Page 50 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Torin’s Bedroom, Idol Manor

I slowly rise to consciousness.

I’m cool again. My skin no longer feels like it’s being seared from the inside by the sun. My desire isn’t heavy and pooled in my stomach.

I’m calm and content.

My nose wrinkles at the scent of dust. I struggle to hold back a sneeze.

I blink at the gray sheets.

I’m lying in Torin’s small bedroom again.

Bright sunlight shines through the window over the battered wardrobe and ceiling, which is decorated with stars.

How long have I been sleeping?

Who carried me here?

I squirm to the side and find that Cricket’s arm and leg are thrown over me possessively.

The blankets are pulled up to our chins.

Cricket is snoring, looking exhausted but the happiest I’ve seen him, as if his demons have been chased away.

I study his face, kissing over the freckles on his nose gently enough not to wake him.

He must have stayed awake the entire heat to look after Torin and me.

Let him catch up on his rest now.

I can’t resist tracing over Cricket’s bond bite. He shifts in his sleep with a sigh.

I raise my hand to my own neck. I shiver in pleasure as I trace over the bite, which has already healed to the lightest scar.

It’s a reminder that I belong to the Idol pack.

Behind me, I can hear the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar.

I twist to see Torin sitting on the floor with his back resting against the wall. His scratched guitar is lovingly propped on his knees like an old friend. He’s strumming out chords with a look of intense concentration.

I haven’t seen him like this.

It’s fascinating.

A line runs between his brows of deep thought. Otherwise, his expression is open and relaxed.

He’s not only happy but also, fulfilled.

This is what Torin is meant to be doing, as much as Jin comes alive when he’s performing on a stage.

Torin’s hair falls over his face, as he plays.

He’s dressed in a simple white shirt with no jacket. The sleeves are rolled back to reveal his strong forearms. His trousers are black, thin, and too short.

His feet are bare.

Yet he’s never looked so handsome.

“I know that I’m pretty,” Torin says without looking up, “but why don’t you record me on your phone? Then you can stare at me in that stalker-like way whenever you want?”

I huff. “How do you know that I wasn’t thinking about where to stuff that guitar because you’ve woken me up with your playing?”

Torin misses a note but still doesn’t look up. “I can feel your love through the bond.”

Startled, I concentrate.

I can feel it: My men through the bond, their emotions and needs.

I’d always thought that Chase must have been exaggerating about this side of his bond to his Feral pack.

I was wrong.

Torin’s emotions are like threads connecting me to him. But not only my Alpha. They coil out to every pack member

I can sense Torin’s sparking, obsessive love. Yet also the loneliness and shame that runs like a frozen river underneath.

Sleeping, Cricket’s emotions are a sweet and serene happiness.

Yet I can feel something special through Cricket’s bond. A strength. It’s like a blossom tree, which is pretty and soft on its top but has a solid, strong trunk. It also has deep roots, both of integrity and love.

I sit up in the bed, suddenly wide awake. “That feels incredible.”

Torin’s lips twitch. “You all do.”

“What day is it?” I demand.

“Sunday. Let our Omega sleep.”

I glance around the plain bedroom. “Where’s Jin?”

Torin finally stops playing, resting the guitar in his lap.

He cocks his head, listening. He points at the closed bathroom door.

I listen as well to the muffled sound of the shower spray.

“He’ll be in there for at least an hour,” Torin says, indulgently.

“The dorms only have cold water. So, whenever Jin has a chance to use hot water, he turns into a merman. Ryan looked after him well, while we were in the Omega Chamber. Miracle of miracles, Ryan even managed to keep our Beta resting in bed by threatening to disturb your heat if he got up. Smart man.”

“Jin is okay now?”

“As okay as any of us are, until Mena arrives home.”

Anxiety spikes through me.

“She’s not back yet,” I say like a spell against evil.

Torin quirks his brow. “Don’t tempt fate. She could be back at any moment. And she hunts sheep.”

I glare at him. “I’m a wolf.”

Torin gestures at me, trying to hide his grin. “Are you?”

I look down at myself, confused.

Then I freeze.

I’ve been dressed in a sweet, strawberry scented nightgown, which is fluffy, pink, and covered in cute sheep and hearts.

“You did this,” I accuse.

“Hey, don’t blame the innocent Alpha. I really didn’t. Blame Sarah, Una’s Omega. She’s kindly donated some of her clothes to you, while Ryan has offered his for Cricket. What’s wrong? Not your style?”

“Bite me.”

“Already have.”

Torin looks far too satisfied with himself.

Maybe I’ll bite him later.

I shake my head ruefully. “Then this sheep has something to say.”

“Bah?”

I shoot Torin a quailing look. He simply points at the nightstand.

My eyes light up, when I notice a mug of coffee, which is balanced next to my phone.

I snatch it up, taking a quick sip; it’s still warm. “You’re forgiven.”

“Thank you.”

“I was talking to the coffee.” I stroke the side of the mug. “Never trick me again. Oh, I could never stay mad at you.”

I take another long drink.

Torin snorts.

I carefully hold the mug in one hand and slide my phone on with the other. I type out a quick text, mainly in emojis, with my other, telling Piper that I’m bonded.

I ask him to pass the news to Chase and Lionzio.

Piper sends back a series of hearts followed by a grinning face, heart-eyes, and winking face.

I wish that Piper could feel this same happiness.

Chase and I now have our pack bonds, but my younger brother is still alone. Piper is awesome. He doesn’t deserve that.

I know that my brothers will be frantic to break me out of this estate if things go wrong.

I want to prove that I can do this first mission not only by myself, but with my new pack, the Idols, at my side.

Then I turn the phone off, rummaging to hide it under the mattress, in case Mena or the twins decide to snoop.

I clasp my hands around the warm mug. “I know that I suck at romance but the way that I answered your question sucked a lot .”

Torin glances at me. “All that mattered is that you said yes.”

“If I hadn’t been out of my mind with heat and pleasure, horny for your knot, this is what I’d have said.” I throw back the covers, catching a glimpse of the bronze, cotton pajamas that Cricket has been dressed in.

The pajamas are too large for him, hanging off his shoulder. His gleaming, brunet mop of curls is haloed across the pillows.

I tuck the covers back over Cricket. He truly must be tired.

I smooth the shadows under his eyes, before I slip off the bed and crawl across the dusty floor to sit cross legged in front of Torin.

“Did you used to sit down here on the floor underneath the window a lot as a kid?” I ask. “Was this your spot?”

Torin nods. “I didn’t have a chair or desk. Zero stole this guitar for me. I composed my first songs here.”

I take a moment to be certain I know what I want to say.

“My answer to whether I love you is that I was falling in love with you from the first moment that I met you in the arena.” Torin sucks in a shocked breath.

His eyes are wide and vulnerable. I rest my hand on his knee.

“You weren’t only my scent match. I fought it, once I knew what pack you were from, but it was like you were a missing part of my life. ”

“It was fate,” he whispers.

“I was frightened of pack bonds because my job is to step in when they’re forced.

But you’ve never taken away my control or decisions.

You haven’t diminished me in the way that an Alpha…

the wrong Alpha…would have. Instead, you’ve built me up.

Finally, I feel like I’m not trapped in the shadow of my parents’ legacy. Is this what it’s like to be free?”

Torin sets down his guitar next to me, pulling me onto his lap.

His arms around me are a support, holding me to his strong chest, rather than caging me. “I want to spend my life alongside you all, while we support each other. We can find our freedom in our own way. That’s love to me. I know it now.”

I turn to press a kiss to his palm. “We’ve got each other’s backs.”

Torin wraps his arms around me tighter. His shirt is warm from the sun, as I rest my cheek over his heart.

“I always intended to find a journalist to witness what was going on in the Idol camp,” he says, quietly.

I glance up at him, in shock. “I had an entire plan worked out, until meeting you little darlings blew it the fuck up. Because you were my scent match, and more than that, Jin trusted you. So, I took that risk as well. Trust means more to me than love. I knew that you could help me to rescue Jin and the rest of the Idols. But I didn’t dare dream that you’d fall in love with me .

That an outcast Alpha like me would be worthy of having their own bonded pack. ”

I stare at Torin in shock.

He’s been playing an even longer game than I knew.

Why am I surprised?

He made a pact with Jin and Zero when he was only fourteen.

Just how many years have these men been plotting to bring down the most wealthy and powerful music empire in the world?

Was Jin waiting until the end of his ten year contract?

Did he truly have the strength of character and endurance to suffer that many years, knowing that he could speak out afterward?

Except, wasn’t that prank in the woods played when Torin was only in kindergarten?

Have they been surviving…plotting…much longer than I’ve realized?

I’m a survivor too. So are Piper and Chase. Yet we had each other.

Did Torin have the Beta Idols as his true family?

“What happened on that night in the woods, when the twins abandoned you?” I ask. “How did you escape?”