad I was here. I just have trouble sometimes.”

She cups my jaw, still smiling. “I’m glad you’re here, too.”

That forces me to remember what I overheard last night. She wanted me in her nest. My presence in a nest has never been requested, much less demanded. I’m not sure Desir’ee even wanted me in there to do more than just see it. It doesn’t matter, either. I would have shut down completely.

“No, no,” she says softly. “No. We’re all good now. We’re going to get cleaned up and go to breakfast. Have you been to the Rose Cafe yet? They have the best chile verde chilaquiles ever. We always go there after my heat. Can you stand going with us? Will the scent bother you? We’d shower, but we need it. I do, actually. I get really agitated and upset if they don’t smell like me afterwards.”

Yes. It will bother me. So much. But I can’t seem to stop myself from dragging in deep lungfuls of it. I have never been so terrified of something so fucking appealing. “No. It won’t bother me. I’ll be alright. Please, I’m sorry to ask, but please, will you wear… more? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but I don’t think I can stand for people to eat you up right now like they did at the beach.”

Michael and Ben laugh in unison, then Ben says, “this is the only time we care what she wears. And it’s only because of the whole territorial thing with being in rut. Any other time we like it when people look at her. We have what they can’t have and we like to flaunt it because we’re assholes.”

“I hope I can get to that point of enlightenment before I die,” I say dryly, and they laugh again.

“Alright,” Desir’ee chirps, and cups both sides of my face so she can look into my eye for a long moment. She nods at whatever she sees. “Let’s go. I’m going to put on jeans and a hoodie, then we can go.”

It’s so easy being with Desir’ee and the twins that it scares the shit out of me. We went to breakfast and sat together like we’ve done it a hundred times. I didn’t feel separate, or like an outsider. Talia and usually Nathan do what they can to make me feel included, but I’m not stupid. Jasper would climb up the outside of the garage like a damn spider and kill me in my sleep if he thought he could get away with it and the rest of them, including Corso most days, would make sure he didn’t get caught. I deserve that. I’d feel the same way if I was him. My friendship with Corso has changed over the past couple years, grown into something genuine, but I know what I did to his omega is a constant thorn digging into the back of his mind.

The twins and Desir’ee come back to my temporary house after breakfast. We’re on our fourth movie. I can’t admit it back home, but I love Jasper’s horrible horror marathons. Mother fucking love them. Apparently the twins like campy, awful low-budget horror films, too, and Desir’ee enjoys naps so it’s working out pretty great right now.

This feels the way Talia’s pack looks. I wish it was mine. I wish I could keep it. I wish I wasn’t here on a job. I wish I didn’t have to go back.

Chapter Eighteen

Michael

I knew how important Desie’s job was to her before I had a bond with her, but I didn’t realize how much she loves it. I like my job, I like most of the guys I work with, and I like knowing that my job helps our community, but I don’t love it. She loves her job at the hospital. She even loves it when she has to deal with the bad things that sometimes happen. I can feel it when she talks to us about it after her shifts, and I love how much she loves it, how passionate she is about it.

Mateo took it as well as we expected him to when he found out about us claiming Desie. He wasn’t angry, not exactly, but he was extremely anxious about it. Anxious? That isn’t right. No, he was scared to death because we don’t have a third. Not officially, anyway. Seth is it, though. Me and Benny feel it, Desie feels it. She wouldn’t have made her nest the way she did if it wasn’t right. It’s just a matter of time before everything slides into place.

I don’t know what happened in his past that has him so fucked up, but it’s more than losing that shitty pack. The world is a better place without those assholes in it and Seth knows it. Whatever happened might have something to do with them, it definitely has something to do with them, but they aren’t the sole cause of his current state. And Desie is really worried about him, which means Ben and I are worried about him. We’d obviously be concerned on our own, but between feeling her worry through the bond and hearing it in her voice when she talks to or about him, concern has rolled straight into worry. She wants to fix it, whatever it is, immediately. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be an easy fix, and I’m pretty sure the only thing that’s going to help Seth is being there for him and with him while time does what time does.

“Is that the last of what you’re bringing?” Ben asks her, his voice muffled by the stack of boxes he’s carrying out to the car. She tried to go back to her brother’s house, but she came back to us in the middle of the night. The bond made the separation too uncomfortable. We weren’t thrilled with her driving over by herself, but by the time we knew she was on her way she was more than half way here. We’ve been trying to make her understand how dangerous it is for her to do things like that because the Flores pack is definitely watching her, but Desie kind of doesn’t give a fuck about that kind of stuff. If she gets it in her head to do something, she does it; with or without us knowing about it. Having a bond with her isn’t going to change that, it might give us a bigger heads-up, though.

“Yeah,” she calls from the porch. “I can get the rest later. They won’t need to turn my room into a nursery for a couple months. I’ll have time to get everything else by then.”

Amber is finally pregnant. It’s an uncanny case of perfect timing that everyone is grateful for, despite Mateo’s concern over it. Desie is over the moon. She and Amber already have the whole pregnancy planned out, down to most of the delivery details that can be planned for. Every ounce of worry Mateo has over Amber is canceled out by Desie’s relief and support. It feels like so many things are falling into place at one time.

We take Desie’s things to the house, but we leave it all stacked and piled in the living room because we have to go get her an actual bed for her bedroom. It’s going to have to be a big one, too. She’s already declared that we’re going to be sleeping with her, so mine and Ben’s beds are going to end up being mostly useless.

The sales person at the furniture store takes us straight up to the floor with the bedroom suits and gets to work pointing out the biggest, most expensive ones. Desie smiles and sits on each one he suggests but isn’t really happy with any of them. Ben and I don’t care, whichever one she picks is fine with us. He ends up taking us through every bed on the floor, even revisiting a few of them, but none of them are right.

“Can I ask, Miss Romero, what is it that you don’t like about them? I’m more than happy to call our other locations to see what else might be available.”

Desie looks around at the dozens of beds, her mouth pulled to the side. “It sounds silly, but they’re all too loud.”

“Too loud?” the sales person clarifies.

Ben and I exchange a look. We know exactly what she means.

Ben goes to the nearest bed and sits down on it. “Too loud,” he says, grinning, and proceeds to bounce on the mattress, making the few other people on the floor stare in our direction. It sounds exactly like an in-store railing.

I watch the sales guy fight back a laugh, for the sake of professionalism, I’m sure, then he suggests looking at their futon selection.

“I don’t know,” Desie says. “The slats are awful. I slept on one once at a friend's house. It was pretty uncomfortable, and I think the frame was still pretty loud.”

“We have higher-end futons that are just as comfortable as a regular bed. Would you like to see them?”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Ben is still aggressively bouncing his ass on the bed. It’s funny, but distracting. “It can’t hurt to look, D. Let’s get him out of here before he wears out the springs on that one and we have to buy it.”

The futon Desie picks out is every bit as expensive as the regular bed and doesn’t make a sound when both Ben and I bounce on it. It’s going to be a whole lot easier to set up once we get it home, too.

We’re about a week into our new arrangement when I get the call from the station. The fires have already started. I thought we might have a little longer before they sent us out, but this year is starting out strong. It’s always bad when Ben and I have to go, but this time it’s going to be so much worse. Leaving Desie with her family while we’re in the mountains or in another part of the territory is hard enough under our previous circumstances, but now…with a bond in place…it’s going to be rough. And Ben and I both have to go.

“She can go to Mateo’s,” Ben insists. “She’ll be alright there. All her brothers will be there and they’ll keep her safe.”

That would be an easy solution if her safety was the only thing we were worried about. “The bond, Ben. We’re going to be separated for at least two weeks. You and me will be okay, for the most part, because we’ll be together. We can call her and even do video calls, but she’s still going to be alone. Being at Mateo’s won’t stop her from feeling the separation. It might even make it worse. I don’t know.”

“But Amber’s there. They can talk about baby stuff. That’ll help, right? Maybe it’ll be alright.”

I nod, the unfortunate thing is that we won’t know how alright it will or won’t be until we’re too far away to do anything about it.

Desie is understandably and expectedly unhappy when we tell her, and she’s even more unhappy when we ask her to stay with her brother.

“I don’t want to be at Mateo’s. I want to be at home. Are you sure you have to go?”

She’s never, ever, not once, hinted at asking us to stay back. Not even when the fires were so bad that half the city had to evacuate. “Yes, baby. We have to go. You know that. Will you please go to your brother’s so we don’t have to worry as much? Please?”

She sighs. “Fine. I’ll go. But I don’t want to.”

“I know. We’ll make it up to you when we get back.” I try to make it sound lewd, but that’s more Ben’s forte. She smiles for me, though.

“You better. I’ll get some things together and leave out when you do. Have you already let Mateo know, or do I need to call?” She asks, already digging in the dresser.

“I already called. Your bed is still up. He said you might want to bring the blankets from our bed, though. And the laundry basket.”

She rolls her eyes, but pulls up the corners of the sheet on the mattress and dumps the basket of our clothes into the center of the pile. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

“We won’t stay out longer than four weeks at a time, but it won’t be that long before we come back. We’ll get back inside of three weeks,” Ben says, taking off his shirt and putting it into the bag Desie’s packing. I do the same.

“Thank you,” she says, smiling at us. “I was going to feel ridiculous asking for them. You promise to call?”

“Every chance we get,” I assure her.

After we follow her to Mateo’s and get her settled, we get to the station in time to be yelled at for dragging our feet. Benny informs everyone they can fuck right off and I back him up. We get our base gear on and pack the rest and our essentials into our assigned truck and wait for the chief’s pep talk before we head out to the mountains.

He gives a good speech and we all give him the reaction he needs from us to feel like we’re ready to go, then he comes over to where Benny and I are standing in front of our truck.

“I know your situation, and I agree that you don’t need to be out here, but we need everybody on this. They started earlier than usual and they’re already moving fast. I’m sorry. I’ll get you two back as soon as I can send you home, but I’ll probably need you back out after a few days. I’m going to try to give everyone two day breaks.”

“We know,” Benny says, “and we appreciate it.”

The chief looks around us and whispers, “any luck with the third?”

He’s one of the only people not directly involved in our situation who knows about it. He’s been trying to convince us to give his son a chance for a couple years. We don’t want to offend him, but Xavier is just too young in spirit and age. We need a pack mate, not a babysitting gig.

“Some. We may have found someone we like. It’s going to take some work, though.” I hope he doesn’t take it badly. His son will make some other pack really happy one day, just not ours.

“Good, good. Alright,” he claps his hands and yells to everyone else, “let’s get going.”

~

I know, without doubt, that Desie isn’t doing well when we call her the first night. She’s pulling it together like she always does when she has to deal with difficult shit, but this is going to be more than that. By the fourth phone call, Ben and I need to make a decision. She isn’t okay. The separation is more than she can take alone. She’s been asking about going back home, but she can’t be there by herself. And, just like I thought, being around her brother’s pack is just reminding her that hers isn’t with her. We asked about leaving out early, but we knew that wouldn’t happen.

“We could call Seth,” Benny suggests.

We could. I’m just not sure that we should. I don’t know if it’s a good idea to leave her with him if there’s a chance that he wouldn’t be okay. And then there’s the other thing… “Do we think that’s a good idea? Think he could handle it? Would it help without the bonds? I don’t know. What if he has another episode and Desie has to deal with it alone?”

Ben sighs. “I think Desie can handle anything, for the most part. This separation is hurting her, though. Too much. She won’t be in heat, he should be fine. Right?”

I drag my hands down my face. “Alright. Let’s call him first to see if he can go get her. He has to take her to the house, though.” I close my eyes and take a breath before I address the unspoken issue we’ve been avoiding talking about. “She wants…I think…”

“What if he fucks her, right?” Ben asks dryly.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I don’t know if he would, or could, you saw him. But Desie wants him. Obviously. What do you think?”

I think I might be jealous, but I’ll never tell Desie she can’t have Seth. Especially considering the fact that we’re likely going to try to convince him to be our third anyway. And it isn’t like he’d be our third and she wouldn’t be his omega, too. “I think Desie can decide what she wants to do with herself and we can just deal with it. It’ll be fine. Her at the house with him will be a whole fucking lot better than her shutting down at Mateo’s with us all the way out here.”

So, we call Seth.

And he says no.

“Come on,” Ben cajoles. “What else are you going to do?”

Seth sighs. “Not have a panic attack that she has to handle, for one. And for two, not put my ass where it doesn’t belong.”

“It’s not your ass we’re trying to put–”

I elbow Ben before he can finish that thought.

“Look,” I say, “Desie isn’t doing so great with us gone. We were hoping it would be better for her to be at her brother’s place, but I think it might be worse. Us marking her doesn’t help things. She needs to be home where everything smells right.”

He doesn’t immediately respond and Ben picks up where I left off. “We’re probably going to be out here for at least two weeks. Mateo will always make sure she’s okay, but she isn’t the priority at his house right now. Nobody’s mad about it, it’s just how it is. It might be a little better for her if we hadn’t marked her, but we did, and she’s really feeling it. She likes you. She knows we like you. We trust you to look after her until we get back. Imagine how distressed she’s going to be by the time we get back. If she’s at the house it won’t be as bad.”

After a few beats Seth sighs and I know we’ve got him.

“Fine. I’ll go get her and bring her home. Call her and let her know I’ll be there in a couple hours to pick her up. We can go back to get her car when she needs it, but it’s going to be better for me to pick her up. I don’t want her going into the house before I see that it’s safe. I do have a meeting with Minos this weekend, though. She’ll either have to go with me or stay with her brother until I come back to get her.”

She’ll love that. He’s going to drop her off with a babysitter while he goes to work. That’s going to be really fun for him.

“What do you even do all day, anyway, man? Just follow Alpha Minos?” Ben asks.

Seth sighs. “Pretty much. Go with him to places, sit in on meetings, visit places he suggests. Real fun stuff.”

Chapter Nineteen

Desie

I started gathering up my things before I ever hung up the phone with Michael. He said Seth was going to be here in a couple of hours and I’ve been sitting on the porch with my bag and my bundle of blankets for forty-five minutes. Amber peeks out every few minutes to check on me, and Mateo has texted me no less than eighty times asking if I’m sure I want to go back to the twins’ house with Seth. I’m tired of arguing with him about Seth. Yes, Seth is a stranger when you compare him to the people I’ve known all my life, but he doesn’t feel like a stranger.

Either way, I’m leaving this house. I had no idea it was going to be this hard to be without them. I don’t know how people do this. It’s only been a few days and I already feel like I’m dying. And I love Amber and my brothers, but their house smells…not awful, but not right. I can’t be here.

Seth’s truck pulls into the driveway and I’m up and walking toward it before he gets it in park. He doesn’t say anything, he just gets my bundle from the porch and shoves it into the backseat of the cab before he helps me into the passenger side. He waves toward the window Amber’s looking out of and we leave.

“Are you hungry?” he asks after a few minutes.

“Not really. Thank you for coming to get me.”

He glances over at me, “of course. I didn’t know Michael and Ben had to be away. I don’t know that I’ll be much help myself; but being at your own home will help. Talia has to do that sometimes when Nathan and Trent go away for longer periods of time. She likes to be in their rooms and usually sleeps in their beds if she needs to.”

Seth doesn’t talk about his home life back East very often. I don’t understand the dynamic, not exactly. Most of the time it seems like Talia is his sister, maybe. I know he doesn’t have any siblings, so maybe they just grew up together. I have no idea how big the pack is. I don’t want to make him feel uncomfortable, but I’m so curious. “I’ve heard you mention Nathan, Trent, and Kaleb, but sometimes it sounds like there’s more than just them.”

He’s quiet for a long moment, but he does answer my non-question. “There are nine in their pack, including Talia. Kaleb, Nathan, Trent, Corso, Alex, Reid, Devon, Jasper, and Talia. They’ve done so much for me. I wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t helped me. Especially Talia and Kaleb.”

He’s said that much before, but if he’s going to talk, so am I. “How long have you known them?”

The corner of his mouth turns up just a little. “I’ve known most of them since I was a kid, or I’ve known of them. I wasn’t really on their radar before a few years ago. I’ve known Talia longer than the others.” His smile falters when he says that.

I want to ask so many questions, but I’m not going to. Instead, I ask about one of the other names he listed. “Corso?”

His smile comes back stronger than before. “Zaphir.”

Is he serious? “As in the alcohol?”

“The one and only. He’s the best man I’ve ever known.”

I close my mouth and digest that little tidbit. Corso Zaphir is one of those people who you think of in a very abstract way. You know he exists, but he isn’t a real person, just someone you read articles about. “You live with Corso Zaphir?”

“Not in the same house,” Seth laughs. “I have my own space. But, yes. He’s like an older brother. I don’t know what we’d do without him. I could introduce you if you want.”

As appealing as the idea of embarrassing myself in front of Corso freaking Zaphir is, I’ll have to pass. “No, that’s alright. It’s just wild that you’re close with someone so famous.”

“He has no concept of how the world sees him. He just wants to make his whiskey and take care of his pack, he doesn’t care about the rest of it. He’d really like you. I hope he’ll get the opportunity to meet you.”

“Eight alphas is a lot for one omega.”

Seth is quiet again, but eventually he says, “it is.”

The rest of the ride home is quiet, and I basically jump out of the truck when Seth puts it in park. Actually, I do jump. I have to. It’s a big truck. But that doesn’t matter because I’m home.

I rush up the walk to unlock the door but Seth yells for me to stop. It takes every drop of patience to stop where I’m at, but instinct takes over as I register the thread of an alpha command in his tone.

“Sorry,” he says, a little sheepishly. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I know you’re happy to be home. Just let me go in first, okay?”

“Why?”

“It will make me feel better.”

Fine. I hand him the keys and follow behind him to the door. I don’t care, I just want to be inside as quickly as possible. The past few days have been absolute misery. I’m going to go straight to the bedroom, spread the bedding back on the bed, then roll it all up around me until I can breathe easy again.

He unlocks the door and tells me to stay behind him, then he cautiously steps inside. I follow close behind him. We go room by room, making sure everything is the way it’s supposed to be. Nothing smells or looks off. Nothing is out of place. Everything is exactly where it was a few days ago.

Finally, he puts the keys on the hook by the door. “Okay. I’ll go get your things from the truck.”

I’m already waiting in the bedroom when he comes back inside. He stands stiffly at the door, holding out the bedding with one hand.

“You can come in, you know.”

He shakes his head, but he does sneak a look around the room. “It’s okay. I’m going to go work on some emails for a while. If you need groceries or anything, just let me know when you’re ready to go.” Then he disappears down the hall.

I didn’t mean to make a nest, but I did. One minute, I was stretching the fitted sheet across the mattress, and then three hours later I’m cocooned in the center of a very cozy nest made up of bedding and laundry. And something else woven into the corner that definitely wasn’t in the bundle when I tied it up at Mateo’s. It’s a blue tee shirt. Seth’s blue tee shirt. The one he was wearing earlier. Oh my god. I stole the shirt off his back. I might die.

Dead or not, he’s not getting his shirt back. It can stay right there where I put it.

He’s sitting on the couch working on his laptop when I finally work up the nerve to leave the bedroom. He’s wearing a black tee shirt, and his bag is sitting beside him unzipped with other clothes piled on the cushion. He smiles at me when I come fully into the room and puts his work away. “Are you ready to go to the grocery store? You mentioned needing some things.”

“I’m sorry I stole your shirt.”

Seth blushes. Blushes. “Don’t be.”

Well, alright. If he’s not bothered, neither am I. “What do you like to eat? I’ll make a list and we can go.”

Seth doesn’t like peas or brown rice, which works out because Ben isn’t big on peas, either, and none of us like brown rice. He does have a weakness for pasta dishes and ice cream, though. That also works out pretty well because who doesn’t love pasta and ice cream? So, we load up the cabinets with too much pasta and zero peas, and we’re pretty happy with ourselves when we have banana splits for dinner.

I don’t have another shift until after the weekend. I asked for extra because I thought it might help take my mind off of Ben and Michael being in the mountains for so long, but my supervisor kindly and gently explained that she barely wanted me there for my regular shift. She said I would be distracted, emotional, and jumpy. I would have argued with her and fought for more hours, but she’s right. I feel a whole lot better knowing Seth is around, though.

I talk to my boys every night, usually on a video call. Tonight I’m making everyone’s life hard because I’m taking the call in the shower. Seth was watching some awful movie when I came into the bathroom, and with every minute of the phone call, the volume on the television has increased.

Ben and Michael are sitting in the cab of one of the trucks for the call. I can hear the muted sounds of whatever is happening there. Every few minutes I take a picture to send them while we talk. They’re miserable, but they love it. The last picture was of my foot resting on the side of the tub with soapy bubbles dripping down my calf, the new picture is of my soaking wet hair fanned out across my breasts, my nipples conveniently hidden by the dark tresses. They both let out curses when it comes through.

“So mean, Des,” Michael murmurs. “Sending us things like that when we can’t do anything about it.”

I giggle, and angle the phone over my shoulder to get a positively cruel shot of my arched back and raised ass. I’ll send that one next. “You don’t want any more pictures? I thought you missed seeing me,” I tease.

“We miss you, you know that,” Ben says. “We’re just sitting next to each other in the cab of a truck, parked on the side of the road with other guys walking past us every few minutes. I don’t want to get myself off sitting next to my brother any more than he does.”

“Liar,” I laugh, and hit send on the picture. “You do more than that next to him when we’re in bed together all the time. You could jerk off sitting across from Michael at the dinner table and neither of you would bat an eye.”

The moment the picture makes it through they both groan.

“You’re killing me, baby,” Michael growls. “That’s the first thing I want to see when I get home. I want you just like that in the shower the second I walk through the door.”

I giggle again. “What should the next picture be?” I hum the question. It’s rhetorical. I already know what picture I want to send next. It’s tricky, everything’s slippery and I’m trying hard to not drop my phone into the tub, but I get a fantastic picture of my hand squeezing one of my breasts, pushing it against the other one. The edge of my nipple is barely visible between my fingers and the full curve of my other breast is delicious, if I do say so myself.

“Are you going to make yourself cum in the shower, baby?” Ben asks. “Didn’t you say Seth was in the living room? That’s just a few feet from the bathroom door. He’ll hear every sound you make while you touch yourself.”

That gives me pause. Part of me worries that it might bother Seth to know what I’m doing in here, I don’t want to trigger him. But another part of me relishes the idea of him listening, maybe stroking himself to the thought and sound of me. Maybe it will be different if he knows I’m alone as opposed to when I was in heat. Maybe the heat is what set him off to begin with.

“You know he wants you, right? I can see it every time he looks at you.” Michael purrs, fueling my own fantasy of Seth sitting out there on the couch, hard and eager while I let the twins talk me through an orgasm…or three. As many as I can have before the water goes cold.

“You like that don’t you, baby?” Ben picks up. “I can tell from the way you're breathing. You like him wanting you. You’d love it if all three of us sat in a row and watched you.”

I hit send on the picture. “I’d love to see all three of you sitting in a row doing way more than watching me.”

“Jesus, Desie. Why are you so evil?” Ben hisses. “I’m so hard that it hurts, and every picture you send is worse than the last.”

I laugh again. “Wait until I switch the call to video.”

“Oh god, please, Desie. Don’t. I can only take so much. I don’t give a shit about the interior of this truck,” Michael groans. The image of him adjusting himself through his pants flashes in my mind and I sigh. Something about them hard and aching with need all for me, straining against their zippers makes slick drip down my thighs.

Speaking of thighs, I push my hand between mine; covering my mound with my palm but making it obvious that my middle finger is tight between my lips, pressing and sliding slickly over my clit, then I hold my phone in front of me to get a good picture. I don’t take my hand away, though; I let my slippery finger slip inside me. Just a little.

“You’re touching your pussy, aren’t you?” Ben asks.

I send the picture. “How did you know?” I drag my fingertips across and around my clit again, moaning into the phone.

“Fuck,” Michael growls, Ben giving a similiar, rough curse.

“Don’t stop,” Michael urges. “Finger yourself, describe it to us, let us hear you cum all over your own hand.”

“I want to see you, too,” I whine.

“We can’t right now, baby. There are too many people around. We’ll give you a good show when we get home, I swear,” Ben promises.

I huff a disappointed breath. I know it’s crowded where they are, that they have little to no real privacy, but it would be so hot to see pictures of them fisting their cocks. Just the thought of it has me biting into my lip, which would be wonderful for the next picture, so I take it and send it off.

“What are you thinking about right now that’s got you making that face?” Ben laughs.

“Watching you jerk off,” I say honestly.

“Damn, Des. Maybe I’ll send you a few pictures. I’m not as shy as Benny. I don’t care who sees my dick, so long as you keep saying shit like that.” I can almost hear Michaels zipper lowering.

I circle my clit again, quietly moaning as I imagine Michael unbuttoning his jeans and dragging down the zipper, pulling out his already rock hard cock, precum shining as it drips from the tip.

“Tell us what you’re doing,” Michael husks.

The strain in his voice causes me to moan again, and I press my fingers against my swollen clit, easing the ache as much as worsening it. “I’m rubbing my clit. I’m so achy. I need you.”

“Put the phone on the wire shelf, baby. You need both hands,” Ben says, his tone tight. “I want you to pull at your nipples the way we do when we fuck you.”

We’ve done this before when they’ve had to be on-site. It’s obviously not as good as them physically being with me, especially not now that we have a bond to nurture, but it’ll have to be enough until they come home. We should probably invest in one of those suction cup caddies so I feel better about putting my phone down with the shower running; but it’ll be secure enough in the slotted wooden tray in the meantime.

I do just what Ben said. It feels so good to rub and pluck my sensitive nipples between my fingers and a soft sound of pleasure tumbles from my mouth.

“That’s our good girl,” Ben praises. “I’ll bet you’re all slippery. I love running my hands all over you when you’re covered in soap.”

I imagine the feel of Ben’s rough palms slipping across my body, sliding over my breasts, my hips, my thighs. I love being taken in the shower. It’s so warm and steamy, and everything feels so much more sensitive because of the water. I like being lifted up and squished between them while they take turns pushing inside of me. I love how our bodies feel slipping against each other.

“I wish you were here,” I sigh, lifting my foot to rest my toes on the edge of the tub while I slide one of my hands back down to my pussy. Between the slick and the soap, my fingers glide easily over my clit.

Michael groans again when I do. “I want you to let us fuck you again, at the same time. I’ll be so easy, Desie. It’ll feel so good in the shower.”

We’ve done that before, too. The memory of exquisite fullness pulls at me and I push two fingers inside myself, tugging at my nipple with my other hand. “Yes,” I gasp. “Yes. I want that. It feels so good with both of you.”

I abandon my nipple and drag my palm down and across my hip and farther back, slipping my fingers between my cheeks to tease my back entrance. Sensation explodes and my hips thrust involuntarily as I moan.

“Tell me what you did just now,” Michael grits.

I simultaneously swirl my fingertips across my asshole and pump my fingers inside my pussy, hissing and panting. “I’m fingering myself, just like you said. Front and back.” It’s silly, but no matter what vulgar, lewd things I think inside my own head, I just can’t bring myself to say things like pussy and asshole out loud. Sometimes something slips out and their reaction is always explosive. I have no idea what I say when I’m deep in, but I’m confident I’d be horrified.

“Fuck,” Michael growls, and I hear something pop on the other end of the line, then a rustling sound.

“Are you serious?” Ben hisses, not to me.

“I don’t care. Take the picture,” Michael grunts.

I keep building my momentum, rubbing my clit in circles every other thrust, teasing my asshole, pressing my fingertip just a bit more every time I do it. Then my phone buzzes in the tray and I jump to open the attachment.

It’s a picture of Michael’s fist wrapped tightly around his thick cock. Precum is dripping from the tip and rolling down the side of his head, and the V of his muscled abdomen is only slightly masked by the shadows surrounding him. Licking my lips, I groan and all but smash my fingers against my clit. “Oh gosh, Michael. That’s so hot. I wish I was there to lick it.”

More growls sound from their end of the call and Ben makes everything better and worse by describing what Michael’s doing. “He’s so hard, Desie. We both are. He’s stroking up and down, real slow, holding his cock so tight, and he’s leaking so much. People keep walking by, anybody could see him jerking off right now.”

I shiver, knowing Michael is exposed, risking someone seeing him pleasure himself just because I want him to. Then I think about Benny torturously hard behind his zipper. “I want to jerk both of you off at the same time again. I love that,” I tell them. It’s true. Feeling both of them thick and hot, trembling in my hands and lifting their hips into my touch is one of my favorite things in the universe.

“We like that, too,” Michael purrs. “Keep touching yourself, baby. Can you get your fingers inside? God, I want to hear you finger your pussy and your asshole. Try Desie. Let me hear you.”

“Fuck yes, Desie. Do it,” Ben pushes. “I want you to feel how tight you are. I want you to imagine how tight you are around us when we fuck you like that.”

I whimper, and thrust my fingers inside my pussy, pushing steadily against my back entrance, gasping when one of my fingers breach the tight ring of resistance. If I’m this tight around just my finger, I can’t imagine how constricting it must be when one of them uses their cock.

I keep working my fingers, grunting and gasping until I coax a second finger inside. Then I flex my wrists, thrusting inside from both directions as deeply as I can. I moan, long and loud, and do it again.

Twin groans come across the line, then Michael growls, “how many fingers are you using? What does it feel like?”

“Two,” I pant, wishing it was more, wishing it was him. “I don’t know how you fit.”

Ben chuckles. “It’s tough sometimes. Feels so good, though.”

I keep working my fingers deeper, pressing the heel of my hand against my clit, climbing closer and closer to release as breathy, needy sounds fall out of me. They continuously urge me higher with the things they’re saying.

“You’re doing such a good job, baby.”

“Keep going, you sound so sexy.”

“Fuck, Desie, you’re going to make me cum.”

Then Ben says something that pushes me over the edge.

“Just imagine, baby. Me in your pussy, Michael in your ass, and Seth can take your mouth. Then you can be full of all of us.”

The image flickers behind my eyelids, and it takes all my effort to keep from collapsing into the tub when my orgasm rolls through me.

Michael hisses his release soon after, then Ben starts laughing about the fact that there are no napkins in the truck and the chief is standing right across the road. Michael tells him to shut up, but he starts laughing, too. I tell them both to shut up, and that I’ll text them goodnight, then I finish my shower in lukewarm water.

When I come out of the bathroom, hair wet and skin pruned, Seth’s movie is still playing at high volume, but he isn’t in the house. He’s out on the porch deep into his own phone call. From the quick glance I took through the window, whatever Seth’s talking about is either serious or terrible. I feel pretty awful that he had to take his call outside, but I have zero regrets about my shower adventure with the twins; and I have no intention of mentioning what Ben said to topple me over into that explosive release.

We’re supposed to order pizza tonight. It’s a big deal because he likes pineapple on his pizza like I do, and there isn’t a set of twins here to give me a hard time about. But things have changed.

“So, remember that meeting I told you about? With Minos?”

I nod.

“Well, it was supposed to be on Saturday, but he just texted to see if we could do dinner tonight instead. I’m sorry for postponing pizza night, but I need to go. You’re more than welcome to go with me; in fact, I’d love it if you went with me. But if you’d rather go to your brother’s house while I’m there, I’ll drop you off and pick you up when the thing with Minos is over. It’s up to you, whatever you decide is okay with me.”

I know who Alpha Minos is, obviously I do. Everyone does. But he doesn’t generally have dinner with regular people; I suppose Seth isn’t regular people, though. He’s a councilman. It’s perfectly natural for him to have dinner with Alpha Minos. I might have an anxiety attack over it, though.

“I want to go with you.” His eye lights up and crinkles at the corner. I hope I get to see him without the eyepatch someday. He’s handsome with it on. Hot, actually. Very hot. I’ll never ask, it’s very likely to be triggering, but I can still hope. “But I don’t know what to wear. Where are we going? I can’t wear jeans to a high-end place.”

“You can wear whatever you want anywhere we go.”

Silly boy. “Yes, that’s probably true; but if the restaurant has a dress code I’d like to follow it.”

Seth looks down at his phone. “A place called Mercury.”

I can almost feel the color draining from my face. “Mercury?”

He nods. I don’t own a single piece of clothing that is nice enough to wear to dinner at Mercury. “What? Is it a bad place? I can tell him we can meet somewhere else.”

Sure, let’s rearrange a dinner date with the head alpha of the West Coast Council because I don’t have a nice enough dress. Maybe he’ll want to go full-slum and grab tacos from a truck on Castillo.

“Really,” Seth urges, “if you don’t want to go there, I’ll tell him to pick somewhere else. It’s not a big deal.”

“What are you going to wear?”

He looks down at his black tee shirt and faded jeans.

“Oh my god, no. You cannot wear jeans and a tee shirt to Mercury.”

“It’s a fancy place, then?” he asks, with no small amount of disappointment.

“Yes, Seth. It’s a very fancy place. Do you have a suit?”

His lip wrinkles. “I’m not wearing a suit.”

Oh my god. “A sweater? Slacks?”

He looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “This is hell’s asshole, Desir’ee. I didn’t think to bring a sweater. I have slacks and a button-down. That’s as fancy as I get. You could wear that black dress you were wearing at the meet and greet. That looked really good.”

Sweet, silly, stupid boy. “Absolutely not, that’s a cotton sundress. I’ll find something. How long do we have to get ready?”

He looks down at his phone again. “He said reservations are at eight.” That gives me less than two hours to figure myself out.

Every piece of clothing I own is piled on my bed, and I only have thirty minutes left to get ready. None of it will work. I’ve tried on every combination of every piece that is nice enough at least twice. None of it looks good enough to meet Alpha Minos, and probably his gorgeous omega, at Mercury. Maybe I will just go to Mateos.

My phone rings, I don’t recognise the number. It might be Ben or Michael calling from someone else’s phone, though. That’s happened before when they’re on site. I answer, but it isn’t one of the boys. It’s Mallory Minos.

“I hope you don’t mind, Desir’ee,” she drawls, her accent turning my name into a little song, “Seth shared your number. He said you were worried about what to wear to dinner tonight.”

I’m going to kill him, just as soon as I get off the phone. “No, I don’t mind. I just don’t want to be underdressed, that’s all.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve been there straight from the gym before. You just wear what makes you happy.” I think the fact that she’s Alpha Minos’s omega has escaped her reasoning. She can wear whatever she wants wherever she wants and nobody would bat an eye. I’m just a regular person, I can’t do that.

I try to sound relaxed, but I’m sure I fail miserably. “Sure. I just wanted to wear something a little nicer than a pair of shorts and a tank top, you know? I’ve never been before.”

“Oh, that’s alright. Any dress you have will work beautifully. Just throw on a pair of heels and you’re all set. Besides, you’ll have some really nice arm candy to complete the look,” she laughs.

Nope, I’m not going to be rude to Mallory Minos because she thinks Seth is nice to look at. Seth is nice to look at, after all. Really nice to look at. And it isn’t like she’s going to go after him. “Are you sure? I have some dresses, but none of them are Mercury-nice.”

“They’ll be fine, honey, any one of them. I’m going to wear a simple blue one that I ordered online. Nothing fancy. It’s too hot to be fancy.” Someone says something to her in the background and she tells me, “okay. That’s my last call. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

Alright. I won’t kill him. I do feel better knowing Mallory’s going to wear something simple. I grab the burgundy halter dress from the middle of the pile and put it on, then the strappy white sandals. I twirl my hair up in a bun and that’s it. We still have ten minutes before we need to leave.

“You look beautiful,” Seth says when I walk down the hall.

“Thank you for getting Mallory to call me. It helped.”

He smiles, “Talia gets nervous about clothes sometimes, too. Jasper usually handles that.”

“You look nice, too. Ready to go?”

I’ve been at events when the Minos pack shows up. Everything stops and everyone gawks until they get settled and the gawking continues until they leave. I’ve done my own fair share of gawking. I’ve never been on the receiving end of it, though. People haven’t stopped staring since Seth and I walked through the door behind them. People are staring at me specifically. I recognise some of these people from school and work. The head of the hospital is even sitting at one of the tables we walk past on the way to ours at the back of the restaurant.

Seth pulls out my seat for me and touches my shoulder when he slides into his own seat. They put Mallory and I next to each other at the large round table. Seth is sitting next to Alpha Minos, and the rest of his pack fills in the remaining four seats. I hope nobody’s trying to talk about anything secret tonight, they’ll have to yell across the table to say anything. Not that I think any of them are going to be talking about any secrets.

Small talk of all varieties is what happens as dinner orders are taken and then brought out. Mallory seems genuinely interested in my work at the hospital and if I intend to work with any of the private home birth units in my off time; and Minos is making an odd point of pointing out every pack that has a relationship with the Flores pack. I’ve heard his name more in the last hour than I’ve heard it in my entire life, and everytime he says it Seth finds a way to discreetly touch me. My hand, my elbow, offering me more water or wine, even nudging my thigh with his. I think it’s as much for his comfort as it is mine.

Everything goes smoothly until Minos brings up Council Operative Teams.

“You’re close with the Johnson pack. What can you tell me about the COT units the East Coast Council uses? I wonder if something like that might be useful here.”

Seth tenses. His face tightens and he doesn’t immediately respond. Everyone at the table is quiet until he takes a breath to answer. “I’m going to be very blunt here. Please don’t be offended. I’m not trying to be rude or offensive.” He reaches for my hand and I give it to him. This is the first time he’s reached for me since after my heat.

He takes another breath. “I can’t share much of what I know about the COTs. It takes a certain type of person to be on a COT unit and most people don’t make it through the training. The council needs to be able to trust each person on the unit implicitly. I think you’ll need to re-evaluate some things before you could successfully implement something like that here.”

Mallory speaks up quietly without looking up from the table. “Do you know Elizabet Graves?”

Seth looks around me toward her. “I’m very familiar with Missus Graves. Why?”

Mallory bites her lip and looks at Minos, who nods. “Do you know very much about her institute for omegas?”

“I know a little. I can put you in contact with her daughter. I’m close with her.” Seth squeezes my hand and I pull our joined hands into my lap.

Mallory nods. “If you could, I’d be grateful.”

The entire atmosphere at the table has changed. It has become dark, heavy. I don’t understand.

“Of course. I’ll pass your number to her, if that’s alright.” He returns his attention to Minos. “I’m sure you’ve put it together by now, why I’m here?”

Minos nods. “Not entirely, but yes. Call me selfish, but I hope to take advantage of the opportunity. I have a lot to say, but I can’t say it here.” He looks around the restaurant. I don’t know who he’s specifically referring to, but there are more people who either owe or work for the Flores pack in this area of the Western Territory than there are people who don’t have a connection with them. And they’ve become way too interested in me.

I look over at Seth and find him staring down at our hands in my lap. I’ve been absently tracing the gently raised scars covering the area where he’s missing fingers. I immediately stop and pull my fingers away. I can’t believe I didn’t realize what I was doing.

“It’s alright,” he says. “I don’t mind. I’m just not used to it. It’s okay. It doesn’t bother me.”

That’s great, but I’m too embarrassed that I was touching him so intimately to keep doing it.

Mallory clears her throat. “I see two marks, Desir’ee. Can we expect a third soon? I can’t wait to see what the registration form will look like with the additional credentials.”

Minos cuts in, saving me from having to come up with a good answer. “I’ll sign it myself when it comes through. We were thinking about seeing a late movie tonight. You’re welcome to join us?”

Seth looks at me with raised brows. I guess I get to decide. I don’t want to go, I really don’t. I’m tired of being stared at and if I’m watching a movie I want to do it on my couch at home. I also can’t imagine Seth being comfortable in a dark, crowded theater. But saying no means refusing an offer from the highest ranking pack in the territory.

“Oh, Alphie,” Mallory leans forward to bat her eyes at him. “Can I change my mind about the movie? I’d much rather go home” She raises an eyebrow, making her intent obvious.

“Another time then, Pratchett,” he chuckles. “Maybe we can book a private showing. I think it’s past Mallory’s bedtime, anyway.”

I take off the heels while we’re waiting for the valet to bring the truck around. Seth is obviously not happy about my bare feet on the sidewalk, but he doesn’t say anything.

“Just a minute,” he says when I reach to open the door when the truck parks in front of us. He walks around it and looks inside the cab before he nods and helps me inside.

“Can I ask you something?” I ask when we pull away from the curb.

“Of course.”

“Have you always been so anxious?”

“No.” He doesn’t give me more than that. I’ll add that to the list of things I hope to eventually learn about him.

I change into ratty pajama bottoms and one of Benny’s hoodies as soon as I get home and instantly feel much better about life.

“I don’t know how you can stand to wear all that,” Seth laughs. “I’m over here sweating and you put on a damn sweatshirt.”

“You could get more comfortable, you know,” I suggest. “You have shorts, and I won’t complain at all if you don’t wear a shirt.”

He blushes again. I don’t know what I’ll do with myself if he keeps doing that. “I don’t know about all that,” he says, “but I will change into shorts. Want to watch a movie? It sounded good earlier, I just didn’t want to go to a theater.”

“We can watch a movie, but I’m picking it. It’s going to be sappy, so prepare yourself.”

He laughs and digs around in his bag for a change of clothes. “Don’t tell anybody, but I love sappy movies. Be right back.”

Chapter Twenty

Desie

Seth emerges from the bathroom wearing a tight black sleeveless undershirt and a pair of cut off sweatpants. He’s trying to kill me. I know it. Like a typical red-head, his shoulders and arms are covered with freckles, he even has a sprinkling on his calves. Seth isn’t exactly lanky, but he’s not beefy like the twins. He’s taller than they are, too, which means I look ridiculous standing next to him.

“Feel better?” I ask, flipping through the movie options and trying my best not to look too hard at what I can and cannot see of him.

Seth sits next to me on the couch and stretches his legs out, his feet disappearing under the coffee table. “Much better. What are we watching?”

I pick the sappiest, steamiest movie I can find, with the most innuendo. Apparently I’m a masochist. Seth doesn’t complain, but he starts fidgeting when the scenes get extra steamy.

One movie turns into two, and two turns into a marathon, and the next thing I know I’m waking up wrapped around Seth’s body with his arms around me and what Ben calls a sleepy boner digging into my side.

I can’t help it, just knowing that he’s hard and right there and holding me sends fire rushing through me. He wakes up drawing a deep breath and stiffens slightly. Neither of us moves. I don’t know what his reluctance is about, but I want to stay like this with him as long as I can. He feels and smells so good. This is the best and most calm I’ve felt since Michael and Ben left.

He shifts slightly, causing him to press into me a little more, and it’s all I can do to keep from making a sound.

“Are you awake?” he whispers, his voice rough.

“Yes.”

“Are you uncomfortable? I don’t want–”

“No,” I cut in. “Everything about right now feels wonderful. Are you uncomfortable?”

“I don’t think so.” His words come slow and a little stiff.

I don’t say anything else, and neither does he. We lay there not talking or moving for a long while, then he sighs. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

“What do you mean?”

He sighs again. “I want to do things with you, but I know better.”

I don’t know what that means. The fact that he’s here right now should tell him that just about anything he wants to do with me is okay and I tell him exactly that. “I think anything you’d want to do would be a great idea.”

He laughs a little, but it sounds a little sad. “I'm afraid.” Seth says softly, not meeting my eyes.

Afraid. Other than the twins, I’ve never met an alpha who admitted to being afraid, and the only thing they've ever said they were afraid of is losing me. They walked into an actual raging fire just this morning without flinching, they do it every year without a hint of hesitation; but they're actively and admittedly terrified of losing me. Seth hasn't known me long enough to have that fear.

I push the wavy, red hair back from his forehead, urging him to look at me. He turns his face up, a little paler than usual, but he doesn't open his eye. Okay. Lifting up to straddle him, I comb my fingers through his hair while I think back on every conversation I've had with him. Something truly terrible happened to him at some point, that much is obvious; I just don't know what it could be. He lost his pack, but whatever is destroying Seth from the inside is worse than that. He can talk about losing his pack, he can't talk about whatever the terrible thing is. He could barely function during and after my heat. It's got to be something in relation to that. Maybe he lost his omega when he lost his pack, or maybe he lost his pack because of something that happened to their omega.

I trace my fingertips down from his temples to his jaw and he takes a ragged breath and sits up, bringing me with him. His own hands stay on my hips. Stiff. Tight. Like it might hurt him to even wiggle a finger. Then I get it. Then I start to understand.

“Are you afraid of me, Seth? Or for me?”

He takes another shaking breath and swallows loudly, then answers, nearly choking on the word. “Both.”

Both. He’s definitely afraid of me, which is ridiculous, I’d never hurt Seth, but if something happened to his past omega, it would make sense for him to be afraid of so many things in relation to having a connection to me. But being afraid for me? Of all the things Seth makes me feel, in danger isn’t one of them. I feel like he’d destroy himself before he’d ever hurt me.

“Seth,” I say, running my fingers through his hair again, tugging on the longer ends at the back. “I’ll never hurt you.” I bend down to brush my nose against his. “And you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“You don’t know that.” The words sound like they cut into him, like the consonants have hooks on the ends of them, tearing him on the way out.

I kiss his forehead. “Yes, I do. Will you let me kiss you? I really want to, and you need it.”

He nods, but he still doesn’t look at me. Putting my hands on either side of his face, I cover his mouth with mine. He doesn’t do anything to help the kiss, but he doesn’t pull away. That’s okay. If he didn’t want this he wouldn’t have said yes. I just have to be careful, go slow, until he feels better.

I give him slow, lingering kisses, just gentle presses of my mouth against his, until he takes another of those shuddering breaths. I let him feel my smile against his lips, then ask, “more?”

His nod is hesitant and jerking, but it’s there. His hands still haven’t moved, but now his fingers are spread wide. I curl my fingers against his scalp and tilt his head just a little farther so I can give him a deeper kiss.

I lick into his mouth, sliding my tongue against his, letting myself taste him, and he makes a little sound in his throat. I've never really been on this side of this situation. I've never been in a position to coax someone through a kiss. His small sound is more than enough to encourage me, though. Every hitch in his breath makes me ache for more.

“Don't stop,” he rasps when I gently pull away. “I don't want this to stop. I won't touch you. I promise. I won't move at all. Just...don't stop.”

The desperate undertones in his voice border on panic, his eye wide and staring into mine, his brows pinched. He moved his hands to the back of the couch at some point during the kiss and he's gripping it so hard that his knuckles are white. Is this what it looks like when an adult is starved for touch? No, not touch-starved, that isn't it. He's close with the pack back on the East Coast, and I've been as affectionate with him as I can be since I met him. This is something related to his past, but I can't think of a single reason for him to be afraid of touching me.

I trail my hands down his neck and across his shoulders along the stretch of his arms. “What if I want you to touch me, Seth?”

“I,” he closes his eye and leans his head back against the couch, “I can't. I'm sorry. I just --”

I lean in to run my nose up his arched neck from between his collarbones up to his ear, taking in deep breaths of his scent. “What if I touch you?” I whisper. “How would that be?”

His throat clicks with his swallow. “Good.”

“Good,” I repeat, and drag my hands back to his shoulder. “Because I want to touch you.” And then I do. I pull his shirt over his head so I can slide my palms across his chest and sides. I touch every part of him that isn’t covered. I even lean to the side to brush my fingertips over the parts of his calves that I can reach.

“I love your freckles,” I hum. “I want to kiss all of them, but that might take a while.” He smiles at my silly joke. He isn’t pulled quite as tight, but he’s still a far cry from relaxed. He’s still hard, though. I’m doing my very best not to grind against him. It would feel so good to create the friction I need so much, but we need to take this slow. We need to make sure he is okay with every single thing we do before we do it. It’s frustrating for me, but in the most fun way. Like working hard to earn a reward, and I get the feeling that once Seth finally lets go, he’s going to give me the best reward.

“I’m going to kiss some of them, though. Starting with these.” I lean to kiss a cluster of freckles on the top of his shoulder. “Then this one,” I move to a freckle sitting by itself in the place where his neck meets his shoulder. He sucks in a little breath when I press my lips there, so I let that kiss linger before I move to the next one that isn’t quite on the side or the front of his neck, “and this one. Want me to stop?”

He shakes his head, not lifting it from the back of the couch. If I had one of the twins under me like this, I would be doing everything I could to get them to take control and flip us over; but with Seth it’s different. He needs to be willing, but he's a passive participant in what we’re doing, and that’s okay. I’m very much enjoying being in control and knowing I will get to keep that control.

“Good.” I kiss his throat. There aren’t any freckles there, but I want to taste him. He makes a gasping sort of sound when I swirl my tongue around his Adam’s apple. I immediately pull back. “Too much?”

He squeezes his eye shut and gives another tight shake of his head. His fingers are digging into the padding on the back of the couch so much that I’ll be shocked if it doesn’t tear. He’s still as hard as ever, though. Such conflicting reactions.

“Did that feel good?” I ask, stroking across his chest again.

After a few breaths he answers. “Yes.” But his eye is still shut, his brows scrunched together in one of those expressions that means something is either very good or very bad. It is very obvious that he’s torn between wanting this and having a hard time with it. I don’t want Seth to push through being uncomfortable. I want everything we do together to be something he wants and fully enjoys. The trouble is that I don’t know what’s making him uncomfortable.

“We can stop. We don’t have to do–”

“No,” he says, his head snapping up. “No, I want this. I want all of it. I just don’t know if I can…finish it. I don’t want to disappoint you if I can’t.”

I might be disappointed if he couldn’t finish what we start, but I would never hold that against him. Maybe we need to go about this a different way. Maybe I need to go another direction to help take the pressure off of him.

“How about this,” I say, putting my hands on his cheeks. “This is going to sound terrible and very selfish, but I have a good reason. Since you’re worried about me being disappointed, how about we worry about not disappointing me instead of you finishing. We can have all kinds of fun without worrying about that. And if you do finish, that’s just an extra treat. Does that help at all? And we can work up to worrying about you finishing”

“I don’t understand.”

Sometimes guys are so completely dense, even the smart ones. “I want you, right?”

His mouth turns up a bit. “Yes.”

“And you want me, right?”

“Very much.”

I lean in so I can whisper against his ear. “I want to feel you inside me. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.” I move to the other ear, “I want you to stay just the way you are while I ride you. I don’t want you to do anything, let me do it all. Keep your hands on the back of the couch and your feet flat on the ground. Think you can handle that?”

I wait for his nod. It’s slow in coming, but I get half a smile with it. “Okay. We’re going to go slow. If you need to stop, tell me right then. Don’t try to push through. I’m going to give you a couple rules, okay?”

“Okay.”

“You can’t do anything unless you ask first. Okay?” If he wants it enough to ask for it, then he’s definitely okay with it. He nods, his body seemingly relaxing just a little. “And if you need to stop, you say so. Got it?”

He nods again.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Good enough. “Alright. I’m going to take off some clothes.”

He smiles lopsidedly as I stand up between his knees to undress. I take off the hoodie first and drop it on the couch beside him, but I keep the tank top. Seth is going to want to see my breasts and he can ask for it. My pajama bottoms are next to go, along with my panties, and I kick them off behind me.

Seth's cock is straining against his shorts. He can't seem to lift his gaze from my thighs, it's actually adorable. And sexy. I love that he's enjoying looking at me so much, it's wonderful, but I want to look at him, too. “Lift,” I say, tucking my fingers into the waistband of his shorts. He lifts his hips so I can pull his shorts off.

Seth is long and straight and thick, just like he said at that first meeting. And leaking. I've never seen a man leak so much. “I want to taste you,” I say, licking my lips. “Is that okay?”

He nods, and I bend down, bracing myself on his knee with one hand and gripping the base of him with the other. I’ve always associated gun oil with masculine strength and safety, and Seth’s scent registers as intensely and sensually masculine. I let myself enjoy the way it clouds around me for a moment before I continue my seduction.

I hold his gaze as I lick across his wide head, his sharp gasp filling the room. His taste explodes across my tongue and I hum in appreciation. Seth is delicious, and I'm going to spend hours appreciating that fact, just not right now. Any other time I'd want more attention, but right now I just want him.

“I'm going to ride you, Seth,” I start climbing across his lap. “Are you ready?”

“I hope so.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Seth

So wet. And warm. Fuck, I hope I can do this. I want it so much. Desir'ee is slowly taking me inside of her, making these breathy little sounds with every roll of her hips. God, I want this. I need it. I hope I can do it. Not being allowed to help, or do anything else, is helping. Knowing my job is only to focus on whether or not she finishes also helps.

“Stop thinking,” she whispers. “If you start thinking, I'll start thinking. I don't want to think, I want to feel.” Her hips rock and she takes about half of me inside her.

“What are you thinking about?” I ask, smiling when her brows draw together.

“I said I didn't want to think.”

She slides down a bit more, and I groan. She's so tight around me. Fuck, and getting even wetter. “Tell me anyway,” I whisper, curling my toes against the floor to keep from thrusting.

“I've never been with anyone but the twins,” she says. “Only them. And now you.”

Oh. Well, that's a big deal. “Are they going to be angry?”

“No,” she laughs softly. “I don't think they would have sent you here if they were going to be mad about this. You know we want you to to be their third, right? You have to know.”

I nod. I can't say anything else as she sinks down, taking in the last little bit of me. We both sigh as she swirls her hips in little circles.

“You feel so good, Seth,” she purrs.

I wish I could respond, tell her how goddamned good she feels around me, but I'm concentrating so hard on breathing and keeping my heart inside my chest to say anything. It's been a few years since my last attempt at sex with a partner, and I don't remember it ever feeling as good as this feels right now. I really want this to work. I need it to.

“Stop thinking, Seth,” Desir'ee says again, grinding against me. She didn't take off her tank top and every movement raises her breasts so their swells above the neckline draw my attention. If I wasn't so terrified of fucking this up, I'd yank the material down so I could see them. I want to see her nipples. I need to know what color they are, their shape and size. I want them in my mouth and to feel them against my palms when I press my hands against them.

She leans back, her hands on my thighs as she rides me, arching her back, thrusting her breasts forward, her nipples standing out under the material of her shirt. My mouth waters. It's been so long. So fucking long.

“Can I see your breasts?” I hear the words tumble out of my mouth but they're quiet in comparison to my heartbeat.

She doesn't answer, but jerks down her shirt, letting them spill out just inches in front of my face. Her sweet scent surrounds me and I feel myself leaning forward, straining against my hold on the back of the couch to get to them.

She raises up on her knees and sinks back down slowly, steadily. Her tight, dusky nipples tease me just out of reach, and a growl starts low in my chest. I need to put my mouth on her. I need her scent, her taste, everything, inside me. I need it like I need air to breathe. I watch her hands come up to cup her breasts, squeezing them, kneading them, rolling her nipples between her fingertips. My low, rolling growl intensifies and her minty scent becomes stronger, her slick dripping down my balls. Too much. This is too much. The urge to take her to the floor and fuck her across it until we hit the wall has me gripping the frame of the couch so hard that the wood pops.

Then she cums, and I stop breathing. It's been so long since I've been inside someone long enough to feel them cum, and even before then it was nothing like this, nothing. There is nothing to compare this to. It's so many things all at once. She clenches around me, holding me tight while short, high-pitched cries bounce off the walls and ceiling.

She slowly comes back down, smiling and stroking my heaving chest. “Are you okay?” she asks me, raising up high on her knees to keep just my tip inside her.

Am I okay? I close my eye and tilt my head. My pulse is racing, thundering in my veins, and my breaths are coming short and quick, but neither of those things have anything to do with panic or fear. It's all want, and need. I'm still so very hard, still fighting the urge to thrust my hips. I'm okay. I really think I am.

I nod, opening my eye to see her worried expression. “I'm good. You're so beautiful, Desir'ee.”

The corner of her mouth lifts in a smirk. “Good. Because I want to cum again.” Then she starts riding me again, harder now. “I want to ride you and have so many orgasms that I lose count and have to start over.”

I don't know why, but that is probably the funniest thing I've ever heard and now I'm laughing, full, deep, belly laughs, while she fucks me. “I'll try to help you keep count,” I say, but it's a lie. I want her to lose count.

She picks up her pace, thrusting and grinding harder and faster, and I remember how badly I wanted to taste her breasts when she arches her back. “I want to taste you.”

“Are you asking?” she breathes, putting her hands on the couch behind my head and bending to drop a kiss on my mouth.

“Yes,” I murmur against her lips, “yes. Please, I want to taste you.”

“What do you want to taste, Seth?”

I want to growl at her for teasing me, I feel my throat tightening with it, but I push it back. “Everything. Your neck. Your shoulders. The space between your breasts. Your nipples. Fuck, yes, your nipples. All of it. Everything.”

“Is that all?” she teases again, but threads her fingers into my hair and leans forward to offer me her breasts.

I lick across her nipple and pull it into my mouth, sucking a little too hard; but she likes it. Her fist tightens in my hair and she groans.

“Yes. Just like that. Don't stop.”

I never considered stopping. I swirl and flick my tongue in time with her hips, even letting her feel my teeth gently press into her.

“Oh my god, Seth,” she gasps. “Don't stop, don't stop. I'm going to cum again. Don't stop.”

My name in her mouth like this... I want it again and again, over and over until she can't say it anymore. I want to do everything I can imagine to hear it. Her movements become shorter, less rhythmic, more urgent; and she holds me tighter against her breast, allowing me to take more than just her nipple into my mouth. When she cums this time, it's quieter, but no less intense. She takes as much of me as she can inside her, but my knot is beginning to swell and she can't get past it.

A wave of panic rushes through me. She can't. I can't. Not that. I jerk my head back, suddenly unable to breathe. “Wait, please, Desir'ee, wait. Stop. I can't. I'm sorry.”

She immediately stops moving, lifting off me with a wet sound that I would have found satisfying a few minutes ago. She stays perched on my thighs, ignoring my swollen cock pulsing and bobbing uselessly against her stomach. “What happened? Are you alright? What do you need?”

I lean my head against the back of the couch again. “I'm sorry.”

“Shut up,” she says, gently, without frustration. “Just tell me what happened so I don't do it again.”

“It wasn't you,” I pant. “It's me.”

“Just tell me what happened. It's okay.”

I take a few shuddering breaths. “My knot.”

“What about it? Did I hurt you?”

I feel a small smile pull at my mouth. “No, baby. You didn't hurt me. But I don't think I can let you have my knot. Not yet, anyway. Is that alright?”

“Yes, Seth. That's alright. I don't have to take your knot if that's too much for you.”

All I can do is breathe and nod with my eye screwed shut.

“Do you want to keep going? Do you want to try to finish, or are we trying again later?”

I don't know if I can finish or not, but I want to try. I really do. “I want to try to finish. Having rules helps, asking helps. I'm sorry I ruined it just now.”

She smiles at me and trails her fingertips across my chest and shoulders. “You didn't ruin anything. You did just what I told you to do. You told me when you needed to stop and we stopped. If you want to keep going, all you have to do is let me know when you're ready.”

“Are you playing connect the dots with my freckles?”

She grins and uses one finger to make a direct line between several on my shoulders. “Yes.”

And just like that, I feel like I can breathe again. “Can we keep going? I'm okay now.”

She shifts and slides back down my length without putting pressure on my knot. It isn't that I don't want to grab her hips and push her down until it's as deep inside her as I can get it. Fuck, I want that. I want to know what it feels like to be locked together with her. I want to know how it feels for her to fall asleep in my arms while I'm still inside her. I want it so fucking much. But the closest I've ever come to pushing my knot into someone is before…with Talia… and I just can't get that close again. The damage a knot can do isn't worth the potential pleasure. Maybe someday I'll be able to do it, but until then it has to be like this. Honestly, I'm surprised I still want to try to finish. This is the farthest I've been able to go with another person in years.

“Stop thinking so hard,” she urges. “We'll get through it. It's going to be okay.” She waits for me to nod at her before she starts riding me again. She starts out slow, just like before, but it feels a little different now. She's warmer, wet with even more slick, her body prepared to take my knot.

“I'm sorry,” I whisper again. Then she pinches me. She pinches my left nipple, quick and sharp.

“Stop thinking about your knot. I don't need to take your knot to cum again, and neither do you. You're just supposed to worry about me finishing anyway, not you. Remember?”

“I remember.”

“Good,” she circles her hips, sighing when my head rubs against a good spot.

She starts at a slow pace again, alternating circles and thrusts, gradually moving faster and harder until she's riding me as hard as she can while carefully avoiding my knot. As grateful as I am for that, I still feel guilty. Omegas need knots, and I can't give her mine. I don't know if I'll ever be able to give her mine. They want me as their third, I can't be that for them if I don't mark her, and I can't mark her if I can't knot her.

“Ouch!” I hiss. Desir'ee bit me. Bit my chest. Bit it hard.

“I told you to stop thinking. If you have to think, think about me. Think about this. Think about us. Everything else will fall into place, but right now I want more of you.”

“I'm sorry,” I tell her. “I'm trying. This isn't fair for you.”

She leans in to kiss me. “I'm not complaining.” She goes back to rolling her hips. “Let me worry about what's fair for me. Tell me what you're feeling right now. How do I feel to you?”

“So good, Desir'ee. You feel so good. So warm and soft and tight. You smell so good, like cookies and that mint tea that Jasper likes.” It might be strange to be talking about Jasper right now, but she doesn't bat an eye.

She puts one hand on my shoulder for leverage and grasps her breast with her other hand, pinching and tugging her nipple in time with her thrusts. Soft sounds of pleasure turn more urgent, and when they become frustrated she leans back, moving her hand from my shoulder to my knee. Writhing, undulating, rolling; the way her body moves is hypnotic.

I watch the shape of her, watch her chase her own pleasure with no regard for mine, and find that it's so much better than seeking my own. It's so much better to see and hear Desir'ee take what she wants from me. It allows me to be in the moment with her, but as an instrument instead of an active participant. It's so good, so satisfying, and that feeling of satisfaction unexpectedly burns a path straight to my balls. They tighten, the feeling being elevated by the slick dripping off them and most of my cock being inside her. The hot, electric sensation of an orgasm starts to become overwhelming.

If I'm able to cum while I'm inside her, I might actually pass out. Fuck, this feels so goddamned good. My eye darts between her thighs where I can see my cock shining wetly every time she lifts her hips, my knot angry and swollen and untouched at the base.

I shouldn't have looked. I shouldn't have let myself see. It's too much like what happened before. I hear the whimper leave my throat, but I don't feel it. I know it's Desir'ee fucking me, I know I'm a passive participant in this, I know she wants it; but knowing those things doesn't stop the violent flash of memory from stealing my breath.

Desir'ee's fingers sink into my hair and she jerks my head back, my scalp stinging from the pull. It brings my attention sharply back to her.

“Stay with me,” she purrs. “Stay with me, Seth. You're mine, now. I've got you. Stay with me.” She leans into me, pressing the front of her body against mine, slightly slowing, but not stopping her rocking and grinding. “You feel so good inside me, Seth. Can't you tell how much I love this? It feels so good to ride you. I'm going to cum again, can you tell?”

I can tell.

She's beginning to tighten around me like she has a few times already tonight. “Don't you want me to cum all over your cock again? Wouldn't that feel so good?”

“Fuck,” I grunt, struggling to keep my ass on the couch and my hands where they are. “Yes. So good, Desir'ee.” I'm going to do it. I'm going to cum. “Please, darlin, please. Don't stop. Fuck, oh god, baby, don't stop.”

She rocks faster, one of her hands moving between our bodies so she can rub her clit. I can feel her knuckles press into me as she twists her fingers in tight circles. I want to be the one doing that, I want her slick’s scent on my fingers. And on my face. God, I want her to ride my face just like she's riding my cock.

I'm going to cum. Oh my god, I'm going to cum. Desir'ee is going to have my cum inside her because she wants it and I'm going to give it to her. My balls tighten and lift even more, a sharp, tingling throb shooting up my length to the throbbing head, and I throw my head back to roar at the ceiling. My cock pulses and jerks violently again and again as I give Desir'ee my release. All of it.

By the time I finish, I'm shaking and crying. And laughing. Desir'ee is purring, smiling at my reaction to the first shared orgasm I've had in years.

“I'm sorry,” I whisper. “You didn't get to finish.”

She laughs softly, and strokes down my cheek. “I finished. I've had so many orgasms that we're going to have to replace the couch.”

~

The new couch is a color too light to be beige and too dark to be considered cream, but what's important is that it's coated with the best fabric protector on the market. Jasper and Talia have every piece of cloth-covered furniture at the manor coated in it every few months. I thought it was kind of funny until I got up from the couch after Desir'ee fucked me. Now, I understand where they were coming from.

I agree with Trent and Alex, though. I wouldn't have replaced the couch. I would have been more than happy to sit on a couch that smelled just like Desir'ee's slick and I imagine the twins wouldn't have been a bit bothered.

I still can't believe I was able to cum with her. Every time I think about it I smile. I was smiling like an idiot when Kaleb called me and I haven't really stopped, even though he's not very happy on the other end of the line.

“Are you sure, Seth? Really sure?”

He's still having trouble accepting what I'm telling him about Minos. It's understandable, considering everything we've been led to believe about him. “I know it sounds wild, but nothing we've heard about him is true. He knows he's having trouble over here. He understands it. He's trying to get a handle on it, but he's just one man and there's too much territory. Too many people who want his power. He's not our guy, Kaleb, but he's got some ideas about who our guy is. Lopez. We need to be looking at Lopez and the Flores pack's activities. We need to look at the illegal fights, those aren't just for money. It's all connected. I think Minos's omega was one of the captured ones. Minos needs help. Our help.”

Kaleb sighs. “You want us to fix the entire West Coast territory?”

“He needs help, Kaleb. He all but asked me for help.”

The line is quiet for a moment, then his tongue clicks. “You realize how much bigger this just got for us, right? If Lopez has anything to do with the missing omegas, it would serve him to usurp Minos; and a good way to do that is to make him look like a guilty asshole. You're sure he's asking for help.”

“Asking without asking. We were in a crowded restaurant. There were a lot of ears around to hear him ask outright. I can get confirmation. He was asking about the COT units, too.”

Kaleb curses. “What did you tell him? Why was he asking?”

“Just that it takes someone with unquestionable loyalty to qualify for COT placement, and that there probably wasn't anyone out here trustworthy enough to make it.”

“How did he take that?” Kaleb laughs.

My smile fades a little. “I don't know. His omega started asking about Elizabet. She asked about the institute. I think Talia should talk to her.”

Kaleb lets loose a long string of curses. “Did you say Talia's name out loud?

“No,” I say, no longer smiling. “But everyone knows Talia is Elizabet's daughter by now. I told Mallory that I was close to Elizabet, and that I could put her in touch with her daughter. I didn't mention a daughter's name. I know she's one of the missing omegas. I know the Flores pack has something to do with it. You should talk to her. I'm sure she'd be more comfortable talking to Talia or Elizabet, but maybe you could talk to her. Or maybe Nathan. She wants to tell somebody something, Kaleb.”

He sighs again. “Okay. I'll talk to Nathan. I don't want her talking to Talia. Thank you for not saying Talia's name.”

“Of course.” They can think what they want about me, with good reason, but I would never put Talia in danger. Hell, all I've done for the past seven years is try to keep her out of danger.

Desir'ee comes out onto the porch laughing on her own phone call. She blows me a kiss on her way to the swing hanging from the tree in the front yard.

“Keeping busy while you're out there, I see,” Kaleb hums, and my smile comes back.

“It isn't what you think,” I tell him. He's protecting his omega, as he should, and I want to protect Desir'ee the same way. Not that she's my omega. Not yet, anyway. I'm not trying to hide her from Kaleb, I'm just not trying to share her just yet. The second I say her name, he'll tell Nathan and then they'll know more about her than I do. They might find out more about her than even she knows, and that isn't what I want for her. That's not how I want to introduce her to them.

“If you say so,” Kaleb teases, pulling me out of the epiphany I was having about the realization that I want Talia's pack to know Desir'ee. And the twins. The realization that I might be actively trying to build my own pack, and that it might be a very good thing, whether I deserve it or not.

Desir'ee smiles over at me, and I smile back.

God, I hope I can have this. I'll give up my council seat. I don't care. Corso can keep it, or appoint someone else, it doesn't matter. I'll relocate to this territory. Whatever I have to do to keep this.

~

Desir’ee comes squealing and giggling into the kitchen the next morning while I’m making coffee. I’ve been here for almost two weeks and I’m really starting to dread having to leave when the twins come back for a few days of respite. I know it’s inevitable, but I’m going to pretend like it isn’t until I have to go.

“Ben and Michael are coming home tonight!” she exclaims, coming up behind me to squeeze me in a hug. “They only get to stay for two days, but they’ll be here before dark!”

I’m glad they’re coming home. It means that they’re alright. They need and deserve the break, and they probably need Desir’ee as much as she needs them. I’ve done my best to be here in their stead, but I’m not her alpha. They’ve marked her, created bonds with her. The three of them need each other.

There hasn’t been any more sex between Desir’ee and me, but I’ve slept in her nest every night since we did have sex. She decided that she couldn’t sleep alone anymore, and that it was stupid for me to sleep on the couch; so I have another thing to be miserable about until I come back when the twins need to leave again. I’m not sure how I’ll ever get used to sleeping alone in cold sheets again after being snuggled in a warm nest for so long.

“Why are you sad?” she asks, giving me a quick kiss on my cheek before going to her usual seat at the table. “Won’t you be happy to see them?”

“Of course, I’m going to be happy to see them. I’m not exactly thrilled with their choice of profession. I want them home. I’ll just miss being here, that’s all.”

Her face falls into a scowl, not a pout. “Where are you going?”

“You won’t need me if they’re here. I’ll be back when they have to go again, don’t worry.”

Her scowl deepens. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right here.”

I get Desir’ee a glass of juice from the fridge and put it in front of her, then pour myself a cup of coffee and sit at my usual seat across from her. “Michael and Ben are going to want to spend some time with you without me here cramping everything.”

Now comes the pout. I secretly love the pout. It’s the sexy end of adorable. “I don’t want you to go.”

I give her half a smile. “I’ll come back when you need me, I promise.”

“I need you to stay here. That’s what I need.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Michael

I can smell the difference in her the moment I walk through the door. Even though we knew what could happen when we asked Seth to stay with Desie, and agreed that asking him was the right thing to do, it’s still jarring for his scent to be woven throughout our house; and it’s downright unsettling to smell him on Desie. Even more unsettling than the mere presence of Seth’s scent is the fact that it’s a pretty damned appealing combination. You’d think the addition of gun oil, steel, and warm wood to our usual scent of sweet mint and magnolias on a hot, stormy night would be weird, but it’s perfect and I’m not sure how to feel about that. I’m typically the one to lose my temper or get jealous, but today’s tantrum is all Ben, and it’s probably triggered entirely by the new combination of scents, all layered with the hint of sex. He’s snarling before I can do anything to stop him from saying or doing something he’ll regret. Something we’ll regret.

“You fucked her,” he growls when Seth stands up to greet us when we walk in.

Before Seth can say anything, Desie throws her hands on her hips and glares at Ben. “Stop it. I fucked him. And we’re keeping him. So, just stop it, right now.”

Ben turns to me, but all I have for him is a shrug. He’s on his own. We expected this, I don’t know why he’s suddenly upset about it.

“He’s not a goddamned stray, Desir’ee,” he barks, squaring off with her like it’s going to do any good.

“He is, actually; and now he’s ours. We made a special, high-effort dinner to celebrate you guys coming home for a couple days. Your favorite, Benjamin. Don’t be a jerk.”

Ben scrubs his hands down his face and sinks onto the couch. We’re both exhausted from two weeks of fairly literal hell at the foot of the mountain. I doubt he has the stamina to fight against the inevitable right now, even if he had a true argument.

“This is a new couch,” he mumbles, leaning his head against the back of it and closing his eyes. “What happened?”

Seth looks at the floor and opens his mouth to respond but Desie answers. “I ruined it.”

I snort and flop down beside Ben. “I bet you did. We needed a new one, anyway. Do I have time for a nap before dinner?”

“No,” Desie says, offering me her hand to help haul my ass back up. “But you two don’t take long to eat. Then we can take a nap.”

I pull her down into my lap. I don’t care if she smells like Seth. Fuck, I might even like it. She giggles as I nuzzle into her neck, but it turns into a needy moan when I lick across the marks Ben and I put on her. “If we go to bed, baby, it won’t be to nap.”

“Come on, Michael,” she urges. “Food first. We worked hard on it.”

“Fine,” I sigh. I pass her over to Ben. He needs the attention more than I do at the moment. “Give Ben some kisses while me and Seth set the table.” I nod at Seth to follow me and round the corner to the kitchen.

He comes in and starts getting plates and glasses from the cabinet while I go for the silverware. We don’t need more than forks, but it’s the ritual that’s important, not the cutlery. We’re about to sit together at our table as a nearly completed pack. The only thing missing between me, my brother, and Seth is the pack bond; and it’s only a matter of time before it snaps into place. Hopefully, Seth will be able to work through whatever his troubles are so he can put his mark on her and then we can register with the WCC. We’ll probably need to register with the East Coast Council, too, seeing as he’s a sitting councilman.

“Is it okay?” Seth asks quietly as he puts a plate down at Desie’s usual place.

I put a fork and napkin next to it and smirk at him. “That you fucked our girl?”

He actually blushes. It must be a ginger thing. I’ve never seen a man blush so much. “I mean, yeah. Is Ben upset?”

I follow him around the table with my forks as he lays down the rest of the plates. “No, he’s just surprised at the difference in her scent. It’s fine. And besides, she fucked you, right?” I wink at him so he knows I’m joking. I’ve never met anyone twisted up as tightly as Seth Pratchett.

“Well,” he starts, and has the nerve to look bashful, “to be blunt, she did.”

“Oh my. Did sweet, innocent Desie take advantage of you?”

He finally smiles, and turns back to the cabinet for the glasses. “A little bit. It was hard to… I had a hard time.”

“Like before?” That was horrible. Seeing Seth in pain like that after Desie’s heat was awful. I hope it wasn’t like that when me and Ben weren’t here to help her handle him.

“Not quite,” he whispers, looking toward the hall. “But it could have been. She’s really wonderful.”

“She is.” I get a pitcher of water from the fridge and some ice from the freezer and put it in the center of the table. Our table isn’t huge, but it’s plenty big enough for the four of us.

Ben walks into the kitchen carrying Desie over his shoulder and sets her down next to her chair. He looks at Seth and nods. “I’m glad.” Then we have dinner, and it’s an amazing thing. I’ve heard of packs who had a difficult time with their bond falling into place, or waiting for a long time for everything to connect. We aren’t going to have that problem. Seth has been falling naturally into place since we walked across that restaurant together the night we met.

Desie pulls us down the hall to the bedroom as soon as we finish dinner. Seth tries to hang back in the living room, but she isn’t having it. She drags him into the bedroom to stand beside the nest they’ve apparently been sleeping in since Ben and I have been gone. Whatever happened between Desie and Seth didn’t happen in here. The scents filling this room are warm and happy, but that’s all they are. I was, however, expecting a well used bed, not a nest made of our laundry and blankets. That’s not something that happens outside of her being in heat.

“You made a nest?” I ask. If she went to the trouble of making it, it was necessary and important.

She nods. “It just kind of happened. I had been upset for days and when Seth finally brought me home, it just happened when I was making the bed. It felt wrong to take it apart, so I didn’t. Seth likes sleeping in it. It’s big enough for all of us, I made sure.”

I know she did. Omega measurements run on instinct and maybe some kind of magic because they’re always perfect. “I love it. I like sleeping in your nests, too.”

“Me, too,” Ben chimes in. “But we’re not about to sleep right now.” He turns to Seth. “No offense, but are you up to this?”

Seth swallows and tilts his head. “I don’t know,” he says sadly. “I was planning on staying away so I wouldn’t be in the way, especially if you and Michael were uncomfortable with me being here.”

Ben laughs. “I can and would fuck Desie on a stage at the amphitheater, you’re not going to bother me. Will this bother you? Before…”

“I know,” Seth says. “I know. I’m not sure. I don’t think it will bother me since Desir’ee and I worked through a couple things. But I don’t know about, um, joining.”

He’s purple. He’s a grown-ass man standing in front of a nest blushing so hard that he’s almost purple. It’s ridiculous, and hilarious. And I think I might enjoy it a little bit too much.

“You’re not joining,” Desie chirps and pulls off her tee shirt. We all whip our heads in her direction and she rolls her eyes. “You’re practicing. The same rules apply. You have to ask. You’re going to sit right there and hold my hand every time I reach for yours. And if you need some relief, well, either you, or me, or we will take care of you. Right now, I just want you to try to get comfortable being in the same room with us. If it’s too much, all you have to do is say so. Understand?”

“I understand,” Seth drawls, and pulls the chair from the desk to the side of the nest.

I don’t understand the concept of Seth having rules, though. Obviously, whatever agreement they had before was successful, but rules? “What do you have to ask for?”

“Everything,” Seth says softly. “If I want to see something, touch something, taste something, I have to ask for it.”

“Do we have to ask?” Ben asks.

“Do you want to?” Desie answers.

Ben opens his mouth, to say no, I’m sure, but then he closes it, his eyebrows drawn together. Then he looks at me. “Maybe I want to ask.”

“Not this time,” Desie says. “That’s too much asking. You want to play a game, but Seth actually needs it. I’ll play an asking game with you later if you want to ask for things. I’ll make you ask for all kinds of things, Benny.”

“Promises, promises,” Ben sighs and starts to undress. We still smell like smoke but we’re clean. Desie has a love-hate relationship with our scents during fire season. She likes the smoky essence, she says it appeals to her primal instincts and I try hard not to laugh every single time she says it, but she loathes the reason it clings to us. Her opinion of our job is also very love-hate. She's proud of us, and terrified for us. I didn’t realize just how afraid and worried she was until I had the bond with her. I can feel her fear like it’s my own. That’s part of the reason we sent Seth after her.

I start pulling off clothes and adding them to Ben’s pile but stop when I see Seth sitting in the chair fully clothed, watching Desie watching us. “You’re keeping your clothes on?”

“Yes,” he answers without looking away from Desie. “It’s better this way, I promise.”

Well, alright then. But… “We can’t fuck her like we usually do when we come back, Ben.”

Ben nods, but Seth asks. “Why not?”

“Because,” I say, taking off my boxers and stepping into the nest, “we fuck her hard. Really hard. For a long time. Sometimes when we’re out there it feels like we might never see her again. Sometimes scary shit happens and the only thing that keeps us from doing stupid shit in response is thinking about her and what’s waiting for us when we get home. But you won’t do so well if we fuck her like that. And we need you to be okay.”

Seth closes his eye and takes a breath. One day I’m going to find out what he looks like without the eye patch. Eventually. “I’ll be alright,” he whispers, but I don’t believe him.

He doesn’t smell like he’s lying, but I don’t think he’ll be alright if he sees me holding Desie down so Ben can fuck her as hard as he needs to without her scooting anywhere or filetting his back. One round of that was more than enough for us to take measures to keep it from happening again.

I shake my head. “It’s not worth it. If one of us isn’t okay, then none of us are okay. We’ll get there, Seth.”

It turns out that Seth is mostly okay with anything we do to and with Desie, so long as she’s holding his hand and she doesn’t sound like she’s in actual pain. I thought I might laugh the first time he asked for something, but as it turns out, I don’t think it’s funny.

“Will you hold her hair back from her face, please?” he asks, not looking away from her once.

I’m more than happy to bunch her hair up in my fist so he can see her face, and even happier to have a free hand to touch her with when she reaches to hold his. Ben is thoroughly enjoying having an audience. He’s also enjoying the running commentary rolling out of Seth’s mouth.

“You’re so beautiful, Desir’ee,” Seth whispers. “I love your body, darlin. Fucking perfect.”

She purrs and arches into my hand when I palm her breast. I turn her head back to me so I can kiss her again, thoroughly, licking and tasting every soft place inside her mouth. She's breathless when I release her from my kiss and turn her over to Ben’s. He kisses her fast and rough, biting into her full bottom lip, making her gasp; and I bend down to swirl my tongue over her nipple.

Ben’s hand brushes against mine on its way down her body. He makes a show of it, probably for Seth, moving slowly, spreading his fingers wide, spending extra time touching her. When his fingers finally delve between her thighs, both he and Seth groan at the sound she makes as she lifts her hips up for his touch.

“So wet for us, baby,” Ben coos against her throat. “We’re going to make you cum so hard. We’re going to show Seth how gorgeous you are when you do it.”

Desie sighs in affirmation and pulls me back for another kiss. Her lips are swollen and warm and she gasps into my mouth every time Ben does something she likes. I can hear how wet she is with every thrust of his fingers, we all can.

“I can’t wait to see Ben make you cum,” Seth rasps. “You smell fucking delicious, Desir’ee.” She pulls her mouth away from mine, moaning as she rides out the orgasm that comes almost immediately. “So pretty, baby. Such a good girl.”

Ben and I repeat variations of his compliment, and she has another slightly less overwhelming release while the three of us tell her what a good girl she is, how sexy she is, how beautiful.

After she comes down, I push her onto her side and get on my knees behind her so I can lift her thigh and line up my cock with her entrance. I make eye contact with Ben and tip my chin, motioning him to move up in the nest. I want to fuck her from this angle while she sucks him off. I want Seth to see it. I want to watch her reaction to him watching us; and I know he’s going to keep talking all kinds of shit while she does it. For somebody to be as much of a nervous wreck as he is, he sure as hell has a filthy mouth.

Ben gets to his knees near her shoulders and grips his base, holding his length steady before he offers it to her. I watch her tongue swipe across the head, then nod at Ben. We’ve done this so many times, it’s the easiest and most wonderful thing in the world for us to sink inside her at the same time.

She hums and moans her pleasure around him while I push inside her, rocking my hips, going deeper with each thrust. She feels so good, clenching around me, her slick covering both of us. God, it feels so good to fuck her.

“That’s it, Desir’ee,” Seth praises in his rough voice. “Let your alphas give you what you need. You take them so well. Such a perfect, beautiful omega for us.”

Desie whimpers, holding Seth’s gaze while she licks up the side of Ben’s length, and Ben and I both let out soft growls of pleasure. We don’t spend much time calling her by her designation, and we sure as shit don’t demand or even ask that she calls us by ours, but something about hearing Seth’s rough voice telling her what a good omega she is… Yeah, we like that shit. A lot.

We’ve got her on her back right now. I’m between her thighs and Ben is helping her hold her head up so he can fuck her mouth. With Seth holding her hand, I’m able to grasp and palm her breasts. She’s gasping and making wet sounds of pleasure around Ben every time I push my cock into her. Thoughts of all the ways all three of us can fuck her at the same time are playing on a loop in my head. It’s fucking fantastic.

Until it isn’t.

Seth’s warm, raspy sounds of encouragement stop abruptly the second I come up on my knees, pushing her thighs wider apart so I can watch myself thrust in and out of her. “Stop. Please. Not like that. Please, don’t, not like that.”

Ben and I freeze. His hand is tangled up in her hair and my fingers are digging into her thighs, but we don’t move a muscle. Desie turns toward Seth, concern pinching her formerly heated expression. “What’s wrong?” she asks, pulling his hand to her swollen lips so she can kiss his knuckles. “What do you need?”

Seth’s breaths are coming short and shallow, and he isn’t blushing. He’s almost gray. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” I try to sound assuring, compassionate, kind, not frustrated. “What needs to change?”

He cracks open his eye and takes a breath. “The position. I can leave.”

“Just tell us what we need to change so we can change it. My balls are going to fall off.” Ben is neither compassionate nor kind.

“I don’t like you spreading her open like that. It…scares me. That’s the best way I can describe it.”

Eiffel Tower it is. I flip Desie onto her hands and knees and run my fingers down her spine, but my eyes are all for Seth. “We’re going to need to talk about this. I like to fuck her like that, and she likes it, too.”

He nods, and then I push back inside her.

This is my favorite way to fuck Desie. It always has been. I love to watch her ass and slap it, watch it bounce. I like to gather up her hair and pull it so that her back arches just right. I like how it sounds when I make her moan around Ben’s cock when I fuck her like this.

Ben and I settle into a rhythm and make Desie cum between us twice before I make the next mistake, one that has the potential to turn into a catastrophe. The growl that rolls out of Seth when I slap the side of Desie’s ass sends chills through me.

“Do not hurt her.” The bright blue of his eye is nearly overwhelmed by his pupil, and he’s glaring at my hand like he’s about to rip it off.

Nobody moves. Well, Ben has to move, Desie can breathe through a blowjob, but what Ben’s been doing isn’t like when she gives a blowjob. But I stay just where I am, balls-deep with one hand full of the ass cheek not carrying a handprint.

Patience. Empathy. Compassion. That’s my mantra as I close my eyes and take a long breath. “I would never hurt Desir’ee. She isn’t hurt.”

Seth moves his glare from my hand to snarl at the raised imprint on Desie’s ass. “You left a mark.”

One day, hopefully really soon, I’m going to get to the bottom of Seth’s issues and we’re going to work through them one at a time until he’s alright. One way or another. “I did,” I say with more calm than I feel. “But I didn’t hurt her. If I smack her ass or her thigh at the right moment she gets off. You want her to get off, right?”

He shakes his head like he’s clearing it and reaches for Desie. She puts her hand back in his, rubbing her fingertips across the places where there should be fingers. “Michael didn’t hurt me. He would never hurt me. I like it when he does that. It feels good.”

Seth closes his eye and rolls his head on his shoulders before he opens it again. “I’m sorry. I’ll get better at this. I’m good now.”

Desie doesn’t let go of his hand again. She holds it through every orgasm we give her, and she doesn't let him go when Ben groans with his release into her mouth. She holds it even tighter and moans all our names as I push my knot into her.

I lean over her back when I’m finally able to cum. I’m not used to stopping so many times for such stressful reasons. Frustrating doesn’t begin to describe it. Then, for the first time ever, my name isn’t the one she whispers when we’re locked together, not Ben’s, either.

“Seth, look at me. Are you alright?” Her words are soft and slurred as she fights against the lethargy that claims her when she’s knotted.

“Why wouldn’t he be alright?” Ben mumbles from where he’s laying beside Desie and me. “He looks okay.”

“Knotting is a problem.”

It’s a huge problem if that’s a problem. Because Ben and I are going to knot Desie, there’s no way around it. “How is it a problem?” I ask, my voice more growl and purr than anything else.

“My knot is a problem,” Seth answers, with obvious shock on his face. “Yours apparently isn’t. This is good.”

“Fuck yeah, it is. I’m going to sleep,” Ben says and pushes my hip to cue me to roll Desie and I onto our sides. She’s asleep before I even get us settled, and Ben tucks into her from the front, pushing his nose against her collar bone. He’s out and snoring within minutes.

Seth gets up to leave, but Desie whines and clutches his hand tighter. This might actually be the biggest problem we’ll have. I can handle panic attacks, anxiety attacks, temper tantrums, whatever, but there’s got to be a way for all of us to sleep together without anybody catching a foot to the face or me having to be a little spoon with Seth’s lanky ass. That’s where I draw the line.

Seth high-steps over appendages and ends up lying awkwardly on his back behind Ben with Desie’s arm draped across so she can keep holding his hand. “We’ll figure it out,” Seth whispers. “Talia says that’s the worst part for her, needing to touch everybody at the same time.”

“She’s, what, like your sister or cousin? Something like that?”

“Something like that,” he says after a minute.

Ben starts purring in his sleep and wriggles his foot to hook his ankle over Seth’s leg. I’d laugh, but then I’d wake him up. “Did something happen to her? Is that why you’re all twisted up?”

“Yes.” That’s all Seth says, and I don’t push him for more.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ben

I don’t want to meet Mateo and the rest of Desie’s brothers in Long Shop. The fact that Mateo texted Michael instead of me, and didn’t text Desie about it at all, tells me all I need to know about this little lunch date. We negotiated an extra day off of time with the chief so we could deal with whatever Mateo’s throwing at us, and I hope it won’t take up the whole day because I want to go back home and drag everyone back into the nest. I woke up smashed between Desie and Seth and it wasn’t anything but comfortable. It probably shouldn’t have been, but it was and I don’t really care except I could feel something poking me in the small of my back. Morning wood has never been an issue until it was me being poked with it instead of Desie. Michael has given me shit about it all morning, and giving my brother new material to use against me is something I generally try not to do. I just can’t seem to be bothered by it this morning, though.

“He didn’t say what it was about? Nothing?”

“No,” Michael says, buckling his seatbelt. “He just said to bring you and not mention it to Desie or Seth. It feels shitty. I was tempted to take Seth, anyway.”

It does feel shitty. I don’t like secrets and this seems very secret and sideways.

Everybody is already at the diner when we walk in, sitting in the big corner booth in the far back. Another bad sign. It’s an unspoken understanding that that booth is where big, bad news is delivered. This is probably the worst time for Michael and I to get bad news. We have to go back to the mountain, we can’t make good decisions out there if we’re worried about what’s happening here.

Nobody says anything when we sit down. The waitress comes by and takes drink orders. Nobody asks for food, not even Sebastian. Another bad sign. Maybe the worst sign.

“Just tell us what the fuck’s going on.” Michael has never had much patience for small talk.

Mateo sighs and exchanges a look with Lucas, then drops the bomb. “Seth Pratchett needs to go.”

“Excuse me?” I can’t believe this shit, especially when things are finally lining up for us.

Mateo and Lucas exchange another look, and I lose my patience. “Stop looking at each other and tell us what the fuck is going on. What do you mean, Seth needs to go? Go where?”

“Away,” Mateo says flatly. “He needs to pack his shit up and go back to the East Coast. He can’t be in your pack and he can’t be my sister’s alpha.”

“Fuck off, Mateo,” Michael growls low in his chest. “You don’t get to make choices for our pack, or for Desie anymore.”

Mateo growls right back. “I will always make choices for my sister. Seth cannot be her alpha.”

“And I said fuck off,” Michael snarls and slams his fist on top of the table. “You do not make choices for our pack. We will take your advice under consideration, but you do not decide what happens to our pack or who is in it.”

The sound of a shotgun being loaded comes quietly from behind the counter, and Seb and I both put up our hands to let Lito know we’re not going to be a problem for him.

“Calm down,” I hiss. “Just take a breath. Why do you have a problem with Seth?”

Mateo rolls his shoulders and flattens his hands on the table. “He’s not a good person. He’s done some really bad shit.”

“Just tell us what he’s supposed to have done, Mateo. Just say whatever it is,” Michael clips.

“He raped a girl back east a few years ago. And killed the members of his last pack.” Lucas deadpans. No emotion. Just says it.

I look at Michael, and he looks at me. And we’re silent.

When Michael speaks again, his words are full of ice. “What do you mean, he raped a girl?”

“What the fuck do you think he means, Michael?” Mateo barks. “Seth raped a girl, she couldn’t have been older than nineteen. The record is missing details, but there is a record. I’ve already passed it on to Alpha Minos.”

Fuck. “What details are missing? How did you find out?” If Seth really did that…if he was capable of it… But it doesn’t make sense. He could hardly stand to hear us with Desie when she was in heat, and even last night I thought he and Michael were going to fight over a little spanking.

“Flores,” Sebastian mumbles. “It’s always Flores. He came by this morning. Mother fucker gives me the creeps, but he sent Mateo the file. How he got it, we don’t know. We didn’t ask.”

“Show me,” Michael orders.

Mateo slides his phone across the table at Michael and after he looks at it, pushes it in front of me. There it is. No names are listed, no details. Just a blacked out medical report and a letter from the Eastern Institute for Omegas stating that they do not recommend placing any omegas with any pack under the leadership of Seth W. Pratchett. “Goddammit.” What else can I say? I feel like my stomach has turned to lead. Desie’s going to be distraught.

“Let’s go,” Michael says, nudging me with his thigh.

“Where are you going?” Mateo asks, moving to get up from the booth.

“To deal with this shit,” Michael grits. “We have to call the chief. We’ll handle Desie, and deal with Seth. We’ll call if we need you.”

Mateo nods grimly, very suddenly looking every year of his age. “Has he…did he and Desie…?”

I shake my head. “She’s fine. He wouldn’t be alive if she wasn’t.”

We make it to the main road before Michael screams from the passenger seat, scaring the shit out of me and causing me to nearly drive off the road.

I glance over at him. He looks how I feel. Disgusted. Sick. Disappointed. Scared.

“Do we believe it?”

Michael leans his head back against the headrest. “It doesn’t matter what we believe. Everyone else believes it, and Minos won’t sign off on the registration if he believes it.”

“But do we believe it? It doesn’t make sense, does it? His reactions–”

“Don’t mean shit if he did it.” Michael interrupts. “Yeah, he might be messed up, but he hasn’t offered a single explanation about why he’s so messed up. I wanted to give him time to talk to us about it when he was ready, but maybe he was never going to tell us.”

Probably not. He’s been around us enough to know that we’d never let him near Desie if we thought he was capable of something like that. And now that we do know we’ll keep him as far from her as we can.

“What’s fucked up is that Seth isn’t our biggest problem.”

“Fuck,” Michael grits. “He isn’t, is he? The council. They could take Desie even though we claimed her because we just lost our goddamn third. Fuck!”

“Exactly.”

We’re quiet for a while, thinking, stressing. I turn off the main road into our neighborhood but instead of rushing to the house, I pull over on the shoulder. We can’t go back to the house without a plan to handle this disaster.

“We’ll make him leave,” Michael says quietly. “Desie’s going to take it hard, but then we’ll make a plan with her to leave. We need to leave here for at least a while, maybe a few months.”

“Okay,” I agree. “Are we telling her what he did?”

“We have to, Ben. She’d find out anyway.”

We pull into the driveway and the front door opens as we’re getting out of the car. Seth comes out, grim, holding his phone to his ear and his duffle in the other. We stop on the walk and the three of us just stare at each other while Seth listens to whoever is on the other end of the call. We don’t say anything to him, and he doesn’t say anything to us. He knows that we know. It’s all over his face.

“I’ll leave the truck parked at the house and leave the keys on the table when I lock up. There is an explanation, but I understand you don’t want to hear it. I apologize for not being upfront, but I didn’t think I’d need to explain it… I understand…Yes…Alright.” He ends the call and puts the phone in his pocket, but he still doesn’t offer any explanation to Michael and me.

He opens his mouth, then closes it and shakes his head. He looks over his shoulder back at the house and then turns back toward us. He looks at each of us in turn then takes a breath and walks away. He gets in the truck and drives down the street and that’s that.

Desie comes running out to us crying. “What’s wrong?” she sniffs. “I don’t understand.”

“Come on,” I put my arm around her waist and guide her back to the door. “We’ll talk about it when we get back inside.”

“Why? I don’t understand. He got a phone call, I’m guessing from Alpha Minos, and he just left. He said he was sorry and left. Then you came home and didn’t stop him, like you wanted him to go. What did he do that was so bad?”

“I got it,” I tell Michael. I’ll explain it. “Flores came to Mateo with a file from the East Coast Council. The file states that Seth did some awful things to a girl when he was younger. He didn’t tell us because he knew we wouldn’t have anything to do with him.”

“What did he do? What were the circumstances? Is that why he has the problems he has?”

I drag my hands down my face. I didn’t want to tell her what he actually did. I didn’t want to say it out loud to her.

“Just tell her,” Michael says.

“He raped her. It’s documented. The details aren’t clear, but it happened. It wasn’t exactly covered up, but the details are classified. We don’t know her name or what happened to her afterwards, just that it happened. And that he didn’t bother to mention it to us. He also didn’t bother telling us that he was involved when the COT unit killed his pack.”

I watch her reaction play across her face. Every emotion is there to see, and I feel them all pouring through her bond.

“That doesn’t make sense, Ben. There has to be more to it.”

“It doesn’t matter if there is,” Michael sighs. “He should have told us. I’m sick that we let him touch you. The Eastern Institute even put him on a list to bar him and his pack from taking any omega.”

The flow of her emotions abruptly stalls and hardens. “I let him touch me, Michael. And, like you said, he should have said something. I’m not sure how to feel about the rest of it, I need time to work through it.

“I don’t believe it,” she argues, her voice still thick with tears. “He couldn’t have. He could barely sit there and let me… It doesn’t make sense.”

It really doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter if it makes sense or not.

Then she shocks the shit out of me.

“We need to leave,” she says. “We need to go. You marked me, but you don’t have a third. The council could override your claim and I’d have to pick another pack or have one chosen for me. We need to leave.”

Michael pulls her into his lap and starts purring. “That won’t happen. We won’t let it. We can leave for a while and come back. We can go to the Eastern territory, even though Seth’s on the council. It doesn’t matter. We can be a pack of three without another alpha. We won’t stay wherever he’s at, we’ll be on the other side of whatever. We won’t have to see him.”

Desie nods, but starts crying again. “We can come back, though, right? I can’t stay gone. I need my family.”

“No, baby,” I reach over and run my fingers through her hair, “we won’t stay gone. We’ll come back when we can. It’ll be alright.”

We made our escape plan that night. Desie is scheduled to work tomorrow. She’s going to pack up her essentials and have them in her car, then we’ll pick her up and leave.

“I’m going to park on the top level of the parking garage. By the time I’m out it should be cleared out. I park up there sometimes so it won’t be out of the ordinary. You guys can meet me up there and I’ll leave a note in the car for Mateo. We’ll be gone by the time he finds out we’ve left.”

“Are you really going to be okay with leaving?” I ask, knowing the answer. I can feel her heart breaking through our bond. It isn’t just for her family, her distress about Seth has been a constant crackle.

“No,” she says. “No, I’m not. But there’s no other choice, is there? I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know why Seth didn’t just tell us. He must have known it would come out eventually.” Desie’s bites at her bottom lip, her eyes thick with tears. “I thought…I thought he wanted to be with us.”

Michael and I exchange a glance. Seth did want to stay with us, it was obvious that he did. But if we’d known about his past, we never would have lined ourselves up with him and we sure as fuck wouldn’t have allowed him near Desie.

“We didn’t vet him hard enough. It’s our fault, precíosa. It was irresponsible and dangerous. We never should have let him near you,” Michael says.

The flow of her emotions abruptly stalls and hardens. “Again, Michael, I let him touch me. I’m not getting into this with you right now. I want to concentrate on getting us out of here before anyone finds out and tries to stop us from leaving.”

Fair enough. That’s probably the best thing any of us can do. We need to get ourselves together and get out of here before Lopez, and Flores, have time to stop us or catch us. We don’t owe him that much more money after the last fight, but I think it’s been about more than the money for a while. I think there’s something much deeper, much darker, that Lopez wants to keep us around for.

With the best plan we can come up with laid out, we go to bed with our hearts heavy and our minds spinning. I can feel the urge to talk about Seth tugging at all of us, pulling at our subconscious. We all thought he was going to be part of our pack. Everything about him fell so naturally into place with us. Neither Michael nor I have ever wanted a lead alpha position, and there’s always a lead alpha in a pack. It might be the twin thing, but I think it’s more of a personality thing. We don’t want it.

Rafe was going to be our lead alpha, he was older than us and we just lined up behind him accordingly. It was starting to happen with Seth, too; regardless of his obvious issues. But how could we possibly follow him as our lead knowing he’s capable of committing such an atrocity as what was lined out in that record? I didn’t want to believe it, didn’t want to see it; I definitely don’t want Desie to see it. It’s bad enough that she knows, especially after she let him be with her. I can feel her heartbreak.

I had no idea things between her and Seth would become as serious as they obviously have. When we get out of here, we’ll help her work through it. An explosion is coming, it’s how it goes with her. She pushes her emotions back, keeping a white-knuckled grip on them until she gets to a point where she feels safe enough to finally have the reaction she’s let simmer; and then the building emotions boil over and she gives in to the release she so badly needs.

The next morning, we get Desie off to work without more than a few hiccups. She wanted to take all her favorite blankets, but we only have room for a few. Some omegas need laundry, some need pillows. Desie needs blankets. It was rough, feeling her weigh each blanket against the other, feeling the rush of regret and guilt that came each time she put one aside in favor of another. Michael and I promised to get her as many blankets as she needs once we get somewhere safe. We’ll go as far as we can go and pray that she won’t go into heat before we get there.

Michael slams the trunk closed after he puts the last bag inside. We aren’t packing much, mostly essentials, just a few extras. Desi’s shift is over in a little less than an hour, we didn’t want to draw too much attention or give word of our impending departure time to spread. He opens his mouth to say something when his phone rings.

“Lopez,” he clips, as he answers. He pulls the phone away from his ear to put the call on speaker.

“Going on a little trip, boys?”

Michael’s lips tighten, his jaw ticking as he counters. “What do you need, Lopez?”

Low, coiling laughter comes across the line. “Put the bags back in the house, Michael. You’re not going to need them.” Then the call goes dead.

Fuck.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Michael

"Go faster, Benny." I don't want to scream at him while he's driving, but now isn't the time to give a fuck about speed limits.

"If I go any faster, we'll go off the road. I'm trying. Maybe we should have taken the truck."

Maybe we should have, but all our shit and Desie's things are loaded into the car. The idea was to grab her when she walked out of the hospital after her shift and take off. She was going to bring everything she could from her locker at work without drawing attention to it and then we were taking off for somewhere out East. After finding out that two alphas and one omega qualifies as a pack there, we'd be stupid not to get there as fast as we can. She didn't even tell her brothers. I know it's killing her to hide it from them; but telling them might put them at risk and she'd never want that.

"I'm just scared we won't get there in time. There's only two of us. If Flores brings his whole pack, betas and all, and you know he'll bring others, too… The two of us won't be enough. We could call Mateo, but if something happened to one of her brothers, Desie will never forgive us." We really are fucked if we don't get there first.

Ben glances over at me then back at the road, his hands tightening on the wheel. "We can't call Mateo. If something goes wrong, he's the first one the council will question. We'll just have to get there first."

After what feels like an eternity of hell, we finally get to the parking garage at the hospital. It's after hours and the control arms are up, so we are free to squeal our way to the top level where Desie said to meet her. There are four vehicles other than hers parked on this level. I don't see anybody in them or near them, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it because they're far enough away to not be on top of us, but close enough to be a problem if someone happened to be hiding in the back seat.

Desie is sitting in her car making a show of adjusting things and messing around with whatever's in her passenger seat. We made it before Lopez. Now we just have to get our girl and go. We’re sitting ducks up here.

"Okay," I blow out a breath, "I'll help her get her stuff from her car and you stay ready to take off."

Benny nods, keeping his eyes trained on Desie, and I get out of the car.

She gets out and gives me a nervous smile. "Hey. I have a couple things in the trunk. Can we make them fit?"

If my hair was long enough to pull, I'd be yanking it out by the handful. "Yeah, it's fine. Let's just hurry so we can get out of here." She reaches up to stroke down my cheek and pushes the button on the key to pop up the trunk. Thank god, she's only got two more smallish bags to pack into our car. If she had suitcases, I don't think we'd be able to fit them in with all the other stuff.

"I can get one," she says, reaching for the handle of one of the bags.

"I got it, baby. Go get in the car with Benny."

She doesn't make it two steps before Ben starts laying on the horn and everything goes dark as thick material covers my face and head, then I'm being shoved into the trunk of her car. It happens so fast. I didn't hear anything or see anyone. I didn't hear a single footstep or any doors shutting. And now I'm trying to kick the trunk open because I can hear her screaming. Then the muffled sounds of fighting.

Whoever, my ass. It couldn't be anyone but the Flores pack. But how did they know? Desie wouldn't have said anything, and neither me or Ben have been around anybody but us… and Seth.

But Seth didn't know what we were planning. We didn't tell him. We didn't want to implicate him, regardless of the fact that he's on his way back to his council and his family to avoid having to explain himself to everyone here. He wouldn't have sold us out, even if he knew anything, for the same reasons we didn't want to implicate him. We could have easily had a pack bond with Seth, but he didn't tell us the most important and worst thing about himself, and he ran away before we gave him the chance to explain it.

But, what if… fuck…what if he planned his own thing. What if he's behind this? We don't really know that he doesn't have another pack back East. He could have called them in to take Desie and do away with me and my brother. Could Seth really be that shitty? I want to say no, my gut says no, but I'm still beating my knuckles raw on the trunk with a bag over my head. I don't know anything.

I pause my fight against the trunk when I hear the sound of my brother being dragged across the cement.

Then Desie starts begging, sobbing the word please over and over; and Benny's voice, thick with pain, comes. "Don't watch, baby. Turn your head."

The lid doesn't move when I slam my fists into it, and it doesn't move when I push against it as hard as I can with my legs. It's a functional shit box, for fuck sake. It should pop open if anyone looks at it too hard.

"He's right, baby, you don't need to see it." Lopez. Mother fucker. I knew it was them.

I try even harder to beat my way out of the trunk, kicking harder, slamming my knees and fists into the interior and lid, my own screams ringing in my ears. Someone knocks on the top and laughs. "Keep on fighting, Michael. Go ahead, wear yourself out. We don't want you to last too long in the box."

The car lifts all at once and before I can process the fact that I couldn't get out because someone was sitting on the trunk, Desie screams, "NO!", a gunshot vibrates the metal coffin I'm trapped in, and then the car starts and takes off, flinging me against the latch that still won’t give. By the time I start trying to fight my way out of the trunk again, the car has already gone around at least two sharp turns, slinging me around against the interior. By the time I get one corner to lift, I can't hear anything but the tires squealing as they take me farther and farther away from my brother and Desie. He could be dead or dying and she's there watching it happen and I'm trapped in a goddamned, mother fucking, bullshit trunk. By the time I get the corner up enough to feel the air blowing inside, the car isn't throwing me around curves anymore, we're on the main road. If I can get out of this, I can jump out and make a run for it. Maybe get with Mateo, find Desie. Bury my brother. Fuck. The car will have to stop at some point, there will be a traffic light or something, then I'll bust out of here and run.

Except there isn't. Horns blow and people yell. Whoever is driving is blowing through every light and sign, there won't be any stopping. Fine. I'll just jump out. I kick the loose corner again and again, widening the crack in small increments. Jesus god! What is this thing made of? Come on! When I finally get the trunk kicked open, I yank the material off my head and blink into the bright headlights of the vehicle behind the car. I get to my knees, gripping the outside of the car, readying myself to roll out onto the pavement, but the driver slams the breaks, causing the lid to slam down on my back and head, knocking me off balance.

I get back to my knees as the driver from the other car gets out and runs around toward me.

"Hurry," I say. "I need to get help."

But there's no point. I recognize the other driver as one of the Flores pack betas. He's smiling at me while he twirls the souvenir baseball bat I keep on the dashboard. "Sit back down," he sneers, "we don't want you falling out."

The last thing I see is him swinging the bat.

The first thing I register when I wake up is pain. Not my head, not my hands, but in my heart, my soul. I keep my eyes closed, breathing deep and slow, not moving a single muscle as I try to rein in the pain in an effort to regain control of anything I can. This doesn't feel like it did when we lost Rafe. I know I was a kid then, and the memory might be a little muddy, but this doesn't feel like that. It feels like loss, such a soul deep loss.

I've lost everything. I've lost Benny. I've lost Desie. I'm alone.

I open my eyes. I don't know where I am. It would be dark even if my head wasn't covered again. I can't smell much other than the stale stench of the material. I can hear dripping, and talking from a distance, but that's it. The ground is cold and hard under me, I can feel that much. Like a basement… or the floor of an underground fighting ring. I remember the comment now, about the box. Flores took my brother, took my omega, and now he's going to force me to fight to death. I've seen him do it before. That's one of the many reasons me and Benny have been trying so hard to make a clean break from him. His money and influence might have saved us when we were younger, but it hasn't done anything but weigh us down and try to kill us as we've gotten older. He builds you up, then drags you down and uses that desperation to make money off of you while he makes an example of you.

"I can tell you're awake, Michael," the man himself speaks from somewhere in the room. "Go ahead and sit up, I'm not worried about you running off now. I'm not worried about you at all, actually. You wouldn't do anything that might bring harm to Desir'ee. You know she'll pay the price for anything you might be thinking of doing, don't you? Yes, of course you do. Go on now, sit up, we'll get the bag off and then we'll have a conversation."

I rock and maneuver myself into a sitting position and, just like he said, the bag is pulled off and I'm face-to-face with Desie. Her eyes are swollen and red from crying. She isn't tied up, but she doesn't reach for me.

"Do you agree that she is physically unharmed?" Flores asks, gesturing toward Desie.

"What are you talking about?" I snarl, a thin, red haze begins to ring my vision.

He clicks his tongue and puts his hand on Desie's shoulder. "Reel it in, Michael. Deep breaths. Answer the question."

"She's physically unharmed." The words through my clenched teeth. "Where is my brother?"

"You're not asking questions, Michael. Only answering them."

The inside of my skull feels like it's boiling, or melting. The red ring is getting thicker, I can't stop it. His hand on her shoulder is a bigger threat than any gun would be.

"You'll do whatever you need to do to make sure she remains unharmed, won't you?"

I take a breath. "Yes."

Big, fat, silent tears fall from Desie's eyes.

"Good. Win the fights, Michael. Every one of them," he says, moving his hand to comb through Desie's hair. "Win them until I tell you to lose them. That's how you keep her safe."

"Where are you taking her?" No chance in hell he'll keep her here.

He smiles at me. "At my house, of course. An omega should always live within the safety of her pack, don't you think?"

The red closes in, a loud buzz roars to life in my ears. Then Desie's soft whimper filters through and I find myself looking up at her from the ground. Flores has his fist wrapped in her hair, yanking her head back at an angle.

"Control yourself, Michael. I want this omega, but I don't need her. She's the right age, has the right values for what I need from her," he takes a long look up and down her body, "she has the right body type, too; but I can always find another one. It might take a little while, but we get shipments every day."

I can't do anything right now but get both of us killed. Maybe that would be better. Whether or not it would be better doesn't matter, I won't give him a reason to hurt her. "Don't hurt her."

"Win the fights, Michael."

Chapter Twenty-Five

Desie

"It's really up to you, Desir'ee," Flores smiles. "Michael and Benjamin can either live or die. It all depends on your cooperation."

Despicable. He's a disgusting, despicable, evil, awful man. I have never hated anyone as much as I hate him. Not even the horrible people who killed Rafe.

"I'll cooperate as much as I can. I already told you that."

He smiles again, sitting there all smug behind his desk. "You did. But I haven't finished telling you what will be required of you."

"So, tell me." Tell me, get it over with. I'm going to be sick.

Lopez comes in and sits in the chair beside me. I don't even look at him. I was wrong. I might hate him more than Flores. "Ben has been made aware of his new reality."

"What about Pratchett?" Flores asks, his eyes never leaving mine.

"No sign of him," Lopez sighs. "I don't think he'll be a problem. He's probably crossing into the midlands by now. We shouldn't hear from him again, and if we do… we can take care of him."

"Let's make sure. I don't want any unnecessary trouble. We've got quotas and timelines to meet," Flores says, then to me, "will the East Coast councilman be a problem?"

I don't bother hiding my disgust at having to speak to him. "How should I know? He left." I do hide the loss I feel at that statement. I thought he was going to be part of us. He felt like he was going to be my alpha as much as the twins are.

He smiles sadly at me. "That must sting. It was looking like he was going to swoop in and make everything okay, wasn't it? Too bad his past caught up to him."

It really is. I can forgive almost anything, anything but dishonesty. Seth should have been upfront about his past and the charges and accusations against him from the beginning.

"Moving on," he chirps, smiling like he hasn't been dismantling my life and ripping out my heart for the past few hours. "You're going to be our omega. We'll make a show of courting you, but before your next heat we'll register you as ours, and that will be that. You'll take my surname, of course, and have my child first."

"I won't."

"You will. And I'll remind you why you'll do it. Right now, Michael and Benjamin are alive. So long as you're a good girl for me, they'll continue to be alive. The minute you misbehave, you can have the pleasure of watching me cut pieces off of them until what's left stops bleeding. Then I'll start in on your family. You will be my omega, and you will be a good omega for my pack. Is that clear, Miss. Romero?"

I don't answer him.

He smiles at me again and pulls out his phone. He taps the screen a few times, then holds it up for me to see. Michael is on one half of the screen, Benny on the other. Neither look good, but they're both alive. He pulls the phone back and it looks like he sends a text before he holds it back up for me to see. I watch, completely terrified and furious, as a man walks over to Benny and hits him. And hits him again. Then the phone is taken away. "Is that clear, Desir'ee? Can you be my good omega in order to keep your twins alive?"

The tears come again, and I nod.

"I thought you would. You'll keep your position at the hospital and you'll keep communication open with your family. I don't need the headache of trying to convince them that you're where you want to be, that will be your job. If anyone so much as twitches an ear in my direction, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"

I nod again.

"Good. When is your next heat due?"

I hear myself respond flatly. "Six or seven weeks. Maybe more, maybe less."

"What does that mean? You don't know?"

A kind of numbness is washing over me. I don't know if I should be relieved or alarmed. "I took suppressants through finals. I've only had one heat since coming off of them. My body needs time to recalculate before I'm on a regular cycle again."

"What is your regular cycle? How often do you go into heat?"

"Nine weeks."

He reaches over and takes my hand. I let him. He said to cooperate. I might die if I have to watch someone hurt Benny or Michael again. "We'll just keep an eye on things, then. Ideally, we'll figure it out in time to get you registered with my pack before, but if it comes on sooner or more suddenly than we anticipate it won't be an issue. It's just a nicety for you, anyway. If it were up to us, we'd sign the forms right now. You'll be marked during your first heat with us. I'll mark you first, followed by Elijah, then James, and Brian last. Just so you know what to expect. I don't want you overly stressed by the unknown."

I could laugh. He doesn't want me to be overly stressed.

"But I'm already marked." I turn my head so he can see their marks stacked against each other on the side of my neck.

"It's nothing for the four of us to override their marks. It's been done. My bond with you will keep you well enough until you get over it."

Get over it. He thinks I'll get over it.

"Do you understand?"

I nod, cold sinking into my bones.

"You will need to answer my questions, Desir'ee. I want a good omega. I understand that it may take a while before you're a happy omega, but I'll settle for well-behaved in the meantime."

"I understand."

He smiles and pats my hand. "Good, good. Would you like to call us by our first names, or are you more comfortable addressing us by our titles?"

I look at him, the mask of numbness slipping just enough for my brow to wrinkle. "I don't care."

"Don't be rude, Desir'ee. You're being given a choice. What would you prefer?"

"Titles."

He looks disappointed. "Fine. Alpha Lopez, will show you to your room."

Alpha Lopez stands and offers me his hand. I take it, the numbness falling blessedly back into place. I let him lead me out the door and down the hall to an elevator without seeing any of it. If I can maintain this numbness, I might survive this. I might survive letting these horrible men mark me while they… I might survive it if I can hold onto the numbness. I don't think I'll survive having their children, though. I really don't. I can't think about that now, though. If they let me keep my job at the hospital, I can take care of any pregnancy that might occur. Maybe if I never stay pregnant, they'll let me go, let us all go. Or get rid of us. Either way, we'll be free.

Once the elevator starts moving, Alpha Lopez squeezes my hand. "It could be worse, Miss Romero. Will it be so terrible to live in a penthouse and be spoiled and doted on by the four of us? Our betas will do a fair amount of spoiling, as well. You'll be their omega, too, after all."

That catches my attention. It was already going to be bad enough with just the four of them, but if I'm expected to have sexual relationships with the betas, too, I might not survive it. "Will I have to… with the betas, too?"

His nostrils flare and his eyes darken. "No. Absolutely not. And you're to inform one of your alphas immediately if one of them suggests such a thing. If one of them touches you, I want to know that second. James is putting our numbers into your phone. You can call or text if something unacceptable happens; or come straight to one of us. Is that clear?"

I nod, a measure of relief making me tear up.

"You'll have anything you want. Send me a list of anything you need or want. Any foods you like to keep on hand, your favorite restaurants, what brand of laundry detergent you prefer, what thread-count you like for your sheets, all of it. We want you to have everything. I'll need to know your sizes so we can get you things we'd like to see you in, other things like that. Regardless of how it looks or the circumstances, we do want our omega to be happy."

The numbness settles back around me and I'm grateful for it. These men intend to build a very pretty cage to keep me in. I'll never be happy, and that will be completely obvious once they mark me. I wonder if the twins can feel my numbness through our bond from this distance. For a while after they loaded us all into separate cars, all I could feel was Michael's rage and Benny's sorrow. There wasn't any room for my own emotions, and now this blessed numbness is protecting me from all of it. I hope it can protect them, too.

I let Alpha Lopez lead me off the elevator and I follow him down a hall and around a corner, then through a large set of heavy doors into a huge foyer. He pulls me up a set of stairs and down another hall with cushy, gray carpeting to a smaller set of doors. He pushes them open and proudly announces, "this is your room. You have your own bathroom, obviously, and a large walk-in closet. If you don't like anything, just let one of us know and we can replace it with something you do like. We weren't sure what type of bedding you might like. Ernesto chose silk. I thought they might be too hot, but he insisted."

"It's fine. Everything is fine." My life is ruined, my entire life, and he's going on about sheets.

He shoots me a look. "You don't know if everything in this room is fine, or not, Miss Romero. Go through everything, touch everything. Everything is replaceable. If the mattress is too firm, tell me. We will do everything we can to ensure your comfort."

"Okay."

He holds my gaze for a few moments, then sighs and nods. "It will just take a little time to come to terms with the changes and get used to everything. You'll see. You'll be happy in no time at all. Let us take care of you, Desir'ee. Let us spoil you. Let us dote on you. We can make you happy, if you let us." He lifts my hand to brush a kiss against my knuckles. "I'll leave you to explore your new room. You have free access to the penthouse. The balconies are off limits for now, for obvious reasons, and you can't access the elevator without a code. You should be relatively safe. If you need anything, there is an intercom in every room. James will bring your phone to you as soon as he's finished with it, and you can contact your family. We don't want them worrying."

He picks up a remote control from the bookshelf and turns on the television. He smiles at me as he switches it to channel twenty-three, and my breath hitches when the same view as the one on Flores’s phone appears. My boys, broken and bound, on a split screen. “Alpha Flores wanted you to have the option to check on Michael and Benjamin, and watch the main attraction every Friday and Saturday night, eight sharp. I thought it was in poor taste and counteractive to our ultimate goal, but he insisted.” Then he turns and walks out the door, leaving me alone to mourn with only the wretched images of Ben and Michael as comfort. I was wondering how they were going to remind me of what was at stake.

I don't care how long it takes. Weeks. Months. Years. However long. I am going to burn this place to the ground and scatter the ashes.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Seth

The sound of the shot is still rattling around inside my head even though I watched Lopez pull the trigger hours ago. He didn't shoot Ben, but it definitely looked like he did for a minute. I thought he did until I saw Ben fighting to get free of the men holding him as the Desir'ee's car sped away with Michael in the trunk. I'll never get the sound of her begging out of my head. It's all I've been able to do to keep the panic attack that's been screaming at me at bay. I can't have a panic attack right now. I don't have time. This is my fault, just like everything else. I have to save them.

I was in a cab on the way to the airport before the nagging feeling twisting up my gut turned me around. I couldn't leave, not like this. Desir'ee and the twins deserve to know the truth, as awful as it is. If I'm going to be a villain, I at least want to be a villain for the right reasons. They need to know that it wasn't like what Desir'ee's brother said, what they read in my file. They need to know that I was trying to save Talia, not hurt her. They need to know that I was the one who called Corso to come get her, and that I’m the one who met with the Omega Institute and begged them to keep Talia’s record secret and made sure my pack would never have an omega. Never. That’s the only thing I knew to do. My father never knew it was my request instead of Talia’s; I can only imagine how he would have reacted.

I knew it was those Flores fucks behind all this. And I knew it was them who spun my past against me with the WCC, and most importantly, Desir'ee and the twins. I just fucking knew it. Just like they’re trafficking the omegas that go missing. More than half of the omegas these West Coast packs have claimed, have been stolen by rogues, and delivered by Flores to gain favor. Hell, Minos’s own omega is obviously a victim, which is probably why he introduced me to her to begin with. So she’d have the opportunity to tell her story to someone who might be able to do something with it.

Now, I have to find a way to shine a big, bright spotlight on them while I save my pack. And they are my pack. I can feel it. I felt it that first night at the meet. I felt it the moment the twins walked in line with me. I felt it the moment Desir'ee pushed an empty plate across the table for me to fill. They're mine. I will find a way to get them back. Then I'll kill anyone affiliated with Flores. His whole pack is already dead, they just don't know it yet.

When I followed Desir'ee to the top level of the parking garage this morning, I thought it was odd that she would park all the way up there; but I brushed it off. She can park wherever she wants, maybe she wanted the view of the city on her lunch break, but she never came out for lunch.

I had hoped to talk to her before her shift, unfortunately she rushed inside before I could get out of the truck. I watched cars come and go all day. I only left long enough to go grab something to eat. It was stupid, I should have thought ahead and brought something. But why would I think to look out for someone waiting around to kidnap two grown-ass alphas and one omega? The only time I know of that alphas have been targeted was myself when I refused to participate in the rogue narrative and Kaleb’s pack when the rogues were trying to get to their omegas. Kidnapping alphas is pretty much a non-point. I was there to wait for her to come out so I could plead my case. Beg her to listen, to understand. I just wanted to talk to her without anybody around to interrupt my explanation. That was probably the wrong thing to do, but it seemed like the right thing at the time.

I watched Desie walk across the garage to her car and fuss around with her things after she got inside. My hand was on the handle of my door when another car pulled in, then all hell broke loose. I watched in horror as Lopez and his guys took Desie and the twins. I couldn’t have stopped them, the only thing I could have done by charging in for the rescue is get all of us killed. I knew watching and following them was the best thing to do, but it still burned when yet another failing scorched its way through me. Another black mark etched onto my soul as I watched the pack that was supposed to be mine being taken while I sat in the cab of a rental and did…nothing. Nothing but watch it happen, feeling like the weak coward my father always said I would turn out to be.

What am I going to do? I followed behind the car Desie was in until I lost it in the maze of downtown. I haven't been here long enough to get a feel of all these streets that turn into one-ways at the last second. I have no idea where they took her. I don't know if the twins will be at the same place as her, but it's doubtful.

After it was apparent that I'd never be able to catch up with or find any of the cars, I started driving out of the city. I realized a couple hours in that I was driving home for help. I was driving back East. To Devon, to Talia. Hell, to Jasper and his hateful ass. They're home. They're help. Except that's not true anymore. Desir'ee is my home, and the twins live there with me. I don't know what to do. And the only people who might know what to do are asleep in bed, thousands of miles away.

I'm on my own out here. It will take days to get back to the East Coast. Days. Minos pulled his support, and with it the private plane that got me here. I’d have to fly back home on a commercial flight, but with all the stops and layovers I’d get home faster driving. Besides, I might be flagged as a security risk. Everyone's been telling me for weeks how strong and far-reaching the Flores pack's influence is. Driving home is the best bet. I don't have time to waste weighing all the options, I don't even know if I have options at this point.

Fuck it.

I slow down just enough to keep the truck from turning over when I pull a U-turn, ignoring the blaring horns from the surrounding vehicles. I can't do this on my own. I dial the number as I pick up speed. Talia’s phone rings four times before Devon answers it, barking a gruff, “what the fuck, Seth?”.

“I know it’s late, but I’ve got a few problems out here and I can’t handle them on my own.”

I can hear his teeth grinding together across the line, louder than Jasper’s muffled complaint about being woken up in the middle of the night. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. Well, not right now. I didn’t do anything right now. But I have a really bad situation to deal with and need to know what to do.”

He takes a measured breath, and I can hear Talia firing off questions in the background. “Who is it, Devon? Is it Bianca? What’s wrong? What happened?”

“It’s fine,” he tells her, forcing calm into his tone. “Go back to sleep, cupcake.”

“Fuck off. Who is it?” She might be less happy to be woken up than anybody.

“Seth. He’s fine. You’re fine, right?” he asks me.

“No.”

More teeth grinding. He’s going to break one off someday. “What happened?” It sounds less like a question than it does a reprimand.

“I think I found my pack, and my omega,” I pause to let his snarl clear the air. Then continue. “Flores took them. Took all three of them. He threw Michael in the trunk and drove him off somewhere, I couldn’t keep up. They have her. I don’t know where.” With every word, Devon’s growl increases in volume. Jasper is fully awake now and both he and Talia are rapid-firing questions at Devon, which doesn’t help anything.

“Just hang on a goddamned minute, fuck,” he whisper-hisses at them, then asks me. “You don’t know where? Are you sure about them? Have you mentioned this to Kaleb? Is Minos in on it?”

I shake my head even though he can’t see it. “No, I didn’t tell Kaleb anything, I don’t know why. I’m sure. I’m so fucking sure, Devon. I feel like I can’t breathe right now.”

“Did you mark her?” He interrupts.

Then I hear a loud gasp, then what sounds like a little bit of a struggle, then Talia’s on the line, her voice sharp with worry. "What's wrong?"

"I need help."

Also by Avanne Michaels

The Eastverse Series

The Beta Part One

The Beta Part Two

The Beta Part Three

***

Everything Nice

Table of Contents

1. Chapter One

2. Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight

9. Chapter Nine

10. Chapter Ten

11. Chapter Eleven

12. Chapter Twelve

13. Chapter Thirteen

14. Chapter Fourteen

15. Chapter Fifteen

16. Chapter Sixteen

17. Chapter Seventeen

18. Chapter Eighteen

19. Chapter Nineteen

20. Chapter Twenty

21. Chapter Twenty One

22. Chapter Twenty Two

23. Chapter Twenty Three

24. Chapter Twenty Four

25. Chapter Twenty Five

26. Chapter Twenty Six