Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
I don’t know why that praise makes me smile, but I can’t fight it as I tuck myself into Oliver’s neck and the elevator opens to our floor.
“Let’s get you in the shower, baby.”
Oliver walks straight through to the bathroom and manages to get both of us undressed without putting me down. Cam and Dakota turned on all of the shower heads and stripped down too.
I guess we’re all getting in together.
The shower was actually just a shower and I don’t know if I was more happy or disappointed about that. They each took their turn washing every single inch of me and I love this side of them, the side just for me. Cam wrapped me in a towel and then led me out into the room. Dakota and Oliver came out before us and had the comforter pulled back and ready for all of us and a t-shirt was laying out for me…only a t-shirt. I guess I should have expected this once we mated, I will probably wear very little clothing when we are up here.
I climb in between Cam and Oliver, leaning over Cam to kiss Dakota goodnight before doing the same to him. Then I turn around to kiss Oliver as Cam pulls my back into his chest. I fell asleep almost instantly.
I woke up before the guys for the first time in forever. This feels like old times. The faint light of dawn breaks through the large windows. As Oliver so eloquently explained, I flopped over the guys and ended up in Dakota’s arms on the complete opposite side of the bed. The benefit of this is that Dakota seems to be hoarding me and I am on the outside instead of being sandwiched between two of them.
I wiggle out as slowly as I can, handle my bathroom business and head straight to the cozy seats in the library area. I don’t even remember the last time I just sat down and read a book for fun and I guess now is as good a time as any since we can’t go anywhere beyond the training grounds. I would love to run a patrol and really get a feel for what my senses and powers can do now that I am mated. I figured out yesterday that I am faster, but how much faster? I have always been strong for my size, but I want to be able to measure it. And the magic, I need to test what my magic is like now that I am different both physically and emotionally.
I am too wound up to really focus on anything specific. I tried a romance novel, but it was a slow start and it doesn’t match my mood. I found a murder mystery, but it wasn’t what my brains wanted. As I was putting that back on the shelf I noticed an old green leather bound book.
There is no title on the spine, but it has been loved. The leather is soft to the touch and from what I can see of the edges the pages are yellowed in places. There is a brown leather strap marking a page, so I take it to the chair I have been occupying and start there.
I get a feeling with this book as lopen it. I can feel the magic coming off of it, like my grimoire. I wonder if that is what this is someone’s grimoire, maybe Lucas’. I wonder if he would have had one to follow through with Adrielle’s spells or whatever she had him doing.
The thought makes me cringe and want to close the book and throw it across the room, but my curiosity gets the better of me and I have to remind myself that magic is not bad or good, it’s the caster and the intention behind the spells.
I am careful not to read any words out loud or even move my lips to sound out unfamiliar words. I don’t want to unintentionally cast a spell that I might not have control over. I only get through a couple pages when a warm hand glides over my shoulder and a kiss is planted on the top of my head.
“Good morning, Bitty. Why didn’t you wake us up?” I love all their gravely morning voices, but Oliver’s deep tone sends shivers down to my toes. I have to fight the need to visibly shiver.
“You all are so cute when you sleep and I didn’t want to disturb you if you all were taking shifts watching me the other night. I’m sure your bodies are changing too and you probably need the rest. “Let’s go get breakfast started. Cam and Kota should be out of the shower quickly, it was just to wake up.”
“You three shower an awful lot, you know that?”
“Well, it is the second best way to wake up in the morning.”
“What’s the first best way?” I ask sitting on the stool at the island. Oliver slides me a cutting board and veggies to chop up for omelets.
“Getting our little mate dirty and sweaty with some naked cardio and then needing another shower.”
He winks at me and I giggle.
“So is someone going to bring Olympia here to talk with me, are we meeting her at whatever house she’s being held at? What’s happening today? We’ve only been on house arrest for long enough to sleep and I am already antsy at the idea of being stuck here. Although, I like your cardio idea.”
“We are going to meet her halfway. Brett and Kyle said around ten. I think they were being generous with their time, just in case we had trouble leaving the suite.”
Cam walks up behind me and kisses the back of my head then moving to the stove to start working on breakfast that Oliver and I started prepping.
Dakota wraps his arms around my shoulders and hugs me tight, like he can’t get enough of this position. “Do you want to train today after we talk to her and see what we can all do cause don’t know about you, but I am dying to know if any of us are faster than you. I also really want to watch you destroy Sam. They all laugh at that and I try to hold it back, but I have to join in.
We eat and get ready in workout clothes, not planning to come back to the packhouse after we talk to Olympia.
When we finally make it outside, as expected, our whole team is there and I never really grasped how big it is until now. We have four Alphas, two Betas, two Deltas and one Gamma, but I’m sure Lil will find her mate and round out the number. I also have Wyatt and Nathaniel, who will always be a part of my team, we have been through too much at this point.
We head out to meet with Olympia and find out what she has to say. I haven’t decided if she is the type of person to carry a verbal message or threat for her dad or if sh*t really hit the fan and we are closer to her pack than the Royal Pack.
I had to beg to get them to let us shift though. My wolf wants out, she has been itching to run since we marked and mated and we just haven’t had the chance. Shifting was completely painless and almost instantaneous, I’ve never felt anything like it in my life. No bones cracking and popping, no discomfort and it happened in the blink of an eye. I thought I was fast before, but this is a whole other level.
When I turn around I notice my guys have shifted just as silently as I did.
***”Well that will come in handy.”
Dakota laughs in my head. “Do we look different, Smalls? Am I bigger, sexier? You can tell me, Cam and Oliver won’t be too jealous.”*** ***”You’re an idiot, but yes you are bigger. You are dark gray all over and you have new markings. Actually…”*** I look at all of them now. Really look at them. ***”Oh, sh*t! They’re identical!” Lil hums at all of us. Through the link.
***”What do you mean ‘identical?””*** Oliver asks, his wolf’s head swiveling side to side. ***”She means you look exactly the same. All three of you.”*** Sierra trots over to us.
***”It was weird having you three look the same in your human form, but you were all pretty close to begin with so it wasn’t a stretch of the imagination. But we could even tell the twins apart in their wolf forms because they were inverted colors. You all seem to have blended your versions of gray, but Sky’s right, what are those markings?”*** Mateo’s wolf circles them, checking them out from all the different angles. Their fur is an ombre of gray, light near the skin and getting darker at the tips. Each of them has a black tipped tail and thick black markings at their shoulders going down their forelegs, similar to the tattoos they all now share. I don’t think Oliver’s tattoos were ever visible in his wolf form before though. I can’t help but notice the size increase too. They were all big before, Cam and Kota were more than a head taller than me, making me look like a pup next to them, and Oliver was wider set like the protector that he was made to be. Now all three have combined sized features. I know I have grown a little with the magic and enhancements that come with mating, but I am still dwarfed by the three of them.
***” Just another thing to add to the long ass list we have going about being mated to the princess.”*** Dakota jumps back before my wolf can snap at him with her jaw. We have gotten faster.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.