No Reservations, Part One by Viola Grace
Chapter Eight
She had texted Argus and the guys when she left, and to her shock, they all answered back. They were going to be with her every mile, and now that she had physically left the building, they could text her at will.
Her toys, clothes, scent items, and shoes were all in the small suitcase. She was sitting next to Margot, answering texts and keeping her phone on the charging pack. This day, she didn’t want to be out of communication.
One of the guys would check in every hour, and she answered, getting nervous as the signs indicated that they were nearing their location. She swallowed and rubbed her hands on her thighs.
Margot smiled. “You have gone from a peach jelly to peach nectar to peach bellini for a moment. Now you are just plain peach.”
“At least I haven’t gone lemon or apple.”
She bit her lip and watched the buildings go by. There was a ping, and she found a cross street to text them about.
She read the next text with a hitch in her breathing, You are five minutes away, kitten.
She wanted to lean over and hyperventilate, but Margot rubbed her back. “Easy, Olivia. Things will be fine. Your guys are solid and haven’t wavered once. They learned what happened to you, and it didn’t matter. Your past is in the past, but your future is theirs. That is what matters. You are going to make a future, Olivia. Today is the day you start.”
She smiled at that. The past was the past. She would leave things there. Her future was four minutes away.
She looked at the house. It was pretty big. It looked deep, too. Georgian style. Three stories.
Olly held her breath as the SUV she was in pulled in through the tree-lined drive. The door to the house opened, and her guys stood there, watching the vehicle come to a halt. She shivered as Margot got out and went to speak to them, she handed them a clipboard, and they signed for her like she was a delivery.
Olly waited, and the driver came around and got her luggage, bringing it to Dexter, who put it inside the house. He opened the door for Olly next, and she stepped out nervously and then slowly walked toward Ambrose. She walked up to him and bowed her neck. “Alpha, I put myself into your care.”
He caressed her cheek, and she looked up. “I accept the joy of your keeping.”
The kiss was a surprise, but her body sang at the contact.
When Ambrose released her, she turned to Dexter. He straightened as if it was a serious business. “Alpha, I put myself into your care.”
Dexter nuzzled her cheek. “I accept the joy of your keeping.”
She licked her lips and went to Argus. She did the same as for the others. “Alpha, I put myself into your care.”
Argus gripped her arms. “I accept the joy of your keeping.”
She blinked as she was pressed against him. He pressed his lips to hers savagely until she opened her lips and whined in distress. He slowed, gentled, flicked his tongue into her mouth, and stroked her back.
She settled against him, and his tongue flicked and teased with hers until she responded. Short jolts of lightning started to rip through her. Olly slid her hands up his chest and gripped his shoulders as the exchange and slide of tongues made her hotter and hotter. Slick emerged when he started to purr. The small hot wave made her blush, but suddenly, other hands were at her back, smoothing down her hips, and mouths were at her neck, licking and sucking.
Purring surrounded her in a wall, and she caught her scent swirling wild and hot while they touched her. Perfume. In an omega, it was perfume. She had to remember this stuff.
The purring rattled through all her lonely places and told her that she wasn’t alone anymore. Her channel started to flex with her excitement, and her clit throbbed. She clutched at Argus as her orgasm hit from being surrounded by her pride. Hers. Tears started to streak down her cheeks. She slowed and softened the kiss, pulling away and resting her head against his chest while she took Ambrose’s and Dexter’s hands.
“Kitten, why are you crying?”
Margot spoke from the sidewalk. “She has worked very hard to be here, and it was stressful. None of us could offer her comfort, so she has had to soothe herself for the last five weeks, knowing that you would if you could. So, now take her to her nest, help her get comfortable, and when she has rested from the drive, you can check on her progress with you.”
Olly looked at her assigned officer and smiled. “Thank you for getting me this far, Margot.”
“It’s my job, and in your case, my pleasure. We will be checking in on her over the next year to make sure she is well and to smooth over any issues that arise.” Margot said, “Call me if you need me, Olivia.”
In a minute, the vehicle was gone, and they were alone.
Olivia looked up at Argus, and his smile had a glittering gleam in his eyes. “Do you want to see your nest, kitten?”
She looked at Dexter and then the very intense Ambrose and nodded. “I need to know where it’s safe.”
That word acted on them like a bucket of water. They went from predators to caretakers in an instant. Dexter smiled. “I will show you, Olivia.”
She was pretty sure he was younger than she was, but he was serious, and he wove his fingers with hers as he tugged her away from the other two.
Once inside the building, he didn’t let her look around all the warm wood and stone; he coaxed her up the steps and down the hall. “We have a few smaller nests around the house that are big enough for you and the boys. To let one of us in, you have to kick them out or move around, so you are lying on top of us.” He chuckled. “We tried a few combinations to see what would work.”
“Wow. That seems like a lot of effort.”
Dexter squeezed her hand. “We want you to be safe, happy, and comfortable. After that happens, we can work on what else you want to be.”
Olivia smiled. “That is very thoughtful.”
“Thanks. We are trying not to freak you out, and we know you don’t have a lot of tactile experience, so we will start with the nest, and you can come out and find us when you are ready.” Dexter’s cheeks warmed. “Have you given any thought to which one of us you want first?”
“Argus. I think he will let me learn, Ambrose will want to teach, and you will get really enthusiastic, and I don’t want to freeze up on any of you.”
Dexter chuckled. “I can be last. I am good with that.”
“No, you’re second after Argus. Ambrose has patience. He can wait.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her softly. “You have thought this through.”
“It has taken up a fair bit of my focus.” She licked softly at his mouth, and their kiss deepened.
Her senses were filled with pumpkin spice, and she moved her head against his as she crowded close to him, her hands flat on his chest.
He groaned, and they stood there for minutes, slowly kissing, and she got a hit of her perfume wrapping around him. His eyes were narrow, his pupils wide, turning the dark blue nearly black.
She shivered, and she could feel her body responding like an omega’s was supposed to do. She swallowed and asked hoarsely, “The nest?”
He grinned. “Right. You need a safe space.”
He took her to the room with an antiqued bronze handle; the others all had worn silver. She walked into fairy land.
A soft light had a slider on the wall. The closet was easy to move around in and would double as a sleeping space if she felt overwhelmed. There was even a bedroll and bolster pillow in the corner. The clothing was all very pretty but practical in one section. Elegant, graceful, and silky in another section, and then there were the playtime outfits. She blushed. There was a tower with different styles of shoes and a bureau with nothing but lingerie. Workout clothing was in a separate section. No jeans anywhere.
She frowned. “I am going to need jeans and t-shirts.”
Dexter smiled. “They are in here.”
She blinked and walked to the wall, feeling nothing until she pressed a panel, and it popped out, a selection of jeans and tees neatly arranged. The sneakers were at the bottom of the hidden cupboard.
He whispered, “Ambrose doesn’t like them, but we explained that if you accompany him or Argus to a jobsite, you might need to wear something more practical with steel toes.”
She was crouching and saw something behind the shoes. It was a hardhat with the word, Kitten emblazoned on it. “Oh boy.”
He chuckled. “I work from home, so I might need you to come and model something for me so I can make sure I get the scale right.”
“Um, I don’t know what you do.”
“I design jewellery for my parents’ company, Ambrose is a residential and commercial architect, and Argus is a contractor.” He smiled and helped her to her feet. They closed the jeans cupboard, and he led her out of the closet.
“Ambrose and Argus met eight years ago at a jobsite. They had a helluva fight and decided to start a pride that day. I met Ambrose four years ago when he came into my family’s jewellery store to buy something nice for his mom. He knew what I was, so we met for coffee with Argus a few times, and I moved in a year later. My parents think I am having a relationship with Argus because he is so pretty.”
She chuckled. “He is. But he is also nice and intelligent, and I like his personality. And his scent. It makes me want to curl up against him.”
He led her to the bathroom, and she blinked at the size of the tub. “That’s huge.”
“Just in case, Olivia. We tried to plan for any eventuality.”
They left the bathroom, and she looked at the curtained area, drawing the curtain back. A nest full of pillows was there, and the scents of her guys were all around it. She reached down, kicked off her shoes, and dove into the pile, rolling and murmuring as she twisted and rubbed herself in scents and softness. She made a pile, and Dexter pulled the drape closed, leaving her in softly illuminated darkness.
She rolled around in the pillows, and when she heard the soft click of the door, she shucked out of her clothing and rolled around a bit before settling in a space where she was surrounded on all sides by the scents of her pride. She hugged the pillows to her, and she slept.
* * * *
Argus got an alert from his phone that she had settled and motion ceased. He growled at the image of her silky limbs wrapped around the pillow with her hair loose and flowing down her back. She wasn’t sobbing or fidgeting, so he would remove the camera that he had mounted in her nest.
Ambrose asked, “How is she?”
“Asleep. She’s smiling, so she can’t be too stressed.” Argus sighed in relief.
“How long are you going to leave the camera there?” Dexter scowled. He had been against the break in privacy.
“Until she is bonded to at least one of us, and we don’t need to guess if she is upset.”
Ambrose raised his brows. “You still want her to choose when the binding happens?”
“Yeah. She hasn’t had much choice in the rest of it, so choosing when is her prerogative. Of course, we still get to choose where.”
Dexter grinned. He had his spot picked, and it wasn’t traditional, but it would look good at some of the parties they had to attend. Ambrose was taking the back of the neck, Argus was biting her wrist, and Dexter was getting the inner curve of her hip where her waist was narrowest. He fucking loved that curve.
Dexter rocked on his feet. “What do we do now?”
Argus chuckled. “We wait. But we can make brunch for her. She’s going to be hungry when she gets up, and if not, we want her to keep her strength up.”
They got to work.
