Sugar Coated

18

Delaney Linwood

I couldn't say I was sitting on the edge of my seat with Em in my lap, but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

I was going to spend the night with the Sinclair pack. The thought put me on edge in the best kind of way. I was going to be staying in a pack space overnight. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and Em's breath on my arms caused goosebumps to pebble along my skin.

Light fingers ran along the outside of my knee and drifted up the side of my thigh, far more intimately than was warranted, but the way that Em looked at me from beneath his lashes hollowed the breath out of my chest. 

Andres' arm was still draped over my shoulders warming me. The weight was heavy enough that it tempted me to submit to it, to let it push me into his side. It begged me to fall into the pack beside Em, between the heat of all of them and the comfort.

"What do you want to do tonight, Delaney?" Em's voice wasn't the sweet sound that it usually was. It was heady and a little breathy, laced with innuendos that I had expected might crop up, but wasn't quite ready for. 

I couldn't force myself to look at Jax, though his voice cut through the haze of the group and I felt Andres' body relax at the sound of it, "Firstly Doll, let's show you to your room." He rose from the armchair in one languid fluid movement, pushing off with his arms just enough to pull his sleeves taught against the muscles hidden beneath them.

Em's fingers dug into the meat of my thigh as he pushed up and off my lap, looking for some purchase to keep hold of me until Andres helped me up from the couch and Em could shimmy his arm around my hip.

Jax cleared his throat and Em rolled his neck in response swiveling a glance his way that I could only guess was tart by the way that Jax's eyes haunted him for a moment, sliding along the line of his neck and down before slipping across to where Em's hand rested against my hip. "Come."

Boy did I want to when he looked like that.

I was escorted ceremoniously through their space, the decor was dark and moody in most of the living spaces, with dark wood accents and little flairs of dramatic decor like a crystal doorknob or an ornate latch that drew my attention. All of it was mismatched and eclectic as if they'd been treasured finds that had been brought back and added to the home like trophies and I loved them. I guess most of them were Em's, as omegas tended to hold a flair for dramatic home decorations, but they could have been Jackson's. Alphas were remarkably dragon-like, possessive, and inclined to collect things for their territories and things they deemed theirs.

Jax's shoulders were a distraction. They looked broader here, in the dim light of his home and pack territory. It made me wonder if he purposely shrank just a little bit with customers in the parlor, softening the more feral bits of an Alpha's nature.

The hallway was dark enough most of the lighting having dimmed along with the setting sun. The running rug muffled any steps the four of us might have made, reminding me that I really needed to pick up another one the next time I made it out to the furniture store.

Em's hand massaged my hip as I absently traced the metal swirling of the door pull on a nearby room. It was brass and made to look like a swirling peacock. Ostentatious and gaudy, on the best day, but against the deep teal of the door I loved the pop of color.

"Delaney," Jackson's voice broke me out of my thoughts. Em's hand lingered at my wrist, poised to cover mine where it sat along the handle. This part of the house was filled with their scents, both old and fresh where they filled the space around me, rich chocolate and a syrupy citrus.

I could feel Jackson's honeyed gaze on me, a glance over his shoulder, with just the tiniest hint of illicit in it like I'd been caught misbehaving, but the twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips lightened it, "Be good."

It wasn't a bark. He'd never barked at me, nor had there ever been a scandal of it reported in the tabloids, but something about this alpha in front of me nearly had me begging to follow his orders.

Andres had fallen behind in our group to loiter in the arch of a doorway that was half open. We'd passed it earlier in the hall and I'd done my best not to be too obvious about my snooping into the darkness of the room. When I looked back at him he inclined his head toward Jax, his alpha where he stood at a closed door his hand resting on the knob of the door. "This is your space," I stepped up to him, Em trailing behind me as if he was dying for a glance into the room even though he had to have been aware of it.

The room was quiet and understated, though there was a comfortable warmth to it. It was done up in neutrals that would probably appeal to the much larger masses that might pass through their home, but I missed the accents of their personalities that I'd glimpsed here.

"This space will be entirely yours. We won't en–"

His words were cut off by Em's entrance into the room and exaggerated flop onto the bed.

"--enter unless asked."

"Speak for yourself," Em grumbled as he got to furious work rolling across the bedsheets, rubbing his scent over any and everything he could reach.

I could hear Andres' laugh from down the hall.

Jax's mouth was a thin line that could easily move to either a smile or a grimace.

"You've got to give it to him, he's been very good for much longer than he usually can last." He was at my back then, I could feel Andres' heat along my spine, closer and closer until he simply pulled me against him, his arms wrapping gently around my waist.

The snicker had already wormed its way out of my chest, but another followed after it, "It's fine I don't mind."

"Good because I'm shameless," Em was arranging the blankets on the bed, pressing one of the thicker comforters up against the wall like a barricade, the others were bundled in his lap waiting their turn. "Remind me again, alpha why we decided on a twin bed for this room?"

"It was a guest room."

My heart tripped over the 'was' in that sentence, but I swallowed it down if only to get it out of my throat, "Better for cuddling since you can't really escape it."

I earned Em's tart look this time and something about the way the neckline of his shirt hung just enough askew that I could see his shoulder made it all the stronger. "Not when it's all of us."

The hallway was silent for too long of a beat before I filled it, "No I suppose not when it's all of you."

Jax cleared his throat again and adjusted his stance ever so slightly, "This will be your space though I'd imagine it will irk our overzealous omega, you will have the say in who enters this room; any, all, or none of us," he paused for a moment again and I could hear the whine that was just starting in Em's chest, "but, Doll, I want to make exceedingly clear that you are more than welcome to leave this room. For you, it will always be an open-door policy. You'll find no rooms in our territory locked, none of them."

Andres' mouth was at my ear, his teeth along the shell of it, "Be careful which ones you open though, you might get more than you bargained for depending." 

***** A/N *****

I'm back in the midst of binge-reading Omegaverse stories. I've been reading the Poisonverse Series and I just finished Sweetheart: Part One by Marie Mackay. It scratched the same itch as Pack Darling and damn am I frothing at the mouth waiting for Part Two. It's set to be released in November, but that is much much too far away. 

We had some more unfortunate health news in the family. It's not as bad as it could have been but we did get blindsided a bit and I fell back into this space in the aftermath of it. It's an escape to come on here sometimes and dream of better and kinder worlds. 

Wishing you good health and the happiest of days,
~Layla