Psycho Alphas: Part Two, page 11
part #2 of An Unhinged Reverse Harem Duet Series
“Well, I think he was right. Just held me instead, let me tell him what I wanted. And then…” Her lip trembled and her next words came out in a rough whisper. “Then he said we could go our whole lives, and I could never want him to fuck me and he’d still…” She trailed off as her voice wobbled. Instead, she lifted Bunny and forced a laugh. “He’d still want to stick around.”
She glanced at me quickly, then back at Bunny.
“Dumb, huh?”
“Fuck.” My head hit the back of my seat.
“What?” she asked, alarmed.
“That was very…” I soured and the word felt as though it were being pried from my mouth. “Principled.”
Her eyes were wide. “Is that, like, a disease?”
I snorted. “Unfortunately not.”
“Okay, but really. I didn’t think it was possible for an Alpha to be there during heat and not… not, you know.”
“No one needs sex. Not even Alphas.”
She straightened. “Don’t say no one. Some people do—like Dan and his pack.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it, sensing danger in the angry edge to her voice. We were in risky territory.
I cleared my throat. “Maybe Dan and his pack were the broken ones.”
“Oh.” She tossed Bunny between her hands, then let out a rough laugh. “Yeah, maybe.” She looked back up at me curiously. “So… if there was no guarantee that you’d have sex with me ever again, you’d still stick around?”
“That’s a trick question.”
“Is not.”
“There is never a guarantee.”
She looked disbelieving. “What about the gun?”
I winced thinking back to our early intimacy. “The gun was… unique.”
“Hm.” She looked back to Bunny, a cute little frown on her face. “Well. I’m not making no promises in return.”
I grinned.
“That doesn’t bother you?” she prodded.
“Not in the slightest.”
Please, goddamn it, chain me up and fuck me again. Best night of my fucking life.
“Does that make me wrong if it… if it bothers me, then?” she asked. “If it doesn’t bother you?”
I considered her, then chuckled. “Unwanted intimacy with Omegas was never a demon of mine.” I hated Bella, but there were a good number of things I feared from that relationship before sex ever made the list.
“Hm… I never thought about it like that…”
She straightened, turning at the creak of my office door.
Honied bourbon soured my mood as Rogue stepped into the room without so much as knocking.
Fuck him. Having him in my space was getting more and more unbearable with every new reveal of his stupid nobility.
“All moved,” he said, eyes flicking to the scattered scrunchies on the desk, and then to Thistle’s still-scruffy hair. If he guessed what that meant, he didn’t let it show.
“Turns out you don’t have a disease,” Thistle declared.
“I don’t… what?” Rogue asked.
I stifled my snort at how affronted he looked, folding his arms and glaring at me like I’d tried to give her that idea.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it,” Thistle said quickly. “Are you turning in?”
“Yeah,” Rogue said, yawning on cue.
“You uh… wanna maybe… crash in my nest?” she asked.
“Wait,” I snapped. “It’s my turn.”
“Turn?” Thistle’s eyes went wide. “Can’t you… can’t you both come?”
“No.” I said it the same moment Rogue did.
I’d crashed his date as a dominance play, not the status-fucking-quo. I wasn’t sharing nest time with that prick.
Never going to happen.
Thistle’s lips were pursed though, and she glanced down at Bunny. “Stupid Alphas,” she muttered.
I didn’t miss the way her scent wilted. Rogue noticed the same, and I met his gaze for a moment. He looked as bitter as I felt.
“Just not… now,” I muttered.
I’d die for her. Bite into a pack with my worst nightmare. But having to share my Omega nest cuddles with Rogue?
“My night. You crashed my date,” Rogue shrugged. “I get another turn.”
“He has a point,” Thistle said, eyeing me.
“Fine. Tomorrow’s mine. But I want one promise out of you.”
“Uh huh?”
“I don’t want you alone with Ace—”
“But he’s mine!” She cut me off, voice shrill, fists closing in my shirt.
I pinched the bridge of my nose at the utter outrage in her tone. “Just for now. I don’t trust him and neither should you.”
“Did you trust me when I first got here?” she demanded.
“Not in the slightest.”
“And you said I was yours.”
I scowled. “You are.”
“But you were allowed to be alone with me.”
“I… You aren’t—”
“What?” She folded her arms. “Not as smart as him?”
“No. Just not… so manipulative.” I couldn’t help but throw a look at Rogue. I knew exactly what was going through his head the moment the words had slipped from my mouth.
Don’t say it.
Don’t. Say. It.
He was grinning. “Well, Kitten. Shall we turn in? I think you’re perfectly manipulative.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up, and she was scrambling from my lap and all but launching into his arms.
He caught her easily, lifting her up by her waist like a doll hovering before him. “Best in the business,” he said.
“Best?” She folded her arms almost comically, an eyebrow raised. “He bought you, didn’t he?” Rogue tossed her over his shoulder and marched them out, making sure to outline everything I hoped he wouldn’t as he left. “Now you have him eating out of your palm, freeing your mate, opening his territory to Ace—and he—” But that was when the door slammed shut behind them, blessedly saving me from the rest of his smug tirade.
EIGHTEEN
KNOX
“I think we should sit down and make an actual plan.” Rogue’s words were as unwelcome as he was. He slouched in the chair opposite my desk. “With Ace and Thistle.”
It was the next day, and I’d stayed up most of the night, wishing it was me in her nest.
I shut my laptop, not wanting the email screen reminding me of how much he might be right. No sign of Bella yet, but my contact, Doyle, had already heard the first rumour in the Ring’s circles that I was a traitor. If that was getting around, the danger wasn’t far behind.
“What makes you say that?” I asked.
Rogue unlocked his phone and turned it to me.
On the screen, I could see one of the outdoor security feeds, cropped down to the relevant area. Thistle was clinging to the pipes on the side of the mansion, Bunny in her mouth as she reached out with her leg to hook her limbs over the balcony railing.
Ah, fuck. “I assume that’s his room?”
“Bingo.”
“Is there a reason you’re here instead of running about beneath her with a trampoline?”
I thought I already knew the answer as Rogue snorted. “It was twenty minutes ago. But I did make sure there was no broken Omega in the bushes.”
I rested my head against the back of my chair, blowing out a sigh.
Dammit.
“So,” Rogue mused. “This went about as well as it did last time.”
“What?”
“Banning her from her mate.” Rogue chuckled. “We do need to get ahead of this, though, and as much as I don’t want to admit it, that probably means getting him on board.”
“I will not stoop that low.”
Rogue shrugged. “Well then, I just look forward to watching Ace wipe the floor with you.”
“He won’t.”
Rogue chuckled. “You’re delusional.”
“This is my fucking territory. I’ve been deconstructing the Ring for years. He’s useless.”
“Yeh. I wouldn’t bet on it. In case you hadn’t noticed, he’s already adjusted the security schedule to double the watch on her end of the house, ordered a thousand dollars of takeout on your credit card, and broken the feed to his new room.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it.
No, he hadn’t.
He didn’t even have a phone.
I opened the feed to see Ace sleeping in the large bed.
I frowned, watching the edge of the screen carefully until I saw what I was looking for.
“Damn.”
It was looping.
I tried to reset the cameras and the screen flickered off. When it reloaded at last, the black screen remained, but upon it flickered a blood red middle finger and a rose, the image a haphazard painting across the screen.
“How does he know how to do that?”
Rogue shrugged. “No idea. Took me ages to get back in after you kicked me off it all.”
“He’s not even supposed to have a phone.”
I was already opening up my finances, though, and sure enough I could see the obscene charge to my card from a delivery service.
Goddammit.
THISTLE
I tucked Bunny under my arm and clamped a hand over my mouth to stop my heaving breaths from giving me away as I stood at the cracked balcony door.
He’d picked a room with a balcony! That was as good as an invitation as far as I was concerned.
Or he liked the breeze…
Nope—definitely an invitation.
Rogue had cuddled me late into the morning in my nest, and then he’d tried to set up a planning meeting. But we couldn’t make any plans if Ace wasn’t there or I’d have brought him back for nothing.
I dared to peer around the door to get a better look, inhaling the cool scent of a fresh lightning storm.
The room inside was spacious, with a broad four-poster bed, massive curtains, which were cracked open, and a couch facing a wall-mounted TV. It looked a lot like Knox’s room.
Ace was seated up against his headboard, a bunch of takeout boxes littering his room, and a pile of cushions with an old laptop on his lap.
Honestly, I’d hoped he’d been asleep so I could sneak in and curl up next to him. Knox had banned me from seeing him alone, but that was out of his jurisdiction.
Ace was mine.
And right now he was wearing that muzzle and collar I’d seen him in downstairs. I had to squeeze my thighs together as I stared.
Gift. Wrapped.
I slipped into the room and quietly padded over.
The laptop illuminated his pretty features, and his blue eyes zoomed back and forth across the screen.
Okay.
Obviously, he was just so engrossed in what he was doing that he hadn’t heard.
But when I edged up to the side of his bed, he finally paused, eyes closing as he took a deep breath.
“What do you want, Omega?” he asked, voice quiet.
I found comfort in the way he spoke to me, the title etched into old memories even if they often came with coldness.
I ran my tongue along my teeth, wringing my fingers and weighing my options.
I hadn’t had anything familiar in a long time. So much of what I was being offered was good, but I couldn’t shake the idea that the ground might crumble beneath me.
Ace, still being all he had ever been—even now—made me feel safe in a way I couldn’t put my finger on.
Instead of answering, I clambered onto the bed and shuffled up to him, knocking the boxes of takeout out of my way.
“I want cuddles,” I said, forcing my voice steady.
He might be familiar, but this dynamic wasn’t. I was supposed to be able to ask him for things now, and he should do them. He was mine, not the other way around.
He didn’t move, though. Didn’t even look at me.
I glanced down at Bunny.
Uh… what do we do now?
I slowly tugged up the bedsheet and shimmied in.
Well… he hasn’t tossed us out yet, so that’s a start.
I nudged his arm with my head, peering at his screen.
“Bunny?” I asked.
His jaw ticked. “What did I tell you?”
“Not to call you that.”
His silence was answer enough.
I pouted.
Well, he was Bunny. Couldn’t change that.
Dummy.
“So uh… what are you doing?” I prodded.
He shut the laptop, rolling his eyes.
“What do you want?” he asked again.
I took the opportunity to shove the laptop away, replacing it with myself, knees on either side of his thighs as I peered up at him. “Are you settling in?” I asked, daring to place my hands on his chest. Still, he didn’t protest. “I could help, if you needed… anything?”
It didn’t smell much like him in here, which seemed wrong. I reached for a pillow and drew it along my jaw, leaving my frosted moonflower scent in the room.
My gaze flicked back up to him nervously. He was watching me so intently, but he didn’t protest.
That was… good, I thought. Right?
He wasn’t the type who was gonna ask, but if he wasn’t tossing me out on my ass, then that meant he was definitely into it.
At least, so I thought. His pupils had dilated just a little, following the pillow as I set it back down beside him.
I struggled to stifle my smile, but instead a strangled chirp escaped my chest. He cocked his head, examining me closer, but I swear his pupils were even wider.
Oh, he wants it, Bunny.
He wants us in here.
In his room.
He’d never let me scent mark anything in his territory before.
What did it mean?
I gently pressed my hand back to his bare chest, feeling that unfamiliar elation at how his skin felt against mine. He caught my wrists, though, lifting them and forcing my weight back.
I tried to fight the pout, but I don’t think I did a very good job.
“Aren’t you disobeying Knox?” he asked dryly.
Oh damn.
Had Knox told him I was banned?
Of course he had, the territorial fuck. But that was good. They were fighting over me.
My eyes darted to the door, then back to him. “You’re mine,” I muttered. “He has no right.”
“Not even if he’s worried about what I might do if we’re alone?”
I narrowed my eyes, peering up at him. He was so still, fingers still curled around my wrists as if expecting me to try and shift closer again. He’d always been hard to read. I considered myself pretty good at it, but right now the bond was shut and I wasn’t sure at all what that cold look in his eyes meant. “What are you gonna do that you haven’t already done?” I asked.
“I would guess that what I’ve already done is exactly what he is concerned about.”
I felt a little smile tug at my lips. “Yeh,” I scoffed. “But he thinks you broke me.”
I mean, sure, Ace hadn’t put me back together all that well, but all he’d done was step on the shards of an already broken vase.
He’d found me like that.
“What did I do then, Omega?” he asked, and I thought there was a true curiosity in his eyes this time.
I thought about that.
Ace hadn’t helped me get fixed—not like I knew Knox and Rogue wanted to, but he had always been better than the before.
“You claimed me,” I whispered, and my jaw clenched as the truth of what he’d done came barreling in. “I just…” I didn’t quite manage to stifle the angry little growl that rose in my chest at the thought of it. “I finished the job when you wouldn’t.”
There was a strange silence between us as he watched me with far more interest than I remembered. Or I thought so, anyway.
I glanced down at Bunny, who was resting on his chest between us.
I hated it when he went all quiet.
“You never had to take me from Dan’s pack.” My voice was tight. “But you did. You weren’t ever going to let me go, but then… then you didn’t want me.”
I felt a strange, clawing desperation that I needed to make him get it: it never had to be like this.
“You… you weren’t, were you?” I pushed, my voice wobbling.
“Weren’t what?”
“Going to let me go.”
He rested his head back on the headboard, holding my gaze as he finally released my wrists. “Never.”
I felt a surge of relief from that single word, and I wasn’t even sure why. I was just so full of second guesses, and the rage he’d felt when he’d finally surfaced… but I needed him to know I hadn’t had a choice.
Not really.
He’d taken that from me.
“So,” he mused, “if you thought I might let you go, you wouldn’t have gone through with this mess?”
My lips parted in shock, my fist balling against his chest. “I would, too.” How dare he. “But if you’d bonded me proper I’d have never had the chance.”
His low, involuntary bark of a laugh caught me so off guard I flinched back.
It was rare as diamonds, seeing him laugh.
For a moment he looked poised to reach after me, as if he wanted me close after all, but then the door creaked and I spun on his lap.
Ohhhh shit.
Knox was standing in the doorway, peering in, eyes narrowed before he caught a glimpse of us.
“Uh…” I scooped Bunny up.
We’re in trouble.
I scrambled from Ace’s lap in an instant and hurried across the room, drawing up before him.
“What do you think you’re doing, Doll?” he asked, caramel eyes boring into my soul.
“Sorry, Daddy,” I muttered.
He raised his eyebrows.
“But you can’t ban me from seeing him,” I whined.
He sighed. “I’m not banning you and you are fully aware of that.”
I rolled my eyes. Alphas and their stupid brass taxes. If I couldn’t see him alone it was the same difference.
“If you insist on putting yourself at risk, I’ll have no choice but to punish you.”
“I’m not at risk,” I sighed dramatically. “He’s just a big softie, really.”
“No.” Knox snorted, gaze flicking back to Ace. “No, he really isn’t.”
