IT WAS TRULY AWFUL.
The door Jonah led us through took us downstairs to the basement of the strip mall. The first room was bar supplies; kegs, cases of beer, and cleaning supplies that made my sense of smell shrivel up and want to hide. The second room was a collection of unmarked boxes, simple storage, some broken workout gear, and parts that probably belonged to motorcycles. In the corner was a door.
Behind the door was “the nest.”
It was an empty room, without windows, with stone walls and a cement floor. There was an old wooden bed frame propped in pieces against the far wall.
“We didn’t get time to put that together yet,” Jonah muttered, looking anywhere but inside the room. “Not really sure this’ll be the place.”
“This is a cell, not a nest,” Yvonne snapped. “You can’t be serious. This is unacceptable.”
“It was… the only spot we had when you called,” Jonah said.
“It wouldn’t be here, precious,” Seth assured me as I studied the space.
“I think it’s time for us to go,” Yvonne said, but without actually looking at me.
“Wait!” I shouted, and Jonah and the two betas froze. My hands were up in front of me and my eyes were wide and my heart was pounding.
No, I did not love the nest. But I stepped inside and offered it every consideration I could. Even the horrible flickering fluorescent lamp hanging overhead.
“If there was… carpeting. And something on the walls? And we got rid of the overhead lighting…” I said slowly.
“It would still be a windowless room in the back of a cluster of storage, underground,” Yvonne said, practically spitting.
“She’s right, Baby,” Jonah said softly, and I turned to find him…close. Closer than he’d gotten yet. Close enough to touch and to smell. And it made the ugly room feel a little better. “Omegas should nest somewhere safe and warm and comfortable. This isn’t any of that.”
I chewed on my lip and tipped my head back, unconsciously tilting it to the side and offering my throat. A pink tongue flicked out and smoothed over full lips before Jonah caught himself and swallowed, tearing his gaze off my neck.
“Is there…do you have any other space?” I asked. I glanced at Seth past Jonah’s shoulder.
“Somewhere that…smells more like the pack?”
Jonah swallowed again and rolled back on his heels.
“We could make you a good nest in my apartment,” Seth said, and Jonah’s head whipped in his direction.
“A beta’s space isn’t the most ideal,” Yvonne said, some of her temper waning.
“It sounds nice to me,” I said, and Seth grinned.
“It wouldn’t— you might not—” Jonah stuttered, and then blurted out. “It’ll smell like me too.
We’re— we’ve been— shit.”
“He’s trying to ask if it bothers you that he and I fuck,” Seth said, grin growing.
“I beg your pardon?” Yvonne snapped as I gasped.
Suddenly Jonah seemed to grow in the room, shoulders broadening as his arms crossed over his chest and his features sharpened. “My VP and I are all but bonded. And omega or not, he stays.” His voice boomed in the space, but he wasn’t using his full alpha bark.
“Unaccept-“ “That’s fine,” I said before Yvonne could finish. She choked and Jonah coughed, while Seth grinned. I understood the issue now and I knew of one way to settle the situation. “Yvonne, could I have a little time to talk to Jonah and Seth? And a little privacy?”
Yvonne’s mouth was hanging open as her stare bounced between the three of us. “Fine. Fine. I’ll be by the front door.” She marched right out of the nest and through the storage room, and soon I could hear her heels smacking on the steps up to the bar. I sighed as she left and passed Jonah in favor of curling into Seth's side, his arm wrapping around me and his nose dipping into my hair for a quick sniff.
“I didn’t want to agree with her but she is right, I don’t really like it down here. That’s not a deal-breaker, though.”
“We’ll find you somewhere better, precious. For now, let’s take her to the office, yeah, Scorch?”
“The office?” Jonah repeated numbly.
“Yeah,” Seth said, eyebrows raising over bright green eyes.
Jonah’s throat cleared, and he led the way to the office, glancing back regularly as if he were afraid we weren’t following. Or as if he just enjoyed seeing me cling to his beta. I hoped it was the latter.
Upstairs in the bar, the alphas were whispering as we returned, voices dying out as we crossed
the space.
“You leavin’, Baby?” Dusty called out.
“Not yet,” I answered as we headed for another door, this one with a crown emblazoned in glossy black over its surface.
“That’s a good sign, at least,” Dusty whispered to the others.
Jonah’s office bowled me over with his scent, so much so that Seth scooped me up off my feet and then curled up on a large leather couch against the wall with me in his lap. Apple pie and bright lemon. Ohhhh it smelled like both of them. I whimpered and squirmed as arousal tackled me with full force, tucking my face against Seth's neck as I tried to regulate my breathing.
“The fucking office, Bomber?” Jonah hissed.
“What? She likes it.”
I loved it. I wanted to strip and beg, yeah. But also I wanted to grab five blankets and cuddle into this couch and never leave.
“Can this be my nest?” I asked, words trembling as I crossed my legs in an effort to keep myself from straddling and humping Seth.
Seth laughed and Jonah sucked in a breath. “Baby girl, you can have absolutely anywhere to nest you want,” Jonah ground out, alpha growl coated in sweetness.
Baby girl, that was what I’d been waiting to hear. I smiled and forced myself to relax, melting in
Seth's arms and letting my head relax back on his shoulder. Jonah was staring at us together with open hunger, his hands clamped around his knees as he sat in a chair in front of a wide desk facing us.
Behind him, on the right side of the room, a narrow door led to a tiled bathroom and I could glimpse a shower stall inside. It would work as a nest. Small, faint lighting, a bathroom, but the busy bar next door would be an irritation.
“About the two of you,” I said, watching tension snap Jonah back into place. “They said at the Center that omegas sometimes take…offense to smelling their alphas on others.”
“If by taking offense, you mean get in a snitty rage,” Seth murmured.
“Yeah, well. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
Jonah was frozen, and I thought he might leave bruises on himself with how pale his fingers were turning on his knees. “You don’t?”
I shook my head. “I… I mean, okay, I lived as a beta for like my entire life until now. Not one instance of omega in my family, and… I liked being a beta. I liked…you know. Havingsexwithbetas.”
Seth grunted and his arms tightened around my waist at the announcement. Jonah’s lips began to curl and his pheromones thickened in the room.
“And I like the way you smell on him,” I finished, knowing I must have been tomato red by then.
I twisted to catch Seth's eye. “I like the way you smell on your own, too. So as far as I’m concerned, if I choose this pack, I choose you with it.”
Seth's expression was soft, eyes heavy-lidded, and since he was a beta he ignored Yvonne’s scent-marking rules and dipped his head down, cheek nuzzling against mine and lips barely catching the corner of my own. No alpha would catch him under all the perfuming I was doing anyway, but I liked the hints of him I was able to smell. I sighed and across from us, Jonah began to rumble an alpha’s contented purr.
“Do omega’s change their mind about this kind of thing when a bond takes?” Seth whispered, lifting his head from mine and looking to Jonah.
“From what I heard, omegas who want to will rearrange packs from the start, bond or not,”
Jonah said, still staring at me.
“When I— if I do choose… the Center says I should find a pack for my heat, and they think my heat is nearly here. I just—it’s all happening fast, and it’s a lot,” I rambled, searching for the words.
“Everything will be at your pace, baby girl,” Jonah said, the purr lingering in his tone. He stood and crossed the empty space, sinking down on the open cushion so that he was inches away from me.
Not touching, but leaving me with all the effects. His head dipped close, and Seth kept a tight hold on me to prevent me from arching into the alpha. “No bonds till you say so. No mating. No marking. You choose us and you’ll have us wrapped around your finger from day one.”
“I wanna be wrapped around you,” I breathed out, eyes wide. Jonah purred louder and Seth laughed, shaking some sense into me and leaving me curling up, blushing.
“Courting first, precious,” Seth said.
Jonah’s lips pressed together and he straightened slightly, some of the warmth sobering into stern command. “I won’t lie about who we are, though. You’ll have better offers. We won’t be richer, cleaner men once you choose us. We’re a pack and we’re a club.”
“I can see that,” I said, wiggling off Seth's lap, the pair of men pushing to the arms of the couch to offer me my own space.
“We can do better on the nest for sure, but this strip mall won’t magically become a mansion,”
Jonah warned.
I rolled my eyes and squared my shoulders. “Look, I get it.”
“Just… don’t choose us if that’s what you really want,” Jonah said, our eyes locked.
I understood then. He wasn’t warning me for my sake. If I chose this pack and my omega needs made me ask for the kind of pampering and security they couldn’t offer, I would make them miserable as they tried to turn themselves into men they weren’t just to please me.
“I won’t choose lightly, I promise.”
I wanted to say more, and Jonah’s eyes were flicking to my lips, his own parting as if he were about to speak when a light knock hit the door frame.
“We’ll be late if we take much longer,” Yvonne said, words gentle.
“Walk her out,” Jonah said to Seth.
“Course. Come on, precious.”
Seth pulled me up from the couch, leading me toward the door. My feet dragged on the way. I felt like I was being denied something, and I realized as I left the room what it was. My alpha hadn’t touched me. Not one of them. My skin wanted their scents dressing me, protecting me, before I moved on. And I wasn’t allowed to ask for that, not yet at least.
“Don’t let Jonah talk you out of us okay?” Seth murmured, and I nodded, drifting along with him on some kind of wistful autopilot. “Good. I’ll see you soon, precious. One way or another.”
I relaxed at the promise, leaned into my beta at the door before Yvonne could stop me, and caught another kiss on my cheek. “See you soon.”
On the walk to the car, I was either floating or drowning.
PACK MICAH WAS like an older version of Pack Evans. A townhouse in the city across from the park. Season theater passes. A nest just on the secure side of spacious. I might’ve liked them more if I hadn’t just been trembling in my boots around Pack Howler, but after scenting Jonah and Quincy and the others, I didn’t have much taste for unbaked bread and storms and tobacco.
One thing was clear though. There was an appeal, even if it wasn’t the alpha’s scents. I was like Elizabeth Bennet, standing outside of Pemberley, realizing what she’d given up when she’d rejected Pack Darcy. If I wasn’t already in love with the men, the life they offered me might help that happen eventually. Jonah’s warning made more sense now.
Did I want a strip mall and a busy bar and alphas who lived to drift away on motorcycles? With my heat coming, could I risk a pack that couldn’t even offer me a nest?
I thought of Jonah’s office. Small, with a small window lining the top of the wall, made of textured glass to obscure the light. Full of the scent of the pack, especially Jonah and Seth.
I compared it to Pack Micah’s walk-in dreamland, complete with a jacuzzi tub.
Either way, either choice, I would be giving up a lot.
“Is this how it happens?” I asked Yvonne as we slid back into the back seats of the SUV.
“The interviews?”
I shook my head, watching out the window as we pulled away from the townhouse. “Is this why omegas always end up with rich packs in pretty houses?”
Yvonne was quiet for a long time and when I faced her again there was a flicker of sadness on her face. “Yes. This is how it happens. You’ve made a decision, then.”
I wondered if I was the first omega who’d walked into Howlers and felt the need to be near those alphas, to have them claim me. I wondered how many omegas had walked away from that.
“I…I’m working on one.”
