Chapter 21
Wren
“ S o, when’s the wedding?” Grace asked as we both walked into the shared apartment. She was trying to look annoyed but couldn’t hide her grin.
“We’re sorry for ghosting, if that helps?” I offered with a wince. “Want the quick version or all the dirty details?”
“Oh, girl, you know I want them all. I’ll order pizza.”
That’s how we ended up sitting around the living room, devouring our weight in pizza and breadsticks, and telling her about my panic attack and how it ended up turning into us finding our entire pack, then waking up to a heat spike.
It had only been a few days of chaos but it felt like weeks.
“Wow, that’s a lot,” she said. “If it makes you feel better I haven’t seen anything about your photo and info leak. I’ve been bouncing around the sites to keep an eye out.”
“Thanks,” I said. “It sucks but it won’t be the end of the world. People will forget and most have the decency not to say shit like that girl at the bar.”
“Oh, about her,” Grace said with a wicked laugh. “After Nash made that post, the followers on PackVlog tracked her down and completely obliterated her. Every video and post she made had comments asking her why she wasn’t a girl’s girl, and how she could be such a terrible person. She eventually shut them down.”
“I don’t want to be petty,” I hedged, but Dev had no such hangups.
“Oh I will. She deserved every bit of that hate. Drunk is no excuse to be a shitty person,” he huffed, giving my hand a squeeze.
“So, I take it this is your way of letting me down easy?” she asked as she put her plate down. There was a hint of sadness in her eyes but I knew she’d forgive us. This was the risk in rooming with omegas, you never knew what could happen. Random heats, packs, it was a toss up.
“It is,” I admitted sheepishly. “We’re moving into the packhouse with Shepherd. It feels weird not being with them now that they’ve seen me through a heat spike.”
“I get it. Hailey just got engaged, so I’ll be going back and forth between his hometown and here to help her plan the wedding. It’s a quick plane ride, but it’ll make being a good roommate hard. I’m moving in with her temporarily since he’s got a place nearby. I had a feeling this was coming after Nash, so she suggested this as a solution.”
“I’m so happy for her,” I said. Hailey was sweet and deserves a man who adored her. “Are they moving to his place after the wedding?”
“No, she loves her job and we love this town. He just has a grandparent he’s close to that can’t travel easily and wanted him there, so this was the best solution,” she reassured us.
“Good, we need our Grace hangouts still,” Devon said. “Pack life is crazy. I’ll need our omega nights to keep my sanity.”
“So, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?” Grace asked as we started packing our boxes. Even Grace joined in since she was going to move to Hailey’s place.
“Actually,” Devon said, turning to me. “I was thinking of going nest shopping.”
“You better call that pack of yours. Isn’t it their job to provide for their omegas?” Grace teased.
I chewed on my lip, thinking it over. Nesting had always been something that I hadn’t sunk into. I did it out of necessity for my omega, but not because I particularly loved it. The only time I ever felt comfortable in a nest was when I was with Devon in his.
My sweet omega sensed my reluctance, coming over and brushing his hand down my arm. “You don’t like nesting, do you?”
“It’s not that I don’t like it,” I admitted. “I think maybe I just have bad memories in it. Having my own nest freaks me out.”
“Then we nest together,” he said, as if it were as simple as that.
“Absolutely not. You can’t deny your omega their own nesting space,” I argued.
Devon cocked his head to the side, tapping his chin as he thought it over. “My omega seems to agree.”
The confidence in his tone was strong enough I knew not to argue.
He pulled out his phone and made a call, Nash’s voice coming through on the first ring. “First, we’re almost done here if you want to head over now. Also, your omegas are going nest shopping afterward, if any of the rest of the pack would like to join us...” He trailed off, his teasing tone accompanied by a smile that was pure mischief. His ability to rile up our alphas was unmatched.
As much as I hated the idea of bringing them along just to pay for our stuff, I knew it would mean more to our alphas and beta than I realized.
I was working on that whole ‘relying on others’ thing still.
We had all of our stuff packed up pretty quickly, me because I didn’t have much, and Devon because he was fairly efficient when he set his mind to something.
When our pack arrived, we loaded up Braxton’s work trailer with everything we had. Thankfully the furniture was provided so we didn’t have furniture to load.
Instead it was an obscene amount of boxes and garment bags. Devon took his wardrobe seriously.
After we dropped the trailer off at home to unload later, we piled into Shepherd’s old SUV that was big enough to fit us all.
“So, where are we going?” Nash asked. “According to all the omegas in my life, there’s an amazing nesting store in town, and they deliver everything. If you want some more variety, we can head out of town. There are nesting superstores in pretty much every big city you can find.”
Devon gave my hand a squeeze before answering. “Let’s start with in town, and then we can go from there.”
There was only one nest in Shepherd’s house. I hadn’t even looked inside, but Devon assured me that he had and it was big enough for both of us. It already had a basic mattress, we just needed everything else. A true blank canvas, which Dev was already salivating over.
“Okay, while he’s driving, let’s get an idea of what we want,” Devon said. “Are you a colorful omega? A plain omega?” He slid through his PackVlog vision board of nesting, showing me what he’d added. There was an array of videos of omegas showing off their nests, everything from space-saving hacks, to price hacks, to pure luxury.
“I like this feel,” I said, pointing out one that had a cute and cozy navy blue and earth tones vibe. “We could put up one of Shepherd’s pictures of the mountains at sunset and then use that as the base for the warm lights, the browns, and the dark blues.”
“Oh my god,” Devon said, his eyes lighting up. Then he was off on a roll, finding us picture after picture of the same vibe so we had plenty to go off of when we were at the store.
“We should do the whole room in this aesthetic, and then for the nest, we can go all out.”
Now that we had a plan in place, I was a lot less stressed out about shopping, which was a good thing, because we had just pulled up in front of the shopping boutique.
“Welcome in!” a woman called out, but then a big smile spread across her face when she spotted Devon. “My favorite sassy omega,” she sang out, giving my omega air kisses. “Reorganizing already?”
“Actually, we’re doing a dual nest,” he said, giving her a grin and pulling me forward. “This is my omega, Wren. We even have pictures to make your life a little bit easier,” he added, taking over completely.
They dove right in, discussing things and tossing stuff into a cart or shoving it aside in a flurry of shopping omegas.
“He’s a force to be reckoned with, isn’t he?” Braxton mused as we watched them work.
I looked up at my beta, still feeling a bit shy around him, and nodded. “He really is.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea? A joint nest?” Shepherd asked, raising his voice enough to catch Devon’s attention. “We have plenty of space and we can even add on a bit if we need to. You guys are eventually going to hate this.”
“I don’t think we are,” I said, frowning. I really didn’t expect pushback from the alphas.
“Two omegas in one nest,” he said again, trying to argue, but I held up a hand.
“And as our alpha, you’re going to need to support us. I can’t say that we’ll never change our minds in the future, but for now, this is our choice. We chose the design together, we’re both happy with the idea, and I don’t really want to nest by myself.”
“Okay, okay,” he agreed, softening a bit. He reached out, running his fingertips down my cheek to my jaw before pulling me in and kissing me softly. “I’m sorry, omega. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset,” I promised. “We just have to trust each other. We’re still learning.”
He nodded, giving in. I could see his worry, but it wasn’t necessary. Devon and I just worked this way.
Nash moved in behind me, wrapping his arms around me, resting his head on my shoulder so we were cheek to cheek. I took a deep breath of my gummy bear alpha, smiling softly.
“Our girl knows what she wants,” he said easily. “Now she just has to let us spoil her. You think you can do that for us, sweetheart?”
I let out a breath. This man always knew my weaknesses, didn’t he?
“I’m going to behave,” I said with a huff. “At least this time.”
Nash chuckled before guiding me toward Devon, who was going over different fabrics with the store owner. He didn’t even need to look up to know I was there. He reached out and pulled me closer, guiding my hand toward the fabric.
“Do you like the feel of this one, or do you think this one would be better?” he asked, gesturing to another.
I ran my hands over the fabric. The first one was a bit too rough, the second one far too soft. He watched my reaction, guiding me toward more until I finally found one that felt like heaven. It was silky smooth and so soft it almost felt like a cloud.
I ran it against my face before doing the same to Devon’s cheek. His eyes rolled back, a blissful sigh falling from his lips. I couldn’t help it, I had to chase that sound, my lips pressing against his.
His eyes popped open in surprise before he grinned into the kiss, deepening it until the store owner cleared her throat.
“Now, now, enough of that, you two,” she muttered, not sounding angry, only a little exasperated. “Or we’ll never get anything done.”
Devon didn’t let me step far from him the rest of the time we were at the store. It was a flurry of picking fabrics, colors, accents, and artwork.
When he finally declared we were done, Devon led me away, letting the alphas handle the actual purchase and saving me from stress.
“It’s starting to feel real now, isn’t it?”
“Honestly, I’m shocked I’m not more freaked out by it than I am,” I admitted. “I’m excited to see how this all turns out.”
“Plus, just think, we get to put our men to work and watch all those muscles parading through our nest as we boss them around.”