Claire could choose anyone onboard, she could have any pack she wants, but she wants me and Wells and fuck, I wanther; I want a pack. I don’t know how I truly feel about someone else joining what we have, and maybe I’ll have to come to terms with that idea sooner rather than later.
But there’s one thing I’m certain of: pushing myself outside of my comfort zone is undoubtedly worth it for this Omega.
I kiss her head, inhaling deeply and loving the way she smells wholly mine.
We’re going to be a pack and I’ll get rid of anything or anyone who stands in my way. They’re my pack to protect and unless an Alpha deems themselves worthy of Claire and Wells, then it’s my job to protect them.
Chapter 18
Elliot
I lieon the bed as complete darkness shrouds me.
The only room that was left on such short notice was a single interior room on this fucking ship. I had hoped that maybe it would be a two-night thing at most, that I’d convince Claire to get off the ship and it would be no big deal.
We’d be on a plane back to New York and things would go back to how they always were.
Not that things were great back home, either. But at least there I knew she was safe.
I groan, grabbing my phone, the light is bright as fuck with how dark it is in here. I open the text with Axel and sigh.
Axel
Don’t go on that ship unless you feel the same way about her.
I didn’t reply.
How do I admit to her brother that I’m in love with his sister and have been for a long time, but I don’t think I’m good for her? Claire deserves the world, everything she wants, and I don’t think I’m selfless enough to give it to her.
The moment I got on the ship, I’d been keeping tabs on her. Which wasn’t an unfamiliar thing for me when it came to Claire.
I often watched her. I tortured myself while making sure that she was safe. Not that she didn’t have her own security detail with her family or that she was in any danger ever.
It was all some sick, self-flagellation-like obsession I had with her.
For the longest time, she was just Axel’s and Jonah’s little sister. She nearly felt like family to me. Then something switched two summers ago.
She wasn’t a little girl anymore; she was a self-assured woman that smelled like the sweetest ambrosia I could have imagined. She was this beautiful Omega who didn’t take shit from anyone, and I liked that more than I’d like to admit. She was the kind of woman I could see myself with and I knew if I wasn’t cautious, I’d try to claim her for myself.
But Claire wanted a pack, and I didn’t. That’s an extreme lifestyle difference, one that can’t just be talked through. One of us would have to compromise, and I wasn’t sure that I could. So, instead, I sat back, watched, ached, knowing she was what I couldn’t have.
It wasn’t some stupid macho bullshit where her brothers told me to stay away; it was actually the opposite; they told me to not cross that boundary unless I knew without a single doubt that I could commit.
Committing to Claire would be easy. Committing to a whole fucking pack? That’s a whole other story and there’s one undeniable truth: Claire is an Omega who wants a pack more than she wants anything. More than she could ever want me.
She grew up with a pack, knew with every fiber of her being that’s what she wanted. Meanwhile, I grew up watching my father covet my Omega mother like his life ended and began with her. I couldn’t deny that it was something I wanted for myself.
Sharing her sounded horrific.
I suffered every time I saw her flirt with another Alpha back home. I hated that she was going to Heat Haven, but there was nothing I could do about it. One of us would end up broken-hearted and if it had to be one of us, I’d take the brunt of that pain every time, no questions asked.
But what I saw tonight? The way she was with that Alpha?
Fuck.
That man she was with wasn’t some hookup. He wasn’t one of the meaningless men Claire had dalliances with to fill some sort of void back home. I still regretted the way I brought that up when I saw her. I could tell I hurt her feelings, but maybe that’s what I needed to do for her to get over me.
So then why did her calling him her Alpha make my stomach sour?