Page 62

FIFTY-TWO

Playing: Daisies by Katy Perry

“You both have too much testosterone. Can you not sweat on me for one fucking day?” Ciro pushes us, trying to give himself more room between Uriah and I in this shrunken front seat.

“You could have hitched a ride with Atlas,” Uriah mutters.

The scoff from Ciro is dramatic. “I thought he was going to take forever. With all the nesting and preparing he’s been doing, you’d think he was the damn omega.”

“Don’t give me that kind of visual. I will throat punch you.”

I cough on a laugh while keeping my eyes on the road. Stacia’s neighborhood is a nicer one, lawn after lawn of perfectly mowed grass.

Do we need to buy a better lawn mower?

Maybe one where our omega can join us, sit on our lap…

I shake away the horny thoughts coming from my alpha as I pull into the driveway. Atlas pulls in behind us.

Ciro crawls out after me—apparently Uriah is taking too long—and takes a dramatic inhale of the fresh air outside.

“You’re not serious. We don’t smell that bad.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “My nose has never felt more violated. I could smell you guys before because we were pack, but the closer we get to Stacia, the more potent you guys become. Is that normal?”

Shit, I have no idea.

It kind of makes sense. Our group is about to add its final member, considerably its most important member. Maybe we’ve unlocked a deeper sense of instinct amongst each other as well. If we can smell each other better, we can certainly indicate distress within each other better as well.

“Just imagine what it’ll be like when we’re bonded.” Atlas appears behind us and Ciro almost flinches. “Did I scare you, Ci? I thought you could smell us better.”

Our beta brother rolls his eyes. “Sorry, I just assumed there was a library nearby.”

Atlas flips him the finger as we start to walk up the driveway to our omega’s front door. “We’re all about to get a lot more smelly from moving Stacia’s stuff, so get used to it—” He looks out on the road just as Sam’s Volvo parks on the road.

And, of course, he’s in a suit of all things.

“How are you supposed to help us in that ?” I shout to him.

He’s giving me a full-on smirk as he makes his way to us. “I didn’t have time to change. Do you have a spare outfit on you?”

Atlas shakes his head with a laugh. “We’re just glad you’re here in general, so thank you. Did your mock trial go okay?”

My eyes widen. “Oh shit, that was today! How did it go?”

He gives an appreciative smile before shrugging his shoulders. “It went well. I didn’t realize performance anxiety was a thing for lawyers. It is.”

“Of course there is! There’s anxiety on the ice, in a courtroom, on the stage, in the bedroom …”

“Okay, Ciro. We get it,” Uriah tries to say grumpily, but his warm smile betrays him.

I turn back to Sam. His scent is muted by an emotion that I can’t decipher. “Is everything okay, man?” I try to ask discreetly, but the others hear me anyway.

Sam looks at each of us, like he’s trying to determine how much to say. “I didn’t want to bring this up today because it’s supposed to be your day but… I met my omega.”

“Holy shit!” My worry instantly turns to joy as I think about what this means for our friend.

Meeting Stacia was the turning point for us, both individually and as a pack.

Reflecting back, there were all sorts of emotions, but the good ones outweighed the bad by a longshot, and it all worked out better than we could have dreamed.

He deserves that same love and care from someone. It’s the best feeling in the world.

Atlas slaps him on the back. “That’s incredible, Sam! When did this happen?”

“A few days ago. We met in the quad. We just walked by each other and… his scent was unmistakable. I knew he was mine .” He’s trying to school his alpha giddiness, but it’s beaming out with pride.

“We’re so happy for you, man.” Uriah surprisingly gives Sam the first congratulatory hug, and we all look at him with surprise, including our president.

“Sorry about that Sam,” Ciro starts, “finding our mate has turned Uriah into a total softie.”

The laugh that escapes me only amplifies as Uriah sends him a death glare. Ciro continues, completely ignoring him, “So, I guess we’ll be helping you move out soon, too, huh?”

“I hope so, but I’ve got to find a place first and then there’s Thatcher?—”

There’s a sudden disturbance as we watch another car abruptly pull up and stop in front of the house. I look closer and see that it’s a Porsche.

A fucking Porsche .

The couple that steps out look at us with disdain. The man looks cold, his hand on his wife’s back robotic and on autopilot. The woman is sneering behind her Gucci sunglasses, some ridiculously expensive handbag hanging from her forearm.

Don’t they know we’re in Massachusetts, not upstate New York?

“Excuse me,” I hear Atlas say as the pair gets closer. “Who are you?”

They scoff in rich person , like they are above us and don’t have to answer basic questions.

“We’re here to see our daughter ,” the man says as the woman exclaims, “Who are you ?!”

There’s an immediate tension that spreads between us. I can suddenly see the resemblance. The same freckles across the woman’s nose. The same blue eyes and brown hair. These aren’t random pretentious people, these are very specific ones that we’ve only heard about through horror stories.

Horror stories involving our omega.

“Where is Stacia?” They ask with annoyance just as she comes through the front door in a panic.

I already don’t like the way she feels the need to mediate this situation.

She comes to a stop in front of us and tries to smooth out her anxiety before speaking, but her scent still has a twinge of it. “Mother… Father.” She nods at them, angling herself between us and them. “What are you doing here?”

Her mother gives a mean-looking scowl. “Why are we ever here, Stacia? Because you don’t answer your phone to tell us how you are and what you’re doing. Obviously it’s a good thing we’re here. Who are all these men?”

A.K.A: Who are all these alphas in your front yard?

I look back at my pack. Uriah is growling as quietly as he can. Atlas has a gentle hand on Uriah’s chest, willing him to calm his beast. He looks at me and I can hear what he’s thinking like he’s speaking it right to me.

Let her do this. She needs it to heal.

I give a subtle nod before turning back to our omega. She’s taking deeper breaths, like her next response will take all her energy. She finally looks back at us and the adoration on her face causes a purr to start in my chest.

Stacia looks back at them, more determined than before. Her strength is radiant. “They’re my scent matches,” she says defiantly, “and they’re helping me move in with them today.”

I wish I could take a picture of her parents’ faces for later.

As soon as I think it, a very audibly click happens beside me and I turn to see Ciro holding his phone up, not giving a shit about discretion.

They look at us but there’s no smite, only confusion. They either don’t care that our beta is mocking them or they’re too surprised by this new side of Stacia.

She’s looking at them, embracing the disobedience she would have shied away from as a kid. Even as a teenager.

But now she is a full grown and proud omega, ready to fight for her pack. Ready to fight for us .

“We’ve talked about this.” The words spill from the corner of her mother’s mouth. “You have a pack. A rather rich and… nice pack.”

“Shut it, Loretta,” Stacia’s father says in a harsh whisper, eyeing us suspiciously. Her mother winces but continues talking anyway.

“I’m just saying, there are set plans , Robert.” She turns a hardened eye on her daughter. “You can’t keep making decisions based on your unrealistic whims whenever you want. That’s not how the real world works, Stacia.”

“In the real world, parents actually love their children. Whatever sick and twisted world you live in, Mother, I’m not interested.”

Her mother’s face hardens further, her manicured nails clutching her purse so tight I think she’d going to poke holes through it.

Maybe the expensive material will prevent it though, I don’t know.

Loretta is about to speak again, but shuts it when Stacia’s father steps forward, his face wears a look of bothered annoyance.

“Stacia.” His stern tone is meant to sound menacing, but to all of us alphas, it’s like a mouse squeaking at a cat.

“We’ve already talked about the consequences of this.

You will be bonding the pack we chose, and if you don’t do it willingly, I will make sure your inheritance is given to your alphas instead of you, do you understand me? ”

Now my own growl sounds from my chest. I can feel the aggression bubble up, my control quickly falling away.

I’m not the only one, we all take a step or two closer to Stacia, feeling the instinct to protect her from the nuisance threatening to steal her away.

“I won’t. Unless you drag me away clawing and screaming, that will not happen.”

The look on her father’s face raises the hair on my neck.

“You think I won’t?” he hisses. “I told you before, I will bring you home forcibly if need be. In fact.” He turns to her mother, giving a knowing nod. “Call them, Loretta.”

I can see the panic on Stacia’s face as her mother starts to pull out her phone and turn away. Uriah puts an arm around her protectively, keeping her locked to his chest.

Atlas is trying to control his breathing, although it looks like a struggle.

He faces them as he puts his body between us and her parents.

“ Stop moving ,” he barks at them, and her mother halts her movements immediately.

They stand still, their body language still full of cruelty and hatred.

When they can finally resume their autonomous movement, they look at our prime like he’s an abomination.