Page 5

Seraphina

I don’t want to break down. I just want them to leave. Not because I want them gone, but because if my emotions keep spiraling, they’ll smell me. They’ll catch my scent and then they’ll attack. My knees buckle as I sag deeper into Ambrose’s arms, his rum spice warmth enveloping me. My failure as an Omega is laid bare for them to see. What kind of Omega destroys their nest over paranoia?

My instincts war with my brain, screaming to lean into Ambrose’s embrace, to let his strength hold me up. Even as I crumple to the floor, he’s right there with me, pulling me into his chest and protecting me from my own little world.

Callum and Lyle step closer, the distance between us too much and not enough at the same time. With all the descenters in my place and the fact that I used to push them away closer to my heats, I never truly reacted to their scents. But right now, I’m suffering because my Omega only wants them. Only needs them to take this emotional pain away.

And yet, I think I might die if they attack like that one Alpha did.

I just can’t… but Ambrose’s arms are too safe and leaving them would mean having to face that I just asked them to leave to go make babies with someone else. Jesus Christ, I am a disaster.

“Settle,” he murmurs in my ear, the honey tone of his voice soothing my panic. I bury my nose farther into his chest, drinking in big gulps of his scent until I sag fully against him. His purr responds to my distress, steadying my racing heart until my lids start to close, my body trying to give in completely.

“Angel baby. Talk to me. What happened?”

He caresses the side of my face, thumb running along my tear-stained check. I can’t help but nestle into it, my nose dragging along his palm, fear spiking in my chest when he tightens his hold around my waist. My entire body locks up, Ambrose relaxing his arms even as I chase his hand and then pull back, forcing myself to behave.

“I got you angel,” he purrs, resituating me until my back is against his chest and I’m facing Callum and Lyle a few feet away. It’s like he just knows as I fully settle again, his chin resting on top of my head. I can feel his heartbeat against my back, the rhythmic beat lulling me into that safe haze again. This time when he threads his arms around my waist, it’s much looser and I can breathe.

Callum crouches down so that we’re at eye level, his eyes searching mine for several seconds before he speaks. “Sweetheart, we all know something is wrong but we don’t want to push if you’re not ready. However, I can see that you’re hurting. Just one question, do you want us to leave?”

The tension thickens as I drag in a breath, catching all of their scents until I’m suffocating in them, a low whine falling from my lips in response. Slick coats my panties, horror bleeding through me that they’re going to pounce at any minute. I should have never invited them over tonight. This is the worst present to give Callum for his birthday.

Tears prick at the corner of my eyes as I shove my hands between my thighs and then I finally shake my head. “I’m so scared.” The tears fall on their own as I sob, realizing that holding back what’s going on isn’t doing me any favors. This house is my only safe haven and even that is falling away from me. “I keep smelling his scent in here. There’s this scent. I’ve caught it before, by the door, in the kitchen. Sometimes on the couch. But never my nest. It was in here and I couldn’t find it. I just needed it to go away.”

A low growl rumbles from Ambrose, vibrating against my back but he cuts it off the moment I tense. “Fuck, sorry, angel.” He presses a kiss to the top of my head, one of his hands moving to press against my stomach, his fingers splaying out in a protective hold. My entire body warms beneath his touch, the movement both sensual and calming.

His other hand sits on my thigh, his fingertips grazing my bare leg and I have to try to stay focused, lest I melt in front of these three.

Lyle’s gaze travels the room, his brows furrowed as he searches my space. Callum is already standing, making quick observations, his eyes a few shades darker than they usually are.

“We’re gonna make sure no one was here, okay?” Ambrose hums in my ear. I nod as the panic tries to creep its way back in and this time when I squirm in his lap, he releases me. I scramble off to the side, already hating the loss of his warmth. Another whine sits at the back of my throat, the hurt look on Ambrose’s face tearing into me.

Lyle steps closer, careful to give me enough space. “Baby, we’re not gonna hurt you. What’s really going on? Why would you tell us to go away? Is it because of this?”

My eyes dart between them as I swallow another sob. You can do this, Seraphina. “This can’t happen.” I gesture vaguely at myself and then at them. “My scent makes bad things happen. I don’t want you to hurt me.”

Their faces shift with a mixture of confusion and anger. Ambrose almost looks horrified but it’s Callum’s expression that has me scooting back a little bit. It kind of makes me want to submit, to make this situation better, to fix their faces so that they’ll smile again. My hands fist in my lap as I fight my Omega’s urges and swallow back another whine that will only draw them in.

When I catch Lyle’s nostrils flare, I know that I’m out of time.

Until Callum speaks.

“Sweetheart, an Omega’s scent doesn’t make anyone do anything.”

I shake my head as I push myself to my feet, stepping backward toward the guest bedroom. “But you haven’t smelled mine. Not really.”

“Actually, I have,” he counters, his tone softening. “You forget how long I’ve known you, Fi. I know your scent. I’ve memorized the fuck out of it and I miss it.”

That doesn’t make any sense. Well, it does. He did know me before I confined myself to this space but it never occurred to me that he had caught my scent. It came in late and I usually wore scent blockers in general. Only after the attack did I try to hide it completely. “You never hurt me, though,” I whisper, almost to myself, unable to believe that there’s a reality where I don’t have to hide.

“And I never would. I’ll never hurt you and neither will Ambrose or Lyle. Sweetheart, I don’t know who the fuck that Alpha was, but he was a dick and an asshole. It was his self-control that was the problem. Not you, never you. ”

I can’t wrap my head around that. I can’t understand that there are Alphas in this world who wouldn’t reach for me and demand my submission. Even if I’ve dreamt of the moment when I can give these three Alphas everything that they want. But that reality just doesn’t exist for me.

I also don’t completely trust it.

My gaze darts back to my bedroom and the destruction of my nest. “I don’t know what the scent is. I don’t think it’s a person. I would know but it’s in there and I don’t like it. I just kept ripping until it was gone.”

Lyle hums a response as he steps closer before opening his arms to me. My gaze dips to his chest and then back to his face several times before I inch forward and sink into his hold. They won’t hurt me. A little yelp tears from my throat when he wraps his hands around the back of my thighs and hoists me up to hold me against him.

“You were protecting yourself, baby girl. That’s not failure. That’s strength.”

A broken laugh comes from me as I shake my head. “You don’t get it. I’m broken. I can’t even keep a nest. I can’t be what you need.”

Lyle runs a hand up and down my back, the other supporting my ass as he presses it against him. “You’re ours. You don’t have to be anything but you.”

I want to believe him. God, I want to. But their scents are starting to bleed through the descenter as well, an embarrassing amount of slick pooling in my panties until I’m pushing to get down, confused and bracing for the moment they rush at me. Nothing happens though.

“Fi, sweetheart. We’re not going anywhere. Not unless you really want us to. But I don’t think you do.”

I sob, covering my face. “I don’t. But I’m scared. I’m so scared you’ll turn into him.”

Ambrose is still sitting at the edge of my bedroom and I’m starting to see that the disgust on his face has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the reason why I ruined my own nest. “We’re not him, angel. We’d burn the world down before we hurt you.”

Despite the seriousness of the moment, it’s those words that pulls a watery smile to my face. These firefighter Alphas threatening to start a fire to protect my peace. A little laugh bubbles up and then I catch it, all of them confused by my reaction. I should have trusted that they weren’t going to be anything like him , after all, my brother trusted them.

My smile widens a little as the tension falls away, just the awkwardness remaining. “I’m not sure how to fix it,” I mumble, pointing to my nest. It feels like it’s mocking me, reminding me of how I’ve holed myself up in here and torn myself away from the world. “I just…”

“You don’t have to fix this all alone. Callum will check the place, make sure no one’s been here. And we’ll help you rebuild it, okay?”

Lyle smiles down at me and I just want to snuggle up against him all over again but I force myself to stay put. “Why do you even stay? I’m a mess. You could have real Omegas, ones who aren’t afraid of their own scent.” Foot. In. Mouth. I should just soak up their presence until they get tired of me, tired of saying all the right things, tired of pulling me against them and giving me sweet kisses and fulfilling my needs when they get too strong.

Callum’s laugh breaks through my thoughts. “Fi, you’re as real as it gets. We stay because we want you. All of you. Mess and all.”

I wring my hands in front of me, glancing between the three of them before saying yes to their help. I’m going to be selfish a little longer. And then when I sedate myself for my heat, they’ll know that this isn’t a viable solution, that being with me means having a defective Omega.