And it wouldn’t have happened with just anyone, either.
The way they’d treated me had made it real. I was a person, with flaws, just like them. The flaws weren’t ridiculed or dismissed, but almost… cherished.
“I… need them,” I eventually mumbled. “But they’re your pack first, so I know I’m not allowed—”
“What do you mean by need them?” He cut me off.
“They make me feel…”
There wasn’t a way to describe it. Mercury was staring at me waiting for an answer, and I didn’t have the words. All my years of tutoring to make me seem high class, and I couldn’t find the proper word for the emotions that crashed over me whenever I was in their presence.
Including Mercury’s.
I couldn’t tell him that.
Instead I blurted something stupid, but true.
“I think I’m falling in love with them.”
It was as irrational as my love for Leighton was—maybe more.
Mercury was silent for a long time. I began to fidget again, and this time he didn’t tighten his grip. When the silence was so oppressive I needed to escape, I tried to get up once again.
At first, it seemed like he let me.
Then, he grabbed me by the hips and dragged me back down. Except this time, I was on his lap facing him. The robe wasn’t built to hide my body when my thighs were splayed open, and the fluffy fabric opened to expose skin. A lot of skin, because I wasn’t wearing anything beneath it.
My thighs were exposed, and the crack in coverage continued up to my pussy too. A sliver of my stomach was showing before the robe was once again properly wrapped to cover my breasts. I tried futilely to pull it closed at the bottom, only to be stopped by Mercury’s long inhale and husky groan.
“You’re in love with them?” he asked.
I blinked. His hands were on my waist. This was far too close.
“Falling…” I clarified, trailing off.
“And what if you’re only falling in love with them because you’re scared of your father stealing you back?”
“I’m not!”
Protective instinct surged and I tried to shimmy myself off his lap. It was a rational question, exactly what I would have expected from Mercury. Yet I was offended on a base level that he’d even asked.
They were mine.
That had nothing to do with anything else.
“Are you sure, little omega?”
“Of course I am. If I was attaching because I was scared, I could have attached to anyone. I could have been aroused by the doctor that treated me or anyone I talked to in the Omega Safety Division. I wasn’t. Only your pack. Only ever you three and Leighton.”
I’d never been more sure of anything in my life.
Mercury held fast to me, and all my straining couldn’t free me from his grip. His aura was out, making him stronger than I could ever dream of being. We were alone here together, so maybe I should be scared of him holding me on his lap.
I wasn’t.
I flourished under the attention, wishing he was holding me here so I could take a seat on his cock.
My heat was so close I could taste it. This would be about the time I would usually get locked in my room with the first dose of sleep medication, ready for me to take when the need got to be too intense.
