22. Finn

Chapter twenty-two

Finn

Locke is acting really strange. He’s tense and snappy and kind of edgy. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that he was having second thoughts. He’s standing at the huge windows, staring out at the forest, his arms wrapped around his middle.

I’ve never seen anyone look so silently distressed in my life. The oversized hoodie Bray gave him swallows him, and he shrinks into it, fading from view. What is he hiding from?

I walk up to him quietly, a mug of coffee in my hands. The vanilla of his scent is tinged with an almost burned sugar scent over the top. Too sweet, too sickly.

“Locke,” I mumble.

He jumps like I’ve screamed in his ear.

My concern deepens. The alphas are out running errands. I didn’t really ask. They were gentle about asking me to stay here, but it wasn’t really a choice. There is something they need that I don’t understand, and that’s fine. Being with Locke is no hardship.

Except now, when he’s hurting, and I don’t know how to fix it. Bray would know. Shane would be able to do something that would solve the problem. Erin would be able to talk to him.

“Locke?”

He glances back at me, but his expression is distracted.

I hold out the mug, and he blinks and takes it. But he doesn’t drink, he just goes to the window and stares out.

“Are you scared?”

Locke inhales deeply, choking. “Scared? Me?” he pauses. “Yeah, a little bit. I trust you guys, I really do, but I will be vulnerable.”

“You will be,” I confirm and stand beside him. “But so will they.”

“How so?” Locke snaps, his eyes flashing blue-green fire at me.

Tread carefully , Finn.

“This isn’t just any heat. And you aren’t just any omega. You are their scent-matched omega. This is the most important heat of their lives. They will protect you with a savagery that will be borderline insane. Nothing will get close. The only thing that will matter is that you are safe, pleased, pleasured, knotted.”

Locke swallows hard. “I’ve never…”

“Never?” I ask, stunned.

“I’ve worked really hard to hide that I’m an omega all these years. Not even my cousins knew. I had a feeling, so I started suppressants before I even presented. So, yeah, never.”

I put an arm around his back and draw him to me. “I have never, either.”

“Had a heat?”

“Well, until that night with you, I had never been with anyone. At all.”

“Bullshit, you were so good.”

My cheeks burn, and I’m amused and embarrassed that I’m reacting like a teenage boy. “Thank you, but I’ve never left this town, and you’ve heard my reputation. I’m not allowed to sleep around.” I didn’t mean for so much bitterness to spill out, but it’s there.

Locke gapes at me. “I was your first.”

He turns so that we’re chest to chest. I take the coffee cup and put it on the sideboard. Then I spear my fingers through his hair.

“You were my first. I want your heat to be the first I experience.” My voice is soft in the loud silence of Shane’s home.

Locke’s eyes turn shiny, and he buries his face in my shoulder. “Don’t let anyone hurt me.”

I lift my arms, hugging him, holding him. “Hey, hey. No one is going to touch you unless you specifically want it. Anyone who tries is going to have to face down three savagely obsessed alphas and one dangerous beta. No one is going to hurt you…”

Unless he’s concerned about the alphas? Is he?

“Locke, if you look uncomfortable, I will stop them, even if I have to take on Shane, Bray, and Erin together. I will not let them go ahead if you say no or are distressed. Is that what’s bothering you?”

He lets out a puff of air against my shoulder, and his whole body trembles.

What the fuck is going on here?

“They will never let you fall. Our alphas won’t ever hurt you. All that will matter is your pleasure.”

“You don’t know that. You’ve never had a heat,” Locke moans.

I’m silent for a minute, and then I hear my father’s voices. I hear my mother’s tinkling laugh. Everything, I remember everything. How they would sweep everything that was upsetting her out of their lives.

“I know that because that’s how my parents lived. If my mother was distressed, upset, or angry, my fathers would move heaven and Earth to eradicate what was upsetting her. All that mattered was seeing that she was cared for, protected, safe, happy. I know you doubt them, us, it's only been a few days, but, Locke, I know how they feel because I feel it, too, and all of us would set fire to this world if it made you happy.”

Locke, to my surprise and dismay, starts to cry. I hold him in silence, wondering what the fuck is going on in his head and where he’s been. I don’t know why I thought this incredible artist had come from a charmed life, but the stress, the fear, is making me have second thoughts.

Under that confident, charismatic performer, I think a broken and damaged omega has been hiding.

I’m not okay with this. I hold him tighter.

I hold him until the others get home, and Bray takes one look at his puffy eyes and drags him out to the car to show him the mountain of fluffy materials they bought.

He teases and flirts with him, while Shane tilts his chin back, stares into his eyes, and promises that it will all be okay. Erin hands him a burger and wraps herself around him while he eats.

They bring back the calm, happy omega.

They ignore the fragile edges, but they are gentle, sweet, kind. They spend a lot of time with their faces buried in the crook of his shoulder, breathing deep.

The parallels between my family and this pack are too great to ignore, and my heart beats fast. This is something special.

I want to be part of this. I want to be part of it forever.

I glance at Shane and see the same desire in his eyes.

Is it possible? Can we have this? First things first, let’s get through the heat and protect the omega and alphas. After that, I can see if I can talk this short-term pack into staying here in Twin Rivers and becoming a permanent pack.

A family.