Page 67 of Pack of Crooks

With tension loosening in my shoulders, I take his hand, allow him to lead me to his bedroom, and sit with him. I shift, trying to crawl into his lap between kisses, trailing my mouth down his neck, desperate to please him—to prove nothing has changed. But Kill gently catches my chin, eyes boring into mine.

“You do not have to fuck me to make up for fucking her,” he says gently.

My heart twists. “What if I want to?”

He rubs his thumb over my cheek, marking me with his vanilla and chocolate scent. Together, my scent and his, mix beautifully with our omegas. “Even if you wanted to,” he says softly, cupping my face with both hands. “I don’t want that to become a habit, so as much as I would love to fuck, tonight, I want to hold you. Is that okay?”

This alpha. God, I love him. Somehow, he always knows exactly what I need even if I don’t. He’s seen me broken and bruised and helped me be strong. He and Mad saved me, and Kill loves me despite my flaws and trauma.

He arches an eyebrow. “Okay?”

Licking my lips, I nod, settling back onto the mattress beside him. Kill drapes his arm around me and runs his fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp until the last of the anxiety floods out of my body. Once I’m properly relaxed, he lies down and pulls me into his hold, becoming the big spoon.

“Do you remember the first time we kissed?” he murmurs into my ear.

Chuckling, I close my eyes and vividly recall how he caught me in the pantry of our vacation home, grabbed my face, and kissed me smack on the lips. It was so bold and quick, that when he stepped away and stood before me, my brain took a few seconds to catch up. “I knew you’d been checking me out,” I whisper.

“Mmm, you did look good in swim trunks,” he says, voice rumbling. “Can you blame me?”

“Not really,” I tell him. “I know I’m hot.”

Laughing, he hugs me tighter and nuzzles my neck. “You’re more than that though,” he says when he comes up for air. “You take care of me, Ez. You do everything in your power to keep me happy, and I hope I do enough to return the favor.” He kisses my neck. “I love you, you know that, right?”

Craning my neck, I peer at him. “I love you too, and you do more than enough, Kill.” A lot of people think love is a constant, unyielding lust, a honeymoon phase that lasts forever, but they’re wrong. Love is never giving up. No matter how dark and broken either of us are, we’ve always been there for one another. He’s seen me through the worst of the depression that followed the break from Tristan. I’ve held him as childhood memories haunted him.

We’ve fought, big, ugly fights. We’ve made it through so much together, and through all that, our relationship only grew stronger. So no, love isn’t a honeymoon, but it’s healthier than limerence, sturdier than lust alone, and bigger than either of us.

“Are you ready to tell me about Hazel?”

Funny enough, that trickle of uncertainty is long gone. Though he probably knew all I needed was reassurance that didn’t stem from sex and the security of his hold. I kiss his forearm, breathe in the combined scent of us and the omega who’s meant to be part of our pack, and tell him everything in painstaking detail.

“You should’ve seen her, Kill,” I say after a while, smiling. “You’ll enjoy playing with her.”

He hums and his hand drifts up to hold my throat, lips brushing over my ear. “I will, butwewill enjoy sharing her, too, won’t we, baby?”

My eyes flutter closed. “Yes,” I breathe.

“That’s what I thought,” he purrs, thumb marking my neck with his scent over and over. “You’re my good boy, aren’t you Ez?”

“Always.”

“And forever,” he adds, cradling me even tighter. “We should sleep. Tomorrow, we solidify plans for making that omega ours.”

My chest falls into a steady rise and fall that matches his breathing, and together we fall asleep, the same as we have somany times before, only this time, there’s a scent that sends us both to sleep with dreams of sunshine beams illuminating strawberry fields.

nineteen

KILL

There’s nothing quite like waking up with my beta in my arms, and the only thing that makes it better is Hazel’s scent. Evidence of how much the two of them enjoyed one another covering his soft skin.

Fuck, I’m so hard.

After making sure he was okay, I brought him to bed, helped him go to sleep, and stared at the shadows covering the ceiling until I drifted to sleep too. Ezra’s ass pushing back against my erection woke me.

I bite my lip, rocking my hips forward as he writhes against me. “Such a good beta,” I murmur, mouth brushing over his ear, hand clamping around his throat while the other trails down his abs. His skin ripples with gooseflesh beneath my touch. I hum in approval, sliding my hand into his boxers and fisting his length.

“You fuck her with this cock, Ez?”