Library

Chapter Twenty-Seven

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

NOW PLAYING: I Will Remember You- Ed Sheeran; need to be- mehro

Grief is an everlasting shadow always lingering in the back of your mind. Threatening to bring you to ruin. It’s been seven years and still, my sister’s memory haunts me. I can’t help but wonder–in moments like this where I’m surrounded by laughter, friendship, and love–what her life would’ve been like.

Would she have found a pack of her own to care for her? Or would she travel the world exploring forgotten places like she always dreamed of? Would she be proud of me? Of my pack?

Everyone faces loss and those ‘what ifs’ differently. Me? I push myself into my music, my quest for justice, and protecting my pack. My parents, however, spend their days running from Elizabeth’s memories as if she’s a ghost haunting their every waking moment in this world.

I think that’s always what cuts the deepest. I didn’t just lose my sister when she died, I lost them too. Their grief was too strong for them to stick around to care for their remaining child. I was recently presented and enrolled to start at the Alpha Academy a few weeks after her death. So they waited and as soon as I was gone they left too and they haven’t been back since. At first, I’d get the occasional postcard or phone call, but those stopped after I told them I’d met Nexus. I had mates to care for me so they no longer had to bother to pretend to care.

“Sing us a song!” Someone shouts from around our beachside bonfire bringing me back to the present. I shake my head to clear the melancholy feelings away and pick up my guitar. I already know what I’m going to sing. A song I will never put on an album–Elizabeth’s song.

Farewells nonexistent

Hello forever lost

Your pain became an anchor

Living no longer worth the cost

And now you’re gone

These scars on my heart

Remind me of you

The whisper of your name

The hint of your scent

I will never stop bleeding for you

The words flow from my lips. The chords from my fingers. My grief given a voice and released into the world. The song draws to an end and my eyes blink open to teary-eyed stares and whispers of awe. Caleb must sense my discomfort because he swoops in with his own guitar playing a much livelier melody.

I sit with the group for a few minutes longer, fighting back the tears still threatening to pour down my face. When I start to lose the battle, I push to my feet and head down the beach. A walk along the dark shore will help to calm the sorrow crashing inside me.

I only get a few yards away when I hear footsteps behind me. Pausing, I glance over my shoulder expecting to find Cal hurrying after me. I’m surprised to see Omen shifting across the sand instead. She catches up quickly. Not speaking or questioning why I left, she seems content to walk along beside me in silence.

Feeling brave, I slip my hand into hers, gripping her fingers tightly in silent appreciation. When she squeezes back, I’m reminded of how perfectly she fits into our pack. She understands us on a baser level, a way that speaks of the connection building between us. The pull we’ve felt since meeting her at Soulbound Echo’s office has only grown stronger over the past four weeks.

Music may have brought her to us, but Fate certainly played a hand in ensuring Omen found her way to us.

When we’ve walked far enough, the fire is a speck on the horizon, I sit down in the sand. Far enough away from the shore to avoid the night tide. Omen crosses her legs and plops down beside me. Her arms in the sand behind her, and her face tilted toward the starry sky. She’s close enough I can feel the heat of her skin and taste a hint of her scent in the air. She smells like sunshine and flowers with a touch of something spicier, muskier.

I’m fucking obsessed with her scent.

Crawling into bed after our show the other night and smelling her on our sheets was maddening. I wanted to be the one who had given her pleasure, but I know how much it means to Nexus that she allowed him to be the first of us to get close. He’s still apprehensive she will believe his anxiety makes him unworthy of being her alpha. Despite us reassuring him otherwise as often as we can. Only this beautiful omega will be able to show him how worthy he is. Something she is already unintentionally doing.

I’m all in with Omen. Even knowing we have another Fated mate out in the world, an omega, I wouldn’t be able to walk away from her now. She’s meant to be ours, I’m sure of it.

A part of me wonders if maybe she is the omega at the other end of our connection. If she wanted a chance to explore the world and her career before settling down with a pack. But I brush those thoughts aside. She’s shown clear interest in us, so I doubt she’s waiting for her Fate matched mates.

We sit in silence for several long moments before she finally speaks. “Your song was beautiful.” She doesn't ask why we haven’t put it on an album or released it as a single. Nor does she ask who the lyrics were about. She just compliments the music and enjoys the peace of the quiet night.

I feel the compulsion to tell her more. To share Elizabeth with her in a way only my packmates have gotten to hear. Another sign this omega is meant to be mine.

“I wrote it for my sister.” She turns her head to face me when I start to speak. Her attention fully on me. It’s thrilling to be the center of her world, even for a few moments. “She was three years older than me. An omega.”

I take a few seconds to work up the courage to tell her the rest. It always hurts to talk about what led to Elizabeth’s death. “She was in her first semester of university when she met her Fate matched mate only to be immediately rejected. It was horrible. Watching her deteriorate over the next six months was the most difficult thing I’ve ever experienced.”

My pain is a living creature clawing at my insides as I remember the faraway look always in Elizabeth’s eyes. The lifeless way she moved around the house and her nest.

Sensing my distress, Omen quickly climbs into my lap. Her legs wrap around my back and her arms hold me against her. The softest, kittenish purr rattles to life in her chest. I melt against her. Accepting the comfort she’s wordlessly offering.

“She took her own life a month before I started at the Alpha Academy.” I choke back a sob as the words leave my mouth, but Omen isn’t having it. She rubs up and down my spine whispering quiet words of support and empathy.

The tears come quickly but thankfully don’t last long. It’s cathartic, releasing some of the pain I always carry with me. “Sorry,” I mutter. I scrub my cheeks with my hands, blowing out a long breath before finally facing Omen once more.

“Don’t apologize. Even alphas are allowed to cry.” I nod absently against the top of her head. “Will you tell me about her? Your sister?”

So I do. I tell her all about the wild adventurer Elizabeth was. Constantly climbing trees and finding little hidey holes in the woods behind our house. She would pretend they were vast caves for us to explore. “She was so carefree. Always doing dangerous things and scaring our parents. The library story is probably my favorite though.”

The sky is just starting to grow dark enough for the streetlights around our local library to kick on. Elizabeth and I are waiting outside by the bike rack while our mom finishes checking out inside. Usually, we stay with her, but my sister was too restless to wait in line.

“Wanna see something cool?”

I turn to look where she is standing closer to the wall. The rough red brick exterior of the building has these weird arches all across the front on this side. I consider what she might have to show me, knowing it could get us both in trouble.

“Sure, what is it?”

My eyes widen as she balances her feet on one side of the wall and uses her hands to walk her way up the wall between the two sides of the arch.

“Liz,” I hiss. Worry courses through me as she gets higher. I’m going to be grounded for life if she falls!

“Look, I’m a ninja!”

The library doors open, the sound of our mother's voice carrying across the walkway to where I stand. Gripping the bike railing tight I fight the urge to shout at my sister, not wanting to risk startling her and making her lose her grip.

“Where’s Liz?” Mom asks when she sees me alone.

My mouth is barely open when Elizabeth lets go and drops from her position in the arch. “Boo!”

Mom startles, nearly falling on her butt. My sister laughs, the sound echoing around the building. She’s grinning from ear to ear, a proud look in her eyes. I can’t help but smile and laugh along with her. Sure, we’ll both get an earful for this stunt later, but right now her joy is contagious enough it doesn’t seem to matter.

Omen giggles, her head resting on my shoulder while she listens to me share all of my happiest memories of my sister, and a few sad ones too.

We sit in the sand for a long time. Wrapped around each other and talking. When the sadness my grief brought starts to fade into the background once more, I realize how cold it’s gotten. Omen’s back is covered in goosebumps from the chilly ocean air. I rub my palms up and down to warm her up, ready to lead her back to my pack so we can sit by the fire.

“Thank you,” she whispers. Her lips brush the skin of my neck where she’s tucked against me. A shudder shakes down my body at the faint touch and my length starts to harden beneath her.

“For what?” I grunt. I try to shift subtly so she doesn’t feel my semi, but I know I fail when she perfumes for me.

“Telling me about Elizabeth. She was lucky to have a brother like you to take care of her.”

My heart aches hearing the words, but I’m quickly distracted when Omen grinds her hips down against me. I know it’s a natural reaction to the wave of hormones she’s experiencing so I hold myself back.

“We should head back,” I manage to choke out when she shifts against me again. Her lips brush my shoulder now.

“Probably,” she says, making no move to get up. I’m losing the tight grip I have on my instincts. My inner alpha begging me to grip her hips and slide her along my length until she’s screaming my name for the world to hear.

“Omen, if you don’t get up, things between us are going to escalate quickly,” I warn her. I can feel her smile against my skin when she grinds down much more intentionally than before. Bratty little omega. My hands grasp her waist and pull her harder against me. She gasps, her head falling back as I rock my length against her clit. “You sure you want this, Omega? Because if we don’t walk away now everything will change. You’ll be ours if I get a taste of your pleasure.”

Omen stills. Her icy blue eyes find mine, searching for the truth I know she will see there. When her teeth sink into her bottom lip and she nods, I let my restraint go.

One hand tangles in her messy hair gripping the long strands and angling her head so I can devour her lips. She’s soft and luscious, pliant. I dip my tongue into her mouth, moaning at the hint of her sunshine scent. My tongue piercing clacks against her teeth with the nearly violent way I’m exploring her. A whimper slips from her mouth to mine as she grinds against me fully now. I can smell her perfume in the air and feel her slick leaking from her swimsuit bottoms onto my shorts. It would take nothing at all to slide them both down and slip inside her.

She rips her mouth from mine, panting heavily. Her pupils are blown, her arousal obvious. “Alpha,” she cries when I move her against me faster. The piercing in my tip catches against her with each pass of her hips. “Is that–”

Her question fades to a moan when I lean down and suck her peaked nipple into my mouth through her swimsuit. I huff my disapproval when my mouth fills with the taste of ocean water and push the material down exposing her skin. Leaning back, I take in the sight of her. All lightly tanned skin with dark tattoos. Ample breasts I want to sink my teeth into. My cock throbs with the need to feel her heat wrapped around me.

I focus on helping her reach her own peak, staving off my orgasm for as long as I can. My tongue traces along the wings of the butterfly tattooed across her sternum, down the row of flowers spread beneath her breasts before traveling up to flick across her nipple.

Omen shudders in my arms when I nip at her, keening as her pleasure spirals tighter. Her thighs tense around me telling me she’s close to coming.

“Not yet,” I growl. “Your pleasure is mine, little omega. You’ll come when I tell you.” She whines in protest but listens. “That’s it, Omega, push yourself higher.”

I’m practically rutting against her now, my knot swelling at the base of my cock. She bumps against it with each of my hurried thrusts, drawing pleasured groans from my lips. My balls draw up, my orgasm hanging on the edge of the cliff to euphoria.

“Now, Omega, come for me. Soak my cock in your slick. Let the whole world hear how well you come for your Alpha.” She detonates, a soft scream rips from her throat, and slick pours from her core. My shorts are drenched in her essence, the wet feeling of it setting me off. My cock jerks against her, my release filling the inside of my trunks.

“That’s my good girl,” I murmur as we both come down from our shared bliss.

When I’ve caught my breath, I pull her to her feet, making sure she’s steady on her shaking legs before I guide her into the water to rinse our releases from our skin. As much as I would love to walk back to the fire soaked in her slick, I don’t know how my instincts would react knowing someone outside of our pack could smell her desire.

As clean as we can be, I wrap my arm around her shoulder to lend her my warmth. My lips press a soft kiss to the top of her head reminding her of my promise. Omen is ours now. We may not have bonded her yet, but she now knows we intend to. One day very soon she will proudly wear the bond marks of my pack.

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