Good Girl by Sam Hall

Chapter 21

“Brendan and I, we knew each other since we were kids. Same school, similar neighbourhood. I lived over on the shitty side of the school district, where he was on the nice side. We were these lonely little kids in a big fucking zoo of a school, and we found each other,” Rhys said.

When he looked over to the other side of the couch, there was something so fucking naked about his face, I wanted to string out the moment so that James had time to record it. I’d pay his fee myself, if I could have a drawing of that to hang on the wall, preserving it forever. Brendan saw it too, reaching out across the back of the couch, their fingers gripping each other’s.

“He was my best friend, my shadow. I didn’t come from alpha parents, but people were assuming I would present as one from an early age. I was bigger, taller, heavier than most.”

“I figured he’d protect me from the bullies,” Brendan said, “so I was glued to his side. Then when I got there, I found I liked it. It took a long time for us to act on it, but… I knew his scent better than my own, could tell you at every point it began to deepen, grow more complex. I was so fucking sure I was his omega. We kissed a bit when we became teenagers, fooled around, but nothing serious. We had to wait until we were revealed. Even my parents thought I’d come out an omega, though god knows where that would have come from. Everyone was reassuringly beta in my family.”

His eyes dropped, following the way his fingers traced the lines on his lover’s palm.

“And then I went to bed a kid and woke up an alpha. I fucking cried. Dad was so proud. Pretty sure he thought I was gonna represent the country in rugby or some shit, but I just bawled like a baby, and Dad just stood there, not knowing what to do.” When he looked up again, his curiously coloured eyes met Rhys’.

I knew they loved each other, saw that in their bond, but right fucking now, Brendan’s expression was a love letter to Rhys, and the big alpha was sending one right back. I went to pull away, feeling like I was intruding, but with the sixth sense of an alpha, their hands shot out, keeping me where I was, between them.

“It was Mum, bless her, who came up with the answer. No silly social conventions or expectations about alphas and omegas were going to stop her baby from having his heart’s desire.” Brendan smiled, but when I reached out, touching his cheek, I felt the wet slide of a single tear. “Rhys was standoffish at first.”

“Protective. The omegas started throwing themselves at you like fucking confetti. Those bastards and bitches were out for what was mine, but that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.” His hand tightened around Brendan’s, pulling me close, making me want to get out of the way, but Rhys wasn’t having that. I was tucked up on his lap, held tight as Brendan kissed him with everything he had.

“Are you getting this?” My voice contained some real command for the first time in my life, causing James’ eyebrow to jerk up. “This needs to be recorded. I’ll pay for it, if that’s what it takes. Record it.”

But they pulled away.

“You were always mine, omega, alpha, beta,” Rhys rasped out. “No one or nobody was going to take that away.” His eyes dropped, some of what had been put on display fading away. “We got into a shit load of fights as a result. Betas trying to fuck with us, omegas trying to get between us, even teachers lecturing us on the ‘right way’ to do things. Don’t throw away your future,” he said with a sneer. “This path is a long and hard one. Alphas can’t pair bond.”

“Fuck off they can’t.” Brendan launched himself at Rhys, kissing him with a hunger that wouldn’t be held back. I watched every single brutal shift of their lips, squirming on Rhys’ lap, somehow knowing what was coming. “I fucking love you, with everything I’ve got. With my—”

“I know.” Rhys grabbed the back of Brendan’s head, pressing their foreheads together before kissing him softly. “I’ve always known, because that’s what’s in me too.”

I felt like I was in the presence of something sacred, the heavy, dense, but beautiful air of a church in the room right now. I probably should have scurried over to Orion, let them have their moment, but damn did it tear my heart in two when they just drew me closer. Because when they turned to me, all that fucking love was in their eyes, not masked by lust or need or anything, just shining there, pure as gold.

There was something a little tentative as they extended this to me, this precious thing. I was invited into what they had, no matter what my final decision would be, and my eyes pricked with tears as a result. I blinked furiously, not wanting my vision to blur for a second. It was the harsh scratch of James’ pencil that dragged me back into the room, my head turning, something angry and protective flaring hard. He just met my gaze, his brows creasing slightly as he looked at us like we had two heads or something.

“Stand down, omega. You keep those claws for us,” Brendan said, then grabbed my clenched hand and kissed every knuckle until they released. “We’re big enough and bad enough to take on anyone who fucks with us.”

“With anyone who fucks with you,” Rhys promised.

And then I collapsed down into the space between them, blindly questing for more pressure, more of their scents, more of them. They meshed in my nose, Brendan’s woody scent and Rhys’ wilder minty one, until they became something else altogether. Which made a strange vibrating sound erupt from me.

My eyes flicked open to see the two of them staring down at me with a combined stare so hot and sweet, I felt sweat prickle across my skin.

“Omega…” Rhys said, stroking his hand down my cheek, and I buried my face in it, needing something, anything to protect me from what I was feeling.

Rhys said omegas were love and we were, forever doomed to feel so intensely in a world that didn’t. Betas were all so bloody moderate, and alphas… I looked at the two of them, not seeing their designation, just a massive pool of emotion I wanted to dive into.

“Alpha…” For once, the word didn’t come out as a whine, but a real ragged plea. One they heard, acknowledged, and answered.

“We’ve got you, omega,” Rhys said, something they’d said over and over, but I was only just starting to understand what that meant. They pulled me into the gap between them, filling it completely until we were welded together, one entity. “We always will.”

Brendan’s fingers were much more tentative as they traced the back of my damn collar, the stupid piece of jewellery they insisted I kept wearing to stop stray fangs from burying themselves into my neck. It was either that or this thick studded leather thing Marcus had brought downstairs with him. I felt the clasp move, the pearls separating as his fingertips stroked what he could of my skin. I shifted slowly, not wanting to dislodge his hand but needing to see his face.

“When you’re ready, if you decide… I’ve mated every single one of them, wear their marks proudly, and I can tell you, you won’t regret it. Even though Marcus is a fuck and Orion is too repressed to get over here, even when he’s dying to do so.”

“Fuck you,” Orion ground out. “You were having a moment. A heart-wrenching, beautiful fucking moment, and I didn’t want to mess with that.”

“You can’t mess with it,” Brendan said, leaning back and holding out his arm to the other man. “You’re as much a part of this as we are. You came to us later, but…” He faced down James, reminding me where we were and what was happening, a neat pile of drawings beside the artist, his gaze completely intent on us. “We fought a lot with everyone to prove we were meant to be together. So together, we were sent to a camp for alpha teenagers with anger issues. And that’s where we found Orion.”

“You want to do this?” Orion frowned, studying the three of us. “He’s feeding off this, planning on his sell-out show made with our stories. You want to put this out into the world?”

“I’m not ashamed,” Brendan replied. “I’m not like you—I don’t have a place in the great and glorious hierarchy to protect. No matter my designation, I’m always the spear carrier in the eyes of your people. Rhys is too big to ignore, you’re one of them, and no one ignores Marcus, not even when he wants them to.”

“Brendan…” I said, shifting closer to him.

“It’s all right, love.” He tucked me in under his chin and stroked me, though was it for my comfort or his? “I don’t want to be anything else. I don’t want the glare or the responsibility or the pressure, just my pack. Someone has to make us a focus.”

“Fine,” Orion said, hard and biting. “I met them in the camp. If my father is an overbearing prick now, he was out of fucking control then. I was new to my designation, further confirmation of my father’s virility, and he was going to shape me into the perfect alpha. We started butting heads as soon as I was revealed, something that was only exemplified at the fancy arse private school I was enrolled in. Dad made clear how shit was gonna go, and even the alphas there jumped to his tune. I would be cultured, sophisticated, authoritative, and completely lacking in any redeeming qualities that might get in the way of furthering the family’s interest. My father’s a snake, and I was supposed to be one too.”

“But you aren’t,” Rhys said.

“No, I’m not. This is my family, not the Ratcliffe name. I’d change mine to some awful triple-barrelled version of yours in a split second, but…” Orion’s long fingers flexed and relaxed in the light streaming in through the window, his eyes glowing with something fierce. “The camp was supposed to be my last chance to buck up or… I never found out what the alternative would be. I landed in the camp, the only kid from a private school background in a place run by gangs of kids from the streets. The beatings started pretty much as soon as the alphas running the place turned their back, until he came.”

He stared across our heads at Rhys.

“The biggest, baddest motherfucker in the place, the other guys sneered that Rhys would make me his bitch for protection. I didn’t want protection, a gang, anything, but I wanted him. That’s the thing that Dad never could stand, that all that focus on strength meant that’s what I was attracted to. Rhys had this quiet fucking confidence, that no one in my world displayed, as he shoved the dickheads off me, and when he picked me up and wiped away the blood? I wanted to drop to my knees right there and then, some instinct telling me that’s where I needed to be.”

“You were sometimes,” Rhys said with a smile. “You have a mouth like fucking velvet. But you don’t really want to submit, that’s what drives Marcus nuts. No matter how he’s topping you, you remain unbroken. You were such a beautiful boy, all big green eyes and angular cheekbones. I felt like a disloyal prick right then to Bren, but you took my breath away.”

“We fucked so hard those first few weeks, with you in the bunk next to us,” Brendan said with a snort. “It was a bloody relief when you finally joined us.”

“I thought you were going to rip my face off, messing with your man,” Orion said, shaking his head with a smile. “But that’s not the way it was. You could have told me to fuck off, rode his cock in front of me, flaunting what you had.”

“We didn’t know what we had. We were hungry, horny, and wanted comfort,” Rhys said. “The rest came later. So much more. Come here, Orion.”

Just then, I could see how it would’ve worked, a much younger Rhys, bristling with power and wanting to use that to create something secure, something real. Orion pulled away from Brendan reluctantly, but I shifted so he could straddle Rhys’ lap.

“Alpha…”

“I have you,” Rhys assured, with all that same certainty. He was the backbone of the group, its bedrock. “I’ll always have you.” The double meaning of the words, of what that would mean for Orion and what it said about what Rhys got from the relationship, was evident. “My beautiful alpha.”

But he resisted, Orion. I could see the pull towards Rhys, but he held himself back from his lover for a second.

“My father never understood what this was, why I came home not reformed but remade. You gave me everything that I’d ever needed and more, both of you. You gave me a family. I will always love you, always do whatever it takes to keep this safe.”

“You’re gonna need to share that plan with us,” Brendan said. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

“I just want to keep us safe, keep the wolves from our door, because they’re massing there.”

“Not now, not yet,” Rhys said. “Just shut up and kiss me. I fucking need you.”

They wouldn’t have wanted me to pull away, but I couldn’t stop myself. Not because I felt outside of all of this, but because it all felt too close. I’d seen plenty of evidence of their bond, eternally fascinated by it, but I wasn’t lurking behind a bush anymore. I was here, watching them eat each other’s mouths, Brendan, Rhys, and Orion, in their need to consume the other. But once I was up and off the couch, James’ eyes followed me as I drew closer, looking down at the drawings he’d created.

They were blocky, rough, more gesture studies than anything, though some showed me the sharp line of Orion’s jaw, the full curve of Brendan’s lips. And the strength in Rhys, putting his arm around us, sheltering us with his body, but it went further than that. Any strength he had, physical, mental, emotional, was ours. He was a sure hand helping me through my frenzy, a calm piece of advice to help the others negotiate life with an omega, a growly assertion that I was his. This was how he’d created this little band, by giving all he had to them, so you couldn’t help but return the gesture. My skin felt too hot, too tight, my wrist wiping across my brow, and James noted that.

“You’re tipping over…into heat?”

What happened next was all instinct. His pupils blew wide, all his artistic distance dissolving, just like that, because that was the problem with alphas and omegas, why there were so many more rules for us than betas. What we built, that human persona, was created on a shaky foundation that could be yanked out from under you in seconds.

When James’ hand shot out, collaring my wrist, I knew it wasn’t him that was doing it—it was the alpha. He scented an unmarked, receptive omega, and his instincts told him to claim me as his.

But so did theirs.

“Get your fucking hand off the omega,” Rhys growled out, moving way too fast for a man his size, Brendan and Orion at his sides.

“Mine!” James’ snarled, hauling me in close, but a hand went to the back of Brendan’s waistband, his gun in his hand, cocked and loaded. The cool of the muzzle pushed against the skin of Chadwick’s temple managed to dissipate the fog, if only a little.

“Get your fucking hands off Cyn.” Brendan didn’t pull the alpha shit often, but he could, his deep voice vibrating with menace. “Or I’ll splatter that too smart brain of yours all over your pretty artworks.”

“Come here, sweetheart,” Rhys said gently, the vibration in his voice letting me know the effort it cost him. He held back his command, the part of him that sized up the situation and knew exactly how he wanted it to go. But he held out his hand rather than grabbing me, putting it out there for me to take.

I couldn’t have understood the other men more now if I tried. Taking Rhys’ hand when you felt scared, overwhelmed, and dazed, it was like a lifeline of strength, right when you needed it. My hand slapped down in his, and he yanked me close, holding me tight, a low rumbling purr designed to settle me, when the phone rang.

Orion fished it out, answering it with a snap. “What?” Silence followed as James struggled to pull himself together, his lips peeling back in a snarl every time his focus slipped. “We’ve got her. She’s come into heat. I know. Rhys has her. We’re coming home now, but we need to take this slowly. What?” I watched him frown, then glance at me. “You stupid fuck… Sometimes you need to—Fine.”

“Marcus,” Orion said by way of explanation. “We have to get her home, stat, and into the playroom.”

“The playroom?” Rhys’ voice was a perfect contradiction of growly alpha, delighted at the idea, and concerned lover. “Jesus…”

“It might work. It could put her in control, if she wants that.” I whined as I felt Orion’s eyes on me, clouded with every breath he took of me, but he fought for clarity. “Or it could give us a structure to take it.”

“If she consents,” Rhys said.

“You want that, don’t you, omega?” Brendan purred, turning from James and putting the safety on before tucking the gun back in his pants. “You want us to take control of your pleasure. We’ll give you everything if you just give us that. This is the power exchange between alphas and omegas. You’ll have everything you could fucking want, if you’d just give us that.”

“Yes.”

They called me omega during times like this, because that was who was in the driver’s seat. I wasn’t Cyn, Cynthia Rhodes, Miranda Rhodes’ daughter. I was just a pair of eyes watching them shift closer like beautiful wild animals, golden in the sunlight, just as they were back in the forest, and just like then, my slick came in, drenching my clothes. I hadn’t reached for them then because I didn’t even know how to, but I did now. My hand shook as I held it out, but not for long.

“Thank fuck we have a driver,” Brendan said as Rhys swept me up into his arms, carrying me out of the studio and down the driveway to where the guards waited. “Though I’m getting fucking sick of car sex.”

“Not sitting on the backseat, watching this time,” Orion warned. “Fuck, I need her!”

“We all need her, brother.” Rhys leaned over, kissing him savagely before depositing me on the middle row of seats. “You know that, don’t you, omega? We need you as much as you need us.”

I nodded weakly, reaching out for them, and in they came.

“As fast as you can go without causing an accident or getting us arrested,” Orion snapped at the driver, then got in and slammed the door.

Then there they were, surrounding me, the enclosed space instantly making me feel a little better, less like I was a free-floating ball of need out in a cavernous, unfeeling galaxy, but it didn’t stop me from writhing.

“Hurts, alpha!” A cramp had me bending double, my breath forced out, but not enough coming back in to fill my lungs. “Alpha…!”

“Get her jeans down. She needs something inside her now!”

The purr of a zip, the wrestle of tight denim, and then my sobbing cries of relief as something hard pushed between my legs, right where I ached the most.

“We’ve got you, omega. We’ve got you.”