Chapter 27 In which my omega gets jealous

As much as I hate having Claudia here, her arrival sparked a conversation between my pack that needed to happen. Having Sadie open up to us about her fears around bonding with us was so fucking eye opening.

In that moment, I’d been prepared to tell her we’ll wait for years if that’s what she needs.

Fuck.

I hope it doesn’t take years for her to come around.

I want her.

I want a bond with her in the worst way. Every day that I go without being connected to my girl is a day that the Sadie shaped hole in my chest grows a little wider. A little bigger.

If it takes years for her to decide this is what she wants, I’ll wait. But I might not be much of an alpha by then.

After a longer conversation, Sadie agreed to stay. Mostly because Swift threatened to slit Claudia’s neck if she didn’t. I’ve never been more grateful for that little fucking psycho in my life.

The idea of her not being here, of some other omega hanging out in our penthouse without Sadie here to counteract her? Yeah, my alpha hated that idea. A lot.

Of course, now we’re in the shit position of living with two unbonded omegas, one of which I want with my whole fucking heart and soul and the other that calls to my alpha almost as strongly just because of how she smells. It’s an exercise in self control with Claudia. Battling instincts and hormones to stay true to my heart and soul.

I cannot, under any circumstances, give into the need to take care of another omega. Not while Sadie is here. Not when she’s the only person I want to take care of, to cherish for the rest of my life. Well, her and my pack.

A soft purr rumbles to life next to me and Sadie’s little hand smooths over my chest, like she can feel my conflicting needs warring for dominance inside me. Even while she’s asleep, she’s trying to soothe me.

We’re all piled into Maddox’s bed. It’s the largest in the penthouse, besides the nest, and since Claudia’s taken up residence there, it’s the only place that will fit all six of us, still it’s a tight fit, that ends up with Sadie stretched out on top of one of us, using our bodies as a mattress.

This morning, Maddox is under her, his arms wrapped securely around her back, cradling her on his chest. One of her legs tangles with mine, her hand on my chest. On the other side of Maddox, Luca cuddles into our prime alpha, one of his hands inside her sleep shorts, palming her ass. Swift is on my other side, reaching over me to grip her thigh, his hand awfully close to my hard cock, but I don’t move him away. I can’t blame him for wanting to touch our girl.

I lay there and try to will myself to go back to sleep, wanting to stay in this perfect cuddle puddle with my pack for a while longer. But my bladder eventually urges me to get up. Carefully, not wanting to wake her, I pick up Sadie’s hand from my chest and lift it to press a kiss into her palm.

She shifts restlessly on top of Maddox and his arms tighten in response, his lips finding the crown of her head and his purr rumbling to life even as he continues to sleep. I tuck her hand under her chin and her eyelids flutter but don’t open. “Logan,” she murmurs in her perfect, husky, sleepy voice.

I smooth strands of light brown hair back from her face and lean over to press a soft kiss to her mouth. “Go back to sleep, mo chuisle .”

A furrow appears between her brows. “Stay.”

My heart damn near explodes in my chest at her gentle plea. I would stay if my bladder wasn’t threatening me with pissing all over my prime’s bed. Another kiss to her mouth. “I’m just gonna go start breakfast, baby,” I murmur. “I know you’ll need the calories after last night.”

A pleased little smirk curls her lips and she shifts on Maddox’s chest again. Pretty much ever since Claudia has come into the apartment, all of us have made it our mission to sex up Sadie as often as we can. To remind her she’s the one we want. Last night, we treated her to all our cocks in as many of her holes as she could take.

“There’re scones in the freezer. Ready to bake,” she mumbles and I don’t know if it’s her way of telling me that’s what she wants to eat, or if she’s saying breakfast is already most of the way finished, so there’s no need for me to get up.

“I’m on it,” I whisper, kissing her again.

She mewls when I move her thigh off me, and Swift all but snarls at me when I uncurl his fingers from her flesh. But he settles as soon as I’m up and out of bed, rolling into the space I vacated and tugging Sadie’s leg between his.

I tug on a pair of navy joggers—Ethan’s, I think—and hurry to the bathroom to do my business.

I’m covered and sweat and cum and slick and I should probably take a shower before starting the day, but my alpha is fucking proud to have my omega’s scent dripping from me. He’s practically preening in my chest as I catch whiff after whiff of her. Sadie. The literal pulse in my heart.

Humming quietly to myself, I head downstairs and start a pot of coffee. Then I root around in the freezer and find the scones that Sadie made, the instructions for baking them written out in sharpie on the bag.

The scones will be delicious, but they won’t be enough. Not for my pack. So while the oven heats, I pull out eggs, sausage and hash browns. Claudia’s been only eating yogurt and fruit every morning like she’s on a diet or something, which is something I’ve never heard of omegas doing.

They crave sweets and comfort foods, things that help them store calories for when they go into heat and don’t have the capacity to sit down and eat full meals. An omega on a diet is… well, it makes my alpha cringe.

It’s taken a lot for me to not snarl at her to eat more, to take better care of herself. She’s not mine, and so if she wants to limit her calorie intake, she’s more than welcome to. It’s not like she’ll be here long enough to go into heat with us.

Sadie, on the other hand? If she starts thinking she needs to go on a diet, I will perch her on my lap and hand feed her every single meal from now until eternity. My girl needs to keep up her strength and I wouldn’t mind more of her to love on.

My alpha rumbles with pleasure at the idea of that. I’m so into the image in my head that I don’t realize I’m not alone until a soft hand touches my lower back. I turn, thinking it’s Sadie, ready to pull her in for a kiss, only to stumble back when I find Claudia there, smiling up at me, wearing next to fucking nothing. A lacy, silky nighty that barely covers her ass and tits.

My ass hits the counter as she presses in closer, pushing up on her toes to kiss me. On the fucking lips.

A shudder runs through me, and I curl my hands around her shoulders and push her away. “What the hell are you doing?”

She blinks up at me with wide blue eyes, like she doesn’t understand why I might have a problem with her lips on mine. “I’m saying good morning to my alpha.” Her fingers brush over my abs, just above the waistband of my joggers suggestively. “Did you have something else in mind for how I could do that? Maybe I should get on my knees and let you fuck my mouth? We could start every day like that, Logan.”

Gritting my teeth against the surge of arousal at the words and her smell, I release her shoulder to slap her hand away from me. “No.”

She arches a brow, tucking her hand between her lace covered breasts like I hurt her. “No? I’m offering to blow you. Me, your omega, and you’re telling me no?”

I push her farther away and then move around her, putting distance and the island between us. “That’s right, I’m telling you no. I don’t want your mouth anywhere near me, let alone on my cock.” My cock that smells like Sadie’s slick. Hell, I’m drenched in her scent. It’s why I didn’t smell Claudia before she touched me. My nostrils are full of my true omega. Claudia should be able to smell it too, and it should fucking turn her stomach. If she’s really our scent match, smelling another omega on my skin should piss her off and make her damn near feral. The same way that another alpha’s scent on Sadie’s skin would drive me to cover it up with my own.

Or maybe, since we have two scent matches, it doesn’t work that way.

Maybe she doesn’t give a shit if I smell like Sadie because their scents are so similar.

Or maybe that’s why she offered a morning blowjob. To get her scent on me instead.

Claudia folds her arms over her chest. “Well, at least you didn’t tell me I’m not your omega. That’s progress.”

“You aren’t my omega,” I say through gritted teeth. “Hence the whole, I don’t want your mouth anywhere near me.”

Her blue eyes flick down to the island and them up to me. “See, I don’t think that’s the problem here, alpha. I think you do want my mouth on you. And my body and my pussy. I think you want it very much. I think your alpha is screaming at you to mount me and knot me and claim me right this fucking second. I think the problem is that you want me a little too much.”

She waves a hand between us. “Hence, putting a barrier between us. You don’t trust yourself to stand right next to me and still be able to say no.”

“I have nothing to prove to you, Claudia,” I say, shaking my head at her obvious attempt at manipulation. She’s trying to get my alpha to succumb to pride, to stalk over to her, close enough for her to touch again, to leave her scent on me where Sadie will smell it. “You’re only here because Sadie wants you to be,” I remind her. “She wants to give us a chance to get to know you, because she’s got a soft fucking heart.” I move around the island, closer to her, but still out of reach. “But if you continue to hurt her, to claim us without our fucking consent, you’ll find yourself out on the street so fucking fast your head will spin.”

Claudia’s lower lip pushes into a pout and her eyes fill with tears. “I don’t understand how you can be so mean to me.”

“It’s not being mean. It’s being truthful. Not one of us wanted you here, Claudia. We have our omega and it’s not you.”

She looks meaningfully at my neck, at the spot where Sadie’s claiming bite should be. “If you have an omega, then why the hell aren’t you claimed, Logan? Why am I sleeping in your pack nest every night? If she wants you and wants this pack, why isn’t there a bite on your neck proclaiming it?”

I keep the hurt from showing on my face. But somehow she can tell it’s there. We all feel it. All of us but Luca, lucky bastard, and even he doesn’t have Sadie’s mark on him. She grins at me, like she can read me like an open book. And I have to say something. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks, its normal that she would want to take it slow.” Doesn’t make it easier, though.

Claudia edges closer to me, and I keep my feet planted. “I would have claimed all of you the first night. Would have thanked god that I found my pack, and let you do whatever the hell you wanted to me so long as it resulted in your teeth in my neck.”

I frown. She doesn’t know that we weren’t exactly welcoming to Sadie when she first got here. She doesn’t know that we didn’t want an omega yet, that at the very soonest we thought maybe in a few years we’d be stable enough for one. Sadie is well within her rights to have reservations about us.

I just wish…

I push the thought aside.

“Never gonna happen, Claudia.” Maybe if we say it enough, it’ll finally sink into her little omega brain. “The only person I’m biting is Sadie.”

A soft sound comes from the direction of the stairs and both Claudia and I turn to find Sadie watching us. Claudia uses the movement as an excuse to move closer to me, and Sadie definitely notices. Her silver eyes latching onto the scant inches between my body and the other omega.

My girl is in an oversized band t-shirt I recognize as belonging to Maddox. Her hair is loose and wild around her shoulders, and she still smells like sex and our pack. Everything in me tightens looking at her, standing barefoot and unsure so far away from me.

“Morning, baby,” I say, moving in her direction. But Claudia gets in my way, stepping to the side just as I do, like she’s blocking me from getting to my omega. Our bodies press together and she takes that moment to release a wave of her perfume in the air, before turning her back on Sadie and placing her hands on my waist again bracing against my abs as she leans up and ignoring my warning growl, whispers in my ear. “Whenever you’re ready to knot and bite me, Logan, I’ll be ready and waiting. I’m dripping just thinking about it.”

Then she spins, flashes Sadie a bright smile and flounces up the stairs, ass cheeks on full display in her tiny little nighty.

Sadie shifts uncomfortably, hesitating before she shakes her head at herself and moves into the room. But she doesn’t come to me like I’d expected. She goes to the coffee pot instead, giving me a wide berth. It fucking hurts, even as she murmurs, “morning, Logan.”

No. No fucking way.

“Sadie.” I follow her. “Look at me, please.”

Her eyes flick up and then back down to the mug in front of her, before she busies herself with pulling her creamer out of the fridge.

I sigh and shift even closer, trying like hell to beat down my instincts to gather her in my arms and wipe away whatever hurt I’ve caused her.

Sadie’s nostrils flare and she whips her head in my direction, a low, sweet growl rolling out of her chest. It’s adorable, if I’m honest, but the look in her eyes, the hurt in them? Not the least bit cute.

I hold up my hands at her as she stalks toward me. “ Mo chuisle , it’s not what you think.”

“Not what I think, Logan?” she hisses, coming to a stop in front of me. “Cause what I think is that you smell like another omega. You smell like her .”

The last word is a whine, and I itch to pull her into me, but I know her instincts are going a little wild at the moment, so I stay put. “I know, baby. I wasn’t fast enough to avoid her touching me. I’m sorry about that. Won’t happen again.”

“You smell like her,” she repeats, little fists tight at her sides.

I shrug and try like hell not to smirk at the jealousy in her voice. My omega wants me. Wants to claim me, wants her mark and scent on me. I can tell. I reach out and run my knuckle down her cheek. “So make me smell like you, little omega.”

Sadie’s eyes dilate and she lunges at me, climbing me like a tree and wrapping her sweet little body around me. Her skin is so hot against mine, and her pussy presses against my abs, right over the spot where Claudia touched me, obliterating the other omega’s scent.

She winds her arms over my shoulders and all but attacks my lips with a snarl when she tastes the other woman there. “She kissed you?” she growls against my lips. “I’m going to rip her fucking head off.”

I chuckle into her mouth, loving this jealous, possessive side of our girl.

Sadie yanks her head back and glares at me. “Its not fucking funny, Logan!”

“I know,” I coo at her, supporting her wait with one arm so I can slide my hand up her spine and into her wild light brown hair. Her instincts are riding her hard and as much as that thrills me, it’s not the time to preen about it. “I know. I’m sorry, mo chuisle . Just enjoying you getting jealous over me. But you’re right, it’s not funny.”

I carry her over to the island and slide her onto the marble. “Do I smell better now? Do I smell like yours?”

A faint flush spreads over her cheeks, and she bites her bottom lip, stifling a smile. “Yes.”

I use my mouth to pull her lip from between her teeth, sweeping my tongue over the abused flesh. “Good. That’s what I want.”

When I pull back, she’s still blushing, but her smile isn’t present anymore and she won’t meet my eyes. “What’s wrong?”

She wraps her hands around my waist and shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I told you to get to know Claudia, to explore the possibility of a relationship with her, and the first time I’m presented with the possibility of you getting physical with her I freak out and go all feral omega on you.” Her fingers tighten on me like she doesn’t want to let me go, but she’s still not looking at me as she whispers, “If you want to kiss her, I-that’s- I’ll try to be okay with it.”

Oh, fuck.

Nope. Not gonna let her think I wanted Claudia’s mouth on mine for even one fucking second. My knuckle hooks under her chin and I tilt her head up, making her meet my eyes. “Baby, I don’t want her. I’ve never wanted her. In fact, you should start calling me Danny Zuko, because you’re the one that I want.”

Sadie snorts a laugh, her forehead falling to press into my peck. “Did you just make a Grease reference?”

I chuckle and slide my hands up to cup either side of her neck, dropping a kiss on her sweet smelling hair. “Yeah, mo chuisle, I did.” She tilts her head back, resting her chin on my chest, and my thumb strokes over her bottom lip. “You’re going to have to trust me—trust us—when we say we want you, Sadie. If we smell like her, it’s not because we asked for it, okay? She’s here, in our space. We’re bound to brush up against her scent. It doesn’t mean we want it.”

My girl’s eyes flutter as the words sink in, but I can practically see her retreating from me. I don’t know what to do to stop it. So I kiss her and then ask, “hungry?”

She straightens up, pulling her body away from mine, and nods. “Yeah.”

“Me too,” Swift says, pushing his way between me and my omega and devouring her mouth with a filthy kiss that makes my already hard cock even harder. Especially when Sadie whimpers, tugging his tattooed body closer. He pulls back. “Mmm, delicious, Cherrybomb.”

I tense when Claudia’s voice calls down the stairs. “If you’re making breakfast, I’ll take some fruit and yogurt in my nest.”

Sadie’s chin dips toward her chest and her shoulders curl in. Swift frowns at our omega. And then shouts back. “If you want breakfast, you can get it yourself, cock-juggling thundercunt!”

Sadie snorts a laugh and slaps a hand over her face, like she’s trying to hold it in. I wish she wouldn’t. I want to hear her give in to the humor fully.

“I’ll happily juggle all of your cocks if Sadie isn’t up to the challenge!”

The laughter fades from my girl’s eyes, and her knuckles turn white as she grips the counter.

Swift snarls and whirls toward where Claudia is draped over the banister, tits practically spilling out of the lace of her top. I turn from the sight, getting back to making breakfast as Swift stalks over to glare up at her. “We are more than satisfied with our omega, lint licker. A trumped up fake as fuck omega like you could never compete with our slice of cherry pie.”

Claudia makes a spluttering sound. “I’m not a fake! She’s the fake!”

“Watch yourself,” Maddox growls, emerging from the upstairs hall. “You don’t want to say something you’ll regret and get yourself tossed out on your ass, Claudia.” He pads down the stairs and straight to Sadie, sliding his hands on her hips to tug her closer.

“Morning, trouble,” he murmurs and then he says something else that I can’t make out, but it makes Sadie give him a small smile, so it must be good.

All too soon it fades, and she looks over to where Swift is trading insults with Claudia. Sighing, she pushes Maddox back and hops off the counter, heading over to Swift, calming him with a hand on his back. Which is a good thing, because now he’s brandishing a knife at the other woman.

I pause in whipping eggs together to watch as Sadie tips her head back, peering up at the other omega. “Claudia, I’ve been wanting to ask you something.”

I slide the bowl onto the counter and move until I’m standing behind her. Maddox does the same.

Claudia’s gaze narrows on our girl, not trying to hide the hatred she has for her. “I don’t think I’ll answer. I don’t even want to talk to you, the woman who stole my pack. Why would I tell you anything?”

Swift gives her a beautiful smile. “Because if you don’t, I’ll have no trouble at all torturing you for answers.”

“Swift,” Sadie murmurs, chiding.

He shrugs. “What? You know it’s true.”

Sadie nibbles on her lip, but doesn’t deny it, which makes Claudia’s eyes widen just the slightest bit. Maybe she’s finally realizing who the fuck she’s dealing with. Fucking good.

Sadie smiles at the woman trying to steal us from her. Smiles. It’s a fake as shit smile, but she still does it. “Why don’t you come down and have a cup of coffee? We can talk about… our situation.”

I frown at the back of my girl’s head. For the last few days, Sadie has avoided Claudia, and we’ve done everything in our power to keep them away from each other. Ethan has been digging in to Claudia’s past, trying to find answers about what was done to both of them, but so far he’s had no luck. Seems like our omega is tired of waiting.

A cunning smile curls Claudia’s lips. “Make me breakfast and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

The three alphas in the room protest, but Sadie nods. “Deal.”

Beaming Claudia skips back down the stairs and posts up on a stool at the island, leaning her chin on a hand. “Yogurt, fruit—all peeled—honey. An egg white omelet with spinach and low fat cheese. Ricotta pancakes with chocolate chips.”

Sadie rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue, just follows her over to the kitchen and gets to work. “I’ll help,” I say, putting the items I’d pulled out for our breakfast aside in order to help my omega.

“No,” Claudia says.

“No?” I turn to look at her brow arched in warning.

“No,” she repeats, looking smug as fuck. “You want answers. I want that trash heap to make me breakfast. It’s a fair trade.”

Three low growls filter through the air, but again Sadie just rolls her eyes. “Its fine. I’ll make her breakfast. You work on ours. If she wants to be this petty, let her.”

I growl, but ultimately give in to my omega. She’s more than capable of making breakfast, and probably will be faster than I am, even if she’s making more.

The four of us work together in the kitchen, Swift, Maddox and I help where we can, which is actually quite a lot because Claudia’s too busy watching Sadie, making comments about how good of a servant she is, how docile, how everything better be perfect or Sadie won’t get her answers.

It makes my teeth grit and the only thing that stops me from tossing her out on her silk-covered ass is Sadie, who continually puts out soothing pheromones for us and offers gentle touches of her hands.

I hope Claudia’s taking notes because this is how an omega is supposed to behave, balancing the pack, keeping our more volatile instincts in control.

Of course, there’s also the fact that I watched as Sadie dumped a generous amount of hot sauce in the omelet. Too much for it to be anything but taste bud meltingly spicy when Claudia finally eats it.

By the time we finish prepping breakfast, Luca and Ethan have joined us, looking rumpled and sated. They smell like each other and there is no doubt what they got up to while the rest of us were slaving away in the kitchen.

Sadie’s eyes dilate when she catches a whiff of their combined scents, nibbling on her lower lip while looking like she wants to jump both of them and drag them back upstairs.

Claudia, on the other hand… well, she looks less than pleased. Her lip curls back in the barest hint of a snarl as she looks at Ethan. Well, shit. She’s one of those people that thinks betas don’t have a place in a pack. Or maybe it’s that they’re two men together? Either way, it’s one more mark against her.

“Okay,” Sadie says brightly, sliding all three dishes over to Claudia on the island. “Breakfast is served. Now, on to my question-”

“I want it served at the table.” Of course, she fucking does.

Luca frowns, then looks at our girl. “Did you make her breakfast?”

Sadie waves off the question as she gathers up the dishes, moves them to the table and places them down carefully. “Better?”

Claudia flounces over and settles in the chair. Sadie takes the spot across from her, folding her hands on the table in front of her. “We’ve recently come to believe that when I was a child, I was used as a test subject for a program to create omegas.” Claudia pauses with a spoonful of yogurt and fruit halfway to her mouth, looking at Sadie just in time to see me slide a plate of hash browns, eggs and sausage in front of her.

“Really?” Claudia asks, eyeing Sadie’s food like now she wants what our girl has.

I settle next to my omega with my plate, wanting to hear this conversation, too.

Sadie nods and leans back in her chair as Luca places a smaller plate with a scone on it next to her first plate. Ethan carries over the hot sauce that she likes and kisses the top of her head. Swift brings over a perfectly frothed latte and a glass of orange juice.

And then Maddox slides out Sadie’s chair, picks her up and settles back with her in his lap. I know without asking that he’s going to feed her.

Claudia watches all of this with a greedy hunger in her eyes. This is what she wants, a pack waiting on her, taking care of her. Maybe someday she’ll find it, but it won’t be with us. We only worship one woman and that’s the little omega perched on our prime’s lap.

Claudia’s lip curls as Maddox breaks off a piece of the scone and holds it to Sadie’s mouth. Holding the other woman’s stare, our girl parts her lips and lets him slide the morsel of food between them.

“We thought, seeing as you both have scents that are so similar,” I take over, wanting this conversation to be over as quickly as possible. “You might have experienced something similar to what Sadie went through.”

Claudia tilts her head and looks at me, eyes narrowed like she’s thinking back. Then she shakes her head. “No. There’s nothing. I mean, I went to the doctor quite a bit when I was younger.” Sadie straightens up a little in anticipation. “But it was all just routine stuff. My omega hormones were a little high, so they wanted to monitor them. Didn’t want me perfuming around a bunch of unbonded alphas.” She winks at me, and a scowl back at her.

Ethan leans forward, arms braced on the table. “So you didn’t undergo any unusual tests? Nothing that seemed out of the ordinary?”

Claudia shoves a spoonful of the yogurt and fruit into her mouth and chews, gaze narrowed on where Maddox is feeding Sadie bites of sausage. She swallows. “Nope. They just took my blood for testing the hormones and did normal doctor’s physicals. But nothing else.”

Sadie sags against Maddox, and he presses a kiss to her temple.

“Are you saying they did more than that to you?” Claudia asks, sounding far too fucking pleased about it. “Oh my god. Do you think they took my blood and gave it to you? Is that why you smell like me? You stole my designation?”

Sadie nibbles on her lower lip and I can see all of her doubts swarming back in. This was a bad fucking idea. Really fucking bad. We should have talked to Claudia when Sadie wasn’t around. Because now I can tell Sadie believes that bullshit. That she was a beta and whatever her doctor did to her turned her into an omega.

She thinks she’s the fake.

Even if she is, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s ours.

Claudia gives a smug as fuck smile as she finishes her yogurt and drops the spoon into the bowl with a clatter. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean, look at you.” She waves a hand as she leans back in her chair. “You look nothing like an omega. You didn’t want the nest your pack provided for you. I bet you suck at being submissive for them too, huh?”

With every word I see Sadie shrink further and further into herself. A low growl of warning rumbles out of me. Out of all of us, even Ethan.

Swift narrows his gaze on her. “Try the omelet.”

Claudia blinks at him, surprised. “What?”

Our resident psycho pushes to his feet and rounds the table until he’s towering over her. “You made my girl make you breakfast out of some petty bullshit. So you’re going to sit here and eat all of what she made you. If you don’t, I’ll put a bucket of rats on your stomach and laugh as they chew a hole through you.”

Claudia’s eyes are wide, but I don’t think she believes him. “I’d do as he says,” Luca says lazily, running his fingers up and down Sadie’s forearm, cradled in his lap. “He’s fucking crazy and doesn’t make idle threats.”

Claudia rolls her eyes and picks up the fork, cutting off a huge piece and popping it in her mouth dramatically.

Claudia chews once, twice, and then her cheeks get red and her eyes water. She spits the bite of omelet onto the table and reaches frantically for her drink. But there isn’t one. She never asked Sadie for one, and my girl followed her menu to the letter. “You bitch!” She gasps out, tongue hanging slightly out of her mouth like that will help with the spice.

Sadie settles more comfortably against Maddox and he nuzzles into her neck. “Oh, I’m sorry. I love spicy food, so I thought you might too. Guess I was wrong.”

She goes to get up, but Swift is right behind her. His hand clamps on her shoulder, keeping her in place. “ Keep fucking eating ,” he barks at her. And she does. Mechanically shoving the too spicy food into her mouth, chewing and swallowing. Tears stream down her face, combined with a fair amount of sweat and snot. Swift makes sure she eats every fucking speck of that omelet, then the partially chewed bits she spit out.

We all watch, enjoying our own meal. Maddox keeps feeding Sadie, murmuring things into her ear that I can’t make out, but I’m sure he’s trying to counteract the cruel words Claudia said to her.

When Claudia reaches for the ricotta pancakes, Swift stops her from eating them. “You don’t deserve them, you little tit-monger. My girl makes the best fucking pancakes. Besides, I want you to live with all that spice burning your tongue. Get the fuck out of here.”

Sobbing, Claudia pushes to her feet and stumbles toward the stairs. She pauses when Swift calls after her. “Oh, and if you ever say anything like that to Cherrybomb again, I will make you eat a whole bowl of cayenne pepper. And that is just to start. You understand?”

Claudia gives a quick nod before booking it upstairs.

“Swift,” Sadie chides gently. “You shouldn’t use your bark for things like that.”

He grins over at her, moving to cup her face in his hands and give her a filthy kiss. “If not for things like that? Then what for, Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherrybomb?”

She laughs softly, and he beams at her. “She deserved it.”

“She deserves worse,” I mutter. “Definitely worse than a few uncomfortable hours on the toilet with a burning anus.”

Sadie laughs harder and we all relax. Fucking good. I was worried she would let that awful woman’s words get to her.

“You’re diabolical, baby,” Maddox murmurs into her hair.

She chuckles and shakes her head. “Feels a little petty, but what are you gonna do about it?”

Ethan stands up and stretches, drawing Sadie’s hungry gaze to him. “I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do about it. Take you upstairs, lay you out on the bed and give you a bunch of orgasms for being so fucking brilliant.”

Sadie’s cheeks flush a bright pink as she lets out a breathy, “yes, please.”

In a second, Ethan has her off Maddox’s lap and wrapped around his body. He gives us all a significant look and then carries our omega up the stairs.

My gaze follows them, noting that he’s murmuring something into her neck that makes her blush. “We can’t keep this up,” I murmur. “Claudia’s only going to get braver with her advances toward us. She thinks we’re hers and her omega is pushing her to claim us.”

Maddox nods, running a hand down his face. “Sadie’s is too, she’s just-”

“Scared,” Luca finishes for him. “She’s scared.” His hand presses against his chest, over his heart. “Fucking terrified. And I’m not sure what we can do about it.”

Swift flips his knife in the air, his eyes glinting. “We bond her. That’s what we do about it. Once we’re all connected, she’ll see we don’t want anyone else. She’ll feel safe then.”

My teeth and jaw ache just at the thought. Fuck, what I wouldn’t give to climb those stairs right fucking now, knot my omega and bite her.

“I’m telling you we can’t force that on her,” Luca says. “She’ll withdraw even farther.”

Swift scowls. “She’s not withdrawing now.”

I shake my head. “She’s not. You’re right, but she might if we press the issue with her. We’ve told her how we feel. She knows. There’s nothing we can do to convince her to move forward with it.”

Maddox scrubs his fingertips across his lips. “We just have to keep resisting Claudia, and in a few days we’ll have done that for a week and Sadie will see that we’re serious.”

“A few more days?” Swift snarls. “I don’t want to fucking do this for a few more days. I want to stab that other omega and watch her bleed out. Which I know Cherrybomb will fucking hate. I can’t do this for the foreseeable future.”

I grit my teeth. I don’t particularly want to do this for longer either. It wouldn’t be so bad if we were meeting Claudia in public, getting to know her over dinner or some bullshit, but having her in this space, living with us, is… disconcerting. My alpha is so fucking torn.

And it makes me feel guilty as hell.

But I don’t know what else we can do, besides what Maddox has said. Stick it out, show her we mean it when we say we want her and only her. We can tell her repeatedly. It doesn’t mean she’ll believe us. Not until she comes to terms with what she truly wants.

She needs to talk to an outside party, someone who really truly only has her best interest in heart.

A thought pops into my head. One so fucking obvious I have no clue how we didn’t think of it before.

It’s a gamble, for sure, because it could go either way, but I prefer to think it’ll swing things in our direction. In helping Sadie figure out and admit she wants us just as bad as we want her, that our pack is worth the risk.

“I have an idea,” I say, cutting off the conversation between the other alphas in my pack.

When I don’t elaborate, Luca arches a brow and motions at all of us with a hand. “Care to share with the class?”

“Not really. I’ll follow up on it and let you know if I’m able to work it out. If not, I guess we’ll just move forward with the ‘wait and see’ plan. Which, by the way, can I say I hate?”

Swift jabs his knife in my direction. “Thank you! It’s the worst fucking idea ever.”

“Well, I’m also not on board with your ‘just bond her’ plan,” I say drily. “I’ll let you know what I figure out,” I call over my shoulder as I head upstairs to shower. I’m ready to put my plan into action.

A few hours later, I get a call from the security desk downstairs that my guest has arrived. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be to get them to come. Next to me on the couch, Sadie shifts. She’s stretched out between me and Maddox, her head on a pillow resting on his lap, and her legs draped over mine. She’s been dozing, her sweet omega purring coming and going. Maddox’s fingers are tangled in her hair, while my hands have been gently massaging the muscles of her thighs.

After I give the okay for our guest to be sent up, I gently slide my hands up her body until I can stroke a finger over her cheek. “Sadie, baby, Time to wake up.” A furrow appears between her brows and she makes a soft mewling noise. “Someone’s here to see you.”

“Tell them to go away.”

I chuckle. “I don’t think you’ll actually want me to do that, not when you see who it is.”

Maddox is flicking a nervous gaze between me, our omega, and the elevator doors. He doesn’t know what my plan is, but he should trust me enough to know I’d never do anything to hurt our girl.

The doors ding and I hear them slide open, but I don’t take my eyes off my omega.

“Come on, mo chuisle ,” I say softly, sweeping my hand down her spine. “Get up and greet our visitor.”

“Don’t wanna,” she murmurs, nuzzling deeper into the pillow.

I chuckle and hook my arms under her armpits, dragging her limp body up to a sitting position. “You’re going to want to, trust me.”

Sadie sighs and peeks at me by lifting one lid. “Fine.” Then she twists her head toward the elevator and stares hard for just a moment. There’s a breath. Next to me Maddox tenses, readying for a negative reaction that I know won’t be coming.

“Sorrel?” she breathes, and then I’m treated to the most beautiful fucking smile in the world on my omega’s face just before she scrambles over the back of the couch.