Chapter 7
She was here.
Maisie had broken up with me before high school ended—I’d had my suspicions about why, but she’d disappeared before I could confirm—and before either of us had presented, but I’d imagined this day a thousand times since then.
Ideally it would’ve been with less trauma in tow, but all that mattered was that she was here now, and we could keep her safe.
I’d loved her back then, and looking at her now, I could already feel that love emerging again.
“Where do you think you’d like to stay? I can show you the house. My nest is huge if you wanted to stay with—what?”
Her eyes were huge, shock painting her features. “They let you have a nest?”
My whole pack froze, tension shooting through the group, my shared bond with Colt and Wyatt simmering with righteous fury.
“Let me?” I choked the words out.
Pink flooded Maisie’s cheeks. “Um, yes? How else would you have one without them letting you? What did you do to get one? None of the compound omegas are allowed to have nests unless we’re good enough…I’ve never had one, but Paul is impossible to please.”
“I…Shit, Maisie. You don’t have to do anything to get a nest. You’re an omega. You deserve one. It’s the best way for us to regulate our systems. You’ve really never had one?”
She curled into herself. “No, I—I’m sorry.”
Fuck.
“Hey, no.” I scooped up her hand. “You don’t need to apologize, I’m just surprised. We need to get you one so you have your own. Take anything you like from mine, or we’ll buy you brand new things, whatever you want.”
“Carter, that’s too much. It’s probably expensive.”
“I can afford it,” I promised. “I want you to have everything you need while you’re with us, and if you decide to move on, you can take it with you.”
It broke my heart that not only had she endured so much over the years, but that she’d been denied the single best tool an omega could have to cope with stress.
In the years since I’d presented but before I’d had alphas, my nest had been a sanctuary.
Now that sanctuary was in my pack’s arms, but the nest still helped.
“Do you want to check out the house? Bring the kids and we can figure out bedrooms, or do you prefer the guesthouse?”
She hesitated, stepping closer, her voice lowering. “I don’t want to kick Bryan out of where he’s staying, but I’m nervous around alphas.”
“Even Wyatt?”
“I know he’s so sweet, but I hardly ever let him get closer than like three feet unless it was walking through a doorway he was holding open.
Even when he let Nora hold his hand I kept the stroller as far ahead of me as I could.
I don’t think I could live in a house with him or any other alpha.
Even talking to one would’ve resulted in… ”
“Punishment?”
She nodded, her gaze dipping. “I knew it was wrong, I knew how mad Paul would be if he found out I’d spoken to an alpha at all.”
Well, that was interesting. She’d risked herself to talk to Wyatt every time they crossed paths.
Out here his scent was free, but usually when he had a plan to go into town he’d shower first and use a scent neutralizer, knowing he’d be going into crowded places.
I’d been drawn to my alphas even before I’d learned their scents, and Wyatt had been pretty clear he didn’t know why he’d felt compelled to approach Maisie the first time he’d seen her.
What if this whole time we’d all been meant for each other?
Double omega packs were a rarity, and even rarer to have the alphas scent match both omegas involved, but maybe…
We wouldn’t know unless Maisie let her scent out for confirmation, and I certainly wasn’t going to push her for that right this second.
Would my pack being scent matches make this easier or would it only increase her anxiety?
God…what would bonding her be like when Paul was in there, too?
How much would it impact the joy of finally being able to join souls with the woman I’d loved since I first understood what romantic love even was?
“Are you okay to talk to me, though? No rules against omegas?”
“There are no male omegas in the compound, so I’m not really sure what the rules on that would be. But I know you. I trust you, even if it’s been a while. Your character was always so clear even when we were still figuring things out.”
Relief almost knocked me off my feet. We could work on her building trust with the others, but I wasn’t under any illusions that it would happen overnight.
“Would it help if we installed locks on the inside so you know no one can come into the room? No one would without your permission,” I assured her, “but if it makes you feel safer, you can lock everyone out.”
I watched her consider it, a myriad of emotions playing over her face.
“You can decide later tonight, too,” I offered. “If you’re hungry, we can start lunch.”
Her gaze darted to catch mine, then she whispered so quietly I almost missed it. “I want to see the nest.”
“Then we’ll go see it. Let’s get everyone introduced first.”
“Cody, Paisley, come here, please,” Maisie said as she scooped up Nora.
I waved my pack and Bryan closer, but gestured again to make sure they didn’t get close enough to make Maisie nervous.
“Paisley, Cody, these are my alphas, Wyatt and Colt, and our friend Bryan. You can ask any of us for anything you need, or ask your mom and she can ask us if you’d rather.
We’re going to do a little house tour so you know where everything is. ”
The kids seemed pretty chill, if a bit wary of new faces.
I led them to the main house, waiting in the entryway for them to hang their coats and stow their boots.
I showed them all the standard house bits—kitchen, dining room, living room, bathrooms—and they were jazzed about the theater room.
Bedrooms and offices took up the second floor, but we’d check those out afterward depending on how Maisie was feeling.
My nest took up the entirety of the top floor, minus a few walled-off areas we used for storage. It was less a personal space and more a pack bedroom. I couldn’t remember the last time I had slept without my alphas wrapped around me, so their own bedrooms remained largely unused.
Maisie followed at my side, Paisley’s hand in one of hers while she balanced Nora’s weight with the other, Cody sprinting ahead of us.
“Do you want me to carry her?”
Maisie only shook her head. It made sense that she would want to keep her children as close as possible so I was happy to let her call the shots. Her gasp when we opened the door to the nest hit me straight in the chest.
“Climb in, if you want.”
She went straight for the enormous bed in the corner. I had probably a hundred blankets and pillows in varying shades of blue and green. Two layers of curtains were pinned back—one sheer, one navy blue—to block out light when I wanted it to feel close and cozy.
Maisie moved like a woman possessed, letting go of Paisley’s hand when she reached the end of the bed, setting Nora on the floor and climbing straight into the mountain of fabric.
A trill of delight was barely audible before it was eclipsed by the sound of her crying again.
She popped up briefly, collecting Nora and gesturing for her children to join her before disappearing again.
Paisley and Cody looked confused, but they followed their mother and sifted through the pillows like it was a treasure hunt.
I risked sitting on the edge of the nest, lifting one of the pillows so Maisie’s face was visible. She was holding all three of her kids, the children stacked like sideways pancakes in her arms.
“Talk to me.”
“I’m just overwhelmed.” She sucked in a shaking breath before continuing. “In a way, I’m glad I never experienced what a nest felt like. I would’ve been so much more resentful if I knew how easy it was to make me feel comfortable.”
“Take the nest,” I offered.
“No,” she sniffled. “I can’t take this from you. You need it.”
“My alphas offer the same comfort. I promise. If this is where you’re most comfortable, I want you to stay here. I swear I don’t mind, and I can sleep in Colt or Wyatt’s room.”
Maisie looked like she was fighting an internal battle with herself. “Can you stay for a minute?”
What she was asking for clicked a second later. She was the one offering comfort to her children and trying to hold herself together. Maisie needed someone to hold her, too.
I slid in behind her, adjusting pillows until the length of her was pressed against me and I could wrap my arm over the four of them.
My purr responded to her proximity, to her anguish, rumbling low and slow.
Bit by bit, she relaxed in my embrace, startling every so often.
I wasn’t sure if that was her own reaction, or if it was Paul in the bond feeling some sort of way about Maisie experiencing a moment of peace.
Well, fuck him to hell and back. I intended to cuddle my first love until she fell asleep in my arms. I purred harder, letting all my years of longing pour into the sound.
I could never erase all the things that she had been through, but if she would let me, I would do everything I could to make her future brighter.
Things were complicated. Paul would never let them go without a fight, and in all likelihood, neither would the rest of the compound.
How could the kids go to school if they were in hiding?
They wouldn’t be able to see their friends, or go into town.
If there was a way to make this work, we would figure it out, and I knew the more time we had, the more likely my pack would be to fall for her as hard as I had all those years ago.
Later, I would strategically let my brother know that Maisie was with us, and he would tell Riley so she wouldn’t worry about her sister. We all needed to be prepared for the Deckers’ response to her leaving.
A whisper of a purr buzzed in her chest.
“Mama kitty.” Nora rubbed her face on her mother, petting her hair like she might have done to a cat to invoke the same contented sound.
I chose to take that as a good sign. Omegas purred when they felt safe, and she was doing that in my nest, in my arms.
Nothing about the future would be easy. Loving Maisie had never been uncomplicated, but it had always been worth it.