Page 32 of Omega Forged (Hartlock Omegas #2)

Tully

In the past, my heat ended with an echo through my tired muscles. Biologically, I did everything my body demanded. I filled myself with silicone knots and managed the extreme spikes with prescribed medication. But the emptiness was a gaping maw, and it took a long time to fade.

As I rolled away from Pan’s sprawled naked body, I knew what I’d been missing.

The scent of salt, different on every naked expanse of skin.

No amount of silicone could replace the feeling of my pack’s heated pants on the shell of my ear. Nor the sensation of their hot release flooding my insides. Haze lifted like gauze over my eyes, and I shifted my limbs.

Sticky.

It should have disgusted me, but I was pleased. I climbed over the padded lip of the nest with care not to wake the alpha next to me. Pan was decadent in repose. Full swollen lips, his body a lithe line. Our scents together settled me in a primal way.

I wanted to slip back into the nest next to Pan, but I couldn’t lie and wait any longer. I wanted to find the rest of my pack and—I froze on the edge of the nest. And what?

I wasn’t a part of Baylark Pack.

This was a heat, not a claiming.

“You’re getting carried away,” I muttered to myself.

After Chase, my trust in my own feelings eroded. I never used to be so tentative or frightened of joy.

The Hartlock legacy attracted people, not always for the right reasons.

Chase hadn’t cared for me at all, except to carve me as a notch and drain me dry. A convenient pussy he stored away like a toy. The glow of the heat trickled away, replaced by tightness in my chest. My thoughts came thick and dark.

Heat pricked behind my eyes, and I blinked at the ceiling. I’d done more than let Baylark Pack into my body. I’d taken their affection and care as real, as lasting.

This heat made me realize how badly I wanted it.

To belong.

How do you trust when your ability is obliterated?

The entwined scents in the room were thick. Maybe if I washed them off, I would feel better. Pan snoozed, his hand stretched wide, but curled like a claw. Like he searched for me in sleep. I fought the urge to crawl under his relaxed arm.

My stomach swooped as I entered the bathroom.

Lloyd and Ajax laughed in unison by the sunken bath, and Walden was perched against the marble countertop, his laptop in front of him and a phone pressed to his ear.

Incongruous with the setting, he wore a suit.

This one a charcoal gray with a pair of silver frames balanced on the end of his nose. He had glasses?

Oh, that was not helping my resolve.

A soft, buttery smile spread across his face. “I’ll call you back. My omega just walked in the room.” Walden tossed the phone to the side.

My omega.

Butterflies churned in my stomach. His smile tightened as I lingered.

The echo of Lloyd and Ajax’s laughter disintegrated. “We were just getting ready to wake you with a warm bath. Are you hungry?”

“What are you wearing?”

“Oh.” Walden looked down with a laugh. “I had a few meetings while you slept. But I’m all yours now.”

He shed his suit and glasses with practiced ease and slipped into the bath.

Walden tapped his thigh with an insistent arch of his eyebrow.

This wasn’t an offer, but a demand. Foolish, weak—heat addled—I justified to myself as I went to him.

Walden anchored his muscular arm around my back and drew me closer into his solid embrace.

The longing in my chest throbbed deep as the warm water enveloped me.

Walden picked up a washcloth and ran it over my tired limbs. Lloyd and Ajax watched on with knowing smiles.

My parents had never been affectionate. I earned their praise when I put aside personal wants and lived like them.

I felt a surge of delayed anger at them both, martyrs and hypocrites.

For they had each other, and I had to make do with the clasp of my own thin arms around me.

It left a chasm that whistled with a lonely wind.

I’d been starving for touch when Chase seduced me, and mistook his caresses for love. I didn’t want to make the same mistake. Despite that, I tucked my nose into the crook of Walden’s neck. His alluring scent of eucalyptus cleared the tension from my limbs, but left my mind muddled.

“How many days were we…” I trailed off. Tangled in each other’s bodies. Lost to ecstasy. Confusing heat with love.

Lloyd wandered over and pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

“Three days. How are you feeling?” Walden rumbled.

I flared my nostrils. There was still a layer of me painted on his skin. Shock brought a prick to the back of my eyes. It soothed me, like the heavy grip of his arm around my waist.

“You didn’t sleep as long as I thought you would,” Lloyd said, passing Walden a small bottle of hair oil. I’d left a purple bruise on his neck. The marks Lloyd left on me were deeper than skin, though.

“Never better,” I lied with false cheer.

Walden’s eyes narrowed, and I knew he didn’t believe me.

“Eat.” He nodded to the plate Ajax laid in front of me.

He’d slipped out for just a moment to the fridge in the nest. Fresh fruit took up half the plate, with nuts, crackers, and a green-colored dip.

It was light enough to tempt my concave stomach.

Ajax squeezed my shoulder. His coffee scent sent a jolt of energy through my veins.

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted anything substantial after your heat.”

I nibbled on a slice of apple, and the tart flavor exploded over my tongue. Walden wasn’t happy with my progress, growling and lifting a cracker with cheese for me to eat. The weight of their notice frayed my raw nerves. A scuffle by the door distracted everyone.

“There she is,” Pan sighed as he scanned the room and found me.

He arched his back and stretched his arms over his head with a satisfied sigh.

He wrapped a towel around his waist, hiding the soft, swaying cock between his legs.

What if he? No. My heat was over. It was time to think with other parts of my body.

But Pan sat on the edge of the bath, with his legs in the water, and ran his nimble fingers up my neck and through my damp hair.

I whined until he planted a kiss on my mouth.

He nipped at my lip, pulling away with another gusty sigh.

“Don’t distract her,” Walden chastised. “Tully needs to eat.”

Pan scavenged a grape, popping it in his mouth.

My heart thumped against my ribcage. Being witness to their passion for each other, and having it lavished on me, was a wonder.

Pan continued to run his fingers through my damp hair, and the sensation made me shiver.

I fidgeted on Walden’s thigh and the water twitched around us.

“Thank you for seeing me through my heat.” My cheeks reddened.

“You don’t have to thank us, Tully,” Ajax protested.

“I know we all said some things in the heat of the, well, heat.” I cringed, wishing I could gobble the words up and pretend I’d said nothing. “If you’re worried, I don’t hold you to them.”

Walden became stone underneath me. Ajax’s mouth dropped open, and Lloyd fixed me with a horrified stare.

“Did you think we weren’t playing for keeps, angel?” Pan murmured, his fingers threaded through my damp locks, and tugged my head back.

His expression was cool, but a simmering malevolence lurked underneath it. It pulsed through me with a charge of heat. The surrounding water scorched my sensitive skin.

“Y-you don't want,” I stumbled.

Me. Not the real me. The broken, inadequate Tully they’d yet to be disappointed by.

Walden’s fingers tightened around my waist. Pan scoffed quietly. His grip on my hair stung my scalp. I swallowed hard as he stretched my head back and glared at me. I’d seen him undone during my heat, but there was no trace of the submissive Pan now.

“I’m not letting you go.” He released me and paced, sharing a look of dark disbelief with Walden.

Ajax smoothed the hurt from his expression. I fought the urge to placate them and give in to the rising panic in my chest. They wanted me now, but what about when they realized how useless I was?

I couldn’t stand to be discarded again.

Be brave, Tully.

“You all said a lot of things to me these past three days.”

Lloyd scrubbed his hand down his face, and there was a suspicious sheen in his eyes. “Tully, I don’t know how to be clearer. I want you to be a part of this pack.” He spread his hands to his packmates. “It wasn’t heat-driven declarations if that’s your concern.”

Pan paced with frenetic energy, and Ajax swallowed hard.

I picked at my nails under the water until Walden laid his hand over the top of my trembling fingers. “Someone took advantage of my trust before. And I w-want to believe you but…”

The moment was serious enough to warrant silence. A pause while we all gathered our words. I was going to be as honest as I could without telling them who Chase was. My chest was tight as I waited for their response.

Don’t let me slip quietly from a storage room and out of your lives , I thought to myself. Don’t be like Chase.

“Your ex?” Now Lloyd was tearing at his nails, and I felt a pang of guilt at the stress I caused.

Pan halted and planted his hands on the table. His hazel eyes pierced through my sharp armor.

“You in trouble, angel?”

I inhaled a shuddered breath. Fixing what Chase broke would take an effort on my part. Did I think Baylark Pack was worth it? Yes. I fortified my lungs with fresh oxygen.

“He didn’t want to bond me.” Because I wasn’t rich like he thought. “But he also didn’t want anyone else to have me.”

Walden growled. “He wants to claim you?”

I squirmed on his lap, and Walden clamped his hands on my hips. A sharp edge of anger flashed from the unflappable alpha.

“Not exactly. It’s complicated.” I cringed as his low growl started again.

“You can trust us, Tully. We want to keep you safe,” Ajax hurried to add as curiosity jammed his eyebrows together.