Page 18

Chapter 18

Ava

I’m not sure how most Alphas court, but this pack definitely doesn’t do things halfway.

Over the next few days, I’m pampered like I’ve never been pampered before. Ethan takes me to look at cars so that I can buy one for myself, and tells me not to bother looking at the price tag.

Part of me wants to protest, since I’m not used to being gifted things or spoiled, but having a car would be really nice. I’ve had to use the local transportation system to get around town and it takes twice or sometimes three times as long for me as it would if I had a car.

We end up going with a pale blue VW bug. I think it’s adorable.

Dante cooks for me, asking me what my favorite foods are and making it all fresh. Gnocchi, pork tamales, butter chicken with garlic naan bread, crepes… I feel like I’m dining out at a fancy restaurant every day, and I can’t get enough of it.

“You’re going to fatten me up,” I tease him at one point. I like watching him cook. Dante narrates what he does while he’s doing it, and I kind of want to ask him to teach me.

But I don’t want him thinking that I don’t enjoy him cooking for me. I also just like watching him and seeing it all come together.

“I’m going to make sure my Omega has three meals a day,” Dante counters. “How many times did you forget breakfast or skip lunch working at the shelter?”

He’s got a point. “You know, a girl could get used to this.”

“Good. That’s the plan.” He smiles possessively at me over the stove.

It’s not just meals that he makes for us throughout the day, though. He preps meals ahead of time and puts them in the fridge so that they’ll be ready to heat up when my heat strikes and they’ll need to look after me even more.

Caleb’s helping me decorate my room, so that I can make it a proper nest. Cary was right about my nesting kicking into high gear. I care about the exact position of furniture, and I want to have a ton of soft things like throw blankets and pillows. I even want to put wallpaper on the ceiling so that it’s interesting to stare up at when I’m in bed.

I’ve always cared a bit about my home, and made my bed into a nest, but it’s never been like this. Caleb buys me literally whatever I want, and once again tells me that price is no concern.

Caleb’s fondness and commitment to helping me makes me feel validated. Like I’m not some silly Omega he’s putting up with, some rich Alpha who just hands over his credit card while rolling his eyes at his friends going, women, am I right?

All of them do a good job of making me feel like they care. Although I’m not quite as sure how Garrett’s doing.

He helps me move the furniture around in the other rooms without complaint and will quietly ask me if I need anything. If I ever need to leave the house, he accompanies me as a silent bodyguard.

He’s not really one for words much, that’s clear, or at least not the easy tenderness and affection that the other three are showing me. But I know that he cares. I just wish I could find a way to get through to him.

But I never doubt that I’m safe with him. That he’ll take good care of me.

Through it all, I do my best not to interfere with their work too much. I know that they’re taking time off to court me, especially with my heat inevitable. That’s going to put them out of commission for a few days and I don’t want their work to suffer for it.

I think I’m doing a good job of keeping myself out of the way, but then, I walk into the kitchen and find I’ve stumbled upon Dante in a business meeting.

He’s wearing a button-up shirt and a tie, and even the pants to match, like he’s refusing to cheat by being business only from the waist-up. He’s sitting at the head of the table looking at his computer and nodding along with whatever’s being said.

I freeze.

“Sorry,” I mouth silently as Dante looks up.

But Dante just smiles at me and then looks back at the laptop. “I think we’re good for now. Let’s stay on schedule and double-check everything, I don’t want any surprises whatsoever. Let’s have another meeting tomorrow morning, eight sharp, to discuss the rest of the day’s progress. We’re almost there, everyone, great work.”

If his coworkers are surprised by him ending the meeting early, none of them say anything as Dante ends the meeting and gestures for me to come closer. I walk over and he immediately pulls me into his lap.

Snuggling onto his lap, I feel immediately safer, and also definitely warmer. Dante nuzzles into my neck and I tip my head back, melting against his chest. “I don’t want to interrupt your work…”

“Work can wait,” Dante promises, his voice a low rumble against my throat. “Trust us. We know when we can take breaks. Besides, you’re our priority now. What’s the point of our success if we can’t use it to take care of our Omega?”

I shiver, heat sliding down my spine and pooling between my legs. As I adjust myself more comfortably in his lap, wiggling my ass against him to tease him, I can see his laptop screen is filled with schematics and data, and I sit up a little, pausing.

“Is this what you’re working on?”

Dante looks up from where he’s kissing my neck. “Hmm? Oh, yeah.” He grins at me. “I think you’ll like this one. We’ve been working on it for a bit, Ethan and Caleb were running themselves ragged for months.”

He keeps one arm securely around me as he leans forward to tap away at the laptop. “It’s a smart watch. We’ve created something similar before, but this one is specifically for Omegas.”

“It looks kind of like a cuff.”

“Yeah, we redesigned it so that it’ll press closer to the skin, better to monitor things like your pulse.” Dante tilts the laptop so I can see better. “We want Omegas to be able to monitor their heats, fertility levels, all of that much better than they can now. Right now we have way too many Omegas with irregular heats getting caught by surprise.”

“And so this will help them to know when it’s coming?”

“Exactly. Especially for Omegas who’ve been on suppressants at one point or another. Or Omegas who might have complications that make their heats harder to predict.” Dante kisses my neck. “Obviously this isn’t a substitute for medicine or consulting a doctor.”

“But,” I say slowly, the pieces falling into place, “it can take time to work through various medications to find out what works for you, or to wean yourself off suppressants.”

Dante nods. “So while Omegas work with a doctor, or even if there’s not really any medical solution, this device will be able to tell them when a heat’s coming, when they’re most fertile… it’ll help them keep track of themselves.”

“There are apps.”

“Apps aren’t actually monitoring your body. We wanted this to be a health device first, and a smart device second.”

Dante taps the screen to show me some lists. “We want you to be able to do things like tell the time, make phone calls, sync it to your headphones to listen to music. But we made sure those things come secondary. They’re a bonus.”

“This is… Dante, this is amazing,” I tell him. I mean it.

“I hope so.” Dante rubs his temples. “We want it to be perfect. I won’t let them put the product out just to meet the deadline, only to have things go wrong. But pushing the deadline will be a problem for the shareholders and could also make us look like we can’t deliver.”

I reach up and massage his shoulders. I want to help him relax, and words alone feel like they’d just be empty platitudes.

Dante purrs, his eyes falling closed for a moment. When he opens them again, the black is starting to overtake the gray. “I want to help Omegas.”

I hum, nodding.

“But it means even more now that we have you.” His voice is soft. “I want to help you .”

It’s incredibly sweet, and more than I ever thought I would get from an Alpha. Selfless caring.

I don’t know which one of us leans in first, if it’s him or me, but it doesn’t matter once we’re kissing. I whimper, heat sliding through me. His hands on me are large and steady, and so very warm, and he kisses me with a casual confidence that would have my knees buckling if I were standing.

He kisses me deep and slow until I’m squirming on his lap. I’m sure he can smell how slick I am. How desperate I am for him to touch me more.

Dante’s hand slides up my leg, right up to my thigh, and he starts kissing down my neck. I moan. I want him, I want him, I want…

I reach down and palm his cock. Oh fuck, he’s hard, I can feel the bulge of it.

“You want it so badly don’t you?” Dante murmurs. He massages my thigh, but doesn’t reach up any farther, doesn’t dip his fingers in the slick he’s sure to find between my legs. “You want cock. Not just any cock, though, hmm?”

“N-no,” I admit, my voice cracking. “Not just… not just any… Dante …”

His hand slides up my shirt, sending a thrill up my spine as his hands meet more of my bare skin. “You want my Alpha cock. You want my knot .”

I nod. I’m past words at this point, practically panting.

He nips at my throat. “You want to have me fill you up? Give you that sensation your body’s craving so desperately? The stretch of it, pressing up on all the places that make you orgasm over and over while that hot liquid pumps inside you? Claiming you?”

I’m no longer massaging his shoulders. More like clawing at them. “ Please .”

I want him to set me on the table, or readjust me in his lap, and fuck me here and now. I want it so badly I can taste it in the back of my throat. My body is alight with electricity, so much I’m shivering with it.

But then Dante’s hand slides back down to my knee. His hand moves out from under my shirt. His kisses on my neck become gentler.

I understand why he and the others are holding off. I appreciate that they want to respect my previous bad experiences and they don’t want to push me too hard, too fast. It’s very sweet and respectful of them.

But also… I really am ready for them to fuck me already.

Despite the buzzing in my body, it’s clear that Dante’s not going to break that barrier today. Already his touches have turned reassuring, soothing, and his kisses have gentled. I know he doesn’t want to push me, and if he can’t tell how ready I am, then I don’t want to push him.

Reluctantly, I get off his lap. “I’ll stop distracting you. Sorry.”

Dante grins at me. “You can distract me anytime.”

I laugh, but I do leave the room, my entire body buzzing. I feel like now, it’s only a matter of time. Just a matter of time until we actually do cross that line.