Growling, I undid my hair from its braids and let it hang loose around my shoulders. Dash had already taken the liberty of getting naked, lying back on Ambrose’s bed like he owned it. He was ready to knot the pretty omega, but I wasn’t.
She’d barely wanted me when she wasn’t in heat, right? Did it count if we built bridges while she was nesting? Wasn’t that just pre-heat, when she was still excessively emotional?
I cursed, halfway out of the room when Ambrose stopped me.
One arm wrapped around my waist, the other lifting my chin. He gazed down at me with concern, but when I inhaled all I smelled was Kiara. That tantalizing heat scent was everywhere. I couldn’t escape from it, could never make myself think straight.
I tried to pull back from Ambrose, but he didn’t let me. His arm held fast, drawing me closer until my chest was pressed against his.
“Do you really not want to fuck her, baby?” he asked.
“That’s not the problem,” I said, a little strained. “She just… There’s no reason for her to have asked for me.”
“You think she’s going to regret it when she’s not in heat.”
Ambrose’s matter of fact statement summed up all my feelings in much simpler words than I could have come up with. I shakily nodded, not wanting to vocally admit it, but willing to accept when he said it.
“She won’t,” Ambrose said, his confidence unflappable.
“How do you know?” I demanded.
Kiara had said she wanted me. On a fundamental level, I was aware of that. The dark bond compelled her to tell the truth, so she hadn’t lied about wanting me with her. And why would she? It wasn’t like she was forced to have me by having my pack.
I was being so goddamn stupid about this.
I just couldn’t let myself have her if she was going to regret it.
Ambrose brushed his lips against mine. “She was nervous to tell you, baby. That’s the only reason she didn’t. Our omega didn’t want you to feel pressured into being with her. There isn’t a single piece of her that thinks she might have regrets.”
“That’s…”
I trailed off, my complaints dying on my tongue. She’d been similarly shy when we’d been dealing with her nesting issues.
Fuck. Kiara was pushy at first glance, but really was too shy to admit anything unless she knew what the response was going to be. I was the most unreadable member of my pack, and I hadn’t exactly been kind to her.
She didn’t know that I’d decided she was ours, and I would never let any other pack have her. The little omega thought I was unsure, and because of that, I thought she was unsure.
We were dancing around each other.
“I’ll say it a million times if you need to hear it, baby. She’s not going to regret fucking you when her heat is done. Kiara wants you as much as she wants us.”
“And she wants us a lot,” Dash chimed in, reminding me of his somewhat annoying background presence. “She was begging me to rut her, Merc.”
Kiara’s short, pleasured scream from the bathroom cut off any further reservations. Leighton was making her come, but soon she would be in here. Naked. All that gorgeous skin on display. Way more than just the peek I’d gotten when she’d sat on my lap in the living room, her robe splaying open.
“You get her pussy first,” Ambrose murmured. “It’s going to change your goddamn life.”
“She already has.” I had to admit it. It was time.
Dash laughed, and when I glanced over he had his hand on his cock, stroking it. None of us had gone soft since getting in that damn van, not when Kiara was perfuming up every space we entered.
Ambrose went over to the bed and lounged beside Dash, pushing our packmate out of the middle of the space. My lover was casually shirtless, no longer bothered with the idea of hiding his scars around the people in this apartment. It was a huge step for him.
I stood by the door, bouncing from foot to foot and trying not to pace—Dash would call me out on it again, the asshole.
Kiara moaned a few more times, loud enough to be heard through the walls, and then… footsteps. They were quick slaps against the hardwood, bringing her down the hall until she turned the corner into Ambrose’s room.
Naked.
