Chapter 37 Trouble

Chapter 37 Trouble
Elsie’s pov
I liked kissing Tyler way more than I thought I would. He was the most aggressive yet his kisses held a level of restraint I desperately wanted to break.
He made me discover a new version of myself. The version that liked teasing and testing their resolve. The version that enjoyed control more.
“Earth to Elsie,” Lysca snapped softly with an amused look. “People usually tell me I'm a great company so I don’t want to believe I bore you to the point of zoning out.”
“No! No! No!” I rushed out bashfully. “I just have a lot on my mind.”
“Is it a man?” She speculated as she leaned close to the small charming table that held our lunches.
Three men actually.
But I couldn’t exactly tell her that the men on my mind were the three Alphas currently in the mall’s management office secretly arranging a shopping spree on a scale I’d never experienced before.
They initially insisted I come with them to pick everything I needed myself but I had to point out the facts. It would be odd for Three Alphas to put that much attention on an Omega.
It hurt to say but what if it got back to their mother and it prompted an early return from the cruel woman?
Remembering Lysca’s eyes on me, I looked her way.
Lysca’s brows had lifted in question when I didn’t answer right away. She tilted her head, watching me in that intriguing, patient way of hers.
“It’s complicated,” I said at last and reached for my warm cream coffee.
Her grin grew wider on her face as she seemed to process my answer. “Complicated usually means one thing.”
I squinted my eyes in skepticism. “And what’s that?”
“They’re trouble,” she said lightly, leaning against her chair. “And you like that they are.”
I let out a small humorless laugh, shaking my head but I couldn’t bring myself to refute her guess. “Aren’t you jumping to conclusions here?”
“Possibly but I’m usually right about these things,” she shot back. “So tell me. Who is he?”
He. Tristan, Tyler, and Topher. The alpha triplets. If only things were that simple.
I took a sip, buying myself a second from her inquisitive gaze. “There’s no one,” I lied smoothly.
Lysca gave me a look. “Elsie, I may not know much about you, but I know that look. You’ve been drifting off every five minutes.”
I swallowed my coffee too fast, flustered at being obvious. “I have not,” I coughed out.
“Huh Huh. If I give you a minute I’m sure you’d do it again,” she insisted.
I opened my mouth to argue, but the words didn’t come. Because she wasn’t wrong.
My thoughts kept slipping back to them. To Tyler, and the heated manner he claimed my mouth yet the restraint he held despite how much I pushed.
To Tristan, who barely said anything soft, yet somehow I caught his desires in the way he looked at me when he thought I wouldn’t notice.
And there’s Topher who didn’t need words at all. His gaze alone said enough.
I set my mug down as I breathe out a sigh. “It’s really not what you think.” Not in the usual sense at least.
“That doesn’t help your case,” Lysca snorted unrefinedly as she continued with a grin.
“It just means…” I hesitated, then shrugged. “It’s nothing simple.”
She studied me for a moment, then flicked her wrist to wave me off. “Alright, fine. I won’t persist.”
I was about to relax when she went on. “But I will say this. Whoever he is, he’s clearly getting to you.”
Well, they are my mates so getting to me was one of the by-products of being tied to them.
I looked down at the table, tracing the rim of my glass with my finger. “Hmm.”
My gaze drifted toward the hallway that led to the manager’s office without meaning to. It was still partially empty, holding no familiar silhouettes that stirred my insides.
The three of them were still occupied with whatever they were planning for me.
Strange didn’t even begin to cover what I’d call their sudden enthusiasm to buy me things.
Just weeks ago, their one-night stands made a show of my wardrobe change and they broke through my first personal items.
If anyone saw the Alphas going out of their way for me, questions would start. And questions always led to trouble.
“What are you thinking about now?” Lysca questioned in a softer tone this time.
I blinked in surprise and looked back at her. “Do I really look that obvious?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “You keep smiling and then frowning right after. It’s confusing.”
I huffed out a quiet laugh. “I didn’t realize I was doing that.”
“Well, you are,” she asserted. “It’s kind of nice though.”
“Nice?”
“You seem more at ease despite some tension on your shoulders,” she shrugged simply as though she wasn't letting me know she had been paying attention to me. It was sweet but her comment caught me off guard.
I thought about the past few days and the way things had changed in the packhouse. The boys had done a 180-degree turn character and treatment-wise since my incident that left me in the hospital.
It felt good and simultaneously felt like a problem itself because on some days when they were trying so hard to make me smile, I forgot the abuse.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe I am more at ease.”
Lysca smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Before I could make a remark, heavy footsteps approaching echoed down the hallway from the direction of the management office. All three of them strode into our line of sight in the open cafe.
Even if you didn’t know who they were, you would still feel their commanding presence encroaching. From the way the room shifted, to the quiet attention that followed them without effort.
My breathing halted in my lungs because they were all fixated on staring at me. I quickly looked down at my drink, pretending I hadn’t noticed their heated gazes.
Beside me, Lysca bustled with quiet anticipation. “Okay,” she murmured. “Don’t turn around.”
My grip tightened slightly on the coffee mug as I tried to be as casual as possible. “I don’t plan to.”
“Good,” she declared. “Because if you do, you’re going to make it obvious.”
“Make what obvious?” I raised my gaze to meet her amused grin.
“That they’ve been staring at you since they walked here,” she announced proudly like it was a worthy feat to accomplish.
My heart skipped a beat in its place as it raced on and on. Shit! I knew that already.
“They are not,” I denied it under my breath.
“They are,” she insisted, just as quietly in a whisper. “Especially the one in the middle.”
Tyler was the one in the middle. Of course, it was him. He was probably still annoyed about not joining me in bed last night.
“Lysca,” I warned with a whine.
“What?” she dragged the question. She was clearly amused. “I’m just observing the happenings. I like people watching.”
“Stop observing cause those aren't just people. They're the Alpha Triplets and they’re not exactly fond of people staring.”
“Yet they’re great at staring themselves,” she retorted with a playful bite to her words.
I risked a glance at them. My face flushed instantly under Tyler’s eyes as he was already walking toward us leaving the other two to walk back down the hallway.
Oh Goddess!