Chapter 21
K ai and Diego followed me around the pack house like a pair of pups. It was cute as hell, and I felt almost ridiculously safe to have them flanking me wherever I went.
We had stayed in the nest most of yesterday, emerging to eat, but otherwise I was too ridiculously comfortable with them to consider doing much more. I still had to figure out a lot of my life, but at least I had a nest that made me purr just looking at it and two alphas who were all too willing to attend to my every whim.
When we came down for lunch, Miles was sitting at the island with his tablet, his brow pinched as he stared at the screen.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Just trying to figure out the schedule. I can’t officially take the pack off it right now, so I’ve just been pushing their shows and communicating with other performers to make sure all the slots get filled.”
I frowned. “I made things harder on you.”
Miles’s gaze snapped toward me. “No.” He sighed. “No, Callie, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
I inched closer, turning back briefly to discover that Kai and Diego had vanished. Apparently I was spending time with Miles now. A refreshing crispness hung in the air around him. It reminded me a bit of the forests around Seattle where I’d grown up, with the conifers and moss-covered ground, moisture thick in the air. I got nearer, trying to discreetly sniff, realizing his scent blockers must have finally vacated his system.
Warmth rippled down my torso when he turned more fully to me, sending a cloud of that clean, mountain air scent toward me.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“You smell nice.” My cheeks toasted as I said it, but it was the truth.
Miles glanced down at himself like he hadn’t quite realized the scent was coming from him. “Oh, yeah, my scent finally came back during the night. I take a pretty hefty dose of the blockers so I can be clearheaded to manage the heats.”
“Do you have to go back on them?” I glided toward him like I was magnetized, stopping mere inches away. “For work?”
“Ah, no. There are other methods I can use.”
I sat down on the barstool next to him. “Good.”
“Are you hungry?” Miles asked after a beat of silence. “I can make you something. Or we can order in?”
“What’s your go-to?”
“If I’m not making it, Thai food. If I’m in the kitchen, then, um, grilled cheese?”
He was so stiff, nerves practically radiating off him. It was strange how different he was now than when I’d met him and we’d talked together so easily. Maybe he didn’t know how to handle me when I wasn’t in crisis mode.
“I love grilled cheese. With tomato soup for dipping, of course. Can’t separate the food sisters.”
“We only have canned soup,” he said carefully. “But I could pick up fresh tomatoes.”
I snorted. “Miles, I’m not above canned soup. Why are you being so weird?”
“ Because .” He shoved a hand through his hair. “It’s my fault you’re in this situation and frankly I’m worried you’re going to hate me forever for it.”
I tapped my fingers on the counter. “Listen, it’s not ideal by any means, but, Miles…my life was pretty fucked before you got your paws on it. You gave me a new future to work toward right when I thought there was nothing left for me. Besides, you didn’t do it on purpose, right?”
“God, no.”
“Then I could never hate you. We’re all just doing our best, I think.”
Tension leaked out of him like a punctured balloon. “I just want everyone to be okay, and there’s still a lot we need to sort and fix, but I’m glad you don’t hate me.”
I nudged him with my elbow. “Should we get started on that lunch, then?”
“I suppose we should.” He offered a tentative smile. “Can’t have our omega going hungry.”
I was put in charge of keeping the soup in motion while we warmed a handful of cans on the stove to feed everyone, and Miles sliced cheese and buttered bread, arranging them neatly on the electric griddle.
“That’s so handy to make enough for all of you at once.”
“Takes a few rounds with it to satisfy all the appetites, but certainly quicker than a frying pan.”
We chatted about nothing of consequence, mostly the touristy bits of Vegas I had seen before everything had gone to hell. He didn’t entirely relax, tensing up at odd moments, but it felt almost like the first time we’d met.
Miles stacked the completed sandwiches on five plates and moved the soup pot off the burner for me. “Why don’t you collect the others and I’ll set the table?”
“Yes, sir.” I grinned at how easily he flushed.
I had no clue where the rest of the pack were in the house, but figured it would be safest to start with their bedrooms. Diego and Kai weren’t in the nest or in Kai’s room, so I stopped outside Amir’s door, knocking and waiting for a response.
It swung open and I froze in place as his bare torso filled my vision, a light dusting of black hair on his chest, and then dragged my gaze up to his face, where his eyes were narrowed.
“What?”
“Um, Miles and I made lunch, if you wanted some.”
He looked me over, head to toe, heat ghosting over my skin. I was only in one of my tank top and booty short sets I’d packed since we hadn’t gone clothing shopping yet and I didn’t trust anything I couldn’t try on. I couldn’t quite tell if he liked the outfit or not with the sharpness in his eyes, though with the way he lingered on my curves I could only assume he didn’t hate it.
“I’ll be down in a minute.” He shut the door without another word, a gust of delicious cedar wafting over me.
Well, that was one very confusing alpha down at least. Now I just had to find the other two. I wasn’t totally familiar with the floor plan of the pack house yet, but I reasoned if I got lost for too long, someone would eventually come looking.
I plucked open one of the doors to the balcony overlooking the courtyard and poked my head out. “Are you guys out here? I’m not coming out to look; it’s too hot.”
“We’re here, precious,” Diego called back.
I whimpered as I went downstairs and stepped out in the heat, weaseling myself into the strip of shade along the wall. I skirted around until I found the two of them sitting at the patio table, a bottle of water in front of each.
“Why are you guys out here?”
“Giving you time to hang out with Miles,” Kai replied.
“Could’ve given me a bit of warning instead of vanishing into the night.”
“We vanished into the morning .” Diego stuck the tip of his tongue out at me before lapsing into an easy smile.
“Did you two have fun?” Kai asked.
“I feel like he’s even more nervous than I am,” I confessed.
Diego chuckled. “Yeah, Miles is like that. He finds a thousand things a day to worry about.”
“All the more reason it’ll be good for him to have an omega in the house,” Kai added.
It was too fucking hot out here, so I grabbed each of them by the wrist and dragged them up. “The grilled cheese is going to get soggy if you don’t hurry up.”
“You’re not supposed to be cooking for us,” said Kai.
“Miles and I made it together. All I did was stir the soup.”
Kai scooped me up bridal style and I squawked as my feet left the ground. “Since you put in effort on that, you’re not going to put in any effort to get to the food.”
“You’re gonna make me so lazy. Treat me like one of those little purse dogs and I’m gonna get all yappy and bitey.”
“You can bite me anytime you want, precious.” Diego grinned, pulling open the doors to the kitchen so Kai could navigate me inside.
Amir was already at the dining table, his arms crossed as he waited for us. Why the hell was he so cranky today? He pushed the chair out next to him with his foot so Kai could set me down.
A bowl of soup sat at each spot and a stack of grilled cheese cut diagonally—the only correct way to cut it—was in the middle of the table. They all watched me, waiting until I had taken the first piece before helping themselves. I almost never had grilled cheese made with real cheese. The cheap plasticky stuff that melted down into cheese-flavored glue was more my speed, but I couldn’t deny that having a proper cheddar was fucking delicious. I dunked every bite in the soup, wiggling happily.
I was pretty sure at one point Jerry had known how to cook, but as soon as we’d moved in together it was like he had forgotten the skill entirely, leaving the meals to me. He had never been very happy with meals like this, but they were so nostalgic for me that they were my immediate go-to whenever he was out of town.
I inhaled three of the half-sandwiches before finally sitting back, patting my food baby with a deep breath.
“How did you fit all of that in there?” Amir asked, amusement coloring his tone. “You’re so tiny.”
“I need the fuel. Besides, I can fit three cocks inside me and I don’t think the sandwiches are any bigger than that.”
Diego choked on his soup, laughing between gasping breaths. Kai had luckily not been eating when I said that, and had his mouth covered with his hand, his shoulders shaking.
I beamed at them. Sure, maybe the joke was a little bit crude, but I liked that I could make them laugh.
“My cock takes up more space than a sandwich,” Amir grumbled.
“Do you still want to go shopping for new clothes today?” Miles asked, changing the subject.
“I wouldn’t say no to some fresh clothes. What I brought with me is going to get old fast, and I can’t exactly be running around in your shirts in public.”
“Sure you can,” said Amir. “Add a belt and it’s no different than any other dress.”
“Tell me you don’t know anything about fashion without telling me you don’t know anything about fashion.” I stuck my tongue out at him. “I need at least a few more basics.”
The whole pack took me to the outlet mall. I didn’t want to keep them for too long, so I mostly stuck to brands I already bought from to grab a few easy things that were replicas of what I used to have.
“We should definitely go through here,” said Kai, pointing out one of the lingerie stores.
“Sure, pick out anything you want and I can try it on.”
That was the wrong thing to say because Kai took off like a kid in a candy store. Diego followed after him, leaving me with Miles and Amir.
“Pick some things for yourself,” said Miles. “We both know they’re not going to choose anything practical.”
He wasn’t wrong. It was more than a little awkward to dig through the on-sale panties with the two of them hovering and Amir looking like he would rather be anywhere else.
“You can leave if you want to,” I told him.
“We’re supposed to make sure you’re safe.”
“Well, if you’re going to stay, could you at least not look like you’re being held at gunpoint to be shopping with me?”
“You’re supposed to be looking at the clothes, not at me.”
“I would love to do that but you’re walking around over here with a little storm cloud over your head.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
“Seriously, just go do whatever you want. Miles is with me, and Kai and Diego are, like, ten feet away.”
Amir considered for a few moments before nodding. “One of you text me when you’re ready to go.”
He disappeared, leaving me with Miles, and I tried not to feel the cut of his rejection. Easier said than done.
I put on every item Kai and Diego picked out, but refused to show them in the store, knowing that if I caught sight of the heat in their eyes, we would end up doing something that would get us kicked out. They could wait until we got home to see the items before they ripped them off.
By the end of the afternoon, I had a decent start at a proper wardrobe. Miles had insisted on paying for my clothes. The second I had tried to pull out my own card to buy anything all day—lunch, lemonade, soft pretzels—one of their hands would whip out to replace it with their own.
Hot damn. A girl could get used to that.