Chapter 9 #2
"You're in love," Callie finished, her smile warm. "Finally. Michelle, you're finally letting yourself feel something."
"It's terrifying."
"It's supposed to be. Love is terrifying. But it's also beautiful and worth it and going to make your life so much better." She leaned back. "Now. What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know. Keep fighting it? Try to maintain boundaries? Figure out the professional ethics?"
"Or, and hear me out, you could go to your pack right now and tell them how you feel."
"Callie, it's three in the morning."
"Perfect time for emotional breakthroughs. Trust me." She grinned. "Plus, I bet you anything they're not actually asleep. They're probably lying awake thinking about you too."
"That's–that's presumptuous."
"That's fated bonds. Michelle, stop overthinking. Stop trying to plan and control and manage. Just go be with your pack."
"What if it's too fast? What if I'm not ready?"
"What if you're more ready than you think?
" Callie's expression turned serious. "Michelle.
I love you. You're brilliant and capable and you're going to figure out the professional stuff because you always do.
But right now? Right this moment? Stop being Professional Michelle and just be you.
The you who's been lonely and scared and fighting so hard to not need anyone.
Let yourself need them. Let yourself be vulnerable. Let yourself fall."
Tears were streaming down my face now. "What if they hurt me?"
"What if they don't? What if they're exactly what you need? What if this is your happy ending and you're too scared to reach for it?"
I laughed but there was an edge of tears to it. "When did you become so wise?"
"When I stopped fighting my own happy ending and just let it happen." She blew me a kiss. "Now go. Go to your pack. Let them catch you. And call me tomorrow with all the details."
"Callie—"
"GO. Before you talk yourself out of it. Love you, bye!"
She ended the call before I could argue.
I sat in the quiet kitchen, hot chocolate forgotten, my mind spinning.
She was right. God, she was right about everything.
I was falling. Had been falling since Pike Place Market, maybe even before.
Six months of emails with Ro, building trust and connection without knowing it was pack.
Months of managing Lucas, fighting for him like he was family.
Six days of having all three of them in my life, in my space, showing me what pack could be.
And I was still trying to control it. Still trying to maintain walls that had already crumbled. Still trying to protect myself from something that was already happening.
I heard a sound from the hallway.
Footsteps. Soft, trying to be quiet.
Then Lucas appeared in the kitchen doorway, hair messed up from sleep, wearing pajama pants and a t-shirt, his cedar-vanilla scent flooding the space.
"Michelle?" He took in my tears, the forgotten hot chocolate, my phone still on the counter. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," I admitted. "I was talking to Callie. About... everything."
"At three AM?"
"She knew I'd be awake."
Lucas moved into the kitchen slowly, giving me space to retreat if I needed. "Want to talk about it?"
Before I could answer, more footsteps announced Ro's arrival. Then Dex.
All three of them, appearing in my kitchen at three in the morning like they'd sensed I needed them.
Pack.
"Michelle's crying," Lucas told them. "She was on the phone with Callie."
"Are you hurt?" Dex asked immediately, moving closer to assess.
"No, I'm—" I stopped, looking at the three of them. My three alphas, concerned and protective and here. "I'm not hurt. I'm just... processing."
"Processing what?" Ro asked gently.
And something in me just broke open.
"This," I said, gesturing between us. "You. Pack. The fact that I've been fighting something that's already happened. The fact that I'm in love with all three of you and it's only been six days and that's insane but it's true and I don't know what to do with that."
Silence.
Complete, utter silence.
Lucas's eyes went wide. Ro's expression transformed into something soft and wondering. Dex went very still, like he was afraid any movement would spook me.
"Say something," I whispered. "Please say something because I just confessed my feelings and you're all just staring and—"
Lucas moved first.
He crossed the kitchen in three strides and pulled me into his arms, holding me tight against his chest while his cedar-vanilla scent wrapped around me like home.
"Say it again," he breathed into my hair. "Please say it again."
"I'm in love with you," I said, my voice muffled against his shirt. "All of you. And it terrifies me but it's true and I can't keep fighting it."
"Good," Lucas said fiercely. "Don't fight it. Please don't fight it anymore."
Ro and Dex moved closer, surrounding us, until I was pressed between all three of them—Lucas in front, Ro's hand on my back, Dex's solid presence at my side.
Pack. This was pack.
"You're not alone in this," Ro said quietly. "We love you too, Michelle. Have loved you. Are loving you. Will keep loving you."
"Even though it's complicated?" I asked.
"Especially because it's complicated," Dex rumbled. "Nothing worth having is easy."
"But the professional ethics—"
"We'll figure it out," Lucas said. "Together. Whatever it takes. Michelle, we told you we'd wait however long you needed. But if you're ready—if you're really ready—we're here."
"I don't know if I'm ready. But I can't keep running.
" I pulled back enough to see their faces.
"Callie said something. She said I'm already falling and the question is what I want to catch me when I land.
And the answer is you. All of you. Even though it scares me.
Even though I don't know how to do this. "
"Then we'll learn together," Ro said.
"One day at a time," Lucas added.
"One moment at a time," Dex finished.
I laughed, slightly hysterical. "You're all so patient. It's annoying."
"We're motivated," Lucas corrected. "You're worth being patient for."
"What if I mess this up?"
"Then we'll fix it together," Ro said simply. "That's what pack does."
Pack. The word didn't scare me anymore. It felt right. Like coming home after a long journey.
"I should make hot chocolate," I said. "For all of us. Since apparently we're having a three AM emotional breakthrough."
"Let me help," Lucas offered.
"Me too," Ro added.
"I'll get mugs," Dex said.
We moved around the kitchen together, preparing hot chocolate with the easy coordination of people who'd been doing this for years instead of days. Lucas heated milk while I mixed cocoa. Ro found the marshmallows. Dex set out mugs and cleaned up our mess as we made it.
It was domestic and perfect and everything I'd been afraid to want.
"My mom's going to be insufferable about this," I said as we settled at the kitchen table with steaming mugs. "She's been orchestrating situations to throw us together since you arrived."
"The ladder incident wasn't an accident?" Dex asked dryly.
"She has cameras on the backyard. She absolutely knew that ladder was unstable."
Lucas laughed. "Your mom is my hero."
"Your mom loves us," Ro said. "Your whole family does. They've been team pack since day one."
"Because they saw what I was fighting," I said quietly. "They saw me falling and knew I needed the push."
"Did it work?" Lucas asked. "The push?"
"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it was Callie calling me out at three AM.
Or maybe it was watching Dex fall and realizing I couldn't stand the thought of losing any of you.
Or maybe—" I looked at them, "—maybe it was all of it.
Every moment. Every conversation. Every time you showed me that pack doesn't mean losing myself. It means finding the missing pieces."
"And?" Ro prompted gently.
"And I'm done fighting it. I'm done running. I'm done pretending this is just business when it's so much more." I took a breath. "I'm yours. You're mine. We're pack."
The words hung in the air between us. A declaration. A surrender. A beginning.
Lucas's hand found mine across the table. "Say it again."
"We're pack."
"Again."
"We're pack, Lucas."
He smiled, bright and beautiful and absolutely devastating. "Best words I've ever heard."
"We should probably talk about logistics," I said, my brain trying to engage professional mode even now. "The professional side. How we manage this publicly. The ethics of—"
"Tomorrow," Dex interrupted gently. "Tonight, we just be. Tomorrow we plan."
"I'm not good at just being."
"We know," Ro said, smiling slightly. "But you're learning. Tonight was a big step, admitting how you feel. Letting yourself be vulnerable. Accepting pack."
"Tonight was terrifying."
"Tonight was brave," Lucas corrected.
We sat in the quiet kitchen, drinking hot chocolate, and I let myself feel it. The rightness. The belonging. The sense that I'd been fighting against the current and had finally stopped struggling and let it carry me home.
"I'm still scared," I admitted. "Of all of it. The professional complications, the vulnerability, the potential for loss. All of it."
"That's okay," Dex said. "We're scared too."
"You are?"
"Of course. Scared we're not enough. Scared you'll realize you don't actually need us. Scared we'll somehow mess this up and lose you." He met my eyes. "Fear is part of love, Michelle. The question isn't whether you're scared. It's whether you let the fear stop you."
"And I'm not," I said. "Letting it stop me. Not anymore."
"Good," Lucas said, squeezing my hand. "Because we're not going anywhere."
We finished our hot chocolate in comfortable silence, and when Lucas suggested we move to the living room ("Because kitchen chairs are not comfortable for emotional breakthroughs"), no one argued.
We settled on the couch, me in the middle, Lucas on my left, Ro on my right, Dex in the armchair nearby. The Christmas tree lights were still on, casting soft colored light across the room.
It felt like Christmas morning. Like opening a gift I'd been too scared to reach for.
"Tell us about the call with Callie," Ro said. "What did she say that helped?"
So I told them. About Callie's scent-match going viral, about how going public had actually helped her career, about the changing industry attitudes. About her asking what I wanted to catch me when I fell.
"She sounds wise," Lucas observed.
"She's also chaos incarnate. You'd love her." I leaned against Lucas's shoulder, feeling Ro's hand settle on my back. "She told me to stop running and just let myself fall."
"Did you?" Dex asked. "Let yourself fall?"
"I'm trying. This—" I gestured at us, "—this is me trying."
"It's a good start," Ro said.
We sat in comfortable silence, and I felt my eyes getting heavy. The emotional exhaustion, the late hour, the relief of finally surrendering, it all caught up with me at once.
"You should sleep," Dex said quietly. "It's almost four AM."
"Don't want to," I mumbled against Lucas's shoulder. "If I go upstairs alone, my brain will start spinning again. Start finding all the reasons this won't work."
"Then don't go upstairs alone," Lucas said.
I pulled back, looking at him. "What?"
"Sleep down here. With us. All of us." He glanced at Ro and Dex, checking. They nodded. "We'll pile blankets and pillows on the floor. Make a nest—not a heat nest, just a comfort nest. Stay together."
Pack sleepover. In my mother's living room. Where anyone could walk in and see us.
I should say no. Should maintain some boundaries. Should retreat to my room and process alone like I always had.
"Okay," I heard myself say. "Yes. I want that."
Lucas grinned and immediately started pulling cushions off the couch. Ro went to get blankets from the hall closet. Dex rearranged furniture to create more floor space.
They built a nest with practiced efficiency—clearly something they'd done before as a pack of three. But now they were making space for four.
For me.
"Come on," Lucas said, settling into the blankets and holding out a hand. "Your nest awaits."
I took his hand and let him pull me down into the soft pile of blankets and pillows. Ro settled on my other side. Dex took position by my feet—protective even in sleep.
And surrounded by my pack, wrapped in their scents, safe and claimed and home, I finally let myself rest.
"We're really doing this," I whispered into the dark.
"We're really doing this," Lucas confirmed.
"Tomorrow we figure out the details," Ro added.
"Tonight we just be," Dex finished.
I closed my eyes, feeling Lucas's steady heartbeat under my ear, Ro's hand drawing patterns on my back, Dex's solid presence keeping watch.
I was pack.
And maybe, just maybe, that was going to be okay.