Chapter 25

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Liam nudged me."I'm… proud of you, Marko."

"Shut up."

"Seriously,you'rekeeping it together. Consider me impressed."

"Shut up, Liam,"I warned him once more.

He laughed and headed towards the stairs.

My fingers tapped across my knee. I changed into sweatpants earlier after dinner whenall of usseemed to go our separate ways for the evening.

While I got comfortable, Calwas trying to convinceElla to watch a movie with him.

Our omega.

I shook my head out of the thought even though it circled around and around my head.

Ella was oursandshe was frightened. I would make sure she was safe.Protected.

Iwouldn'tlet anything or anyone hurt her ever again.

My body vibrated with the need to move. I needed to do something.

Standing up, I opened the door and headed down towards the basement.We set up the home fitness room down therenot long after we all movedin.Liam insisted after his time in boarding school that he was officially disgusted by sweaty public gyms that smelled like feet or some shit.

Immediately, no matter how much I disliked cardio, I jumped on the treadmill.

I started at a jog before picking up the pace, hitting the buttons to go faster, harder. Musicpumped through the built-in speakers.

I shut my eyes, feeling every pound of my feet against the runway. Sweat peaked and trailed down the side of my face and along the loose strands of my hair thathadn'tbeen swept back.

Maybe I should finally get a real haircut. Chop it short like I used to keep it out of the way, though I could imagine what would happen if Ididn't.

I could almost feelthe sensation ofwhatElla'sdainty fingers would feel like trailing through it when she looked at me with nothing butunderstandingas if she could see what I saw.

Me andher,we were a little bit the same.And under all that fear, maybe there wasevenhope that the two of us together…

I shook myself out of the thought.

A new heart rushed through my body, at least more pleasurable thanthat ofmy running as I kept pace. Ididn'tplan on stopping until I was exhausted and my muscles ached.IfI went to worktomorrowI would be useless, but itdidn'tmatter.

Once I was done here, a lot more decisions needed to be made. And soon.

Though Demetrimight'vethought he had all the time in the world and was our alpha head with a duty to keep us together– I sure as hellwasn"tgoing to be so stubborn as to let Ella walk away and tear us apart.

So long as she would have us.

Movement caught my eye in the mirrors. A gasp sounded by the stairs.

I hit the emergency stop on the treadmill and turned around to face who it was.

"I'msorry. Ihadn'tbeen down here yet.The door was proppedopen."Ella cut herself off in explanation as her eyes skimmed down my frame.

It was good to knowfor surethat Iwasn'tthe only one out of the two of uswho wasaffected by the other.

All I wanted now was to walk across the room, slide her down to the mats, and see if she tasted as good as she smelled right now assheshifted from one leg to the other, trying to hide her desire that was plain as day when she looked at me.

The corner of my lips curled at the thoughts ofall the thingsI could do to her.Ifshe let us keep her.The matter was already decidedin my head, butshe—she had the final say.

But today wasn't the day that was going to happen officially and I wasn't as stupid as some of the others to recognize that it was going to take the little omega time.

Especially right now when itwasn'tonly desire that lingered in her expression. In the way, she stood and held herself as if preparing to bolt at any second.

"I can go," she added.

"No." I stepped forward.

No. Therewasn'tjust desire inher,or curiosity of what we could get up to down hereallalone this time.

Our omega was restless.