Page 35 of Their Knotty Pack (Starbrook City Omegaverse #3)

"I…" I run my hand over my face. "I'm…acquainted.

We went to law school together, and before that, we were a part of the same frat.

But they're the ones who have been giving me the most trou ble since I left my old pack and started Omegas First. I hadn't spoken to them since graduation, and then they started flooding my inbox and voicemails. "

"Oh…wow." She swallows, and suddenly I don't like the way she's looking at me.

"Please don't do that," I plead. "I'm not like them. I can take responsibility for being complicit in all the regular douche-bag, entitled prick behavior, but I've gotten away from that. I've…reformed myself. Become a better person."

"You're a…" a small smirk tilts at her lips, "a reformed frat boy?"

The thread of tension in me loosens, and I chuckle. "I guess you could say that."

"Why are they giving you trouble?" She frowns.

"I'm not really sure." I sigh, running a hand through my hair. "I suppose it could be argued that I'm taking their clientele by offering free services, but I wouldn't think that omegas make up a high enough percentage of their client base to make that much of a difference."

Bethany's brows furrow. "Huh. I feel like the majority of their clients were omegas. Every couple of nights at least one of them would take me to dinner with them to show an omega they were trustworthy lawyers to have."

My eyes widen. That frequently? That…doesn't seem right. Then she looks down, her voice quiet. "I…I'd heard them talking. About how they increased the fees for omegas because of 'hazard pay' for their employees or something. They would sound so convincing, but now I'm wondering…"

"It's a disgusting but common practice," I admit, "firms charging omegas more money in the name of making work easier for the alphas.

They claim the omegas are too tempting. The reality is they have no self control.

" I sigh, running a hand through my hair again.

"It's why I started my firm. After I turned my old pack in to the police for harassing and assaulting Cady, I realized that if she hadn't found her scent matches, she would have been facing all her legal costs and fees alone.

That didn't sit right with me. Luckily, I didn't spend all the money my parents granted me in my trust fund when I turned twenty-one, and that took care of the startup costs.

" I don't say how pissed off my parents were about the whole thing.

"Hannah actually donated most of her winnings from her court case to my business, and I was able to bring on four new lawyers.

They're a little younger and more inexperienced than I'd like, but that just means they haven't been corrupted yet"

"That's amazing," she says on a whisper, her eyes wide.

Then, she shakes her head and clears her throat.

"I just want you to know, and it doesn't hold much weight because my job isn't anywhere near a lawyer's, but I'm proud of you.

You went against everything you were ever taught to believe and you did the right thing. "

Her words, the fact she just said she was proud of me, makes my chest fill with warmth.

"Oh, beautiful, you have it all wrong." Leaning forward, I place a palm on her cheek.

"Your opinion means everything to me. In fact, I'd argue that it's the only one that matters.

Yours and Miles'. Because just in case I haven't made my intentions perfectly clear, I'm all in. With both of you."

Her scent fills the air and she lets out the sweetest little "Oh," before I lean forward and capture her lips with mine.

Bethany's plush, pillow-soft lips part for me sweetly, letting me taste and tease her with my tongue. She leans further into me, her scent getting even sweeter—

The doorbell rings.

She pulls away from me with a gasp, all flushed cheeks and wild eyes. "The pizza!"

"You ordered pizza?"

"I told the rest of the guys they could fend for themselves for dinner." She gives me a little smile before starting to walk to the door .

"Um," my hand closes around her arm. "I'll grab it." I don't need the pizza guy witnessing my omega looking so…sexily rumpled.

She smooths a hand over her clothes before arching a brow at the tent in my basketball shorts. "A whole pack of twelve could camp under that. Unless a one-hundred percent straight male is delivering that pizza, I don't want anyone to see…you."

A smile pulls at my lips. Turns out, I like a possessive omega. "Mine is easily fixable." I close my eyes, and mutter to myself, "Grandmas. Dentures. Kieran's socks."

Bethany giggles as I open my eyes and shoot her a wink.

"See? All better." She lets me get the pizza, and then we settle on the couch for a night in, a cheesy rom-com playing on the TV while we snuggle together, her leaning against my side while I have one arm wrapped around her.

Damien, Kieran, and Miles come down to invite us to play video games with them upstairs, but we decline, happy with what we're doing now.

Just the feeling of her in my arms, our positioning so casual, so…domestic, well, something in my heart seems to click into place.

It's perfectly innocent…until it's not.

I'm reaching for more popcorn, when my hand meets silky, smooth softness.

Looking down, I see that she must have moved the popcorn bowl in the last few minutes, and now my palm is grasping bare skin. Very far up her thigh.

My voice chokes out, my heart pounding in my chest. "I'm sorry—" but when I go to remove my hand, hers lands on top of mine.

"You can keep it there," she says quietly, biting her lip, "if you want."

So, heart racing and pulse quickening, I try to focus on the movie when all I'm aware of is the soft flesh of her thigh under my fingertips .

They start to stroke without my permission, in what I'm sure is meant to be a soothing gesture, but Bethany's breath hitches, and she tries not to squirm. My own hardening cock pulses in response.

When a little whimper leaves her, my hindbrain says "fuck it", and I let my hand travel up. She doesn't stop me as my fingertips brush the hem of her little shorts.

"I won't go any further if you don't want me to," I murmur into her hair. "I'm not trying to push you." In response, her thighs fall open. "Words, beautiful." Swallowing roughly, I add, "I need you to say it."

"Don't stop," she whispers, her lips finding the shell of my ear.

The first delve of my fingers past the hem of her shorts and into her soaking wet folds nearly has me cumming right then and there.

"Oh, fuck," I groan, removing my fingers and licking her slick off them.

"Damn, beautiful, you taste even better than I had imagined.

The one thing I didn't get to do during your heat was taste you. "

A little moan leaves her at my words, and my fingers find their way back into her panties. "Oh, Brody," she whimpers as I start to slowly stroke her clit with the pad of my finger.

My hand that was around her moves to cup the back of her neck while I kiss her.

She kisses me back just as fiercely, our tongues and lips moving at a pace that matches my movements on her slick pussy.

Her hips start to thrust slightly with my motions, and fuck I can just imagine her moving on my cock just like that.

Tonight though? It's about her. Her pleasure, and nothing else.

Two of my fingers slip inside her, pumping in and out as she grips my shoulder. When my thumb makes contact with her clit, it's all over.

She shatters under my touch, her walls convulsing around my fingers like they're trying to milk them. "Ah!" She cries into my mouth, the movement of her hips stalling for just a moment before she goes lax in my arms .

She falls back, and I press a kiss to her nose before tucking her back into my side. My cock is still throbbing, but I'll take care of it later. Bethany tilts her head up to look at me. "What about you?"

"What about me?" I play dumb, fixing my attention back on the movie.

"Don't you want..?" She trails off, sounding uncertain.

"Of course I do. But I'm proving a point to both of us tonight. Nothing about what I want with you is transactional, Bethany."

"Alright!" Miles claps and steps around the corner, pausing the TV from an app on his phone. "Show's over, folks, and bets are up."

"Miles!" Bethany's jaw drops as we turn and see Kieran and Damien join him.

"Sorry, nymph. House rules. If you're not putting on a show, no getting it on in the living room."

"House rules? Since when?" Bethany stands, crossing her arms.

"Since about an hour ago." Miles pulls a stack of cash out his back pocket and starts counting it. "Okay, we had 'Brody shoots, but misses,'" from Kieran. "Sorry, Kier-bear, no winnings for you."

"You guys placed bets?" I ask incredulously.

"The video game was boring," Miles shrugs, grinning. "Damien bet that Bethany would make the first move and get to at least third base, so no luck there."

"Damien!" Bethany flushes, and stands from the couch.

"What did you bet, Miles?" I ask curiously.

"I bet that you would make the first move, but that you wouldn't do it until there was only thirty minutes left in the movie," he cranes his neck around us to see the screen, "and there's forty-five minutes left. So I lost too. Huh. Statistically speaking, that should have been—"

"Well then who gets the money?" Kieran grumbles, crossing his arms.

Moving faster than I've ever seen her, Bethany jumps over the couch and snatches the money from Miles' hands.

"I do! That's what you get for betting on my sex life.

" Then, before they can say anything, she's walking back to me, grabbing the back of my neck, and pulling me down for a soul-stealing kiss.

Grinning, she releases me before sticking a twenty in the waistband of my basketball shorts. "Buy yourself something nice."

My mouth goes dry as we watch her go up the stairs, her hips swaying with each step. "Yes ma'am."