Sugar Coated

58

Delaney Linwood

The tension faded in the room until I felt barely a memory of it, chased away by Em's ghosting touches and the fact that Andres finally joined us on the couch, putting himself on our right, between us and the unknown Alpha.

Bea had given me enough information that I figured I probably should have taken notes, but she also gave me the impression that we would be fast friends. She was witty and a bit acerbic...a little spicy the internet would say if they said anything about her at all.

I'd never found any note of the Sinclair sister in all of the musings on PackWatch and seeing as she'd only just recently dabbled in the pack world I'd have assumed that somewhere her name would have come up as an eligible omega with a strong tie.

But maybe Bea had wanted it that way. Actually the more that I thought about it the more I was certain that was likely the case.

"—it's extremely intimidating and if anyone tries to tell you differently you can tell them to kiss your ass."

The stairs creaked which told me Jackson was trying to be considerate of our conversation. Though consideration only took him so far when he froze mid-step on the stairs after catching sight of Gabe.

Bea turned her head just enough that she could catch sight of her brother in her peripherals where he stood frozen all of his muscles locked down as he zeroed in on Gabe's profile.

In Jax's defense, Gabe didn't defer to him in the slightest even being in his pack territory. Instead, he just shot him a cocky smile as he sat on the couch with his arm thrown over the Sinclair sister.

"Be reasonable, Jax," Bea warned.

Jax didn't do much as smile, merely bared his teeth, "I'm not growling"

That was about as much as we could ask for if anyone thought to ask my opinion on the matter but no one did which was probably for the best since I had the least experience in this sphere. I decided it was probably best to ignore the fact that Andres muttered "yet" so quietly under his breath that only I seemed to catch it.

"Who are you and why are you in our home?"

Gabe didn't want to answer. It was obvious by the purse of his lips and the way he threw a careless glance at to Jax. He was goading him. But a swift jab to his ribs from Bea at least got an answer out of him. "Her alpha," he tilted his head back to Bea but didn't turn to catch the way her eyebrows drew down into an angry slant.

Jackson caught it though, "Wrong answer."

And in a flash, everyone was standing except for me. Bea had shoved herself between the two alphas and both Em and Andres had converged on me.

I caught only snippets of all the voices that erupted in the room.

"--gonna go get your golf club and hit me with it–"

"--fucking dare you to come in here like you own her–"

"--massive fucking children I swear can't act right even if you tried," Bea's voice cut over even the frantic 'movemovemovemove' of Em and Andres as they pushed me to the edge of the room. "Both of you fucking STOP!"

Andres' voice was at my ear too quiet for anyone but me to hear, "Don't ever let me catch you jumping between two irate alphas, or I'll have your ass."

"Yes, sir," I whispered without looking his way, too caught up in the spectacle in front of me as Bea shoved Jax backward, barely making him fall back a step before she rounded on Gabe.

"I'm not your anything and you know that. Stop posturing," she rounded back on Jax, "And if I was anyone's anything I can make that decision on my own without your input, you overgrown child!"