Chapter 31
Jude pulls up in front of what is probably my worst nightmare.
“Great NEST-spectations,” Quinton says, cracking up as he stares at the oversized superstore in front of us. “This is the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
He tumbles out of the truck that four of us should not have been able to squeeze into, but somehow managed. I’m stiff after half an hour wedged between him and Dario, but I don’t say anything lest I be labeled a spoilsport.
“It’s the highest rated nesting store in the area,” my brother remarks. “Only the best for our girl.”
His words make me a little itchy, but I don’t correct him. I’m not stupid enough to deny what she is to me anymore, but I’m still struggling with accepting it. Two competing desires are swirling inside me every moment since I first scented her.
Protect.
Hide .
Cherish.
Avoid.
I don’t know how I can ignore one and honor the other.
There is no doubt in my mind that I need serious therapy for what I witnessed, but our guardians neglected to set that up for us when we needed it most. All I got was the court-mandated stuff that I mostly faked my way through.
Dario and I both have our wounds from childhood; mine are just more apparent at the moment.
However, I cannot deny the draw I feel for her. The desire to be next to her. Since the hospital, keeping my hands off of her feels like my nails are being slowly pulled out. It’s unnatural not to be near her.
If only I could get my conscious mind to catch up to my subconscious.
I trail behind the other Alphas as we enter the lowly lit superstore.
It’s well ventilated, so I’m not immediately overwhelmed with the smell of the hundreds of Omegas who shop here daily, but I do see several of them walking around the aisles.
All of them are male. I would wager that there is not a single female Omega in the entire store.
This is the first time I’ve thought about how rare it is that we scent matched with one of the very few female Omegas there are. Dario and I must be on a twin brainshare again, because he leans over and whispers, “I always knew female Omegas were rare, but not this rare.”
“One in five, so not unheard of, but definitely not the majority,” comes a voice from behind us.
I turn around to see a handsome man, who’s tall and thin with long limbs that make him look vaguely bird-like. His hair is in dozens of tiny braids and falls to the middle of his back, and he has a little silver hoop in his nostril .
“I’m Wes. Can I help you all? It’s not often we get a group of lost Alphas wandering around.” That’s when I notice the name badge on his shirt and the small Omega symbol in the corner.
“Yes, please,” Quinton says enthusiastically.
“We have a newly scent matched Omega. Her name is Alex, and she’s so fucking perfect.
She’s a doctor. And she didn’t have a nest, and she built one in her trailer, and it was tiny because we don’t have a ton of space, but I helped, and she picked my pillow, and then it got destroyed by some of our roadies. ”
Wes blinks several times, then turns away from Quinton and looks at Jude. “Can you uh, translate all of that for me?”
Jude nods tightly. “Our Omega had her nest destroyed and is currently in a makeshift one. We want to get her material to re-nest.”
Comprehension lights up in his dark eyes. “Got it. So this is an Alpha reset? We have several packages for that.”
“Alpha reset?” I can’t help but ask. “What’s that?”
“It’s common after a move, a traumatic event, or childbirth for Alphas to do a total overhaul of the nest for their Omega. How many are in your pack?”
Before I can tell him we’re not a pack, Quinton pipes up. “Four Alphas, one Beta, one perfect, beautiful Omega.”
Wes smiles at him indulgently. “Okay, we have a four Alpha package. It includes eight pillows, four blankets, a set of lights, a candle, three toys, and a gift card for the Omega and her Beta to come back and fill in any gaps.”
“We’ll do that one,” Jude confirms.
The Omega smiles at him and grabs a shopping cart.
“Okay, great! Go grab the stuff, and I’ll meet you at checkout.
Don’t hesitate to come get me if you get stuck.
” He hands Jude a pamphlet that I’m assuming details everything that comes with the package, and then walks away to talk to another worker.
“Alright, so let’s go get some pillows!” Dario says excitedly, grabbing the cart from Jude and taking off.
Jude pats me on the back as he follows my brother. “Don’t look so excited, Dexter.”
I clutch a pale pink pillow to my chest. I don’t even like pink, but I just knew, the moment I saw it, that it was perfect for Alex, and I couldn’t stop myself from snagging it off the shelf.
Fucking Alpha instincts. How does this happen? What part of my hindbrain recognizes the pillows an Omega I barely know would like? Here I am, with a pink, furry pillow against my chest and a satin one in the same shade hanging from my hand.
The gold-toned blanket I picked out lies on top of the charcoal gray flannel one Dario chose. I toss both of my pillows into the buggy, avoiding eye contact with my grinning brother.
Jude is leaning against the cart as he argues with Quinton. “Just get the unscented candle!” he nearly shouts, throwing his hands in the air. “She’s not going to want other scents in the nest.”
“No!” the other Alpha insists, his eyes wild.
“Unscented is impersonal. We should pay the upgrade fee to have our scents made into a candle so she can always have them, even when we’re performing!
” Quinton holds a massive box to his chest with an image of a four-wick candle on it. “It’ll be more special!”
Jude groans, scrubbing his hands down his face.
When he drops them, his expression is blank, and he speaks slowly, as if Quinton is an unruly child.
“It takes a week to make one of those candles. We won’t be here in a week.
She just needs our clothes to have our scent in the nest. We can all stand to part with a couple of shirts. ”
Quinton swings his head and stares down my brother and me. “Back me up, you two! Tell him this is the right call.”
Dario shrugs noncommittally. “I don’t know if I even have an opinion.” He takes one of the unscented candles off the shelf and smells it. “Huh, really does smell like nothing.”
“That’s the point!” Jude’s voice is loud now, and it’s clear he’s frustrated that they’re having a literal argument over candles, of all things. “So she gets the warmth and light from a candle but doesn’t have to deal with the extra scents overwhelming her nest.”
“She’ll want our scents in one,” Quinton insists. “She will! I know her best of all of us.”
“Why would you think that? Because you trailed after her like a puppy at her last nest shopping?” Jude snaps back. “You don’t know her like this. The unscented candle is the safest bet.”
“Safe doesn’t exactly scream my Alphas care about me and can take care of me, though,” Dario chimes in unhelpfully.
“See? Dario agrees with me!”
He holds up a hand. “I didn’t say that. I’m just saying safe shouldn’t play into the decision. ”
The argument continues, with Dario solidly on the fence. I edge around the guys and look over the candle options they have readily available on the shelf. Almost every scent imaginable is there, clearly meant to simulate Alpha scents, but they’re all so … masculine.
Not that our group isn’t masculine, because one look at Jude will dispel that notion, but we all smell like sweet treats and candy.
They’re not standard Alpha smells. We all veer closer to what Omegas typically smell like than Alphas.
I’ve never cared about it before, but right now I wish we were something a bit more standard so we could grab our scents in candles and be done with this argument.
I can understand why both Dexter and Jude think they’re right, but I immediately know neither of them is when I see the small pack of tealights on the candle shelf. I wave down an employee.
“Are these part of the Alpha reset package?” I ask. He nods and continues with his job, arms full of backstock.
I toss the pack of tealights into the cart. “Get little gold cup things to put them in. It’ll look romantic.”
“Romantic?” Dario nearly chokes on his tongue. “Since when are you Mister Romance?”
I smack him in the chest with the back of my hand. “I’m not, I’m just tired of hearing the bickering. Let’s move on.”
“Well, next is the toys…” Quinton’s smile is cheeky, and he dramatically fans his face with his hand. “And we’re not talking about racecars.”
There is nothing I want less than to shop for sex toys with Quinton Black. But I trail behind the three other Alphas, listening to him discuss the benefits of and pitfalls of specific plugs, vibrators, and dildos.
“We don’t need any restraints, we have plenty of those from the act.
But I’d like to get a knot ring for Matteo to wear.
It’ll make heats easier if he can help in that way.
” Quentin grabs one, tan colored silicone knot that is supposed to slip onto a Beta’s dick to emulate an Alpha’s knot and provide relief for an Omega who craves one.
Dario wrinkles his nose. “Would either of them actually want that?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. Matteo isn’t sensitive about being a Beta and not an Alpha, but he may be during a heat, like he can’t provide for her as much as she needs.
Or he may be insulted by me even thinking of getting one of these.
” Quinton turns the packaging over in his hands. “It’s a fifty-fifty chance, really.”
“Why don’t we say it was part of the package when we said there was a Beta in the pack?” My brother suggests. “That way, if he doesn’t like it, he doesn’t feel like we think he needs it.”
“That’s lying,” I say. “Why would we lie to our friend?”
“There are good lies, and bad lies, dude,” my brother reminds me, clapping me on the back.
“This is something that if we need it, we’ll be glad we have it.
But if we don’t need it, it could hurt feelings.
Avoiding the hurt feelings trumps the truth here, since we don’t exactly have access to this stuff on the road. ”
I don’t like lying. Never have. It feels like, if I allow anything other than frank honesty into my life, that it’s a slippery slope into being taken advantage of. I don’t like liars.
That’s probably something else I need to discuss with a theoretical therapist.
“Oh shit.” The cart rattles as Quinton throws the knot ring into it. “What if she goes into heat on a travel day?”
“Please don’t wish that shit on us,” Jude groans. He slips a set of jeweled butt plugs into the cart with a slightly pink flush on his cheeks. “That’d be a worst-case scenario. ”
My brother shrugs and grabs an open-mouthed metal gag from the shelf, spinning it around on his finger.
“We probably don’t need to worry about that any time soon, though.
She just had all of those suppressants flushed out of her system.
It’s going to be a while before she regulates enough for so much as a heat flash. ”