Page 76 of Talk About… Dramay
“Are you alright?” he asked.
“I am, thank you for coming in and handling that. I couldn’t get through to her,” I rasped.
He nodded, looking relieved and happy at my words. Maybe he needed the reassurance just as much.
“I don’t deserve to be here,” Cameron whispered. “Our bond hasn’t been anything in years but even I felt a trickle of that.”
“You felt it because she’s opening back up to you, idiot,” Lane said, holding back nothing. “If you leave her now, I’ll chain youin the basement. And I’ve been down there, dirt floors, stone walls, spiders, it’s scary as fuck.”
“Then be deserving of her,” Tate said. “You both want this. She’s willing to give you a chance and you put your back into keeping her relevant, even when she was gone. Don’t stop now.”
“I just keep fucking up,” he said, voice strangely distant. I moved around him so I could see his face, glad I’d snuck away to slide on shorts at least or this would be awkward as hell.
“She was hurt, a shell of a person for a long time. Then she crawled out of that and found a new version of herself. She’s tired of pretending she didn’t want her life here, her dreams. She’s finding that again but from what I can read through our shaky bond, she’s still terrified we’ll all walk away. We just have to prove to her that we won’t.”
“Never again,” Tate said pointedly. “She told me about that time and as much as I want to hate you for it, I can’t. You’re here, showing up and showing out just for her. You can win her back and we’ll help you. Because she deserves all of this and we’re a pack. It’s time to start courting our omega, so when her heat comes, we can claim her so she can feel the depths of all that we feel for her.”
His words fell over us like a blanket, soothing the lingering tension a bit. Cameron took a deep breath and nodded.
“What else do you have planned for her?” Hudson asked him.
“I’ve got a whole list,” Cameron snorted. He gently reached into his pocket and pulled out a thick wad of paper.
I took it from his hand and unfolded it, realizing it was four pages of ideas, some scratched out, some forcefully and others with a question mark.
“She loved the snacks you made her,” I said absently as I read. “The fire was good, too. Even if it seemed like a disaster, it wasn’t.”
“It was necessary,” Tate agreed. “Everything is out there and we’re all on even footing.”
“No we aren’t,” Cameron said with an edge to his tone. “We all know I’m at the bottom.”
“She sought you out last night,” I reminded him. “Don’t hold yourself back and you won’t be.”
He sighed and nodded. “I was thinking of doing our old weekend routine. We should take her together, though. The pack needs to show a united front as much as I have to prove I’m not going anywhere.”
“The truth is, we can’t tiptoe around the bullshit. We have to acknowledge it, work around it, until it’s a distant memory. It’s part of who this pack is, how we came together, but it will get better. If we put the work in,” Hudson said.
“I will,” Cameron promised with enough conviction that it eased the tension between us. We needed to know he wasn’t going to back down, too.
“We all will,” Tate said, speaking for all of us in that stern way of his that I was quickly becoming reliant on.
“So, courting?” Lane said. “Her dads made this house hers with her in mind, so she’s going to want to stay. They even got her shop going.”
“And Cam has her supplied,” Hudson agreed. Cameron bit back a smile and nodded.
“Oh, she’ll want more. But that’s planned,” he agreed.
“Then I think we add our own touches to it without making a fuss,” Lane said. “Put your shoes down by the door. Hang a picture. We need to make this place feel lived in. I’d also say start subtly leaving your clothes behind in her room, too, so she can nest with it.”
“Good idea,” Hudson said, all of them stripping out of their shirts but Cameron since he still held our sleeping omega. They left them on the bed before Tate took over again.
“Get our omega in the bed, Cam,” he ordered, putting down the blankets to make room. “Don’t leave her.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. Not after this,” Cameron said as Lane and I helped him stand with her. He didn’t let go until he placed her in the center of the bed and got in with her. She whined until she had her nose pressed into his throat.
When Tate started to leave her hand snapped out and grabbed his, stopping him and dragging him down with her. She wasn’t even awake but her omega needed at least two of her alphas.
“Come on,” Hudson said with a chuckle. “Let’s make sure she wakes up to a proper brunch.”