Page 52 of Bliss & Her Idols (Pack Bonds Omegaverse #10)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Torin’s Bedroom, Idol Manor

I lie on my back in the middle of the pillow fort, which Jin and Cricket laughingly spent the last hour working out how to build.

Cricket finished scrubbing the floor first, enthusiastically.

Then Jin dragged the mattress off the bed and onto the floor, rearranging the pillows over it.

He used a mop handle balanced against the wall to hold up the blanket in the middle, which is slung between the bed and a wooden chair that Torin stole from someone else’s bedroom.

I have a feeling that it was Rory’s.

The surge in joy through the bond told me how much fun they were having.

Before meeting Jin, I’d never have guessed that a rock star who had the world’s adulation, would be at his happiest messing around, laughing and joking, while getting dust in his hair to build a pillow fort nest for his two Rej Omegas.

Torin also returned with an armful of equally stolen snacks, including chocolates, marshmallows, and a bottle of wine.

“This is how billionaires impress their dates.” Torin held up his snacks with an ironic twist of his lips. “Who is up for camping inside?”

“Excellent choice, Charming. The good stuff. You finally took up my challenge to raid Mena’s wine cellar.” Jin leaped up to snatch the bottle, before Torin could drop it.

Torin swept a bow.

“You stole your Head Alpha’s alcohol…?” I gasped. “Are you all as reckless as each other?”

Torin arched his brow. “You have met us, right? I hope that you don’t have amnesia, since I bonded you last night. If you do, this is going to be an awkward conversation.”

“I’m beginning to wish that I did,” I muttered.

“Drink the wine.” Jin winked. “Then you’ll forget shit anyway.”

Cricket chirped, looking more interested in the chocolate.

“I was desperate to have a midnight feast in the dorms, but we never managed to do it secretly. Do you remember how much I went on and on about it to Zero?” Jin hugged the wine to his chest. “This was my dream date, when I was—”

“Thirteen.” Torin’s lips quirked. “Did you think that I’d forgotten? Better late than never.”

I lie on the floor in a nest of pillows, stargazing through the window out at the silver stars in the velvet sky.

Torin sits with his back propped against the cushions next to me, studying the stars silently and clutching a glass of wine.

I’m still dressed in my sheep pajamas.

Torin has unbuttoned his white shirt. It hangs open over his strong chest. He’s removed his shoes and socks. My gaze keeps flicking to the beautiful arch of his bare feet.

I’m beginning to understand the Victorian obsession with ankles .

Glimpsing my Alpha’s, while he’s still dressed, is making me wetter than if he was fully naked.

Next to us, Cricket and Jin lie on their fronts in matching bronze pajamas, although Jin is only wearing the pants.

They’re working their way happily through the marshmallows, alternatively feeding them to each other.

They’re chatting merrily in hushed voices, licking at each other’s sticky fingers.

The purity of their excitement in the bond hits me hard because it’s not difficult to work out that neither of these men have felt much of this type of fun in their lives.

Cricket was responsible not only for himself and the housework since he was a kid, but also for raising his Alpha brothers.

Jin was scared to even rest in bed for a single day when he was ill.

I understand Torin’s contentment, as he swills his red wine in his glass, watching his mates.

“They’re reaching for the chocolates now.” I waggle my eyebrows. “Shall we confiscate them and eat them ourselves, before our bondeds make themselves sick?”

Torin smiles, indulgently. “Let them. They’ve never had this before. They’ve missed out on their childhoods and youth. Missed out on so fucking much. I’d give them the world, if I could.”

Torin leans over me, plucking a dark chocolate truffle from Jin’s hand.

“Oi, an Alpha raider.” Jin looks at Torin with dancing eyes, while he wraps his arms around what remains of his feast.

Cricket hurriedly stuffs the chocolate that he’s holding into Jin’s mouth as compensation.

Jin presses his chocolate flavored lips to Cricket’s bow ones in thanks.

Torin leans forward, holding the truffle to my mouth. “But you, what did you miss?”

I take the chocolate, moaning at its rich delicious flavor. I chew as slowly as I can to give myself a chance to think before I answer.

“I had a good childhood. I took my parents, home, and brothers for granted, until the day that I came back from high school, the cops were in my house, my parents were missing, and everything came crashing down.” I push my hair out of my eyes.

My throat is tight. I know that all my men are listening now.

Cricket’s gaze meets mine.

Unexpectedly, through the bond, I feel both held and squeezed twice.

I love you.

The words are not only reflected in Cricket’s eyes but shining through the bond.

It gives me the strength to continue.

“That day, hour, minute, second , I stopped being a kid. I grew up. I was fifteen. I had my little brother to think about. He was only six, scared and confused. And my other brother…? Chase doesn’t think that I fully know what he suffered to keep our family together and stop those assholes from hauling Pip and me away to become orphan wards of the Omega Institute.

He tried to hide his exhaustion, feed us while starving himself, and make a game out of running from landlords.

He tried to hide the bruises from his illegal cage fights, which he fought to pay for Pip and me to have an education to become independent Omegas with a better life than he led.

I’ll never forget that both my brothers were my champions against a world that treated us as criminals, outcasts, and rejects. ”

When I meet Torin’s gaze, he doesn’t look pitying like I’d dreaded. Instead, there’s only compassion and a deep understanding.

These men are all outcasts.

Perhaps, they’re the only men who could have become my bonded pack.

We understand each other down to our souls.

Torin balances his wine between the pillows at the side of the fort and lays his hand on the back of my neck.

When his thumb caresses over the wolf tattoo on the base of my neck, I relax with a sigh.

“I’ll never allow you to be made to feel like that again,” Torin swears.

“And I won’t let you be made to either.”

“Pinky promise?” His lips quirk.

I hold up my pinky.

Torin briefly links his with mine. “I love you, a chroi.”

“I love you too.” I run my fingers down Torin’s bare chest. Then I glance over my shoulder at Jin, who is watching us with a heated gaze. “I love you all.”

“Why don’t we go camping for real next time?” Jin rolls onto his back, displaying his dancer’s body in a distracting way. I have a sense that he knows the impact he’s having on the rest of us. “I can plan the next date, yeah? It’ll be the fucking best.”

I should’ve known that these men would be competitive.

Cricket scrambles to sit up, eagerly. “Wait, wait. I want to plan a date.”

“It looks like we’re going to be busy spoiling each other.” Torin draws back from me but he’s still relaxed in a rare way for him. “This is the one to beat. How are you going to do better than marshmallows and chocolates eaten off the floor?”

He means it to be a self-deprecating joke, but Jin and Cricket actually look worried like it is going to be a challenge.

I bite my lip, asking the question that I’ve been avoiding all day. “How did things go with Una?”

While Jin recovered from the bonding bite on the bed, Torin went in search of his sister and her pack to win her over to his coup idea.

I’d been tense with fear that he wouldn’t return.

When he did, he’d simply shrugged, then insisted that we should make the most of our time together.

Torin clenches his jaw. “I knew that I wasn’t going to get away with that. Let’s simply put it that Una was open to the idea. But she wants more time to think about it.”

My heart speeds up. “We may not have more time.”

“I know that. But my family can’t be rushed on anything. Just look how many years I’ve had to wait to even get back to America to plead my case. She listened, and that’s more than anyone has done before. It’s progress.”

“Enough to save us, if Mena arrives back tomorrow morning?” Cricket chews his lip.

Torin brushes imaginary lint off his trousers. “Here’s hoping.”

“What about Rory?” Jin pushes his long hair behind his ear.

“I couldn’t find him. I thought that he may be in his room, recovering from his discipline by the twins. But he wasn’t there. Possibly, their punishment was more extensive.”

Jin looks genuinely alarmed.

I twist my hands in my lap.

Remembering Piper and Chase, makes uneasiness sit heavy in my gut about Rory.

“Do you think that you could forgive Rory?” I whisper.

Torin glances at Jin, and his gaze becomes frostier. “The asshole doesn’t deserve it. But now, when I see how he’s treated by the rest of the family again, I realize that I may already have forgiven him. Aren’t I betraying Jin? Myself?”

“I can’t tell you what to do or how to feel,” I say, quietly. “If you talk to him, however, maybe you’ll discover that there’s more to what happened than you know. Your brother does seem sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t fix everything, does it? It doesn’t return those five years to me. It doesn’t take back a single moment that I spent in Dublin.”

“But it’s a start.” I look down, trying to explain.

“In my job, I’ve seen a lot of Alphaholes who’ve hurt their partners or pack.

Rory isn’t acting like they did. None of them showed genuine remorse, where they took responsibility for their actions.

Even if you don’t forgive Rory, we could help him. ”

“I forgive him,” Jin says, softly.

I look up, surprised.

Torin’s expression becomes icy. “You shouldn’t.”