Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Xander
As soon as we saw Aria dragging Ezra into her room, we knew nothing good would come from it. Instead of yelling, we start to hear moans coming from the room.
“Well, now we know the soundproofing in this place isn’t so good,” Daniel said jokingly.
“No shit, man,” Jaxon says, glancing at the door. “Maybe you can show us around the compound. I don’t think I can sit out here and listen to this.”
“Great idea,” Roman says.
I bite back a laugh as I watch the guys nearly trip over each other to leave. Daniel chuckles, winks at me, and follows them out. I’m set up on one of the couches and don’t plan to move. The doctor was probably right that I needed to stay longer. Now that I’m sitting on a much more comfortable couch, I’m starting to feel the pain. I wince as I lean to my left side and try to pull out the bottle of painkillers I have in my pocket.
“Can I help?” A voice says.
My head snaps a little too hard in the direction of the voice. Noah cringes when I hiss in pain. He’s on his feet and walking over to me in a second.
“You didn’t want to get the tour?” I ask him as he takes a seat next to me.
He helps me get the bottle of pills out, hands them to me, stands, and then opens the fridge to grab me a water.
“I can’t. I won’t be able to do much until Aria and Ezra are finished.” He says as he hands me the water.
“Because you can-“ I don’t finish, but he seems to understand.
“Yeah.”
“How bad does it get?” I ask him.
He clears his throat and shifts in his seat. “It’s tolerable, but doesn’t stop until she does, apparently. We definitely need to work on her blocking the rest of us out. I can only imagine how Ezra is going to handle it. He’s grumpy to start with. His being horny constantly will make him unbearable to be around.”
I let out a weak laugh and wince again.
“Sorry. Let me open that for you.” I open the bottle of pills, and I hold my hand out for him to set a couple in my hand.
He also opens the water for me. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Did you want to rest in the other room until they’re done?” He asks.
I shake my head. “I’m good here. She wants me to stay the night in her room. Will you be joining us as well?”
Noah shrugs. “If she wants me to.”
“Not sure how many of us can sleep in there without kicking each other. Or worse.”
He smiles. “Yeah, never thought I’d be sleeping in bed with a bunch of other grown men. I haven’t shared a bed since I was a kid.”
“You shared with your siblings?” I ask.
He clears his throat. “No, the guys are the closest thing I've ever had to family. We grew up in foster care. The group homes usually didn’t have enough beds, so we would have to double up. It worked out that I was smaller for my age.”
“The guys are Betas. Do they normally put Omegas in the same group homes as Betas?”
“There aren’t many Omegas who don’t have families, so they weren’t exactly prepared for me. I was stuck with all the other kids.” He explains. “The guys protected me. They took care of me. We promised we would stick together.”
“And you guys never had an Alpha?” I ask.
“We had some bad run-ins with Alphas. It soured our opinion of them. Our plan had been to apply for a pack exception, but it didn’t go the way we hoped. Honestly, we had no other plan. All our options had been exhausted. Until I met Aria, that is.” He says.
The idea of Aria being used will never sit well with me, but she’s made her choice, and Noah doesn’t seem like a bad guy. The jury is still out about the others.
We both look over at Aria’s bedroom door as it opens. Ezra saunters out with his pants pulled on and hanging low around his hips like he just slipped them on. He smirks and tilts his chin up at us.
“Where did everyone else go?” He asks before taking a bottle of water out and chugging half of it.
“They didn’t want to listen to you and Aria,” Noah says.
There is a bit of sharpness to his voice, but Ezra doesn’t seem to notice. He shrugs. That’s when I notice the bite mark on his neck. When I look over at Noah, his eyes are narrowed on the same area. He seems to subconsciously reach up and touch his own mark. When he does, Ezra’s eyes widen a little.
“Huh, that’s an odd feeling,” Ezra says.
His cockiness falls away, and they watch each other. It’s almost like they are having a mental conversation.
“Oh, for crying out loud!” I hear Aria call out.
A second later, she walks out wearing an oversized t-shirt that must belong to Ezra. When she comes out, she stands with her hands on her hips.
“Stop that!” She says, looking between them.
“It’s just a trip. Not sure if I’ll get used to it.” Ezra admits. “This is a lot closer to Noah than I’ve been before.”
Oh, I see what’s going on.
“You can sense each other?” I ask.
Noah nods. “Yeah. It’s not as strong as Aria, but it’s there. He’s feeling very proud right now.”
“You feel annoyed,” Ezra says before shaking his head.
They both look over at Aria suddenly and chuckle.
“What?” She snaps.
“Calm down, little Alpha, we’ll figure it out. Besides, you’re the one who should be careful. Poor Noah is going to be constantly hard if we keep going on like this.” Ezra teases.
“Like what exactly?” Aria asks, raising a brow.
“Well, you don’t think I’m done with you, do you?” Ezra smirks and saunters over to her.
She lets out a weak laugh and walks around him. “I have other plans now, big guy.”
I watch her walk over to me with a soft smile on her face. “How are you feeling?” She asks.
“I’m alright,” I say, reaching out for her hand.
“He’s in pain,” Noah says.
Aria looks at him and then me with a frown. “How bad is it?”
“I’m fine.” I insist, but I know she won’t believe a word I say.
“Hang on a second.” She rushes off back to her room and comes back with her phone to her ear. “Can you bring us some more pillows for Xander?”
She ends the call and moves to sit next to me. I grab her wrist and gently tug her so that she sits on my lap instead.
“I’m going to hurt you!” She says, but I smile.
“It will hurt my feelings if you don’t,” I say.
She smiles, turns so she is straddling my lap. “Don’t act tough. If you’re in pain, tell me, okay?”
“Promise.” I tell her.