Page 9 of Fierce Claim
I wish I could see things as simply as he can. I wish I could calm down and turn my brain off like that.
“Let’s all sleep in here.” Jorge pulls Riley further into the nest, though her pheromones betray that she’s not so sure of it.
“I think I should maybe sleep in a guest room, or something.” Riley looks at the four of us, her eyes guarded. “That might be a better idea. I’m not bonded yet…”
I let out a soft laugh as I reach out to her. “That would require there being a guest room.” And I have no plan to let her go, definitely not tonight, definitely not while my brain is still a mess.
Bonded or not, she’s my Alpha and I need her.
“There are no guest rooms in this place?” She frowns as she sits down and slides her fingers along mine, my skin heating up wherever she touches me, then she glances at Mathew. “That makes no sense.”
Mathew laughs, making himself comfortable against my side, the tension leaving his body. “The rooms are there. But there’s nothing but dust in them.”
That seems to confuse her. “Then where did Jorge sleep when he stayed over?”
When Mathew doesn’t do anything but look at her, smiling, she blinks, her pheromones spiking slightly as her cheeks pinken.
“Ah. And where did Vera and Caleb stay their first night?” Her voice is softer now.
When nobody answers her, she nods slowly, her pheromones going sweet as they fill with yearning.
“Oh, right. That makes sense.”
Mathew moves so he can slide his hand along my arm until he entwines his fingers with mine and Riley’s at the same time. “If you’re not comfortable sleeping with all of us together, we can prepare an extra room for you. I’ve been alone for so long that it didn’t make sense to keep the other rooms furnished if they were only going to gather dust and lead to more work keeping the house clean. But we can totally prepare one for you.”
She nods slowly as she eases into the pillows, not letting go of our hands. “Thanks. I might take you up on that. I don’t know. I’m not…” Her voice wanders off.
“You don’t have to decide right now.” Mathew rubs his thumb over her hand and Riley seems to start to relax. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”
Jorge lets out a deep laugh. “We’ll probably want to prepare some rooms anyway, in case people would like to stay over. And also, we’ll have to choose which rooms will be for the kids.”
Everyone goes quiet, though the nest fills with excited and nervous pheromones.
The kids, right…
We still don’t know if Mathew and I are pregnant yet, we’ve got a week or so to go before we can test for it.
I try not to think about it too much, because every time I do, I get really nervous. There are so many things to worry about if it turns out that we are pregnant, from how we’re going to make it all work, to how we’ll be dealing with things once the babies are here.
We’re not just any pack, Mathew runs a whole organisation and both Jorge and Riley also have their own businesses. We’ll have to find a way to balance it all.
And it also means there will be even more people to protect, more people to keep safe…
I’m going to have to deal with my need to keep them all safe sooner rather than later, I think.
When I wake up, I feel much better, though, in some ways also worse. Mostly because I can clearly feel all the bruises and sore muscles from last evening’s fight. Ugh. I hate this so much.
I’ve only got some shallow cuts and scrapes, so I got out of the fight pretty much unscathed, but the bruises are always way more painful the next morning.
“Sore?” Riley chuckles and as I open my eyes, I notice she’s looking at me from the same place she fell asleep last night. The shirt she’s wearing is pooled around her waist, revealing her strong thighs and beautifully long legs. The rest of the nest is empty.
The guys have probably started working already. It’s not unusual for me to wake up on my own in the morning.
“Yeah.” I smile, reaching up to touch her hair. I’d love to run my fingers through it more, it looks so pretty and soft. Maybe she’ll let me braid it later. “What about you?”
“A little, but I’ve felt much worse after an eventful night. This isn’t the worst I’ve woken up, not even this year.” She slides closer and her pheromones surround me, making mine spike in response. Fuck, she smells so good. I want to crawl all up against her and make her dark rose scent spike even more.
“An ‘eventful’ night? That’s what you call that?” I can’t help my smile and she smiles back at me, making my heart skip. A flush comes over my skin and I quickly look away.
