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

32. Teddy

Chapter 32

W aking up with your face pressed against a couch and humid dog breath panting in your ear is now one of my least favorite things. Sitting up, I try to dodge Jake’s tongue as he takes a lick at my side of my head. Shit, where the hell did Vee go? I shouldn’t have taken things so far earlier when he called me ‘Bear’, but it brought back so many memories and I kind of lost myself for a bit. Giving Jake a firm pat on the head, I try to stand up, only to get flogged by his excited tail. Fucking hell, this dog is always happy.

Finally managing to stand, I don’t see anyone else in the living room, but there are voices coming from the kitchen. Leaning heavily against the wall, I feel kind of dizzy again, and hopefully, it’s not that fucking omega insecurity bullshit from before. Sam purred, I felt better, fixed. There’s no time to deal with my body's crazy omega hormones, not when I need to figure out what’s going on with Vee.

He’s standing by the stove with Sam when I stumble into the kitchen. They’re both glaring at something in a pot on the burner.

Oh, shit, yeah, Sam was gonna make dinner.

What happened?

I must make some noise, because two sets of eyes turn to me. Then Sam is gathering me up against him, his arms tight around my back and his jaw and chin rubbing over the top of my head, scent marking me. Vee tries to step up to my back and Sam looses a low rattling growl.

Well, this shit’s gotta stop now.

Sam reluctantly lets me go when I pull back, and I have to avoid Vee’s reaching hands as well. Nope, we’re not gonna go there. I circle around the kitchen island to put some space between me and the growly alphas, as well as give myself some time to think. Sam looks smug, and Vee looks like I slapped him—but I don’t owe him shit, despite what happened on the couch earlier. He fucking abandoned me.

Looking around, I don’t see Kelly…or Garret. And I want to snarl myself at the memory of him dropping to his knees and holding my pixie. “So, where’s Kelly?” Sam’s face falls and now Vee looks smug.

Well…fuck.

Before I can go hunt that asshole alpha down, Kelly comes back into the kitchen. She takes one look at all of us standing around, shrugs and leaves again. The sound of Jake’s toe nails rattling across the floor follows shortly afterwards, and when I peer around the doorframe to see if she’s ok, she’s stretched out on the couch with her arm over her eyes. Jake is prancing in circles around the couch, his tail occasionally thumping against her when he passes the front. On his fourth circuit, she finally moves her arm to defend herself. “Seriously Jakey, I don’t have enough going on without you beating me to death with your butt-club?”

Jake spins around mid-prance and starts licking the arm she was using to keep from getting hit. She starts giggling. “Ok. Ok! You’re forgiven, you big slobber muffin. Oof!” She lets out a whoosh of air as he tries to climb on the couch with her. She scrambles to sit up before the big dog can land on her, and he flops down on the cushion where her head was, looking longingly at her before dropping his droopy face into her lap.

“Yeah, buddy. I could get used to the adoration too. Cripes, why is everything such a mess?” She rubs his ears as his big eyes stare lovingly up at her, his tail swinging back and forth into the arm of the couch. He takes up more space than she does. But despite her upbeat attitude and smile, she seems stressed or upset, and I’m not sure how to help.

When I pull back into the kitchen, Sam and Vee are still casting angry looks back and forth. I take in the no longer bubbling pot of soup, and the box of bread that Sam pulled out. Fuck it, I’m hungry and emotionally exhausted. It looks like Kelly and I both need a hug and a snuggle. So, it’s time to fix a couple of bowls, drag my beta upstairs for cuddles, and hope for the best.

Sam looks like he wants to protest when I start pulling down bowls. Thankfully, he gives up quickly. It does kind of surprise me that he has so many nice dishes. I mean, my parents do, but they’re a fully formed pack. I have a feeling if I look hard enough, Sam actually has a china cabinet or some shit around here. Like despite what he told me earlier about thinking he would never have a pack, he renovated this house and outfitted it for one. He doesn’t seem like an optimist, so I’m curious of his reasoning.

Regardless, I get down five of each of the big stoneware bowls and plates while Sam busies himself in that weird bread box of his again, pulling out a variety of different rolls and loaves. Fucking thing is like a Tardis, it must be bigger on the inside.

Vee is standing there not doing anything, so he can chip in too. “Hey, get in the fridge and grab some cheese to grate for this.” He scurries over to follow my order, and it feels strange to be barking commands at an alpha. Not that I don’t like it, but it makes a tiny part of me twinge a little. I still haven’t figured out if it’s a good part or a bad part.

Sam pulls out a grater and sets it on the cabinet with another bowl for cheese and goes back to sorting bread options. Despite the earlier tension, we seem to be moving around each other without any collisions or messes—it’s kind of a relief. Not gonna say that I wasn’t worried with how strained everything felt earlier. Especially if we’re all stuck together for a few days until the weather clears up.

Vee emerges from the fridge carrying a big block of colby-jack cheese and a bundle of chives and starts rummaging through cabinets. A few seconds later Sam pulls open a drawer and puts down a cutting board in front of him and points to the knife block sitting near the back of the counter. He grumbles angrily at the bacon and pulls out his own board to chop it up. The whole process just feels seamless and soon Vee is helping me pull the table apart to insert the leaf while Sam gets more chairs.

They start setting out food on the server while I head back into the living room for Kelly and try to figure out where Garret went. She looks up at me as soon as I walk in, giving me a little half smile. That's the look that says something’s wrong. There’s no room on the couch without sitting on her or Jake, so I just give her my hand to help pull her up, much to his annoyance. “Dinner’s ready, Pixie. Do you know where Garret’s at?”

She shuffles a little from one foot to another and won’t meet my eyes. Her gaze flicks to the basement for a moment before coming back to me, and I wrap my arms around her for a quick hug. It’s over so much faster than I want. But I need to make sure she’s fed before I carry her upstairs for snuggles and sleep. I’ll just have to tide myself over with a little kiss on the forehead and sending her after food while I go try to locate one of my former best friends.

There aren’t any sounds when I open the door to the renovated basement. There’s some light coming from downstairs, but the overhead bulbs are off. I don’t want to trip and kill myself falling down these damned things, but I also don’t want to blind Garret if he’s sitting in the dark. I may be pissed at him, but that’s just a dick move. Using the flashlight on my phone, I make my way down the stairs where I find him passed out in the chair that I was in yesterday when Kelly rode me. A growly possessive part of me wonders if he figured that out or if it’s just a coincidence, and I want to shake him awake to ask him. But that might upset Kelly, so instead I settle for poking him repeatedly in the shoulder. Progressively getting harder until he startles up and glares at me.

“What the fuck, Teddy? It’s been a long...really fucked up day. I kinda just want to pass out away from everyone in hopes of being able to get a hotel tomorrow. I won’t get in your way, I just…need some space.” He looks up at me, and it feels like I’m being torn in two. The growly part that wants to keep Kelly just for me and Sam, and the other part that doesn’t want my friend to hurt. He fucked up, repeatedly. Not just with me, but how he treated her earlier.

Logically, I know that it should be her choice on if she accepts his apology and allows him to court her…or whatever the fuck he plans on doing. Garret is obnoxiously old fashioned in some ways. He’s an alpha, so he has all the instincts riding him hard, especially the way he acted around my beta earlier, but I know that their family has always been harder on him since he’s older. By, like...less than two minutes, but who the fuck knows with a family like theirs.

Marc, their parents' pack lead, was always a massive douche canoe about how we would all find our omega and start a family to carry on his legacy. Vee decided long ago that that would be left up to me and Garret, preferably just Garret. He would be willing to share me with an omega, but he didn’t want a female, he didn’t want kids, he really just wanted it to be the three of us, well, two of us, but Garret’s his twin, so they are pretty much a package deal. Even if I can’t imagine being with him in the same way I’m with Vee. He’s like that obnoxious stuffy brother that you pretend to just tolerate, but you really love his quirks—and you’re just kind of waiting for someone to come along and turn his world upside down.

All of this runs through my mind while he stares up at me, exhaustion written plainly on his features. Fuck. “Sorry…um…Kelly wanted to know if you wanted to come get some dinner with the rest of us?” He looks at me for a slow blink.

“You wanna try that again? I fell asleep after she tucked me in, so she knew I wasn’t planning on having dinner.”

Shit, ok, plan B.

“Fine, asshole. I thought you might be hungry, even though you tried to ruin the soup. I came down here to invite you up to share dinner so we can all rest afterwards. And maybe, if you’re nice, share one of the beds with the rest of us. The one upstairs is big enough for everybody.” Shock passes over his features, so I hurry to clarify. “ To sleep only . Sam built the damned thing, It’s fucking huge. Kelly can barely crawl up on it as it is. But it’s cold enough tonight if you or Vee want to cuddle for body heat, I don’t think Sam would mind.”

Sam will definitely mind. But before they were assholes, Garret was the closest thing I had to a sibling. If Sam wants to spank me later for speaking out of turn…well, I’d probably enjoy it. But he doesn’t need to know that. Garret grunts as he tries to stand up. “Shit, my leg fell asleep. Gimme a few minutes. I’ll meet you upstairs.”

Pretty sure his difficulty standing up has more to do with thinking about Kelly in bed than his leg falling asleep. I smelled the pheromones when I came down. Hence the merciless jabbing for a wake-up call. But, as long as he respects her choice, it’s all good.

I spin on my heel, waving back over my shoulder as I take the stairs two at a time. My stomach lets out an obnoxious gurgle, demanding I return and get some food so we can have cuddles. Now I just need to break the news to Sam and Kelly that we may have company for those snuggles. Fucking moment of weakness.