Page 80 of One for the Money
“Yeah, that’s a good question,” Matteo says casually, as if his hand hasn’t just moved to rest atop my cock. “Why force yourself to do something alone?”
“We’re not like them, Alex. We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do, even this.” He makes sure she is looking him dead in the eye before he says the next thing. “When you’re ready, which you will be, one day, come tell me and I’ll be yours. Until then, go rest while the guys and I get your nest cleaned up.”
“We’ve gottafigure out who did this,” I say, wincing when my back twinges as I bend down to pick up a shredded blanket from the floor of Alex’s nest. All these decisions that she struggled to make and I helped guide her to lay in pieces on the floor.
My pain is both better and worse. It’s better because it’s not increasing, and it seems to be decreasing with more exposure to my scent match, but it’s worse because I know it all hinges on her deciding she wants to be with me.
It feels like it can be ripped away at any moment. And while I hate it for myself for being so selfish and wanting her to stay so I can get better, it’s worse tosee the stress it’s putting on Matteo. He’s about to chew a hole through the bottom of his lip, and the sideways glances he gives me make me want to pull him to my chest and purr to calm him down.
This is going to work out. It has to.
Because I fear that if I lose her, I’ll lose my Beta as well. He’ll no longer be my partner; he’ll be my full-time caretaker. I don’t want someone to take care of me through my illness. I want my Beta. My lover.
“It’s bound to be the same guys who attacked her, right?” Dario asks as he wipes a cloth on the wall behind her bed with a grimace. I don’t even want to know what he’s cleaning up back there. “This feels like an extension of that anti-Omega rhetoric.”
“I fucking hope so. I can’t afford to fire more than three people if it were someone else.” Jude grabs a trash bag and ties it off, tossing it into the main living area. “Not that I wouldn’t. I’ll do whatever it takes to root out the bad apples.”
Dexter is leaning against the wall outside the room, not helping in the cleanup, but still being present. “I’ll help find whoever it was. Everyone knows I don’t like Omegas, so maybe I can ask around and figure some shit out.”
“Yeah?” Jude pushes his hair off his forehead. “That’d be helpful. Thanks, Dex.”
Dexter nods tightly, then goes back to reciting sonnets in his head or whatever the fuck it is he does when he zones out.
After shoving another ruined pillow into a garbage bag, I give up pretending that anything here will be salvageable. “We need to get her new nesting material.” When the others stare at me with confusion, I drop the trash bag and shove it into the corner. “Did none of you research Omegas? Fuck, guys. Her safe space was destroyed.Omegas build their nests with their Alphas to be a soothing, comfortable space for them and their pack. But now she has nest trauma. We, as her Alphas, need to gift her a nest. Build it for her, so she knows we approve of it, and so it has our scents in it. If we leave her to do it herself, she may never settle for fear that it’ll not be good enough for us. After we get her to accept what we built for her, then we can take her out to pick out extras to go with it.”
“All of us?” Dexter asks with a grimace. “Why does it need to be all of us?”
Dario tosses a torn pillow at his brother. “Because you said you’d try, Dexter. What’s the harm in picking out a couple of pillows? You saw how much she loved that eye mask. Don’t you want that again?”
“Well, we can’t leave her alone!” Dexter says, batting the pillow away. “That’s the harm in going nest shopping.”
“Then I’ll stay with her.” Matteo’s voice is quiet, but he looks up at me for support. “It makes the most sense. I’m not an Alpha, so she doesn’t need my input on her nest, and she also doesn’t have any Beta trauma that we know of. I don’t think she’ll protest having me stick close to her side as much as if it were one of you.”
I clap my hands together. “As always, my better half is right.”
“Wouldn’t Alex be your better third now?” he asks, nose scrunched. I bend down and kiss him on the tip of it.
“No, she’s not. You will always be the other half of my soul. She is the spirit that ties us together.”
Matteo’s mouth stretches into a smile, and he gives me a quick peck on the lips. “I love you, you sentimental fool.” I don’t let him get away with the fleeting kiss, choosing to wrap my arms around his waist and pull him tightly against me.
“I love you, too, my Beta.” When I let him up for air, Inip his lower lip before patting him on the ass. “Go. Take care of her. Maybe this can be your first date.”
He snorts. “This doesn’t count as my date. I’m going to get a real one out of her. This can be the appetizer, though.”
Chapter 30
I knockon the door to Jude’s trailer, not waiting for an answer before I open it and stick my head inside. Alex’s scent is everywhere, mingling with that of each of the guys, and it’s intoxicating.
Together, Alex and Quinton smell like a funnel cake drizzled in hot fudge, and it makes my mouth water.
“Alex?” I call out, straining my eyes to see if she’s hanging out in the main area. “Can I come in?”
A muffled sound from the bedroom, which I have to assume is confirmation, reaches my ears, and I slip into the trailer. Once the door is locked, I seek out the Omega.
My Omega.
I don’t know if I’ve had the chance to process that reality yet, given everything that has been happening. I’ve been so laser-focused on getting Quinton better, on making sure he doesn’t succumb to the Rot, I haven’t realized that, if all things work out, I’m going to have an Omega of my own to take care of, something I never dreamed possible.
