34. Home
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" Y ou little . . ." Orion laughed. "What was all this for?"
"To see if you would really let me leave. I can't stay with anyone who would hold me captive," I told him. "You all passed the test. Even you, Kade."
Kade looked relieved as he picked me up, letting my legs wrap around his waist. "Don't ever do that to me again."
"I won't need to. But thank you for letting me leave even when you really, really didn't want to."
He didn't respond with words, just a deepening kiss that kept going until River suggested we head home.
"Where is home?" I asked.
Kade carried me back to the SUV. "In Newville, same as the ORC," he said. "But we live on the outskirts."
"If you don't like the place, we're not very attached," Archer added. "We can move to a more suitable location."
"I haven't even seen it yet," I laughed. "I'm sure it's fine."
The drive back was calmer. Everyone was in a better mood now that they weren't worrying about my leaving. For my part, I was exhausted. Curling up on Kade's lap, I fell asleep, only waking when the vehicle stopped.
"We're home," Kade whispered, rubbing my back gently.
"Okay." I blearily opened my eyes and looked around. We were in a garage that looked pretty typical, with shelves along three walls, full of boxes, tools and assorted other stuff.
Kade set me down on the floor as River unlocked the door into the house. "It's not a mansion, but it works for us."
Inside, we passed through a laundry room and into a hallway that led to the front door. Directly across from the laundry was the kitchen, which opened into the living room.
River showed me the spaces, while the rest of the guys trailed behind. Overall, the house was nice, but it was sparsely decorated and had mismatched chairs and curtains. There was no doubt that four bachelors lived here.
We toured the downstairs bathroom and the guest room, then headed upstairs.
"There's actually a nest built into the master bedroom, so you can have that," River told me. "This room is mine, the next one is Archer's and across from us we have Orion and Kade."
At the end of the upstairs hall was the master bedroom, which they'd been using as a gym and storage. Boxes were piled along the walls and the center of the room featured a treadmill, a stationary bike, and a rowing machine, with racks of weights against the far wall.
"Take a look at the nest. We can clear it out for you," Archer suggested, leading me between gym equipment to the door leading into the nest.
I peeked in and found it was full of random junk. The shape was nice, though and it was fairly low, giving me the impression of an enclosed cave-like space. A bathroom led off the bedroom and the nest, all integrated.
"It's nice, but there's a lot of stuff in there."
"You'll have to share with one of us," Kade said. "I get dibs."
"You can't dibs a person, Kade." Archer ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. "Seriously."
"It's okay, you can have dibs on me tonight," I told Kade and he rewarded me with a smile. "This place is really nice, guys." It was, it just needed a feminine touch.
"Well, let's order food and make you at home," Archer suggested. "We like Chinese food around here, does that sound good?"
"Sure." I headed back downstairs, relishing the feel of the carpet under my feet.
Kade led me into the living room and insisted I sit on the reclining sofa while he got me a drink. "What do you like? We have wine, soda, beer . . ."
"Just a soda," I assured him and he ran off to get it.
Once the food arrived and we were all sitting around the coffee table piled high with takeout containers, Kade insisted on piling food on my plate. "You're too skinny," he told me. "I'm not body-shaming, but you look hungry."
"I am hungry." I took the plate from him "Thank you, Kade."
"So, we need to discuss the fact that we have you listed as pack," River said.
"Archer filed the paperwork and made a false claim that we had already claimed you.
It would have been best to check with you ahead of time, but we weren't able to.
We didn't want to leave you in that place more than we had to.
"Good. It wasn't fun." I shuddered, remembering the skinny alpha. "I don't know how long I could have survived there. Thank you for coming for me."
"We will always come for you, princesa," Orion said seriously. "Don't ever doubt that."
"What do you need from me for the paperwork?"
"Nothing, it's already done. But we do need to know if you're okay with being pack."
"Are you going to take me as your omega in reality, not just on paper?"
"Of course!" Orion told me.
"Then I'm good. But I do want to know what you're thinking about bonds. It was a miracle no one bit me during my heat. We should have a plan for that in the future."
"Do you want our bites?" Orion asked carefully.
I nodded. "I think so. I never thought I'd say that, but there's something about you guys that makes me want to stick around. But, I'm not ready just yet."
"Not a problem," Archer snuggled up to my other side. "You can take as long as you like."
"There's still some bad feelings, too, right?" River said, looking at me carefully. "I don't know if you can ever forgive us for what we did to you, me in particular."
I leaned back on the sofa, Archer on one side, Kade on the other.
"I've already told you that I was very hurt.
I'm not sure how to fix that. Coming to save me definitely helped boost a bit of trust, but what if you decide in the future that you don't want me after all?
What if you want to get rid of me because we argue or something? "
"You want committment, I'll commit." Kade scooped me onto his lap yet again. "Tell me what you want. A ring? A ceremony? I'll do whatever you want to prove my loyalty lies with you."
"We're all willing to do that," Archer said.
"You can start by feeding me," I said playfully as the doorbell rang.
A few minutes later, Kade was taking that very literally. He had me on his lap and fed me each bite of my meal, watching my reaction to see which dishes were my favorite.
"Sweet and sour pork or lemon chicken?" he asked after having me try each one.
"Lemon chicken."
A smile spread across his face. "Good girl."
"He only eats lemon chicken, chicken chow mein, and plain rice," Archer told me. "That's why we order Chinese so often, this guy doesn't like new restaurants."
"I like a few." Kade offered me another bite of lemon chicken, but I shook my head, too full to eat more. "That Italian place is decent."
"Because they sell the salads you enjoy," Orion laughed.
"I'm over those," Kade said. "I think lemon chicken might be my new thing."
"Great, get ready to stock his shelf in the fridge with lemon chicken and rice," Archer said teasingly. "At least that means more chow mein and black bean beef for the rest of us."
It was comfortable, sitting in a group like this, laughing and seeing how free the men were now that they weren't fighting and stressed. I'd always avoided alphas and been afraid of them, but maybe, just maybe, a pack wasn't so bad after all.