“WHAT’S SHE DOING?” a blunt voice growled.
“Burrowing, nesting. The room’s too big for her,” Mackenzie explained.
“The room’s too big?”
I smiled to hear Jonah’s voice, relieved he was back and in the room with me. I was deep in blankets and pillows, surrounded by warm male limbs that I was treating as structural elements to a nest rather than any objects of desire. On the other side of the thin blankets, alphas spoke over my head.
“I’m making her breakfast,” Brody, Mackenzie’s brother, said in a slightly irritated grunt that made me squirm.
“Since when is the room too big? Why didn’t she say anything?” Jonah whispered.
“I noticed it last night,” Mackenzie said. “Closet is too small, and bathroom’s not soft enough as it is.”
“Smells right in here,” I offered from inside my cave. Bodies on my left shuffled and then Seth was slinking down under the covers to find me. “I do kind of want breakfast though.”
“You better,” Brody growled from outside.
“You can have breakfast in bed, precious, but…” Seth trailed off, looking at the white sheets around us. I would make a mess, and I didn’t want to nest with accidental leftovers.
“We could make her a blanket fort.”
Seth must’ve seen my eyes light up at Mackenzie’s suggestion because he was shuffling back out from under the covers. “That’s the plan.”
“A blanket fort?” Jonah murmured.
Brody grunted. “Gonna call in the girls on this one.”
“Do you think that’s smart?” Jonah asked.
“They’re sure as shit gonna know more about making Baby a nice blanket nest shit thing than we are. Tiny’s got like…wish-boards about ‘em.”
The bedroom door closed behind Brody and I snorted. Brody was every bit as handsome as any of my alphas, but I liked Mackenzie’s curiosity and command better than his older brother’s gruff determination.
“Come on, we can make do for her in the meantime,” Seth said, and I felt him shifting at my side, nudging into Jonah.
“I’ll go get more blankets,” Mackenzie said. Before I could whine at his leaving, he ducked down under the covers, hair rumpled and eyes smiling. “Morning, Baby.”
“Morn-mph,” I managed before smiling into a firm pressing kiss, my hands reaching greedily for
his skin. Mackenzie caught them before I could drag him down against me, tucking my wrists back against my chest, his fingertips skimming over my breasts once before diving out from under the covers.
“Keep her tucked in between you,” he said to the others.
Jonah and Seth were both in boxers, and they shuffled me between them, Seth sliding over me. It was bright enough in the room for light to bleed through the sheets and I turned to Jonah, examining his chest beneath the covers. He purred as I traced lines of a tattoo on his chest, a cityscape growing over his ribs. For once, the sound only soothed me instead of making me want to jump his divinely arranged bones. I set my head down in the crook of his shoulder, and Seth pulled the sheet up over all of us before draping an arm over my waist.
“What happened last night after you left?” I asked.
Jonah threw his arm back behind his head, propping the blankets up enough that I could see his profile. “Nothing. Looks like it really was just Buzz and Indy dropping in with your friend.”
“But they meant something by it,” I said, and his head turned to me. I wished he wasn’t quite so good at hiding his expressions, there was only the tiniest fold between his eyebrows to tell me how serious he found the situation. I reached up to it, pressing my finger to the spot and watched him relax microscopically. “I know you still think one little thing will send me running back to the Center for a new pack. You’re going to have to learn to trust that I’m here for good and bad.”
Seth's knees tucked against mine and he pulled my hair off the back of my neck, kissing the spot as I watched Jonah struggle over what to say. My alpha’s hand reached up to cover mine over his heart as his eyes scanned my face, no doubt looking for one little chink in my resolve to know and accept every inch of this pack.
“They meant something by it,” Jonah agreed finally. “I dunno what. Maybe your friend wanting to see you was an excuse for them to come and irritate us, ruffle our feathers. Or…”
“I’m worried for Lola. I think they used her as an excuse for them to come see an unclaimed omega,” I said. A growl rolled up from his throat and his hand tightened over mine.
“You did good, not letting them bully the two of you into showing her your nest,” Seth said.
“I love Lola, I wish I could’ve brought her up here,” I admitted, heart sinking. “I’m kinda living out her dream life at the moment. And she’s…living out my nightmare.”
“‘Cept you’ve got the shitty nest,” Jonah muttered, and then grunted as I pinched his nipple.
“It’s not shitty,” I said. “I didn’t even notice the size thing until Mackenzie was trying to figure out why I was being a brat last night.”
Which was a lie, but if it made him feel better then I’d be a damn liar about it.
“It’s not for you to figure out, baby girl. It’s for us to anticipate for you,” Jonah said.
I sighed and rolled my eyes, leaning back into Seth. “Anticipate me a t-shirt that smells like you, please.”
I celebrated the brief smile that flickered over Jonah’s lips before he slid out from under the covers, rifling in the discarded clothes next to the bed. His hand returned, presenting me a threadbare black t-shirt in offering. I shimmied into it under the covers, the fabric cool on my skin and warm with Jonah’s scent. He returned another second later with a clean pair of boxers.
“These too if you want ‘em,” he said. “We’re about to have company.”
The front door of the apartment opened, a flood of feminine chatter coming in, and I stifled my whimper, turning into Seth's chest. Maybe I could hide in the bathroom while they built the blanket fort?
I SAT INSIDE OF A GLITTERING, patterned, warm tent full of pillows, feather duvets, tray tables, and giggling betas. Well, I was starting to wonder if Emmy wasn’t secretly an alpha with the way she and Tiny—a deceptively small and bossy beta with silvery purple hair and possibly permanent black lipstick—took charge of building me a nest. My only regret was not reaching out to them sooner.
Emmy sent Bullet and Mackenzie out on the errand of finding bedding that didn’t feel ‘suited to a hospital setting,’ and my men had brought back a decadent collection in shades of blues and greens, as well as strings of white lights with flower-shaped bulbs. Ryan and Thumb had swung by with a golden cigarette case of hand-rolled joints and a box of infused truffles. Chef and Brody were working in the kitchen of the apartment, an all I could eat buffet of crispy potatoes, bacon, and fried egg sandwiches ferried in and out of the room by Candy and her cotton pink hair.
It had been a busy morning, and I had ended up retreating to the bathroom for a shower with Jonah at one point when the room was busy with people installing a wire line to hang sheets and lights from. Now, with most of the alphas out of the apartment, and with me resting on a throne of colorful pillows that had been hugged and scented by my pack, I was finally relaxing.
“Rosemary, fennel, grapefruit,” Tiny read from the small label of the truffle box. Her nose wrinkled. “Green’s palette is a little ritzy for me.”
“It’s good for me,” I said, holding out a hand as she passed me the chocolate. I took nibbling bites, humming as subtle citrus fought curious fennel on my tongue, letting the chocolate melt on my
fingers as I took my time.
“Can I have the raspberry?” Tiny asked.
“Of course you can.”
“It’s not like Green wouldn’t bring her up another tray if she so much as looked at him,” Emmy said.
I was learning that Emmy always sounded peevish, even when she was being kind, and that I enjoyed her sarcasm.
“I think it’s fun to see an alpha like Green feeling sweet for someone,” Juliet, Steve’s lovely sweet beta with pin-straight black hair, said, looking up from where she was painting her toenails a deep shade of plum.
“What kind of alpha is he, then?” I asked. Ryan had an ability to be both intimate and distant. If I weren’t so overwhelmed by alphas in the past week, I would’ve been spending more time trying to crack him.
“The lone wolf kind,” Candy said. She was working on my toes, my foot propped in her lap. “He never went for any of the sweet butts that came and went. And he’s usually just working on his plants, so he’s not even at the bar so much. Except lately,” she added, winking at me. “Tornado and Books are the same.”
“Don’t worry,” Tiny murmured. “It’s been a long ass time since any of us went near those alphas you’ve got circling you, panting like dogs. Our boys have us nailed down.”
The other women laughed, and I cocked my head in thought. I wasn’t upset by the thought of these women having any liaisons with my alphas in the past. I was just curious about one thing… “Can you take knots?” I asked. I’d heard of betas trying it, but even Lola hadn’t ever been brave enough.
“It takes care and practice,” Emmy said with absolute authority. “Chef makes it… as good as he
can for me. The real reward is seeing him lose his goddamn mind about it.”
“It hurts?” I asked.
“I can’t manage it and Brody doesn’t ask me to,” Tiny said, sucking chocolate off her thumb.
“But I’m… well, tiny. And he’s a beast.”
“Shade and I are working up to it,” Juliet said softly. Shade must’ve been Steve’s MC name, and I couldn’t decide if it suited the bubbly goth or not.
“We aren’t built for it,” Candy said. “But bodies are flexible. I’ve been with Dusty a long time and if I’m on top, I kinda like it. Plus the intimacy is…”
“Fucking superb,” Emmy agreed. “And again. Having Chef at my mercy is a head trip. But go on, spill the beans. We won’t be too jealous. How’s the non-stop orgasm marathon of a knotted omega?”
My eyes widened and I choked on air. Ryan’s carefully measured doses of weed in his truffles were starting to sink in, and it gave my entire body a warm and fuzzy feeling. Which helped me answer Emmy’s question.
“Umm… I don’t know? Yet.” Four jaws hung loosely around me, and I bit my lips to keep from laughing, blood rushing up to heat my cheeks. “Honestly, I keep asking. Didn’t know it’d be this hard to get fucked by a bunch of bikers.”
“You’re in heat,” Emmy said, growling the last word and making me wonder again if she wasn’t
really meant to be an alpha.
“Oh, I’ve noticed,” I said, nodding.
“Are they trying to torture you?” she snapped.
“They’re trying to be respectful,” Candy offered, more subdued, as Juliet and Tiny started to giggle.
“Oh, give me a break. This is one hundred percent Scorch being weird and self-sacrificing. Do you want to be knotted?” Emmy asked me, leaning in.
I swallowed hard. “I mean…yeah.” Her eyes narrowed and I shrugged. “Okay, I have been a little nervous about whether or not it would hurt.”
“Hurt? Baby, you’re not a beta anymore. Haven’t you watched any AO porn?”
I had to be beet red by now. “Umm, no? It wasn’t my thing. Alphas weren’t really my thing.”
That at least left Emmy speechless.
“Okay, okay. So. Believe it or not, I get that,” Tiny said, hand raised to stall the chatter of the group. “Brody’s my first alpha, and I didn’t get the appeal ’til I met him. But Emmy might be right. It’s one thing to hear that omegas love a good knotting, but… you should probably do a little personal research. I’m sure we can all recommend her some quality content, yeah, ladies?”
Which is how I ended up spending my afternoon watching porn with a group of betas.
