Page 11 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

CHAPTER FIVE

Bliss’ Bedroom, Haven

D ead.

Dead soon anyway…

I hold Cricket closer to me in the nest of my bed, wrapping my arm around him.

He chirps happily, burrowing against my side.

He hugs a fluffy cushion to his chest.

I try not to think about the words that Hudson hurled like a blade.

But it’s hard.

I can’t ask Cricket.

It’s too personal.

Violating.

Cricket will tell me, when he’s ready.

Yet I’m desperate to know what his brutal dad meant.

I’ve only just found my Omega soulmate. I couldn’t survive if I lost him.

I study Cricket’s face, overwhelmed by being finally able to see this man who I’ve been falling in love with virtually for over a year.

He’s prettier than anyone I’ve seen before.

I hover my hand over the freckles on the bridge of Cricket’s upturned nose, unable to resist brushing my finger over each of them in turn.

I won’t let anyone hurt a single one of these freckles.

Cricket pushes up into my touch with a hint of desperation.

I smile, stroking my hand into his thick hair.

Now that it’s dry, I can see that Cricket’s hair is a beautiful, gleaming brunet mop of curls.

I can’t resist tugging just slightly, and Cricket melts against my side.

His purr rumbles through the bedroom. He looks at me through sleepy, amber eyes.

Yet those same eyes are purple and bruised.

His cheek still looks painful.

I may be able to stand up for Cricket now, but how many times in the past has he been hurt?

It must almost be dawn, but neither of us have slept.

Cricket’s sweet, honeycomb cherry scent cocoons me.

It was deeply satisfying to build up my nest of emerald blankets and cushions, before urging Cricket to snuggle deeply into it with me.

Cricket’s eyes were wide with wonder.

My nest isn’t luxurious. It’s nothing like elite Omegas have.

A horrifying thought strikes me.

Has Cricket never been allowed a nest of his own before?

We’re both wearing matching fluffy dragon onesies.

Piper offered a set of his own pajamas to Cricket, which would have been too large for him, but at least wouldn’t have been pink with sparkling horns.

I never thought that I’d meet a male Omega who is even smaller than my brother.

Cricket blushed, still too shy to speak to Piper, before pointing to my onesie.

I was simply pleased that he had enough confidence in our pack to make a choice.

And trust that he was safe to.

Cricket had only just emerged from the hot bath that I’d drawn for him to warm him up and reduce his shivering. His body was a disturbing map of faded bruises in green, yellows, and browns, along with darker bands of black around his ribs.

He didn’t complain.

I have a feeling that he never does.

I gritted my teeth.

Cricket is my best friend. I spoke to him every night about Piper’s development of new coffees, my favorite rock songs, and the Idols case.

When did he talk about himself?

He rarely let anything slip, apart from small details in passing about his day, like his happiness when it was sunny or the squirrel family that he fed between his chores.

Yet I had a gut feeling that something was wrong.

Should I have pressed harder?

Did I have that right?

I let him have his privacy. Was I wrong to have?

My guts churn.

This feels like a second chance. I won’t waste it.

Cricket smiles up at me. He’s alternating stroking the fluffy material of his onesie and the cushion.

My lips tighten.

Has he ever worn anything that soft before?

For an Omega, it’s torture to be denied sensory sensation.

Still, I can’t help adoring seeing Cricket wearing my clothes.

I admit it. He brings out my possessive side.

I reach for the edge of the blanket and tuck it around Cricket.

“Thanks, Bee.” He wraps his arm around my waist.

The weight startles me.

I swallow.

I’ve never allowed anyone to sleep the night in my bed before.

My brothers have cuddled in my nest, sometimes when one of us had nightmares.

But outside heats, I’ve never invited a man into my nest.

Sleeping like this? With Cricket’s casual touch, his knee touching mine, and our scents mingling?

After thirty years alone…?

It’s intimate but also, it feels like I’ve been waiting for exactly the right man to come along who fills this place like the ghost of him was always there.

I snuggle more closely against Cricket.

Cricket’s purr deepens. “Is this a dream?”

I smirk, before feathering kisses across his nose.

Cricket scrunches his nose in shock, before chuckling. “Okay, okay, this is real.”

Satisfied, I settle back.

We’re facing each other; our gazes meet each other’s intently.

Cricket licks over his dry lips. “I lay in bed at night — for the last year that we’ve been working together — thinking about you.”

My breath stutters. “Same.”

Cricket’s eyes widen with awe. Pink spreads across his cheeks.

“I’d turn off the computer,” he says in a breathless, confessional rush, “and then slip back into the darkness of the kitchen, which is where I slept by the stove at night. I never stopped thinking about you. It kept me warmer than the stove. Your nest is incredible. As a NH Reject, my pack didn’t believe in letting me have one. Thank you for allowing me into yours.”

“Don’t thank me for that. You’re my soulmate. You feel it too, right? This is your nest as well.”

He blinks in confusion. “I feel it. But that doesn’t mean… my nest?”

“Yours.”

“How am I lucky enough that my best friend is also my soulmate?” Cricket’s eyes are bright.

“That you’d share your nest like this…? You’re kind, Bee.

I knew that you were smart and the type of brave Omega that I’d always dreamed of becoming.

You’re an inspiration. It’s why you’re the only one that I trust about my Dragon. ”

Now, it’s my turn to blush. “You kept me going too, knowing that I would be talking to you every night.”

“Sometimes, my youngest brother would throw some of his dirty laundry at me before bed. He knew that it’d give me an excuse to use his sweaters like a blanket for the night and then wash them in the morning. I never had anything else to keep me warm. But now, you’ve already given me so much.”

“You deserve it,” I say, fiercely. “In this pack, you’ll get the same as everyone else. We’re equal. Why didn’t your brothers do more to help you?”

“I raised my brothers,” Cricket’s gaze slides away from mine, “but they were Alphas. I don’t blame them.

I understand how conflicted they were about helping me.

They could have taken out their frustrations about being abandoned in the forest by our parents for most of their childhoods on me.

They didn’t. Most of the time, I couldn’t cook them more than soup.

Their toys were secondhand and stolen. They didn’t protect me but they didn’t hurt me.

How can they fight their Alpha instincts? ”

He shrugs.

My eyes narrow. “Well, that’s bullshit. My brother is an Alpha.

He’d burn down the world to protect his pack and tear out anybody’s throat who threatens Omegas, as you witnessed with your family.

He’s not a sweet puppy. He’s a wolf . A hunter.

But so am I. And my best friend in Haven is an Alpha, Lion.

He’s just as protective of Omegas. I’m sorry that your family have taught you that their dynamic gives them the right to treat you as lesser, but it's not because they’re Alphas.

It’s because they’re fucking Alphaholes . ”

Cricket lets out a startled laugh and then covers his mouth. “ You cussed . And about Alphas.”

I grin, mischievously. “Get used to it. Want to try it, Knot Crusher ? After all, you put out devastating memes about Alphas.”

Cricket looks scandalized for a moment. “But that’s online.”

“I know that it’s harder to do these things in real life. Now that you’re in the Wolf pack, however, you have that chance. Want to try it out?”

Cricket takes a deep breath, before tipping up his chin.

“Fucking Alphaholes,” he whispers, before repeating more loudly, “ Fucking Alphaholes! ”

Then Cricket is panting and kissing me and it’s nothing like the virtual kiss, where I’m dominating him.

This is spontaneous and joyful.

The best kiss of my life.

Cricket’s lips are soft and plush.

He doesn’t know what he’s doing, but his passion and eagerness make up for that.

I open my mouth to tempt his tongue to explore, then catch it with mine, as it darts inside.

Slowly, I deepen the kiss.

For someone who has never kissed anyone before, Cricket shouldn’t be this good at this.

Excitement rushes through me at the thought of how easy he’ll be to train at other things.

How amazing his pretty tongue, which is now tangled with mine, will feel between my legs, lapping at my throbbing clit.

When Cricket finally draws back, he looks as dazed as I feel.

“That was…” Cricket licks over his lips like he can still taste me on them, “…so many times better than I imagined it would be.”

My breathing is fast. My skin tingles.

“Imagined it a lot then, have you?” I tease.

Cricket smiles, shyly. “Every night. I would lie on the kitchen floor, imagining that you were with me, or even better, that I was in your nest. What it would feel like to snuggle, kiss…” He flushes.

“…be touched in the way that’s forbidden between my legs.

I’d always become achingly hard. I was so frustrated that I could cry, but it was worth it to dream that you’d be the Omega who wouldn’t reject me. ”

When I glance down, I can see that Cricket is achingly hard now, tenting the onesie.

“You know that I would never reject you. You’re mine. I love having you here.”

“And Jin.” Cricket gives a cheeky grin upward at the Painting Jin on the ceiling. “You’re a talented artist. It’s like our Beta is in bed with us.”

My breath catches.

“Our Beta,” I repeat in surprise.