Sugar Coated

23

Delaney Linwood

    "Delaney," Andres' voice was muffled, a tentative thing buried beneath layers of fabric, though the same could be said for me.

    I felt the faintest brush of his fingers along my back, trailing a soothing line down my spine.

    "Delaney, talk to me," his voice was louder now, I could feel the weight of him resting on the edge of the bed.

    Please just call me Doll.

    The trail of his fingers turned into long sweeping strokes that soothed the tremors that had started in my panic.

    This was a horrible idea. And yet, when he tugged me I rolled into his arms and let him hold me. I let him coddle me even.

    "You're ok," His voice was a whispered scratch above my head. "It wasn't you Delaney. Em...he..." Everything paused for a moment, the trail of his hands down my back, the quiet words he whispered into the crown of my head, and even the small fidgets. I'd have half told you his heart had stuttered by how still he became. "He has his issues. It's not my story to tell without his permission, but we should have discussed it before you, and Jax or I should have been more careful." His fingers threaded through my hair, tracing pressure along my temples and around my ears.

    In my silence, Andres continued, "Do you want me to take you home?"

    That shattered the silence and the scraps of peace I'd found in his arms. The trembles were back, this time with one in my voice. Em's thickened perfume in the air, his omega hormones were overwhelming in a way I never would have anticipated an omega would be, though every scrap of literature said the same thing. "Do you want me to leave?"

    Tears spilled down my cheeks, but Andres wiped them away nearly as quickly as they appeared.

    "No Delaney. No no no. Don't take any of this as a rejection. The exact opposite of it really. Even right now he's petulant and furious at Jackson taking him away. It's...hard to explain. None of us here want you to leave, but," he paused and I felt the flex of his fingers around my face like even the thought of letting me go caused him to hold me tighter, "but, none of us would begrudge you wanting to leave after this."

    I hated myself for an ugly second. I hated the desperation that clawed in my throat and the weakness that would have me crawling after this pack for just a hit of the scent of them on my tongue after only one night. I hated that I was a traitor to my better nature and became exactly what I feared I could be. I just hated.

"I don't want to leave."

But I hated it even more that they thought I would want to leave when I so obviously needed them.

Andres hesitated a moment before he nodded. It brought his forehead down against my own, "Jackson is going to stay with Em in the nest tonight. He's struggling with his instincts."

I can help him. That insane thought came to me. I'd never been one of those "I could fix him girls" before so I swallowed the thought down.

"You can stay here in this room. I can stay with you here, or we can go back to my room if you want. It's your choice, Delaney."

Well, I definitely couldn't stay in this room with Em's scent sitting like an aggressive fog in the air. "Can we move to your room?" I asked Andres' chest.

"Of course, Delaney. Whatever you want."

"Will you...?" I stopped myself but Andres caught me, tilting my head up until I was finally looking at him.

"Will I what?"

"Would you," I started the sentence again feeling stupid for even wanting to ask it with all of the other more important things going on, but I could tell in his face and the slant of his dark brows that he wasn't going to accept a 'nevermind', "would you call me Doll?"