Page 43 of Dodging Bullets

My cheeks heated at his words. I wanted to see a knot. Taste it. I imagined August beside me, licking at Llew’s knot, and my whole body flashed with heat. Someone groaned, and I realized my blush had travelled from my face down to my chest.

“I think I’d quite like that.”

Llew laughed. “So I can scent, Sweet Thing. God, how are you so perfect?” He adjusted his cock in his sweats. “Rio and Max have had a crush on August for a long time. I was the problem with their pursuing him—well, my illness more specifically. Though I think perhaps it was fate that made us wait. Fate was bringing us you, and we just had to be patient. We would like to discuss the possibility of courting August to join our Pack.”

I screwed up my nose. “Courting?” I’d read the term inOmegas for Dummies,but the book hadn’t been very specific about what courting actually entailed.

Llew frowned, and I kissed Rio’s cheek before wiggling from his lap and crawling across the couch toward my big Alpha. Rio groaned, and I felt his fingertips stroke across my butt as he mumbled something about how perfect my ass was, making me grin.

Straddling Llew’s thighs, I looked up into his rough-hewn face. “Why do you smell distressed, Alpha?”

“You deserved so much more than you were given, Polly. You deserved to be loved and coddled. You deserved to be courted by Alphas. You deserved to experience everything life had to offer, and I feel guilty because selfishly, I’m glad you bonded with me. I couldn’t imagine my life without you now.”

I tried to imagine the life he was describing. Tried to imagine a world where I’d been rescued and instead of coming home with Rio and Max, I stayed with OJ and her Pack. Where I had to meet strangers, go out into the world without the security of Llew’s bond deep inside my chest giving me strength. Without Rio solid at my side, without Max talking me through things.

I imagined meeting Alphas like the ones who took me from The Homestead again. Ones who didn’t have the moral compass of the Barrie Pack.

“I deserve the best Pack.” It was a simple statement, and Llew nodded. Smiling, I leaned forward and kissed his full lips. “Then I’m lucky, because that’s what I got. I’ve seen the worst the world has to offer, and I know what you are. So, back to courting August. What does that involve?”

It was Max who answered. “Gifts. Dinners. Dates. Showing him we can provide.”

“Showing youbothwhat we can provide,” Rio added.

I didn’t need material things, and I doubted that August was overly worried about the things that money could buy either. “And what happens at the end of the courting period?” I had a few guesses, but I wanted to hear it out loud.

Max steepled his fingers under his chin. “We’d formally ask him to join the Pack, we’d have an official bonding ceremony, and then we’d share mating bonds.”

The idea of having a mating bond with more than just Llew set my heart racing. “Could I share mating bonds with you guys too?”

Rio launched toward me, landing on his knees at my feet. There was something oddly thrilling about this big man, who was eye height with me even on his knees, looking at me with such hopeful desperation. “Anytime, Polly. You say the word, and I’ll make you mine.” He seemed to get control of himself, and I could almost see him struggling with his Alpha. “But you deserve the grand gestures and the declarations just as much as August. I can wait, and we can do this the right way. Bond or no bond, I’m yours, Omega.”

His eyes were burning with something so hot, so possessive, that it stole my breath, and I was moments away from telling him I wanted it now. I didn’t need grand gestures or ceremonies. I neededhim.

Unfortunately, Max’s phone broke the moment. Pulling from his pocket, he looked down at it. “I need to take this.”

I reached out, and Rio leaned into my arms. For a moment, I was pressed between two Alphas and hooboy, my Omega liked that. A lot. She sent me a rapid barrage of images where we were in this exact position but naked. More and more, my thoughts devolved into pure filth, which seemed to track with how close to my heat I was.

“Omega, you smell so divine right now,” Llew murmured into my ear. “I’m dying to know what you’re thinking—” He paused, cocking his head and looking toward the door that Max had gone through.

Max reappeared, his face more solemn than I’d expected. “My informant has a lead. He thinks the Homestead is inArkansas, although he hasn’t narrowed down where exactly.” He came and sat next to me. “He found other survivors.”

“Survivors?”

“He found the Alphas. The ones who designated.”

I shook my head. “There weren’t any Alphas born, only Betas and very rarely, Omegas. Alphas stopped being born after the…” I trailed off. There was no apocalypse. No world-changing phenomenon. There were only old men on a power trip. “They got rid of them.”

Max grabbed my hands and held them in his own. “Yes.”

“And they’re alive?”

He chewed his lip. “Some are.” He hesitated. “Some didn’t make it. Toledo—uh, my tech guy—thinks they were murdered to tie up loose ends.”

I sucked in a breath that felt like acid. Just when I thought the Leaders couldn’t get any more reprehensible, they did.

“Toledo reached out to a couple who’d managed to find each other. They want to meet you, and see if you have any knowledge that can help them bring down the Homestead.”

“No.” Rio’s tone was firm. “She can’t go and meet random Alphas from her old life.”

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