Chapter 6 In which I discover my prime alpha is an ass

I’m asleep when we arrive. Exhaustion pulled at me, and I couldn’t help but tumble headlong into it. I tried to stay awake, to watch where they take me, where I’ll be spending the next few days. But it’s the middle of the night. I’m tired and sore from fucking and claiming and, apparently, becoming an omega. I don’t want to believe it. Don’t want to admit that maybe, just maybe, I am one of one million girls. The one that presents as omega almost ten years after she should have.

It’s a dream for so many.

To be deemed special.

Worthy.

But for me, it’s just one more way for me to be a screwup. Like my body had to wait until I was with the least appropriate alpha to reveal itself.

Now, here I am, a mated omega, and I’ve only been an omega for a few hours.

How the fuck does this even happen?

Why now? Why me?

Yeah, I’m still floating on that river called Denial, but stepping into my house, inhaling the beta scent of mint and cucumber that permeated everything, shook me to my core. Because my house, the place I’ve lived for the last four years, no longer smelled like home.

It was wrong— off —in a way that made my skin crawl. I had to breathe through my mouth the entire time I was there.

Conversely, being in the enclosed car with Luca and Ethan is like a shot of tryptophan to my system, and I doze off before we even made it down the windy driveway I share with Sylvie and Sorrel.

So that means, when warm calloused fingers brush over my cheek, coaxing me awake, I have no idea where the hell I am. “Easy, vixen,” Luca whispers when I jerk, nearly strangling myself on my seatbelt.

He unlocks the belt and then scoops me into his arms, settling me against his chest. “Go back to sleep, omega,” he murmurs, lips against my forehead.

“Don’t call me that,” I grumble even as I snuggle into his shoulder, taking deep inhales of his brandy pear scent.

The ding of an elevator has my head lifting, and for the first time, I look around. We’re in an underground garage, well lit and almost impeccably clean. Even the floor gleams like a dealership showroom. There are two rows of shiny, expensive looking cars that probably cost more than I’d make in ten years at my job. Or I guess my old job. Since, technically, I’m currently unemployed.

“This is our private garage,” Ethan says, leading the way into the elevator. The doors close. “This elevator is the only way into our penthouse.” He holds his hand to a scanner that lights up and then beeps. The lift rises while I arch a brow at the high-tech security.

I guess it makes sense. They are the Falcone Pack and the Falcones have too many enemies to count. It makes sense they’d want their home base to be extra, extra secure.

“We have the entire top two floors,” Luca tells me. “If there’s anything that you need that we don’t already have on hand, let us know. We’ll get it for you.”

“I won’t be here long enough for that.” I shake my head and then pat his chest. “You can set me down now.”

He ignores my gentle request, tightening his arms around me instead as he looks over at Ethan. “Should we wake the others?”

The beta snorts a laugh and shakes his head. “You want Sadie’s first interaction with Maddox to be in the middle of the night after we’ve woken him from a dead sleep?”

Luca considers and then says, “No, you’re right. Better to break the news that we have an omega after he’s had coffee.”

“And breakfast.”

“And a blowjob.”

My cheeks heat at the last one, and a niggling of jealousy comes to life in my stomach. Who the hell is giving this Maddox a blowjob when it should be my job? What the hell? I push that thought away, because why am I getting all jealous over some alpha I’ve never even met?

Stupid bond. Stupid Omega. Stupid alpha biting me and claiming me and making me feel all kinds of things I have no reason to feel.

Luca laughs like he knows exactly what’s going through my mind, and a wave of amused affection swells up inside me. It only takes me a moment to realize that it’s coming from him, through the bond that I’ve left open for the first time since I felt it.

I slam the door back down, and Luca grunts. But a moment later, he nuzzles into my neck and licks over the mating bite. My body goes liquid hot in his arms and my toes curl in my shoes, while a swell of arousal makes my slick soak my panties.

He drags his lips up to my ear, his breath hot against me as he murmurs, “someday you won’t want to keep me out, vixen. Some day you’ll keep that bond open all the time so we can feel each other wherever we are. So I know when you need my cock, my knot.” He presses an impossibly soft kiss to my temple.

“Asshole,” I mutter, as he pulls away. The elevator dings as it opens and I’m almost sure he doesn’t hear me.

Ethan leads the way into the open concept space, my bag draped over his shoulder. Luca follows him as I look around. The elevator leads into a modern apartment. Floor to ceiling windows greet me first, the lights of the city catching my attention. In the middle of the view is a large gas burning fireplace that stretches up to the ceiling as well. The surround is all white and smooth, not tile or brick, and there is a giant TV hanging over the natural wood mantle. In front of the fireplace, facing the view, is a huge U shaped couch in black. Actually, everything is black or white or gray with natural wood or black metal accents.

There’s a kitchen on the right, also white and black with gold accents. The enormous island is natural wood with white countertops. There’s a stairway leading up to a second floor. And a hall on either side of the main living area that stretch into darkness.

It’s very… austere. And there aren’t any little touches that let me know people live here. I might as well have walked into a showroom. It occurs to me that maybe they brought me to a location that isn’t their pack house, that maybe they don’t trust me enough to bring me to the place that is actually theirs. Maybe this is just a fuck pad where they bring the newest flavor of the week.

The lack of pillows and blankets, soft things, is apparently disturbing to my new omega because I get all itchy and my fingers twitch with the need to… nest? Oh god, am I already wanting to nest? Here? With the Falcone Pack? In their fuck pad?

The thought has me pushing against Luca’s chest, wiggling until he lets me down, but when I try to move away from him further into the penthouse, he loops an arm around my waist and keeps me next to him. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him to let me the fuck go, but then he licks the bite mark on my neck again and I just melt against him instead.

“Who the hell is that?” A voice growls from the second floor. Luca hugs me closer as my head tips back, until I can see the alpha at the top of the stairs. My heart stops thudding in my chest as I take him in. Tan skin, black hair, dark eyes. He’s dressed in a tight black t-shirt that hugs his extremely muscled chest and gray sweatpants that hang low on his hips. His feet are bare and, for some reason, that catches my attention and holds it as he stomps down the stairs toward us. Anger radiating out of him in waves so thick I can’t help the whimper that pours out of my chest.

“You can’t bring one of you whores here, Luca. We talked about this,” he growls, making me flinch back both at the word and the tone he used while spitting it at me. “The penthouse is for pack. Only Pack.”

Luca carefully sets me down, and then steps in front of me, not bending under the overwhelming dominance radiating from the one and only Maddox Falcone.

“She’s not a whore, Mad,” he says calmly, folding his arms over his chest as I cower behind him. Ethan is off to our right, shifting from foot to foot, like he wants to intervene, but he’s not sure how. “She’s pack.”

“What the fu-” The word chokes off as Maddox gets close enough to scent me. His nostrils flare and his growl rolls over me, along with his scent. Juniper, red currant and cedar. He smells like gin cypress and it makes my mouth fucking water and my omega tremble, even if its slightly burned with his anger. Before I realize what I’m doing, my head tilts to the side, baring my neck for him. His black gaze lands on my exposed mating mark, and he sucks in a sharp breath.

“You didn’t,” he snarls at Luca. “Tell me you fucking didn’t mate an omega.” The way he says the word makes it clear what he thinks of omegas, of me. Though if I’m honest, it’s not any different from how I feel about the entire situation. Disgusted. Dismayed. Disappointed. A lot of those dis words.

Luca’s silence is deafening and Ethan inches just slightly closer to me. To protect me? Probably.

“What. The. Fuck. Were you thinking? You pull this now? Right fucking now? You know the bullshit I’m dealing with.” The questions drip with disdain. Another of those dis words. I press further into Luca’s back, trying to make myself as small as I can to escape Maddox’s wrath.

“She’s ours, Mad,” Luca says, still calm as hell, while I’m sitting here sweating and trembling. A warm hand presses into my back, and the soothing spring rain scent rolls over me as Ethan steps up next to me, having made a choice about what side he wants to be on.

Maddox’s dark eyes widen in shock. “What? Yours and Ethans? You starting a new pack I don’t know about?”

“Oh, fuck off,” Luca bites out, finally losing that calm patience. “She’s all of ours. Yours. Mine. Ethan’s. Logan’s. Swift’s.”

“Who are we talking about?” A sleepy slightly accented voice comes from the direction of the stairs. I follow the sound to an alpha with spiky dark red hair, pale skin covered in tattoos and freckles. Glasses rest on his nose, but they aren’t doing much because his fingers are pressed into his eyes, rubbing away the vestiges of sleep.

“The omega Luca went ahead and bonded without our consent. Without my consent,” Maddox barks.

“It was without my consent too,” I snap out, finally shedding enough of my newly formed omega persona to bring back the old Sadie. The one that doesn’t cower behind an alpha for protection. “My name is not ‘Omega’, it’s Sadie. And Jesus, can you dial back the alpharomones? I’m new to the whole omega thing and you are really, really freaking me out. I can’t figure out if I’m supposed to run and hide or drop to my knees and present to you.”

I’m patting myself on my back for getting all of that out when Maddox turns his dark green eyes to me, his brows arched in surprise. “ Present to me?” I swear there’s an uptick in his scent, turning it rich and heady, and my hussy of an omega pants for it, for him. Slick forms between my legs, soaks into my leggings.

Ethan chuckles next to me, sweeping his hand up and down my back in a move I think is supposed to be soothing, but there are too many alpharomones in the air to allow for that. I don’t need gentle touches. I need to get fucked… or to find a quiet place to curl up under a blanket and hide.

Being an omega fucking sucks.

Luca sighs and reaches to cup the back of my neck, pulling me forward until I’m standing next to him. The weight of his palm on my skin helps to calm me down, but I’m still nervous as all get out when I fully face the prime alpha of the Falcone pack.

“This is Sadie Pierce,” Luca says, fingers tightening just slightly on my neck. “Until about four hours ago, Sadie was a beta.”

“What?”

“Fascinating.”

Luca ignores the comments from Maddox and Logan respectively and keeps talking. “Ethan and I found her at The Market. We took her to a private room, and in the course of… intercourse,” he smirks, and my cheeks go hot. “She presented as an omega without realizing it. I may or may not have slipped into a rut, because, well, you can smell her. She thought we were roleplaying and begged me to bite her. The bond slipped into place before either of us really realized it.”

Logan approaches, his glasses settled on his nose, his light green eyes examining me with a keen interest that doesn’t feel like an alpha looking over a potential mate, but much more of an educational examination. Like he’s trying to break into my skull and find all my secrets, a puzzle he needs to figure out.

“You’re too old to present as an omega,” Maddox says bluntly.

I fold my arms over my chest and don’t look away from the light green eyes still watching me. “Yes, I am aware that I am outside of the normal age range for omega presentation.”

“You don’t look like an omega,” Logan says, dragging his light green gaze over me. And I can’t help but stiffen a little, stung by the observation.

“I am also aware of that, yes,” I say, trying my hardest not to fold in on myself. Omegas are tiny curvy little things. Usually no taller than five foot three, with hips wide enough for birthing multiple children. They have delicate features and innocent eyes and have to work to look even the slightest bit edgy, like Sylvie, who still looks adorable and sweet with face piercings, and bleached hair.

I, on the other hand, am five foot six. My hips would never be called wide, but they aren’t exactly slim either. My breasts aren’t big and they aren’t little. My face is just… pretty enough for a beta. Not stunning, certainly not innocent or wide eyed. Average. That is what I am. That is what I have been since the dawn of time. An average beta.

And now I’m a below average omega. God, in most omega circles, I’d be ugly , probably. Not what an alpha looks at for a mate. No wonder Maddox is so fucking upset when faced with a below average omega, who somehow weaseled her way into his pack.

I back up a step and hitch a thumb toward the elevator. “You know what? I’m just gonna go. You all obviously need to have a pack conversation, and I don’t think I need to be here for that. I didn’t even really want to come.” My feet slide back another step, while the alphas watch my retreat, only I bump up against a warm, hard body.

I glance over my shoulder and spot Ethan, the strap of my bag still slung over his arm. “Oh, perfect.” I reach toward it, intending to snag it off him. “I’ll just take that.” Ethan crosses his arms, effectively locking my bag to his body.

Amusement flickers down the bond and I scowl over at Luca, who has a smug as shit smile on his face. “Where do you think you’re going to go at three in the morning?”

“I’ll get my car and go home. You know, like I wanted to do before you dragged me here.”

“You kidnapped her?” Maddox shouts and I wince, backing further into Ethan, who uncrosses his arms and hooks them over my shoulders, tugging me into his chest.

“Don’t shout,” Logan says, moving to stand in front of me with a whiff of butterscotch and bourbon that makes my confused omega instincts wild and my thighs press together. “You’re scaring her.”

“I’m not scared,” I say somewhat petulantly and also lying through my teeth, seeing as I’m still tucked into Ethan’s body like he’s a lean-to in the woods on a rainy night.

Luca shakes his head. “I didn’t kidnap her. We’re bonded .” He motions at me with one hand, but doesn’t move his eyes from his prime alpha. “I can feel her in here.” The same hand bumps his chest. “I physically couldn’t leave her right after biting her. My alpha would have freaked the fuck out. So she’s here for the weekend to just ease the bond, okay?”

My frown deepens the more that Luca talks. It sounds an awful lot like he doesn’t actually want me here. Like this is all an unfortunate accident that we have to just deal with. It shouldn’t hurt, because it is an unfortunate accident that we have to deal with. But it does.

Shoving the feeling away, I force myself to step out of the shelter of Ethan’s body. I refuse to be a coward. I don’t hide from alphas. I never have and I never fucking will. No matter if I’m an omega now.

“If you won’t let me leave, is there a room I can use? I’m tired.”

Ethan’s hand presses into my lower back. “I’ll show you.”

“No, you fucking won’t.” Maddox bites out. “We need to have a pack meeting right fucking now.” He jerks a hand and points down a long dark hall on the right-hand side of the open concept living room. “Third door on the left.”

Out of the corner of my eye I see Luca open his mouth like he might protest, but then he snaps it closed. I jump slightly when Ethan carefully drapes my bag over my shoulder, then presses a soft kiss to my temple. “Get some sleep, baby. We’ll see you in the morning.”

I hitch the strap up, curling my fingers around it like it’s my goddamn anchor and, without looking at anyone, head down the hall.

“It might not stick,” Logan muses to my retreating back in the lilting accent of his. Irish , I think. But I know he’s not talking to me. So I keep moving, at least until I’m out of sight. So far in the dark hall, I can just barely make out their voices.

“It’ll stick,” Luca grumbles, sounding frustrated by the fact. “Its so strong already.”

“Shut up, asshole. What do you mean, Logan?” Maddox says.

“Well, she wasn’t in heat when you bit her, right? Or a preheat spike?” Ethan or Luca must give a silent negative response, because he continues. “Then it might not stick. Most lasting mating bonds form during a heat.”

“Most but not all,” Ethan sounds like he’s moving farther away from me. Actually, they all do. Maybe upstairs?

“Look.” The frustration in Luca’s voice has only grown. “I’m telling you it’s going to fucking stick. I can feel it.”

“But it might not.” For the first time, Maddox doesn’t sound so pissed. Dare I say he sounds almost hopeful as they all make their way up the stairs together. I linger in the hall until I hear a door click shut upstairs. Just one door.

Not multiple. I wonder if they all share a bedroom, or if they just went into a study or a den to have the aforementioned pack meeting.

It’s dumb, but this new omega part of me feels dejected at the thought of the four of them meeting without me. Like I should be a part of the pack because of the bite on my neck. I swallow down a whine along with that rejected feeling, and retreat farther down the hall until I reach the third door on the left and push it open.

It’s… a room. That’s about all I can say about it. Bland colors, no knickknacks or decorations. There’s a bed, a closet and a single chair. There isn’t even a window. Which I guess makes sense seeing as this in an interior room. No bedside table, no lamp. It’s more like a jail cell than a bedroom.

Maddox’s feelings about me being here couldn’t be more clear.

Dropping my bag to the floor, I perch on the edge of the bed that at least feels soft. Groaning, I kick off my tennies and then stare at the empty wall. I’m exhausted, achy and… sticky. I smell like Luca and Ethan, and I could really go for a shower before I climb into clean pajamas and bed. I should have asked where a bathroom is that I can use, but I thought they’d put their new omega in a room that at least had an en suite.

I grab up my bag and pad back into the hall on sock covered feet. Heading back toward the living room and opening doors as I go. Another bedroom, just as sparse as the one I’m in, but bigger. A fully stocked gym with floor to ceiling windows, looking out over the city.

The fourth door is a bathroom that is as close to a spa as I’ve seen in a private residence. But I imagine this is actually the least fancy bathroom in the penthouse. A wet room takes up the far side of the room, a gorgeous white tub on one side, so many shower heads I lose count on the other. Frosted floor to ceiling windows line the back wall. Hand painted light teal tiles, laid in a herringbone pattern, cover the floor and halfway up the walls, a double vanity with a white quartz countertop.

It's freaking gorgeous and I am going to use the crap out of it. I don’t care if Maddox doesn’t want me here.

I drop my bag on the counter and kick the door closed behind me, already halfway through pulling off my shirt. If I wasn’t so freaking exhausted, I would totally make use of the tub. But as it is, when I’ve shed my clothing, I flick on the rain shower and wait for the water to heat before ducking under the spray.

I use the fancy products lining the nook shelf, and by the time I step out ten minutes later, I feel more like myself. Not quite my beta self, but as close as I’ve felt since Luca dropped the bomb that we’re mated.

Almost like he knows I’m thinking about him, there’s a gentle tug on our bond. A check in, I think. I don’t send one back. I’m too busy filtering through my clothes. Normally I sleep naked. I get hot at night, and having less clothing makes the most sense. But spending any amount of time naked in this house is a bad idea. So I pull on a pair of gray boyshort panties and a black cropped tank top, wrinkling my nose at the familiar beta scent that clings to them.

I’ve never had a problem with my own scent. Never found a beta scent unpleasant. That’s kind of their deal. Unobtrusive, soothing, fresh. All words to describe beta scent. But now I can barely stomach what I used to smell like. Growling, I yank up my crop top and rub it over my neck, where scent is the strongest.

It helps, but still isn’t great.

Stupid fucking omega.

I brush my teeth and then my light brown hair before twisting it into a loose braid to keep it under control over night. And then, because I’m a masochist, I stare in the mirror at myself, with no makeup and no armor. What I find makes me feel inadequate.

Without makeup, I am… so fucking ordinary.

Gray eyes, light brown hair, freckles on my nose. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ugly or anything. I don’t think they’ll look at me and be all, ‘ew, she’s so gross.’ But all of them are so fucking hot. Handsome. Out of this world good looking. Next to them with no adornment, I know I’m going to feel like I’m not good enough to be with them.

I mean, I already feel that way since they shoved me into a tiny room as far from them as I can get while still being in the penthouse, but when they wake up tomorrow, they’re going to take one look at me and kick me to the curb.

I blow out a breath. That’s okay, Sade. That’s what you want.

Isn’t it?

My head tilts to the side so I can better see the already healing bite mark on my neck. I’m surprised it’s healed as much as it has. Luca didn’t spend a lot of time nursing it. And if the way Maddox just reacted is any sign, he won’t get the chance to tend to it. Which means I’m gonna have a nasty scar on my neck to remember all this bullshit with.

An angry little growl from my chest startles me so badly, it cuts off almost immediately. What the hell? I know omegas growl, or at least I’ve heard that they do. But this is nothing like the scary, threatening growl of alphas. It’s kind of cute… and that is annoying as hell.

If the sound I make when I’m upset is cute, these assholes will never fucking take me seriously.

No more of that, Sadie , I tell myself, meeting my gray eyes in the mirror.

Then I reach out and flick off the light before exiting the bathroom and heading to my cell.

Sorry, my room .