"But you called an ambulance anyway?" I asked.
"No."
"The hell do you mean by no? You just let her die?"
Gabe wrapped an arm around me and I stiffened against him. We were talking about a woman's death and he wanted to cuddle up to me? "She'd bled out by the time we found her. He hit an artery and no matter how fast you heal, a clipped artery takes you down pretty quickly. There was no reason to call an ambulance to deal with someone who had already passed. We buried her, informed her sister, and put out to the public that Hudson and she had broken up."
I relaxed against him, listening to him. "I'm sorry. I know she was Hudson's but I'm sure you two were close, too."
"She was mine, too."
"Is that some weird werewolf thing, too?"
That brought a smile back to Gabe's face. "Sometimes. Omegas aren't that common and alphas are everywhere. A lot of alphas form closely knit alpha-only packs and find a single omega. They share him or her and make them the king or queen of their universe. They're spoiled rotten and cared for all their days."
"I don't know if I need anybody to take care of me, exactly," I said, though I had to admit the idea of not worrying so much about where my next meal was coming from was appealing.
"Maybe that's a poor choice of words. It's more than just caretaking. It's helping. It's making sure that you have what you need for your rescue, watching your back, keeping rogue alphas away from you when you're in heat or when you're out hunting. It's bringing you back the choicest cuts of meat from a deer we run down." Gabe wrapped the other arm around me. I fit perfectly under his chin.
But it wasn't meant to last. Tommy gave a howl from his room and it broke my heart into a thousand pieces. I slid away from Gabe and wandered, almost like a person possessed, toward the child's room. The puppy's room? It didn't matter, the idea was merging into one and the same for me. I went to him as if I'd cared for him forever, pulled the lid off the crib; which I understood a great deal more now, and drew him into my arms.
And this time, he didn't bite me. He showed me his belly, his little paws flopping around. Then he rolled onto his side and looked at me, wanting something but I didn't know what. He looked plenty full of food, and my instincts said he didn't want down to go out. No, he wanted something from me, but what?
"He wants you to scent mark him," Xav said from the doorway.
I looked back at him. "I don't know how to do that."
"Come here."
My feet moved toward the big alpha before I realized what I was doing, which annoyed me. He pulled both of us into his arms and rubbed his chin across the top of my head, and oh.
Oh.
My legs went all wobbly, like I hadn't ever been touched by a man in my life. I was 14 again, kissing boys behind the school during our sophomore prom and not really knowing what to expect. The adrenaline left me breathless, but when I did inhale again it was that smokey campfire scent that rolled into my consciousness.
And it was so much more than that. Not only had I been marked, I felt as though I meant more to him. That he'd given me part of himself, somehow, and that meant a lot to the part of my mind that desperately wanted to go sink my teeth into another sandwich.
Tommy sniffed my cheek, his little nose cold. I tipped my head to the side and, far clumsier than Xavion, rubbed my scent on the pup. He responded by wiggling like a worm, nearly falling out of my arms twice before I got a proper hold on him. He shoved the top of his head against my jawline once, twice, then settled against me and immediately fell back to sleep.
"I have to wonder," Xavion said, "If he bit you because he wants you to be his mom."
There was a pregnant pause and I looked back at Xavion; well, back and up. He cleared his throat. "I'm not... implying anything, but he seems to be attached to you. And werewolf pups are picky."
"Is it weird if I feel so at home already?" I asked, setting my teeth on edge. “Especially after I was so stressed out just a little bit ago?”
What if he said yes? What if he thought I was being crazy? They had tons of money, more than I'd ever have. I was sure that they expected me to drop a lawsuit over Tommy's bite but, how could I? The only way the place could feel more like home was if Hudson came back with Bosco and the others.
I wasn't the best at being forward with other people. It wasn't hard for me to teach a dog how to be polite, wave their paw, or ask for a treat. But when it came to other folks, outside of pet-related neglect, I just wasn't some steel pillar with a silver tongue. I was just me, Sadie Faye, looking for friends on the internet when I didn't have anything else to do.
"It's not weird."
His voice was a rumble, almost a purr, in his chest. I leaned back into it, closing my eyes and nestling up against his chin again. I wanted more of his woodsmoke on me, wanted to
