Chapter 21 In which I play with some balls

I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.

I tilt my head at the sign on the building and then glance over at my pack. “Really?”

Ethan grins at me, all pretty boy charm, loving my shock. “Really.”

Swift slips up behind me, wraps an arm over my shoulders and pulls me against his chest, his chin resting on the top of my head. “We usually come once a month as a pack. It’s our bonding experience.”

I tilt my head back to meet his gold eyes. “Aren’t you already bonded?”

“This is a different kind of bond.” Luca laces his fingers with mine. “We spend one afternoon decimating another pack. It makes us have a bond of battle.”

I laugh and roll my eyes. “Oh, yes, a real Band of Brothers situation. I can see that.”

Logan laughs too, seemingly the only one who realizes how ridiculous that statement is. Everyone else remains serious as hell. “You watched Band of Brothers ?”

I shrug, tucking my hair behind my ears. “Didn’t everyone?” I’m trying to sound nonchalant as hell. But if I’m honest, I love that mini series. I rewatch it every year in June. “I’m pretty sure Speirs is my spirit soldier.”

Ethan ducks to meet my eyes as Swift presses a kiss to my temple. “None of that sprinting across a battlefield bullshit here, heartbreaker. No heroics, okay?”

“No promises.” I look up at the building, shaking my head again.

Paintball. They brought their omega to paintball.

I can’t tell if I’m flattered that they think enough of me to bring me to this, or if I’m upset that they’d knowingly put me in danger. Not like death danger, but like… pain danger.

“Come on,” Maddox holds a hand out to me, grinning when I slide my palm against his. We’ve come a long way in a few short days. “Let’s get you suited up for battle.”

Battle. A shiver works its way over my skin, and I dig in my heels. “Doesn’t this hurt?”

Luca presses a hand to my lower back and urges me toward the building. I think about fighting, but I’m pretty sure the five men around me won’t let me get out of this. Besides, I’m not sure I actually want to. There’s a prickle of excitement in my stomach as they pull open the door and usher me inside.

“It can,” he agrees, as we make our way over to the registration desk. I know Ethan called ahead, but we still need to check in. “But no one is going to even get close to you.”

Swift grins at me, all teeth. “If they do, I’ll rip out their throats.”

I blink, not sure if he’s serious or not.

Probably not, right?

Maddox tugs me over to the counter and situates me in front of him, his enormous body curled over mine as the guy behind the counter turns to greet us. “Oh, hey, Mr. Falcone. Checking in?”

Maddox nods against the side of my head, his cheek brushing his scent over me. “Yep. For six this time.”

The guy’s gaze flickers over me, the barest amount of appreciation in their depths. Maddox growls and tugs me closer, but I just roll my eyes. The guy pales and swallows hard, yanking his gaze away from me.

I stroke my fingers over my prime alpha’s forearm to soothe him, and I’m more than a little surprised when it actually works. The growl fizzles out in his chest. He presses a kiss to the side of my head and then gently nudges me away from him, toward Luca and Ethan standing nearby.

They latch onto me immediately, dragging me over to a table full of protective gear. “Nervous?” Luca asks, sliding a thick vest over my head. It reminds me of the kevlar ones that the cops always wear on TV shows.

I shrug. “Not really.”

“Have you been paint balling before?” Ethan asks, as Luca tightens the velcro straps, making sure the vest won’t go anywhere. The beta’s long fingers pull all of my hair back over my shoulders and gently combing it out. It only takes me a moment to realize he’s getting ready to French braid it.

Makes sense. I don’t want it to get in the way when I’m sprinting across the battle field dodging paint balls.

“I haven’t,” I answer him. “But I think the concept is fairly easy to understand, right? Point and shoot?”

Swift chuckles as he comes up to us, carrying two guns, one in each hand like some kind of action hero. He hands one of them to me and I take it, surprised at how heavy it actually is. Ethan’s fingers make quick work of twisting my hair back and when he’s done, he presses a quick kiss over Luca’s mating mark, making me shiver.

“There’s a little more to it than point and shoot.” Luca plops a helmet on my head and then tightens the strap under my chin. I arch a brow at him.

“Really?”

He bends and kisses my nose. “Really. We aren’t taking chances with your safety, vixen.”

“Are you guys wearing any protective gear?”

They laugh. Like full on belly laughs, like the idea of that is insane. “We’ll put on masks,” Logan says. “We don’t want any paintballs to the face. But we’re used to the impact now.”

I hum. “What if I want to play without a vest?”

“Not happening, trouble,” Maddox growls as he joins us, crossing his arms. The five of them look like some kind of special ops force. Wearing all black tactical gear, but no protective vest. Instead, they’re in long sleeve black shirts that cling to their muscles, and make my mouth water.

Do we really need to do paint balling? Maybe we should just go home and… touch each other . Touch each other? Really, Sade? You can’t come up with something better than that?

Maddox smirks and folds his arms over his chest like he can read my thoughts. My cheeks flush and I look away, avoiding eye contact as they strap me into the gear that should keep me from getting hurt.

Once I’m fully kitted out to their satisfaction, they guide me outside, where the guy who checked us in is standing with another group of eight guys. All of them are big, and muscly and looking like they want to rip someone’s head off.

Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t take part. Something tells me they won’t go easy on me just because I’m a female omega.

Swift bounces on his feet when he sees the pack we’re up against, a pleased laugh falling from his mouth. “Oh, this is gonna be fun.” He leans over and nuzzles my temple, or as close as he can get while I’m wearing a helmet. “These assholes think they’re big men. They’ll want to prove themselves against us.”

I arch a brow and look up at him. “And that’s fun?”

“When we decimate them, it will be.” He sounds so sure that I chuckle.

The guy who checked us in motions us closer, until he’s between the two packs, and we’re all facing off against one another.

A few of them take note of me right away, eyes widening just slightly at my small stature and slight frame, like they can’t believe my pack would be stupid enough to bring a female to an activity like paintball.

Well, fuck them. I might be a girl, and I’ve never shot a gun in my life, but that doesn’t mean I can’t still be a badass.

Most of them are smart enough to keep their comments to themselves, but one of them, the biggest who is wearing just a t-shirt and track pants like he’s so fucking sure there’s no way he’ll get hit, narrows his gaze at me, his nostrils flaring.

And it’s at this point that I’m reminded that as an omega, I give off more scent than I did as a beta. Goddamn it.

“You brought an omega to a paintball match?” The alpha sneers, running his gaze over me derisively. He must not know who my pack is, because I don’t think anyone who knew would have that look on their face while talking to them. “Good luck, sweetheart. By the time you leave here, your ass is gonna be black and fucking blue.”

Four growls roll out from around me. Swift is the only one who doesn’t growl, but it’s not because he’s not upset by the threat. No, he’s staring at the alpha hard, and I can see the promise of violence in his gold eyes.

The alpha is an idiot, I decide as he continues to taunt my pack. His sneer morphs into a smirk and he runs his gaze over me again, this time lingering on the swell of my hips. “But maybe you like that, hmm, omega? You like it a little rough? You want me to bend you over and spank you? Show you what a real alpha is like?”

Before any of my men can move, I saunter forward. I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting how to move my body, how to tempt men. I mean, when your primary source of sexual release is one-night stands, you don’t have a hell of a lot of time to hook a man.

“Trouble,” Maddox warns, his voice a low growl as I close in on the other pack.

I ignore him, keeping my eyes on the big dude who’s trying to intimidate me. “Maybe,” I say, trailing my fingers over my hip, up my waist to the swell of my breast, hidden behind the thick protective vest. Doesn’t matter though, just the idea of tits is usually enough to turn on a man. “Sometimes I do like it really fucking rough.”

His eyes darken with lust, and there’s an explosion of alpharomones around me, from both fucking packs, but only one set of them makes me perfume. The other is sort of… putrid. No, that’s too harsh. But it just doesn’t do it for me.

“But,” I say, stopping in front of the alpha and tipping my head back to look at him. “It takes a real man, a real alpha , to do it just right. To make it hurt so fucking good. And we both know,” I walk the tips of my fingers up his chest. “That’s not fucking you.”

His eyes widen slightly as there’s a quiet burst of air. He curses, leaping away from me and looking down at his thigh and the splatter of red paint. “Oops.” I laugh like a ditz as he looks from the offending smear back up to me. “Sorry. Is that gonna bruise?”

“You fucking-” he lunges forward, but I’m already moving, and so is my pack. In a second, they’re between me and the bristling alpha. I’d expected Maddox to go toe to toe with the other prime alpha, but it’s Swift who gets there first, pressing his forehead against the asshole’s, like a stag locking horns in a battle of dominance, his face a blank mask.

“I dare you to fucking finish that insult,” he says, his voice icy. “Please, call my omega a bitch or a cunt. Please give me more of a fucking reason to end your fucking life.”

Luca looks over at me with his brow arched, like ‘ look at what you’ve done now ,’ and I suppose he’s right. I could have just left it alone, but I have all these old instincts and learned behaviors of not letting anyone make me feel small. And I worked damn hard to get to that point after feeling like nothing but a sick kid for so long.

“Swift,” I breathe. So softly, but I know he hears me by the way his body goes still. “Come here, baby. He’s not worth it. Save it for the game.”

He hesitates, then sighs. “You’re fucking lucky she’s got a soft heart, motherfucker. But I’ll see you on the field.” He turns and runs at me, scooping me up into his arms as I laugh, wrapping my arms around his shoulders as he nuzzles into my neck the best he can while I’m wearing a helmet and a vest.

“Gonna make him hurt, Cherrybomb,” he murmurs against my skin. I tighten my finger in his blond hair and tilt his head back to nip at his lips. His hands grip my thighs, fingers dangerously close to my throbbing center. Making me squirm against him. “Gonna make him bleed for saying shit to you.” He gives a filthy chuckle. “You like that, don’t you, omega? Like how readily I’ll spill blood for you, split my knuckles for you.”

A needy little whine pulls from my chest that has him kissing me long and deep.

He’s breathing hard when he pulls back. “Fuck, maybe we should just go home.”

“No,” Ethan sounds strained as he rejects Swift’s suggestion. “No. Sadie needs a break. She needs to do something besides just sit in our penthouse, waiting for answers.”

I glance over my shoulder at him, giving him my best smile. Thank god he remembers why we’re here. I reach a hand out to him and tug him closer when he takes it, bending over to press a kiss to his mouth too as Swift shifts his grip to keep me supported.

“Besides,” Luca says, clapping a hand on Swift’s shoulder. “Don’t you want to fuck up that alpha that insulted our girl?”

Swift’s expression goes even more lusty, if possible. “Oh, yes. Please. I want to make him hurt.”

I pull away from Ethan and look down at Swift. “But not too bad, right? It’s just paintball.”

“Sure, Cherrybomb.” He nips at my nose. “I won’t hurt him too bad.”

I squint my eyes at him. “Why don’t I believe you?”

“Because you’re smart,” Maddox says, wrapping an arm around me from behind and tugging me away from Swift. He sets me carefully on my feet in front of him, but doesn’t move from where he’s pressed to my back. “Let’s talk strategy. Logan and Trouble guard the flag. Swift, you go for their flag, and the rest of us will play defense.”

I arch a brow. “You’re sending him in alone?”

Swift chuckles. “It’s cute you think I won’t slide right past their defenses. I’m a motherfucking ghost when I want to be.”

I’m not sure Swift can do quiet and subtle, but I trust them to know their strengths and weaknesses far more than I do. They’ve been together for so long. “Will Logan and I get to see some action?”

Luca grins down at me. “You got a hit of the bloodlust now that you shot that dude?”

I shrug. “I mean, what’s the point of bringing me here to help me forget about all the bullshit if all I have to do is sit by a flag and think?”

Logan slides his hand around my throat, thumb pressing into my pulse point and stroking softly. “I’ll keep you entertained. I promise.”

“Fuck,” Luca shakes his head. “I changed my mind. I want to guard the flag with Vixen.”

“No,” Madox’s growl rumbles through me. He’s absolutely loving this. Being in command, getting ready for battle. I can see what makes him a good prime for the pack. “We all have our assignments. Now get to them.”

He presses a smacking kiss against my neck and then pushes me toward Logan. I stumble, not ready for the sudden momentum, and Logan catches me as I glare over my shoulder at the prime alpha. “Really asshole?”

He smirks. “Really. Get your fine ass to the flag and protect it with your life, omega.” He gives me a quick swat on the butt as I follow Logan. Hard enough to sting, but not so hard it doesn’t make my pussy throb.

“Fuck,” Logan hisses, nostrils flaring wide. “You like that, Sade?”

I sniff and take off at a light jog. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

He laughs, keeping an easy pace with me. “Sure you don’t.”