Page 20 of Pack’s Prize
“The one thing she asks of us is to fuck her brains out,” I had moaned to Elias, as we laid side by side in my bed after she and Theo had disappeared to the guest bedroom and his room, respectively, “and we can’t even manage that.Jesus Christ.We call ourselves alphas.”
“It’s not something to joke about,” he’d said, and I had known he was right by the way his words landed like lead in my gut.
“I know. Fuck, I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It’s not me you should say that to.”
I sighed. “I know. I’ll tell her tomorrow.”
It was quiet for a long moment, so long I’d thought Elias might have fallen asleep, and then he spoke again.
“And then what?”
“And then what, what?” I asked. “And then she leaves, I guess. Finds some other alpha pack to satisfy her, and we go back to looking for a pretend omega.” Even as I said it, I could feel my body protest, my muscles tensing, an itch at the base of my skull that told me I was making a mistake. We wouldn’t find someone like her, that was damn sure. We’d been lucky to find her once, this omega who was perfect in all the ways that society expected and yet, had accepted the way we were without more than a moment of hesitation.More than accepted,I thought: the way her perfume had blossomed into sweetness when she’d seen Elias and me together had my neglected cock stirring in my sleep shorts, even now.Fuck.
“You can’t expect me to agree to that, Michael.” His voice was a whisper, but it held an intensity that I wasn’t used to from the most easy-going member of our pack. Theonlyeasy-going member of our pack. “She’ll go right back to that club and the next pack she goes home with might not be so…” His implication hung in the still, dark air of the room.
He was right. Trust Elias to be the externalization of my conscience just when I was trying my best to ignore it.
“We promised her–” he started.
“I know, I know. You’re right,” I said, turning to look at him. “You’re right, of course. We did promise.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Well, I mean,” I replied, feeling my cheeks heat at his sincerity and turning away again to hide my emotion. “It’s not like–it’s not like it’s achore, to fu–”
His hand clamped down over my mouth. “Don’t ruin the moment, Michael,” he said, but I could hear the smile in his voice as he said it. I grabbed his wrist as he pulled his hand away, bringing his palm to my lips for a kiss.
“We’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow,” he had agreed.
* * *
Well,now it was tomorrow, and time for me to swallow whatever alpha pride I had left, alongside coffee and pastries that Theo loved so much he had delivered for an exorbitant price, and tobegthe omega, if necessary, to give us another chance.
And not only because I wanted to see her in my pajamas and with sex hair again, this time without the red-ringed eyes.
“You don’t have to decide right away,” I concluded, but–
“I want to,” she said.
I blinked. “You do.”
“Yes,” she said, and a trace of that bold girl from the club shone through her teary eyes. “I want to. I…” she said, and l could sense the shift in her, her scent growing sweeter despite the sour tinge. “Last night…” She started again. “I didn’t think you would want me any more, after I, well, after last night. But I do.”
A ragged breath caught in her chest.
“I want more.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
Ava
“...Andyou’re not doing this out of some misguided attempt to please us,” Theo probed, glancing over to where I sat in the passenger seat of a small coupe.
He was taking me home. And, it seemed, grilling me.