Chapter 36

Chapter Thirty-Six

H arper

I peel open my eyes and slowly the world comes into focus. First the hazy light of morning. Then the aroma of sweat, slick and come. Then the sound of three synchronized breaths. And finally the feel of a soft mattress at my back and the weight of three sleeping bodies on mine.

A smile plays across my lips and for a moment I simply bask in the afterglow of my heat.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t last long. Soon, I’m aware of the ache between my legs, the bruises on my body and the realization of what we’ve done comes crashing into my head.

I screw up my eyes and attempt to make sense of my feelings.

I’m scared – absolutely petrified of what we’ve done, of what people are going to think when – if – they find out. And yet …

I open my eyes again, watching dust particles dance in the shards of light.

I don’t regret it. Just like the last time, I don’t regret it one bit.

A genie could appear right now and offer to take me back in time and redo my choices and I’d make exactly the same ones. I’d live it all over again. Oh, yes I would.

Because these last few days were the best days of my life. The only thing that comes anywhere close in comparison were those days we spent together ten years ago. Now we’re older, more experienced and aware of just how rare, how special this thing between us is. It was even better. A million times so.

“Harper.” I turn and find Daxton awake beside me. “It’s over. Your heat’s over?” I nod my head. “And how are you feeling?”

I smile at him. “Pretty good. How about you?”

He smiles back at me – and, oh, that scowl of his does things to my inside, but his smile! His smile is like sunshine flooding over your skin. “The best.”

We lie there smiling at each other like dorks. Then he rolls up. “I’m going to make breakfast for you.” He peers towards the window. “Or possibly lunch.”

“Any idea what day or time it is?” I giggle.

“No fucking clue,” he says, reaching for his cell on the bedside table. He glances at the screen, then does a double take. “It’s Wednesday.”

“Wednesday?!” Wyatt says, stirring by my side.

I prop up on my elbows. “Wednesday?” I screw up my brow, trying to think straight. “But didn’t this start on Friday night, which means …”

“You’ve been in heat for five days!” Owen says, yawning and stretching on the other side of the bed.

Daxton’s gaze swims to mine in astonishment. “Are your heats usually this long?”

I shake my head and laugh. “No never. They’re usually over in two or three days.”

“Do you know–”

“You’re the doctors, you tell me.”

He scratches his head, eyes not leaving mine, features darkening. “In my professional opinion, I’d say it was because you were receiving some of the best cock, the best rutting and the best knotting known to man – or omega to be more precise.”

“That’s your professional opinion, is it?”

“Absolutely, one hundred percent so.”

He grins at me and I grin back.

And oh, shit, I don’t want this to end. I don’t want to drag myself from their bed and go home, pretend like we don’t mean anything to each other, go back to being just … siblings. Step -siblings.

As if reading my mind, Daxton says, “Don’t go, Harper.”

My eyebrows scrunch together. “I … I …”

“Don’t go, Harper, stay with us.”

I take an inhale, the others are quiet. “For breakfast?” He already said he’d cook for me, didn’t he?

“No, Harper, forever. Stay with us. Forever. Be our omega.”

I stare at my step-brother. The haze of the rut has left his eyes now. They are as alert and as perceptive as ever. There’s no tease on his lips, no mischief on his features, either. I think he’s being genuine.

Genuine but probably still drunk from all the sex.

“I don’t think–”

“Don’t tell me I don’t mean this. Or I’m mistaken. That I can’t trust my own feelings. I’m crazy about you – we all are.” I look around at the others. Wyatt nods seriously and Owen smiles at me with affection and warmth. “Harper Hall, I’m in love with you. I have been for ten years.”

I gape at him and then, I can’t help it, I burst into tears. Noisy, messy, sloppy tears that make my cheeks wet and my nose run.

“Are these happy tears …?” Owen asks. “Or are you sad about this?”

“Maybe this was just about sex for her,” Wyatt says, sounding deflated.

Owen whacks him on the arm. “Be quiet, Wy.”

I shake my head, sniffing. “It could never be just sex between us.”

“No, it couldn’t,” Daxton agrees.

“My feelings for all three of you are too strong.”

“Strong enough to be ours?” Wyatt asks.

I wipe my hands over my cheeks, although the tears keep coming.

“I want this. I want it more than I’ve wanted anything in my life. And I’m sad because we don’t get to have it. I don’t get to have the three people I want most in the world.” A sob wracks my throat, followed by a loud hiccup.

“Who says we can’t have this?” Daxton frowns.

“Erm, Dax, you, frequently,” Owen points out.

“I’m a dickhead. A stupid dickhead. A dickhead who is wrong.”

My shoulders sag. “But you’re not. There’s your job. My job, if I ever get one. Our reputations. Our parents .”

“I don’t care about any of that. I’d live in a cardboard box and work cleaning the sewers if it meant I could be with you,” Daxton says, making me cry even harder.

“In those circumstances, she might not want to be with you,” Owen snarks.

“I would!” I say. “I would! It wouldn’t matter to me.”

“Then,” Wyatt says, sliding on his glasses, and looking mighty confused, “what exactly is preventing us from being together?”

I think about it, then I laugh-snort. “Nothing. There’s nothing preventing us from being together. Nothing at all.”

I launch myself at Daxton, flinging my arms around him and hug him so tight I probably crack his ribs. Then I’m diving across the bed and hugging Wyatt, followed by Owen. And then, well, I may not be in heat anymore, but it doesn’t stop us from going for another round under the sheets.

Afterwards, Wyatt insists he be the one to cook us some food, telling me: “Daxton burns everything he touches.” And Daxton and Owen lead me into the bathroom and under the shower.

I don’t really want to wash away all the come from my body. It’s too soon for them to claim me with their teeth, but their seed on my body feels like a claiming of its own. Unfortunately, my reflection tells me keeping it isn’t an option. I’ve got mascara all over my cheeks and my hair’s a tangle. I look exactly like a girl who’s spent five days being fucked – not exactly the way you want to look when you’ll be seeing your mom in a few hours’ time.

I stand under the gloriously warm water while the two alphas work together to smother me in soap and scrub me clean – spending a fair bit of their time scrubbing my tits, my ass and between my legs.

“Is this going to be my life now?” I sigh, as Daxton massages shampoo into my scalp, “tripping from one endless orgasm to the next?”

“If we have our way,” Owen says, “then, yes, you’ll be coming like a runaway train.”

He draws his hands down my belly and between my legs, making me come for the sixth time that morning as Daxton rinses the soap from my hair. Then they wrap me in a large fluffy towel and carry me back to the bedroom.

This must be what it’s like to be a pack omega. Bliss. Simply bliss.

Owen jams one of his large t-shirts over my head and Daxton combs out my hair as smells from the kitchen drift up to my nose. Eggs and bacon. My stomach growls noisily and the two alphas hurry me down to a plate stacked high with food.

I eat the entire lot, plus two lots of helpings, then slink back in my chair, draw my feet up under me and sip on my coffee, admiring the three men sitting around the table with me.

Will I really get to wake up to this view every day? This glorious – extremely damn hot – view? Their patients are going to suffer big time because I’ll never be able to let them leave the house. I smile to myself.

“What’s that about?” Owen asks, shoveling his fifth plate of scrambled eggs into his mouth. I’m not surprised he’s hungry. All that rutting was sure to build up an appetite.

“The smile?” I say. “Oh, just thinking how awesome this is going to be, you know, us.”

“It is,” Owen confirms.

“How and when should we tell your parents?” Wyatt asks.

I place my coffee cup down on the table. “I need to think about how I’m going to break the news to my mom.”

“She loves you,” Wyatt says. “I think she’ll want whatever makes you happy.”

I chew on my cheek. Is he right? I think so. My mom’s never been a judgmental person. Live and let live has always been her motto. Will this be different, though?

“I think I should wait a bit until I tell her. Judging by the messages, she got herself all worked up when I went missing for those few hours and then even more so about me going into heat unexpectedly. I think pinning this on her next might be enough to send her toppling over the edge.”

“So you want to keep sneaking around?” Owen winks at me. “Hot.”

“Yeah, it is a little. Although,” I raise an eyebrow, “what are you going to do about all those omegas you have lined up for dates?”

“Hmmm,” Owen says, tapping his lips, “it’s going to look suspicious if we all of a sudden stop dating.”

“You’re not going on any more dates,” I tell him, narrowing my eyes.

He holds up his hand. “Trust me, Harper, I don’t want to.”

“If we stop dating, people will assume we have found an omega,” Wyatt points out.

“So we tell them we have,” Daxton says, shrugging. “But that we’re taking it slow and won’t be making any introductions just yet.”

“That actually might work,” Owen says.

Daxton picks up a piece of toast and flings it at his friend. “Of course, it will work.”

“How about you, Harper?” Wyatt says. “It’s going to look suspicious if you stop dating too.”

“Well,” I confess, “I never really got started and I’ll just tell everyone I realized I needed more time to get over my broken heart.”

Owen drags my chair towards him and nuzzles my neck. “Is it still broken, little omega? Can we do anything to help mend it?”

“You already have,” I tell him.