Page 19

M averick

The castle is huge, and tonight, the dining room is full of alphas and omegas, all chatting and laughing and drinking.

The atmosphere is light and easy, which is much needed after all we’ve been through lately.

We’re all seated in the dining room waiting for Faye with the exception of Ezra—Eli at the head of the table, Xander and Cayson sitting on either side of him, and me beside Cayson.

Cayson and Eli are chatting, but I’m quiet. Waiting.

Maybe we’re still not used to this—to being part of something.

Sometimes we seem to blend in with the others, and sometimes there’s still a feeling that we’re on the outside of something we’ve never been a part of, and probably don’t properly understand.

At least, I feel with time all of this will feel more natural. When we’re settled with our Faye.

Everyone at our table falls quiet when Faye steps into the room, walking quickly, with Ezra guiding her to the table.

She’s wearing the dress we designed. It’s black and shimmery on the bottom, goes down to her knees, has simple sleeves, and has a high neckline.

The seamstress clearly took some liberties—tucking it in and cleaning up some of the lines—but it’s gorgeous.

No, it’s not gorgeous, Faye is gorgeous.

She steals my breath. Sucks the air out of the room.

As she comes toward us, I can sense the tension that spreads through the men. It’s a tension filled with wanting, with need, with love. With an awareness that this woman is the most important thing in our world.

All of the women in this room are dressed to impress—but she’s the most beautiful by far.

How any other omega at The Selection thought they had a chance next to her is beyond me.

I swallow, hard, my breath catching in my throat.

Xander leaps to his feet and pulls out a chair for her, and I curse internally, wishing I’d had the foresight to get up first so I could have been the one to do it.

“Good evening, Faye,” Eli drawls, and we all glance at each other.

We all knew Eli had had sex with her today the moment he came to the table, which we tried to ignore.

Sporting hard-ons with our woman not around to do anything about it is pretty damn miserable.

But it’s even worse now, because we can smell Eli on her and an overwhelming scent of her arousal.

She’s blushing furiously, but there’s no jealousy at the table.

There’s enough of her to go around, and we’re all eager to share now that she seems like she’s able to have sex again.

“Good evening,” she says, tipping her head. Her hair falls over her shoulders, and I want to brush it away for her, but can’t reach her.

We all chat and laugh together as the food comes out.

As always, The Selection pulls out all the stops, bringing out lobster and steak, rich butter with garlic and herbs, potatoes and roasted vegetables in a huge spread.

Faye eats her fill, and we all make sure her cup is never empty, handing her things so she doesn’t have to reach.

“I can butter my own bread,” she says with a laugh when Cayson insists on doing it for her.

“Nonsense,” Eli says, waving his hand. “Let us handle it.”

Faye rolls her eyes, but there’s something pleased in her expression. It makes my chest loosen to see it. As annoying as we might be, she’s happy with us. We’re making our omega, our mate, happy, just the way she should be. It makes me feel like I’m glowing with pride.

When dinner is finished and some alphas start moving to the dance floor with the omegas, I stand first, holding out my hand to Faye. When she looks up at me, her cheeks flushed and her eyes shining, I want to pick her up, hold her close to my chest.

But instead, I just clear my throat.

“May I have this dance?” I ask, giving her what I hope is a charming grin.

“Oh, man,” Cayson says, crossing his arm. “I should have thought of that.”

“That’s alright,” Eli says, clapping his hand on Cayson’s shoulder. “We have all night to dance with our girl. We can finish our drinks while Maverick takes her to the floor.”

I’m already pulling Faye to her feet, drawing her out to the dance floor, her small hand warm and soft in mine. A perfect fit to my much larger hands. To me, it’s a symbol. A reminder that my much smaller mate will always need my protection.

She rubs her fingers along mine. “Your hands are so rough.”

I’m embarrassed. She’s right. “Sorry.”

She smiles. “Don’t be sorry. It just makes me think that I could moisturize them for you.”

“That would be nice,” I say, trying to keep the arousal from my voice as I pull her into my arms on the dance floor.

I wonder if there will ever come a time that having her close like this doesn’t make my skin flush, my body ready to take her at any moment. Surely, she’ll start to grow tired of me if I’m constantly approaching her with a hard-on like a horny teenage boy. I’m sure Eli has more control than that.

“My thought is that while there are lots of ways you guys seem to be able to take care of me, I want to be able to take care of you too.”

My lips quirk up. “You know, you’ll have lots of ways of taking care of us.”

“Oh?” she asks.

“Well, the obvious way of course…” I say.

She looks confused.

I pull her a little closer. “In bed, sweet Faye.”

Her cheeks turn red. “Of course.”

“But you’re also the sweetness in our lives. The gentleness.”

She again looks surprised. “But how is that useful?”

My gaze holds her. “We’re all big, tough men. We need someone who cares about the roughness of our hands, or whether we’ve had a bad day. We need someone to hold when we’re feeling lost, who will keep us grounded.”

“And you think I can do that?” She sounds happy.

I kiss her lips lightly. “I know you can. You’re an amazing mate.”

She laughs a little. “You guys seem to have figured out all kinds of things about me, but I’m still figuring all of you out.”

My little one has trust issues, rightfully so. “Ask me some questions. Anything. I want you to feel like you know me.”

She seems to take a minute to think. “How do you know how to dance?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at me. “You’re pretty good.”

“Am I?” I say, laughing and bumping my elbow against hers.

It’s nice, to have her so close, to be dancing through the ballroom together, speaking quietly in the space between us.

“Remember, I had the whole human experience thing. I went to a lot of dances in high school. My school’s, and others, too.

I had a lot of friends at some really fancy places, and we had to do this kind of ballroom dancing, sometimes. ”

“Wow,” Faye says, lowering her head and looking at me through her lashes. “I didn’t realize I was in the presence of an expert.”

“If you think this is good,” I say, hearing how low my voice is, “you should see my club dancing.”

“Club dancing?”

“Yeah, well, I kept dancing in college, but that was when we would go out to the clubs.”

“How is club dancing different?”

Warmth spreads through my chest, and I drop her hand, watching her eyes go wide as I move my hips closer to hers.

We step to the side so we don’t interrupt the flow of the dancing around us, and I circle around her, drunk on the sound of her laugh as I grab her hips, rolling mine and practically grinding on her.

My heart jumps to my throat when I can smell her arousal, even though she’s protesting what I’m doing.

“Gods, oh my gods—Maverick, you have to stop,” she says, her voice overtaken with giggles, as she tugs on my hand and brings me back to her front, positioning me for the dance again.

I’m still smiling, the grin on my face stupidly big, as we rejoin the proper dance. The song ends, and the band transitions into a more modern slow song. Faye steps closer to me and drops her head against my chest.

I have to breathe through the intense feelings in my chest, looking away from her for a moment to give myself a rest. If every day feels like this, I just might make up for how boring it could be sometimes, living amongst the humans.

Just one look at Faye is like a shot of dopamine directly into my veins.

“What did you go to college for?”

“Business,” I say gruffly. I clear my throat—I know business is not the most impressive thing to study. Others at college—especially those in medical or legal tracks—would laugh when they heard I was a business major.

My man, one of my friends had said, seriously, switch to law. You have the brains for it.

But what they didn’t understand was that I was in business school for a reason—I wanted to build something for myself.

“Why did you choose business?” she asks, her words soft. “It sounds hard.”

I almost let out a laugh, but I don’t. That was not the sentiment on the college campus.

“Well,” I say, clearing my throat. I’m not usually so open, but with Faye, it’s like everything just comes tumbling out of me.

“Growing up with only my family, without a true pack—I just wanted to build something for myself. I thought having the tools to start and grow a business would be good for that.”

“That makes sense,” Faye says, her jaw rubbing against my chest as she talks. Without thinking about it, I run a hand over her hair.

“But that’s not the plan anymore,” I say. “Now, the plan has totally changed.”

“Why’s that?”

Bewildered, I pull her shoulders away from my chest, looking down into her face.

“Faye?” I laugh. “Because I have you. I have my pack and my family. I don’t need to build a business. I just need to help build whatever our family needs.”

“Oh,” she says, and I see something undecipherable pass over her face. I would give anything to know what she’s thinking.

“Ezra and I have been talking,” I say, meeting her eyes steadily.

“And I think I’m going to be his right-hand man.

In operations and governing for his pack.

Xander might be more involved with Cayson—he needs something a little more firm.

But I think I can integrate some things from business school into running the pack.

Did you know Ezra and his father still keep track of everything on paper?

A good database and automated system for inventory would free up so much time for them. ”

“Wow,” Faye says, admiration glinting in her eyes. “You’re really smart, aren’t you?”

I can’t help it—I lean down and kiss her. She leans into me immediately, her body softening like warm taffy, molding to me. Her hands press into my back, and even though I know there are people all around, my body urges me to take her, here and now.

Then, something bristles over the back of my neck and I pull away from her, looking over her shoulder. There’s an older man standing in the doorway, his eyes set intently on Faye.

Immediately, I reposition us so she’s slightly behind me, and I hear Faye ask what’s wrong. My entire body has gone from warm affection to stiff protectiveness in an instant, and I have no idea why, but I know deep down that that man is a threat to my mate.

Even though I’ll be damned if he ever gets near her.