Page 24 of Dodging Bullets

“That was a dick move, Doodles.” I grabbed a handful of veggies from the container in the fridge for the parrot and a cup of kibble for the zombie dog.

I swear, he’d just shaved a year off my life. The idea of causing Paloma any more heartache soured my gut.

Rio was in the kitchen when I emerged, and he was looking down the hall at Llew’s room. It was silent now, thank god, but the scent of satisfied Omega permeated the hall like someone had sprayed it with Fuckbreze.

His eyes were filled with heat, but he turned away and pulled a bottle of juice from the fridge, downing half of it in one go, as if it could cool his blood.Good luck, buddy.I was hard again already.

“What the fuck happened down there?” he groaned, standing in front of me at the breakfast bar, his eyes constantly drifting to the hall.

I gave him a shit-eating grin. “Well, when an Alpha bonds an Omega, sometimes they fu?—”

“I knowthat,” he grumbled. “I know that he wouldn’t hurt her, but…”

I nodded. The Alpha we’d known, who’d been the head of our Pack, would never have hurt a woman—Alpha, Beta, Omega, or Unshown. But that man had been broken by a war he never even signed up to, and we were all still learning who he was now.

“When I went to… check, he was talking her through every step, and she was enthusiastically onboard. She might be naive about the world, but she seems to know what she wants.” And from the sound of it, what she’d wanted was for Llew to feast on her for breakfast.

Rio nodded solemnly. “August thinks she’ll go into heat soon.”

My whole body locked up. My horny-ass brain supplied images of Paloma riding me as I satiated her heat. Images of her lips wrapped around my cock as I fed her my cum. I swallowed hard and bit back a groan. “We’ll have to talk to her about what to expect.”

“August said he’d do it.”

Thank goodness for that.

Rio had that look on his face that he always got when he talked about his VA therapist. He wanted him—had wanted him for a while actually—but didn’t think he deserved an Omega. Rio was fucked up; that was obvious. We all were, after what had happened. But if anyone could have handled his demons, it was August.

Now we had Paloma, and I knew Rio wanted her too. There wasn’t a choice anymore, and part of me lamented the loss of the possibility. The other part of me was excited that we had an Omega, even if she wasn’t exactly ours yet. I didn’t want to pin fixing our fucked-up bonds on her yet, but maybe one day, she could act as the nexus to our Pack, instead of Llew. Maybe one day, we could be whole once more.

We sat in silence until eventually, the door to Llew’s room opened and Paloma slipped out. She seemed to freeze when she spotted us down the end of the hall, caught like a deer in the headlights, until Llew came up behind her, scooping her up into his arms and cuddling her like she was his own personal teddy bear.

His grin was wide, his eyes sparkling with the satisfaction of an Alpha who’d bathed in the release of his Omega. I kind of hated him a little at that moment.

Rio cleared his throat. “Morning.”

Turning Paloma until she was wrapped around his body, Llew carried her down to the kitchen and set her on the bench beside Rio, his face alight with mischief. She smelled like heaven, and I watched Rio’s pupils dilate.

I frowned at Llew. “That’s mean.”

He shrugged. “Sharing is caring, and she smells delicious.”

Paloma’s cheeks flushed so red, I considered getting her an ice pack, but instead, I served her up a hearty helping of shakshuka. “This is a Middle Eastern dish. I thought you might like to try some different cuisines?”

She blinked up at me with those wide eyes. I scooped up some of the breakfast stew with a crusty bread roll, still warm from the oven, and held it to her lips. Something visceral flexed in my chest as she took a bite of the food I’d made. That I’d provided.

I wanted to feed her as I fucked her with my tongue.

Rio cleared his throat, giving me a hard look, and I blinked away the dirty thoughts. “What do you think?”

“This is amazing!” She went back for a second bite, and I wondered if I could convince her to only eat from my fingers from now on. “It’s so… flavorful? Nothing like we had at the Homestead.”

Rage washed over me, like it did every time I thought of where she came from, but unlike the Alphas in the room, I was better at hiding it. “Oh, what would you eat in the mornings there?”

“Only Leaders ate breakfast. We had a midday meal and an evening meal. Overfeeding was the first failing of hedonism.”

She was skin and bones, even now. She didn’t look like she’d ever been overfed, and Omegas were naturally more curvy than other designations.

“I see. Don’t worry, we believe breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In fact, there are no restrictions onfood. If you’re hungry, you’re welcome to anything we own.”Our food. Our home. Our hearts.“On that note, I thought if you felt up to it, we might take you to the mall to get some things you need.”

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