Building a Pack is Ruff, Part 1 (The Pack Pets Omegaverse #2)

1. Kelly

Chapter 1

I don’t know the name of the faceless man moving on top of me, but he feels so good. His arms wrapped around me, his weight pressing down on me. His delicious scent, spicy and sweet—I can’t quite place it—but I need to kiss him. I need to have him on my tongue as well as inside of me. I wrap my arms around his back, pulling him tight. His face is buried in my neck, licking along my pulse point, and his breath sends shivers down my spine.

Burying my hands in his long hair, I can’t tell the color in this light, just that it’s dark and thick. I need to kiss him though—if I can just do that, then nothing else matters. I tug against his scalp, and his teeth scraping over my skin makes me cry out, almost overwhelmed with the sensation. He eases back, finally letting me see him, letting me put a face to the man pumping into me.

His head turns towards me and a high-pitched ringing fills the room…

Ugh!!! My alarm clock!

Burrowing under the covers, I try to hang on to the dream, I was so darned close. Close to orgasm, yeah, but also close to seeing his face. It’s the third night this week I’ve had this dream, and while I don’t believe in any sort of mystical mumbo jumbo, I’m starting to get super frustrated…and horny. Like really dang horny.

But I’ve got to get up, or I’m going to be late…It’s Saturday, and I made a promise to my bosses. I mean, they’re already bonded, so it’s just a formality. Still, I agreed to be part of the mating ceremony.

And, hey, free cake!

So, I drag myself out of bed, and plod down the hall to the shower. It’s too bright out, and I stumble into the wall, trying to get my eyes to adjust. It doesn’t help any that Rufus keeps dancing around my legs trying to get attention. He still thinks he’s a puppy, but that was several years and about a hundred pounds ago.

I finally manage to get into the bathroom—accidentally closing my hand in the door while trying to keep him out—and turn on the shower. I want a super-hot shower…and some time alone. What I get is a lukewarm shower and my little brother, Tucker, banging on the door and yelling at me to hurry up. So, I take the fastest shower in human history, get out, get a towel wrapped around me, realize I missed a big blob of conditioner in my hair and have to get back in the now freezing water to rinse it out. Then, of course, I forgot a change of clothes, so I put my pajamas back on, wrap my hair in a towel, and bolt back to my room to avoid seeing Tuck.

Seriously, all those people who talk about how long girls spend in the bathroom have clearly never had to deal with a teenage boy. I don’t even want to think about why he spends so much time in there. Can’t he just stay in his room for that like a normal person? I can’t wait to graduate college and move out into a place of my own—or at least a place that has more bathrooms.

I’m almost to my room when Rufus comes scrambling back up the stairs and knocks into me again, spinning me out and slamming me into the wall, toe first—and it hurts so much when you whack your toe on something. It’s a tiny area, but UGH! “Gosh darn it, Rufus! Go see if Momma has breakfast or somethin’, I gotta finish gettin’ ready.” I shoo him away from my door and slide in before he can wiggle in behind me, hobbling as quickly as I can with my poor toe.

“Kelly, you used up all the hot water!” The loud slightly strangled voice of Tuck filters through the upstairs hallway, and I snort laughter as I flop back onto my bed. I know I just need to get into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to head over to Candice’s. She said she’ll have my dress waiting, and Jacks can help with my hair and makeup. I never would’ve pegged him as knowing how to do women’s hair, but the way he dotes on Candice, I can see it.

It’s barely spring right now, but it’s warm enough today that it should be fine for me to wear shorts. I shaved last night, because I knew today was going to be crazy, and it seems a shame to waste the effort. Smiling, I pull on a pair of cut-offs and a T-shirt that I got from some college event or other. I can’t believe I finally get to graduate in a few months. I mean, it’s not an advanced degree or anything—just a bachelor’s in kinesiology—but I just want to get out of school and get on with my life. I’m so tired of hearing the jokes about it being a B.S. degree. Ugh! I am so over that snark.

Grabbing a pair of socks, I head downstairs to see Rufus trailing Mom around the kitchen. He's staring longingly as she plates up a tall stack of pancakes from the griddle before turning around and giving me the stink eye. “Kelly, you need to get Rufus out of the kitchen since you’re the one who sent him down here— unless you want him to eat all your pancakes.” I grab him by the collar and gently pull him towards the back door.

“Come on boy, you wanna play outside for a bit while I finish gettin’ ready?” His tail thumps against Mom, and the table, and the doorframe as I lead him outside and then let him loose. He goes tearing off across the lawn chasing after a bird, and I step back inside, heading over to the sink to wash my hands. “Need any help?” I ask Mom over my shoulder.

She tugs my ponytail and I bend over for her to kiss the top of my head. “No thanks, Honey, but I appreciate you getting Rufus out of here while we eat. You know your father and brother always feed him at the table, and you don’t have time to help me hide any bodies this morning.” She chuckles at her own joke. Mom's a beta like me, and a pacifist, but she sure does threaten familial destruction sometimes.

I snag a pancake with my fingers, slather it in butter, and roll it into a tube before shoving half of it in my mouth at once. “Really, Kelly, can’t you at least pretend to be a lady today?” She hands me a napkin, and offers me another pancake when I choke down the rest of the one I’m holding. I grin at her before heading into the entryway to put on my socks and shoes.

One of the few things my mom will get super angry about is shoes. When we come home, they have to go into the shoe rack by the front door, then socks off—so we don’t slide and get hurt—and into the laundry room off the kitchen. I don’t know why that one thing stuck in her craw, but that’s her one inflexible rule, so we all just go with it.

“Sorry. If you don’t need me, I’m gonna head on over to Candice’s so I can start gettin’ ready. I’ll see y’all later this evenin’, after I help Stephanie clean up the community center, yeah?” Mom comes out of the kitchen with another pancake for me already rolled up. “OK, Honey, just be careful. Tell Candice and the boys congratulations again. We’ll see you in a few hours,” she calls over her shoulder, heading back into the kitchen before she finishes talking.

My dad opens the front door, walking in just as I reach for it to leave. “Where you goin’ this early, Sprout?”

“Sorry, Daddy, I gotta go, Candice’s mating ceremony, remember?” He just chuckles and ruffles my hair, like I’m not twenty-two and about to be the first college graduate in our family.

“Ok, be safe Sprout, and text me when you get there.” I nod a quick affirmative and head out the door towards my car. It’s in my name, but it used to be Candice’s.

When Xan gave her that old Mustang he re-built, she sold me hers for really cheap. I mean, Gabe gave me a bonus to pay for it, so it was sort of a gift anyway. But still, I carry the insurance on it and it gets me to college and back so I’m not complaining. Besides, Xan lets me bring it in for free for any work it needs done as a job perk. Candice has turned him into a big ol’ softie. All of them really, not that they were ever bad to work for before, but now it’s like having four overprotective big brothers.