My Beta mate and I put our ears to the bathroom door. We cringed each time Clarissa heaved the contents of his stomach into the toilet.“We have to ask Healer to make a house call,” Alicia insisted. “Clarissa can’t walk over to Healer’s cabin and besides, he’s probably at home by now.”I sent Brian a quick text asking where his mate was, his mate being our healer, and explained the situation.He replied, He’s on his way to you.His response had me wondering if I’d made a horrible mistake. Alicia and I’d made a decision about our mate’s health and body without consulting him. Clarissa opened the door and without acknowledging us, stumbled into the bedroom. He cursed when he saw the unmade bed and hurried into the third bedroom, where he pulled the covers over his head.“I don’t need either of you hovering over me. Let me sleep and I’ll be fine in the morning.”Alicia flapped his hands, apparently wanting to do something other than ignoring our snow leopard mate. I closed the door, led
“Which room will be the nursery? This one or the other one. We need wallpaper and a crib and onesies.” Alicia was on a roll. But as he twirled around, he froze and almost fell face-first on the floor. “But what if you can’t stay in Bruin Ridge?” He curled up beside Clarissa and sobbed into our omega’s neck.Clarissa patted his back, saying, “It’ll be okay.” And despite the bed being small, I crawled on the other side and the three of us lay there with our own thoughts.“No matter what happens, you are our mate, forever and ever.” Alicia wasn’t hiding his distress and I handed him a tissue to mop up his tears.This wasn’t right. We should be celebrating new life, not wallowing in self-pity. I got up. “If we make our bed, will you come back into the main bedroom?” I couldn’t bear having Clarissa sleep elsewhere when… when… he may have to leave. Sorrow squeezed around my heart, making it difficult to breathe.“Sure.” Clarissa grabbed a handful of ginger candy.Alicia raced ahead to get t
Clarissa stepped back and twirled around. “These are paternity and they fit me the way they are supposed to fit me.”“And you’re pregnant,” I reminded him. “And you aren’t a human. These books were written for humans. If you were getting bigger than you should be, Healer would’ve told you by now. He doesn’t mince words.”Just as with our former healer, our current one told it like it was—but only to the patient because of human rules or something. I guess human rules around his whole doctor license thing-a-ma-bob had him being less informative to nonpatients than our retired healer had been.“I know. I just—why am I so big?” His bottom lip curled out in the most adorable little pout. I wanted to lean in and nibble on it. Clarissa wasn’t in the mood for that. He wanted assurance and love, both of which I could give.“Because.” I closed the distance between us and kissed his cheek. “You’re growing our young.”The door clicked open and in walked Dante. “Sorry I’m late. I was helping Samu
“Betas.” Julian’s voice came in through our open front window. “Betas, are you home?”I put down the instructions for the surprise I was building for Clarissa. “Hey, Julian. What’s going on?” He was a nice kid and had started to take on an active role in the den, particularly when it came to our rentals.“Beta Dante, Alpha asked me to get you two for a tour.” He put his hands in his front pockets. “So I’m to fetch you.” His head tilted slightly, a habit from his younger years, one many of us still fell into on occasion.“A tour? Why?” We did varied tasks as Betas, but tours generally weren’t one of them.“Alpha said you’d want to do this one.”“I’ll get Alicia and meet you down at the rentals.”“The Alpha house.” Julian looked down. “And I’m to bring you.”Nothing about this was how we typically did things around here, but I chalked that up to Alpha probably being busy. As Alicia and I got closer to Alpha’s, we scented it was more than that.“Alicia,” I said and then inhaled again, ju
I reached for Alicia’s hand. Forget being all formal. He was my mate and wasn’t that a big part of the reason we had this visitor in the first place? Being traditional wasn’t going to do any of us any good.We went through the rest of the den, Waylon asking questions about our agreement with the university and how we got our renters and even about the way we managed the plumbing so far out from what he considered a “city.” He seemed genuinely interested in all of it and more than once, he and Grant got off topic and started to talk history. Nothing about this visit made sense, and yet in a way, it all did.The tour ended where everything began, the rental Clarissa had first booked. Waylon had glanced at our hands multiple times since we joined them, but now he stared at them.“Now these rentals… how far out are they booked?” Waylon directed his question to no one in particular.Aspen answered, and instead of asking a follow up question, Waylon fixed his attention on us.“You love each
“What do you think?” Aspen asked. “Because you are den, vow or no.”“I think we need to add to the plan.” Our omega leaned back in his chair. “Even if we have a bear, this education will be beneficial since they could one day be the parent of a snow leopard if the recessive genes hit just right.”The next hour was spent making a tentative plan, Waylon agreeing to come on a pack run and stay for a few days while we worked out the details. The issue needed to be approved by the council at large, but the way Waylon spoke, this was all but a done deal.TWENTY-THREECLARISSA“Need some help.”Both my mates tore into the bedroom and kneeled on either side of the bed. I’d taken to sleeping some nights in the third bedroom, as the second had been converted to the baby’s nursery. Much as I liked sleeping with my mates, getting me out from the middle of that huge, custom-built bed took a while and with our young sitting on my bladder, I didn’t always have the time.They manhandled me to a sitti
I ate my breakfast slowly, my mates studying each mouthful, and I suspected their minds were churning as to what the scan would reveal and how long it’d take for me to eat my eggs and toast.When I was finally ready to leave, Dante picked up the keys to my car but I protested I didn’t need a ride. “Fresh air is good for me.” I was throwing my mates’ words back at them because for weeks, they’d pestered me to go outside while I’d wanted to stay in bed with my laptop, saying I had to get ahead with work before the baby arrived. And while that was true, eating candy and catching up with my favorite telenovela was another reason.They shared a glance, but they knew they were beaten; I could see it in their eyes.“Fine. We’ll all walk to Healer’s.”I was huffing when we were halfway there, but as I was leaning on Alicia and catching my breath, Grant turned up in my car. “Thought you might like a lift to Healer’s.”I caught Dante’s eye and he shrugged. This was his doing. My mates were look
Even Healer was chuckling. “The T word?” That set everyone laughing even more.“They’re a good weight so we’re done, unless you have any questions.”He handed me paper towels to wipe the gel from my belly but my mates took over and cleaned me up. And when we finally got outside, we linked arms and walked to the car. It had been a good day. I’d gotten over my fears and Healer had confirmed I had three babies inside me.TWENTY-FOURDANTE“I feel bad leaving him.” I set my folded clothing onto the boulder. “What if he needs us?”Our mate was pregnant—very pregnant. Like even the paternity clothing no longer fit him pregnant. But that was the way of things when you were carrying triplets. There was just a whole lotta baby growing inside our mate.Babes.Ours.Home.Now.My bear was being a butt. Or maybe he was just echoing how I felt. In either case, he was right. We should be there with him.But then again, I’d been saying that every perimeter run for the past four weeks. It wasn’t a ne
“Không, nhưng tôi nghĩ tối nay anh ấy sẽ cầu hôn,” Liam nói. “Nó chỉ hợp lý thôi. Hôm qua, tôi tình cờ nghe được cuộc trò chuyện qua điện thoại của anh ấy với ai đó - tôi nghĩ là một nhân viên PR nào đó. Westcliff nói rằng nhà vua sẽ đưa ra thông báo sau vài ngày nữa - ý tôi là về Hoàng tử Haydn. Westcliff cũng muốn thông báo về việc đính hôn của chúng tôi vào khoảng thời gian đó. Nó có ý nghĩa. ”Jules đã nghiên cứu kỹ lưỡng về anh trai mình.Khuôn mặt đáng yêu của Liam rất khó đọc, nhưng đôi mắt của anh ấy không hẳn là ánh lên hạnh phúc.“You don’t have to say yes,” Jules said, feeling painfully uncomfortable. He was so damn torn about the subject he didn’t know what advice to give. He didn’t want Liam to marry an alpha he didn’t love for the sake of their family, but… He was scared that if he told Liam not to marry Westcliff, it would be selfish advice.To make things more confusing, there was a small, horrible part of him that did want Westcliff as the alpha of their family. That
Except even that fantasy wasn’t enough. Thinking about the Xeus just made his broken bond ache. Ache and hurt like an old wound that was starting to bleed again. The pain somehow amplified the desire, and soon Jules was half-sobbing into his pillow, his hips pushing greedily onto the dildo. Need him, need him, can’t need him, need him. Gone, need him, gone. I need—I need—I need. It was fucking horrible. Jules had never felt worse in his life, his muscles trembling, his cock sore, his body oversensitive and needy, and his bond aching.So he tried not to think about his Xeus. He made himself think of other alphas, trying to tell himself that any alpha would do. Any alpha with a thick, hard cock would do. He was desperate enough to almost believe it.He imagined going to a ball, his cock stiff and his slick dribbling down his leg. He imagined alphas turning toward him, their nostrils flaring and their cocks straining their pants. He would be attractive to alphas for once. They would want
Julian flushed. “It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, after…”After sex.Devlin gave a clipped nod, clasping his hands behind his back. His fingers and his jawline itched, as they did when he was on the verge of transforming. Through sheer willpower, he managed to keep his claws in.It was a normal enough reaction, to feel protective of a young omega he cared about.It was.“But the bond took?” he said, his voice very neutral.Julian nodded, not looking at him. “We were naturally compatible.”Devlin’s claws dug into his palm. He turned away and walked to the window.He took a deep breath, staring at Dainiri’s nearly full disk, and then another, until he had his claws under control.“I see,” he heard himself say. “The risk still exists, then. Medical intervention might be needed.”“What do you mean?” Julian said. “More suppressants?”“Increasing the dose again might do more harm than good,” Devlin said stiffly. “I’m hardly a doctor, but even I know that you can’t keep changing yo
Ignoring the question, Devlin studied him carefully. “Do you feel better?”“What?” Julian said, his brows knitting together.Devlin looked at him sharply. “Your brother said you didn’t feel well.”Julian averted his gaze. “Right! Of course. I feel better now. Much better—”“You didn’t want to go with us.”The omega winced, but he didn’t even try to deny it. So it was true.It shouldn’t have bothered him. It really was none of his business.“Why?” Devlin said.Julian shrugged. “It’s not exactly fun being a third wheel.” He still wouldn’t meet Devlin’s eyes.“You’re not telling the truth,” Devlin said, becoming more certain of it the longer Julian avoided looking at him. Stepping into the room, he closed the door behind him.It shut with a click.“What are you doing?” Julian said. “And I’m not lying. You think it’s fun—”“Julian,” Devlin said quietly. “Look at me.”After a moment, the omega finally did as he was told. There was a half-scowl on his face but some other emotion in his eyes
“All ri—” Liam started saying, but Devlin cut him off.“Your brother can’t leave the ball with me,” he said, looking at Julian. “You don’t want any nasty rumors to start flying around, do you?”He could actually hear Julian grind his teeth.“Fine,” he said, still sounding a mix of annoyed and bewildered.The helicopter ride to the Blake house was a strange one. Liam was the only one talking, chattering non-stop about the perfection that was Viscount Nasr while Julian determinedly didn’t look at Devlin.Devlin bored his eyes into him, his fingertips tingling, his claws itching to come out. He curled his hands into fists and breathed shallowly, trying to ignore the way Julian smelled. It was impossible. Julian fucking reeked. He reeked of another alpha. Devlin wanted to fix it, run his hands all over the brat, until he smelled right.It was probably a good thing that Julian was the first to jump out of the helicopter when they arrived, because Devlin didn’t trust himself.Tearing his ga
Julian glared at him, his cheekbones a little pink. “That was a dick move,” he said, glancing back at Nasr, who was left standing in the middle of the dance floor.“He’s much too old for you,” Devlin said, stroking his thumb against Julian’s wrist.“Stop scent-marking me,” Julian gritted out, his color heightening. “And he isn’t too old. He’s half Korf’s age.”“That shouldn’t be your measuring stick,” Devlin said. “I told you I wouldn’t allow your uncle to give you to Korf. You deserve better.”Julian chuckled. “Better? Who?”Devlin’s lips thinned. “Someone better than Nasr.”“There’s nothing wrong with Viscount Nasr. He’s perfectly nice and pleasant, and he actually sees me for being me. I’ve known him forever—he has a neighboring estate. He was always nice to me when I was a child.”“That hardly says good things about him, does it? What a creep.”Julian stomped on his right foot. “You’re being an ass,” he said, his voice a mix of annoyed and bewildered. He blinked a few times. “I do
Their date that day was unexpectedly tedious.Devlin found it difficult to keep his attention on his date, his mood sour and distracted. He was aware that he was acting like a dick, his attitude probably too cold and unapproachable. Liam seemed to have given up on trying to strike up a conversation with him after a few hesitant attempts and focused his attention entirely on the aircar race. When Liam spoke, he spoke only to the beta chaperone who had accompanied them to the race.By the time the race was over, Devlin had a headache once again, his body brimming with tension and anxiety, the source of which he couldn’t pinpoint. He barely had the patience to smile for the paparazzi as they left the track, and his smile was probably very strained. Hopefully he didn’t actually look like he wanted to punch someone.He dropped Liam off, and then he hesitated, looking at the Blake house. It would be only polite to inquire how Julian was feeling.Devlin pulled his phone out of his pocket and
Several weeks passed like that. Westcliff called on Liam and took him out on dates, putting on that disgustingly charming mask he wore in public. More often than not, Jules accompanied them, serving as a chaperone, for appearances’ sake—officially. Unofficially, he kind of… he went because he wanted to be around the duke. It freaked him out that he felt addicted to the way Westcliff made him feel, but he couldn’t help himself. It felt so good, especially when Westcliff allowed him to rub his face against his scent gland—the euphoria was beyond his ability to express properly. Afterward, Jules felt so embarrassed, but thankfully, Westcliff didn’t make fun of him and always acted as if there was nothing weird about his behavior. “Better?” he would say in a quiet murmur, and Jules would flush and nod and look anywhere but at him. Every time he told himself it was the last time, but his resolve melted into a mass of goo the next time he saw the duke. It was horrible. Horribly addictive.
Jules ôm lại anh trai mình, nhưng cảm giác lo lắng, bất an dưới da anh không thể biến mất. Ngược lại với ý muốn của mình, anh thấy mình đang nghĩ đến cảm giác an toàn như thế nào trong vòng tay của Westcliff ngày hôm qua, như thể không gì có thể chạm vào anh hay làm anh bị thương. Có lẽ có Westcliff làm alpha của họ sẽ không phải là một điều tồi tệ. Có lẽ anh nên cho anh ta một cơ hội. *** Quyết tâm của Jules để cho Westcliff một cơ hội kéo dài chính xác cho đến khi Westcliff gọi điện cho họ - trên Liam - vào buổi chiều. Anh không biết điều gì ở người đàn ông này đã khiến anh nổi gai ốc, tự ý thức và chỉ trích thái quá. Đó là một sự kết hợp kỳ lạ giữa các cảm xúc, nhưng anh không thể không nhìn Westcliff bằng ánh mắt dò xét, hoài nghi khi công tước đang nói chuyện nhỏ với Liam và chú Wayne. Thằng khốn thậm chí còn chưa liếc nhìn anh một lần kể từ khi bước vào phòng. Jules khoanh tay trước ngực, sau đó không bắt chéo chúng. Nhặt chiếc máy tính bảng trên chiếc bàn trong góc, anh n