13. Apollo

It was odd to see her pull the bedsheet up to her chest, covering herself despite how she'd been fully exposed when we made love, but it made her even sexier.

"You're all talking like you're the ones who get to decide how this goes," she said.

"Candy…" I trailed off, already stumbling.

"It's my body, Apollo. I should be able to choose whether I have a bite or not."

"But it's not," Odin snapped. "It stopped being your body the moment you signed the contract."

Shock thundered through her, her scent spiked, rotten as her aura flared as my heart clenched. Colour seeped from her face at Odin's callousness, and I was about to jump up and pull her into my arms.

Zeus didn't hesitate. "What the fuck?" he shouted at Odin, shooting from his chair towards her.

Her face clashed with pain and anger as Zeus edged onto the bed, reaching for her.

It was the worst thing Odin could have said after the week she'd just had.

"You don't think I don't know that?" she asked. "You didn't have to spend four days wondering what the fuck was going on as strangers shoved their cocks inside you from every angle."

Odin growled low, holding each other's gaze as tension flared up around them. "No," she growled straight back. "You can't go all growly on me when you're the ones who brought me to your flat in the first place. You could have taken me back to my rooms and left me there."

"There's no way we would have." Zeus pressed himself to her, the sheets rustling as he brought his legs onto the bed, completely covering her and protecting her. He banded an arm across her stomach, glaring pointedly at both of us as she fanned her fingers across his forearm and looked up at him. Zeus's heart throbbed through the bond, his tender ache of love becoming mine as he dipped closer to her, nudging his nose against her tousled blond locks.

"And I would have done the same for you," she said. "But you keep saying there's this threat of my contract, and you still went against whatever grand rules have been set in place by Michael so you could bring me here."

"It's too much of a risk," I said.

She twisted her lips and dropped a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, see, you keep saying that you can't, but it doesn't mean shit when we just spent the night fucking. You can't take that back."

"And I don't want to, sweetheart. None of us do, I'm sure. But we—"

"We can at least try!" she hissed through strained teeth. "Please, Apollo. I've been in pain for weeks. I was chucking painkillers back like sweets just to get through my heat without you. I haven't been able to sleep because I'm not with you. Are you seriously telling me it's not the same?"

My eyes fluttered closed, confirming the truth I didn't want to know. When a scent match occurred, it was physically painful to have sex with someone else until there was a bite, because we only responded to that person. Even when Zeus and I were making love, it came tinged with pain because Candy wasn't part of our bond. Our bodies knew the truth, and I couldn't imagine how it must have been to go through her first heat in that state, especially with everything she told us those alphas did to her.

"Of course, it's the same for us. It's the fucking same," Zeus glared at his brother. "So we have to try."

"We have to look at this realistically," I said, clasping my hands together around the phone.

"And the reality is that I want a bite," she said, shuffling under the bedsheet. "I don't want to be apart from you or go through a heat like that again."

"Fuck." Zeus clicked his tongue. "Just think how much worse it will be for all of us if we're not there when you're in heat?"

"What do you suggest then, Zeus?" Odin asked, leaning back in his chair. "Since you seem so fucking sure this will all go well?"

"Let's do it." He nodded firmly as he glanced down at Candy again, and she gave him a soft smile. "We can deal with the consequences later."

"No," Odin cut through any romantic fantasy they were already cooking up. "There won't be a later if we bite her now. Candy, you've only just started here. Do you honestly think Michael will let you go so easily?"

"There must be something we can do!" Candy said as she flung up her arms. "Why don't we run away together? Isn't that the best option? Then we don't have to worry about schemes or conversations. I've already made enough to keep us going for a year, then we can figure out the rest later. We just need a plan." Her voice grew more desperate with every word. "My next host party is two days away. That's enough time to figure out what we're going to do."

And then she'd be bought by a guest and spend the night with them, and all the chaotic drama would start again.

I wasn't going to be the one to bring up the elephant in the room. Because there was an obvious solution that would hurt at first, but would make our lives easier.

If we rejected each other, completely severed the attraction formed by a scent match, we could find peace from the physical pain, at least.

But no matter how much the three of us resisted the urge to bite her, we wouldn't break our connection.

"Benny wants us now," I said, waving the silent phone in my hand. "The longer we put this off, the more pissed off he'll be." I ran a hand through my hair as I sighed.

"If we tried it, if," I pressed, pointing the phone at them both, attempting to quell Zeus and Candy's excited looks, "then Benny would be the best person to talk to." Because Benny could at least be a buffer for us before he dropped the bomb on Michael.

There had been a crazy number of stories about Benny letting people off with small things like skipping out on a night of work or booking a home visit where the guest was actually the host's family. Benny knew the best ways to wriggle around Michael's rules. Though, considering how hard Michael could come down on people and what a tight rein he had on the organisation, I suspected he let Benny get away with it.

I wanted Zeus and Candy to temper their expectations. If they had too much hope, it would only hurt more in the end.

"Then let's talk to Benny," Candy said. "You said he might listen. And if he does tell Michael our plan, then we'll deal with it." She swallowed, her hand back on Zeus's thick forearm. "I want this, to do this, with all of us together."

"And if he says no?" I asked.

She moulded herself to Zeus. "Then we stay like this. If I can be near you, at least it won't hurt so much."

Silence blanketed the four of us, our breaths out of sync as we weighed it up.

"We can do it," Odin said, his gaze firm as he stared at her. She blinked in surprise and wasn't the only one. I thought he was most against the plan, or maybe enduring pain to be close to her was his happy medium.

"Really?" she said hopefully. "Even if they say no?"

He gave a sharp nod. "Zeus is right. I can't be apart from you. Especially when we feel like this." He pushed out a sharp breath, his nostrils flaring. "I know it will hurt more, but we'll be together, at least."

It would be the same for all of us, the same as it had been since we first met her. Aching, longing, craving her every second of the day. But at least if we were close to her, it would stave off the madness that came with not biting our scent match and bringing her into our pack.

I was about to reply, but the phone rang again. I snapped my mouth shut. We all stared at it, sitting innocently in my hand, like it wasn't going to take her away from us.

"I'm answering." I looked at them all, face fixed with determination.

There was a reason I was the pack lead, and it wasn't because I'd been Zeus and Odin's manager back in the day, or because my aura was stronger. It was because I didn't mess around when it came to the hard stuff. And we could all tell this conversation was going to fall under the category of ‘hard stuff'.

I just hoped we'd still have our jobs by the end of it.

We had to be patient. We had no idea what Benny would say yet.

I sighed, shaking my head as I swiped the phone, bowing my head and answering the call.