Max laughs, glancing back. “Don’t listen to him. Nothing famous about them.” He pours two more spoons of the batter into the pan before he picks up the plate with the stack of pancakes. “But it’s better if you start eating, or I’d get worried you’re going to eat each other.”
Zack smirks. “I wouldn’t mind eating Cyra out for breakfast.” Which earns him synchronised smacks from both Max and Spence. “Hey! Abusive!”
Max levels a look at Zack. “We really don’t need to hear about your sexual fantasies before breakfast.” Then he leans over, giving me a quick kiss on my lips, smiling softly. “Good morning. I’ll get you your own stack, so you won’t have to fight with these three monsters.” Then he walks back to the stove, right in time to flip the pancakes he’d left there.
“Hey!” Zack calls out again, right as he’s trying to roll three pancakes up at the same time, totally covered in syrup. “I resemble that remark!”
I can’t help bursting out laughing. “Yes. Yes, you do.”
“Here.” Spence, who’s sitting nearest to Liam and me, holds out a fork with some pancake on it. “Open up.”
“I’m not a baby...”
He simply keeps looking at me, waiting, and I open my mouth. Fine, if that’s how he wants to play it. And it’s kind of hard to ignore the craving in his gaze as he stares at my lips... I open my mouth and he carefully puts the piece in my mouth.
That results in two more guys holding out pancakes to me. Liam’s a neatly rolled up piece on his fork, like Spence had, and Zack is leaning over the table, trying to shove the triple rolled syrup-drenched monstrosity into my face, making the whole table sticky.
I slowly get up from Liam’s lap, smiling at how sweet they’re all trying to be, in their own way. “I’ll let you eat in peace.” I don’t need them to make a huge mess out of this, definitely not because of me.
Zack pouts as he sits back down, finishing his pancakes off in two big bites, before grabbing more. Liam and Spence both eat more sophisticated, just a single pancake at a time, and they’re cutting them up in ‘reasonable’ bites, but they’re still shoving every piece into their faces. They’re no better, just better at how they present themselves...
I wander over to Max, who’s still making more pancakes. It’s fun to watch him, he seems so good at baking. “Where did you learn to make pancakes?”
He looks up, his eyes darkening for a moment and he takes a growling breath, before getting himself under control. He looks as surprised by his own reaction as I do, but when he’s looking like himself again, he stares at the pancakes as he answers me. “Big family. I often made these for my cousins and then nieces and nephews, while growing up. And I live on my own, so I need to make my own breakfast.” His voice is off, and he’s still filled with tension, even if he’s trying his hardest to hide it.
I don’t know what just happened, but I do know what I saw. That was the same look he had when he scented me at the party. But that can’t be happening. I just showered. I should be safe, he should be safe.
This isn’t possible.
35 Max
The fuck? It’s been hours, and I still can’t make any sense of it. One moment I was fine, and then, for a flash, I felt something different, my cerberus trying to break to the surface, trying to claim Cyra.
I didn’t even scent her Omega pheromones or anything, none of that delicious scorched pine, it just happened out of nowhere, overpowering me. I was quick enough to suppress my cerberus, fight it down, but I know she saw it happen and she stepped back a little, scared. I don’t blame her. Fucking hell... Nearly breaking into my cerberus out of nowhere, it’s not right, really not, and I shouldn’t have done it.
After the little ‘incident’ in the kitchen this morning, she’s been avoiding me, though I don’t seem to be the only one. She seems to be avoiding all of us. Just now we were finally getting close, she shuts us out again, and it’s my fault. I’m such a great Alpha, scaring my future mate out of nowhere like that.
We’re all hauled up in the large living room, each doing our own thing, existing together without saying anything, just being. It would be comfortable and peaceful, if it wasn’t for the constant worry about what Cyra’s parents are going to be doing next, and that nervous tension is palpable in the room.
My phone rings and I see it’s my cousin, Julie. Glancing at Cyra, I pick up, curious. “Morning, how’s my favourite cousin doing?”
On the other end of the line, Julie laughs. “You just call me that because I’m the only one who will put up with your shit.”
“Maybe.” I laugh too. “What’s up?”
Now she’s more serious. “The Omega everyone keeps talking about, she’s the same one you took to the Gala and who played the princess at Daisy’s party, right?”
“Yeah.” I have no idea where this is going. Julie usually doesn’t just call me for nothing. We used to be very close, but since she’s got her own family, she’s been very busy and we don’t see each other that often anymore.
“I have to admit, the girl’s good. I had no idea she was an Omega, she hid herself well.”
“Okay...” Praise, I guess? What’s Julie up to?
“Are you with her now?”
“Yes.” By now everyone is staring at me, including Cyra, who’s not looking very happy. “I’m with Cyra and Liam and the other two guys who are in those gossip magazine pics.”
“Ah, them. They’re kinda infamous,
