Page 36 of Want It All

I threw my arms around him. ‘Thank you.’ I buried my face in his neck. ‘I know you don’t really want to do this.’

He sighed, his arms wrapping tight around me. ‘I’d do anything for you.’

I knew they weren’t empty words. He was reluctant, but he was going to do this anyway – because he knew it meant something to me. I pressed a kiss to his throat. ‘You’re the best, Tristan Grace.’

I put him to work cleaning, while I took care of the snacks.

Everything was sweet – because omegas craved sweetness like bees needed pollen – but it was themed .

I’d bought every kind of chocolate I could get my hands on, along with salted caramel popcorn, and cherry clafoutis and vanilla slice from a patisserie further up the coast. While Tristan pushed around a vacuum and I pretended not to ogle him, I made a packet mix of salted caramel brownies and another of cherry blondies, both of which would go perfectly with the homestyle vanilla bean ice cream I’d ordered from a specialty ice cream shop.

I’d bought cookies, too: browned butter toffee chocolate chip, chocolate cherry, and vanilla snaps shaped like hearts, covered with thick icing and sprinkles.

Thank fuck for delivery drivers.

When Tristan caught the smell of salted caramel, he stiffened, his neck muscles corded. I left the kitchen to wrap my arms around him, my chest rumbling in a gentle omega purr.

He relaxed, stroking my hair. ‘You’re amazing,’ he said quietly. ‘Do you know that?’

‘Obviously,’ I answered, running my nose over his scent gland. ‘It’s going to be okay, Tris. I’m going to make it okay.’

He was silent for so long that I pulled back, searching his face.

‘I trust you,’ he said at last. ‘If I can’t see a way forward, I know that you’ll find it for us.’

‘Good.’ I rose up on my toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. ‘Because if this goes the way I hope it does, then we need to talk about boundaries again.’

Rose and Byron arrived on time because Rose was a compulsive over-achiever and her understanding of fashionably late was strictly academic.

It didn’t matter, though; I’d been ready for hours, sitting on the couch with my laptop on my knees, trying – without success – to concentrate on the draft of my final essay.

Tristan had convinced me not to put the food out no fewer than four times, but he was on edge himself, inexplicably choosing that afternoon to rearrange our bookshelves.

They didn’t look that different afterwards, but it was a good distraction for him.

‘Hello,’ Rose breathed nervously, and fuck , she looked more appetising than anything I’d laid out on the coffee table.

Her pants were a sage-green plaid and she’d buttoned herself into the sweetest cream cardigan I’d ever seen, which was to say that I wanted to un button her, immediately.

Her hair was caught up in a claw clip and her cheeks were flushed a deep, delicious pink.

Byron closed the door behind her, his face unreadable as he flicked the locks into place.

I was struck by a barrage of worries. What if I liked her scent, but she hated mine? What if she didn’t like Tristan’s scent? What if she liked his, but not mine? What if –

Her nostrils flared. ‘That’s …’ She spun around to Byron, searching his face, then turned back to me.

She inhaled deeply, a flush spreading down her neck.

‘Oh, fuck ,’ she said. ‘Vanilla. Vanilla and cherry .’ She gave a tiny groan, the sound hitting me square in the stomach and travelling down.

She inhaled again, desperately. ‘That cherry … Wait. There’s an omega here ?

’ She looked around wildly, as if waiting for someone to spring out and surprise her.

When no one emerged, she looked at me in confusion, her eyes wide. ‘Seb?’

I guess it’s go time. ‘I’m sorry we kept it from you, Rose, but –’

She stepped towards me, her chest rising and falling rapidly. ‘You?’ Her pupils had blown out, the brown of her irises almost invisible. ‘ You smell like cherry?’

I swallowed nervously; there was no indication of whether she thought that was good or bad. ‘I, ah. Yep. That’s me.’

She whimpered, closing her eyes and balling her hands into fists. ‘I feel … I feel …’

‘How do you feel, Rosebud?’ I whispered, barely daring to breathe.

And inhaling in surprise when a hint of her raspberry tartness spread over my tongue.

‘Rose?’ I managed.

She opened her eyes; the desperation in them pinned me in place. ‘I feel –’

‘Please tell me it isn’t ill.’ My eyes tracked the lovely curve of her throat, exposed by her upswept hair. I inhaled, chasing another elusive hit of her sweet scent. ‘Rose, please –’

‘No,’ she choked out, pressing a hand to her heart. ‘I need to –’

My stomach dropped. I took a step back. I didn’t think I’d ever felt sick with disappointment before. I’d known it was a long shot, but I’d held out hope because I knew what her scent did to me, and I’d wished – prayed , even – that it would be the same for her.

‘Rose –’

Her eyes flickered up. ‘Mine,’ she hissed, her expression wild. I had the sudden notion that it was her omega looking out from her warm brown eyes. ‘ Mine .’

Something inside me shifted.

Mine .

Yes.

That was exactly what she was.

My chest bloomed with a sudden ache, pulling me towards her, so strongly it was almost painful. At some point, my cock had woken up, and my trunks felt damp with precum. My hands trembled, shaking with the need to touch her.

I’d been wrong. I didn’t just want to fuck her.

I wanted to be inside her. All of me. And I wanted her inside me, too.

I didn’t know how, exactly – although obviously I could think of a few things – but it was as if sex wouldn’t be enough.

A simple physical joining wouldn’t give me what I needed, which was to possess her at the same time she possessed me.

I’d never felt this way before, so base, so desperate, so instinctual . It was overwhelming and quite frankly terrifying, but I couldn’t stop my feet moving towards her.

She held out a hand, splaying her fingers across my chest, her warmth like a brand. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what she was doing – stopping me, perhaps, or warding me off – but in the next breath, her fingers were curling into my shirt to fist a handful of linen.

I inhaled, catching the distinct scents of her hair product, her perfume – and, beneath it, a trace of her scent. My hands slid up her forearms and curled around her elbows.

‘Yours,’ I grated out, and pulled her up to kiss me.

Her lips were ravenous and mine were no better, as if we were both trying to crawl beneath each other’s skin.

Her tongue slid into my mouth and I sucked on it lightly before biting down on her bottom lip, licking over the hurt when she gasped.

One of her hands dragged a path through my hair and bunched, holding me in place while she took what she wanted from my mouth.

What she needed . What I needed.

I’d never seen her so forceful, and I liked it so much that my cock was pulsing. I wanted her to push me down, to use me, to own me.

Her lips slid over mine once, twice, before she pushed me aside with an adorable growl. I staggered a step back before I regained my balance, reaching up to touch my mouth, which was swollen and smarting.

‘What is this?’ Rose demanded, sounding close to tears. Something inside me bristled at the notion she was upset. Mine , it said. Make it better . ‘I feel like – I feel like –’

‘What do you feel?’ I managed, when she didn’t continue.

She met my eyes. ‘I feel like if you’re not inside me in the next minute, I’ll die ,’ she said angrily, sniffing.

Byron made a wordless sound of surprise, and I wrenched my eyes from Rose just in time to see him glance at Tristan.

I’d been so caught up in Rose that I’d all but forgotten the alphas were there.

‘It shouldn’t be possible,’ Rose continued, pleading. ‘It can’t be possible. You smell like an omega – and you smell like mine . But omegas aren’t supposed to –’

‘Have complementary scents?’ I supplied.

‘Do you think this is complementary ?’ Rose cried.

She gestured to Tristan. ‘ This is complementary. I scented Byron when I walked to his room tonight, and that is complementary.’ Behind her, Byron twitched in surprise, a flush reddening his cheeks.

‘But your scent makes me lose control , Sebastian.’

‘Because you’re a scent match,’ Tristan said, his voice flat. ‘That’s how a scent match feels.’

Because he knows that now .

I had that sense of vertigo once more, but this time, it was as if the world was righting itself, not turning upside down.

And I understood perfectly how Tristan had almost bitten Byron on that night in the maze.

‘But how ?’ Rose’s eyes were shining with tears. The omega inside me whined, hating the fact she was upset. ‘It’s not supposed to be –’

I closed the distance between us and picked her up.

She hooked her legs around my waist, and her arms around my neck; my instincts settled immediately.

‘It doesn’t matter how it’s supposed to be,’ I murmured.

‘This is how it is. I’m yours. You’re mine.

And those two stubborn dickheads are our alphas.

We’re pack .’ She sniffed, a tear running down her cheek.

I stopped it with my lips. ‘And now I’m going to sit your lovely ass on the couch and lick you until you scream.

Unless you don’t want that, in which case I will respect your boundaries and let you choose a movie. ’

‘Of course I want that,’ she snarled, rolling her hips against me. Fuck, Rose was fierce when she was desperate, and I loved it. She was usually so controlled – like Tristan, in her own way –and it was compelling to see her starting to unravel.

Make her come apart , my instincts advised, and I thought it was a good idea to listen.

I seized her mouth with mine, groaning at the way she opened and her tongue traced my bottom lip. I carried her to the couch without breaking the kiss.