Page 174 of Claiming the Pack's Omega

"Would you argue if I said I wanted to kiss you?" I growl, reaching up and gripping the nape of her neck.

She melts into that touch too.

"No," she breathes out.

"Good."

Using my hold on her, I lean down and crash my lips against hers. It's hungry. Desperate, almost. I pour every emotion I don't have the words for into the kiss.

All the hope for our future. All the anxiety around my past.

Her lips meet mine, matching the fervor and pace of each of my movements. She lets out a soft moan as she parts her lips, making way for my tongue and I almost lose it.

God, the things I would do to her if we didn't have a dinner with my fucking family in a couple hours.

She pulls away, her chest heaving as she blinks up at me through her thick lashes.

"Wait—stop," she pants out.

I freeze, my heart nearly stopping along with the rest of me.

"We—we've gotta stop—because if we kiss any longer, I'm going to rip this dress off and climb you like a fucking tree—and we don't have time for that."

I throw my head back, the intensity of my laugh shocking me.

It's like she took the words right out of my head.

"You're right," I say, my gaze darting between hers. My chest feels warm and I can't help but run my nose along her shoulder, really soaking in her unique scent.

"I should go get ready," she whispers, glancing away. She waves over her shoulder as she lifts the hem of her dress in one hand as she walks up our spiral staircase.

Letting her walk away from me makes my chest physically ache. I don't know how I spent my entire life without her presence.

"You good, man?" Theo asks softly, coming to stand beside me as we watch Reyna disappear up the top of the stairs to her room.

"Fine," I grunt.

"Mhm. You know, you pride yourself on being this big bad alpha, but when you do things like that, it really messes with your image."

"Do things like what?" I huff, fighting the urge to roll my eyes as I rip my gaze away from the empty staircase to look at him.

"Say you're fine when you're not fine. It's okay to not be fine, and it's okay to ask for help, you know that right?"

I take a deep breath, but it does nothing to get rid of the tightness in my chest. "I know that, but it's not that simple. I can't ask for help because there's nothing you can do. You know my family. You've seen the way they operate."

"They're literally batshit insane," Stone says from his seat on one of the lounge chairs in the sitting room. "Pardon my language."

Theo and I make our way over to him and sit across from him and Milo.

"They really are crazy," Milo says softly. "And I don't say that lightly. All of us have weird relationships with our parents, but yours is by far the worst."

"You know, I think Reyna's relationship with her parents is probably the healthiest out of the five of us," Theo adds.

"And even then, she felt the need to pursue the work that she did in order to provide for them and the rest of her family, so wasit really all that good? At least my parents had no issue feeding and clothing me." I can feel my hackles rising. I don't know why I still get defensive. Maybe because they're my family.

"Yeah, and your mom will fucking yell at you for literally no reason," Stone says, leaning back.

"She'll also disregard every single one of your accomplishments, regardless of how big they are," Theo adds.