Chapter 9
“ Y ou can’t get rid of a bondmate.” I kept telling Luke that, and he kept performing some Olympian-level mental gymnastics to get around that reality.
“But she could.”
I grabbed his face in my hands. “Stop. She chose Bryce and Jesse. You need to live with that.”
“I don’t want to.”
Luke was fucking pissed, and I watched the chaos, much more of a glass half full kind of guy. Ava might have bonded my packmate and the stranger she had brought with her, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t want me too, and there was no way in hell I was going to let Luke fuck that up for either of us.
Sure, a bond complicated things, but Ava was still our scent match either way. He had history with her, and I had a healthy curiosity.
“I’m going to need you to face some hard facts.”
Luke frowned but didn’t say anything, so I continued.
“Ava doesn’t owe you shit. If you wanted to be with her, you should’ve gone back for her, or at least kept up communication.”
“I know that.”
“You sure aren’t acting like it. My advice would be to start making it up to her, and fast. Bryce has first bond and if you’re going to be a jackass about it, odds are higher she’ll leave you behind than push him out.”
My words hit like bullets, Luke flinching at the truth of my statement.
“And dude, I love you, but I am not letting you fuck up a scent match for me. I’ll follow them to New York if I have to for a chance with Ava.”
“You really think she would leave me behind?”
I shrugged. “You left her.”
“I didn’t know we were scent matches,” he hissed. “And I didn’t leave her , I left a shit situation.”
“Sounds like a conversation you should be having with her.”
I messaged Jesse while Luke was brooding.
Micah:
How is she?
Jesse:
Resting
Micah:
When are you guys coming back to the apartment?
Jesse:
Whenever you can guarantee that Luke is going to be a reasonable person
That cemented it, then. I knew Luke would come around, but I needed him to do it faster than he might like.
Micah:
Can I still see her without him?
Jesse:
She says yes
We need to get her some nesting supplies for the apartment. Do you want to be in charge of that?
Micah:
Hell yes
Jesse:
Have you talked to Kai and Callie yet?
Micah:
No, but I should do that
I’ll call them soon
While Luke was tangled up in his own thoughts, I dialed our new bosses. Luke and I used to work the live heat shows and wrapped up our last contracted performance the previous month. Kai and his pack were all involved with them too and started their own company. I knew they intended to do live performances eventually, but for now they were starting off with live streams and recordings. It made for a more consistent income, which was nice, even if I had always liked seeing the lump sum deposits from doing the shows.
Callie answered on the second ring. “Hey, Micah! What’s up?”
“Hey there, boss lady. I have news.”
“Good or bad?”
“Good overall, but definitely going to fuck with some plans.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense.”
“We scent matched an omega.”
Callie’s squeak of delight was at a pitch only dogs could hear. “Oh my god, that’s amazing! Tell me everything. Wait, no, let me get the others and put you on speaker.” I could hear her footsteps as she went off in search of her pack, presumably finding them a moment later when she announced, “Okay, go! I’ve got Kai and Amir.”
I told them everything I knew. “There’s some chaos with bondmates not living near each other, so I’m not really sure where we’ll end up, and I’m going to guess she won’t be comfortable with us doing too much work for your studio.”
“You do what you have to do for your omega,” Kai assured me. “The work is there if you want it later.”
“If she wants to stay in Vegas and needs a friend, hit me up,” said Callie. “We’re almost the same amount of pregnant so we’ll have babies close together.”
“I will definitely bring that up to her. I’m hoping she’ll want to stick around here, but who knows. Bryce seems pretty attached to New York.”
“He could change his mind,” said Callie. “You should show him around the city, make sure he knows he can count on the pack that’s already here.”
I barked out a laugh. “Easier said than done with Luke being moody. I’m working on it. If it had just been Jesse, he’d be fine, but for whatever reason he has a stick up his ass about Bryce.”
“Do you want me to talk to him?” Amir offered. “I have a bit of expertise on pulling heads out of asses about things like this.”
“I’m not going to say no, but I’ll leave it to him to arrange any of that. I’ll keep you guys updated on everything, but I’m guessing we’re not going to get as lucky with Ava in terms of how chill Callie was with sex work.”
Callie’s laugh was bright. “You never know.”
“True. The universe does like to throw some curveballs.”
“Good luck,” said Kai.
“Thanks. We’re going to need it.”
I was glad Callie and her pack were so chill. Management for the live shows had been a bucket of assholes to them when they tried to get out of their contract, and they had built their new business around being flexible and actually giving a shit about the people who worked for them.
Maybe I could switch to cam work. Then I wouldn’t be in anyone else’s bed while Ava was getting settled.
While I was musing, Jesse messaged.
Jesse:
Come to the outlet mall in an hour
Micah:
I’ll be there
Meet up at the nesting store?
Jesse:
You bet
I slipped away from Luke under the guise of picking up groceries, heading over early. When Jesse rolled up with Ava on his arm, my heart stopped. She looked at him so sweetly, a far cry from the tears and panic of the last time I had seen her face.
Ava’s smile turned shy when she noticed me and Jesse whispered something in her ear, getting a nod out of her before he nudged her closer and announced he was going to go get a soft pretzel before handing me Bryce’s credit card and walking away.
“Hi.” She looked up at me with mesmerizing hazel eyes and pink cheeks.
“Hi there. Ready to shop?”
I wasn’t sure if that beautiful blush was because she was nervous around me or embarrassed. My heart switched over to a gallop when she let me take her hand.
I was well aware that my alone time with her would probably be limited going forward, so I was determined to take advantage of this gift Jesse had given me. I asked her a million questions from her favorite foods (Cuban sandwich with extra pickles for her, meatball sub for me), to education (degree in community studies for her, marketing and communications diploma for me), to possible baby names (torn between too many to know for sure, but I did get a laugh when I suggested naming the baby after me). It was a relief that she seemed as curious about me as I was of her.
“How much do you think we should rack up on this card?” I asked, holding up Bryce’s sleek black credit card. “I kind of figured he had money, but the limit on this thing has to be more than I make in a year.”
Ava’s eyes widened.
“Did you not know your bondmate was rich?”
“I never asked.”
At least that meant she hadn’t jumped on bonding him first for his bank account. He’d have probably given it to her either way, but not even knowing he had money was an interesting highlight on her character.
“Did he give you a shopping limit?”
Ava shook her head.
“Would you feel better if you asked first before we bought anything?”
“Yes please.” She pulled out a phone that was definitely not hers, and that’s when I remembered Luke still had hers because her baby daddy had been losing his ever-loving shit.
We waited for Bryce’s response, completing a full loop of the store so Ava could see everything that was on offer.
“He says I can get anything I want and that money is no object.” Ava’s eyebrows pinched together. “Do people actually say that in real life?”
“Rich ones do.”
Ava pursed her lips. “Money has always been an object for me.”
“We’ll start small and get you the basics. For as long as we’re in the apartment, I assume you will be staying in Jesse’s room. It needs an omega’s touch.”
“What counts as the basics?”
“At least a half dozen pillows and enough blankets that I could lose you in the pile.”
Ava laughed, and whenever I caught her looking longingly at something, I added it to the cart. Bryce had already given permission; might as well use it to make sure she was comfortable while she stayed with us.
I coaxed her into a few extras: a new sheet set and the fuzziest blanket poncho I had ever laid eyes on that she immediately tugged over her head.
“If you go to New York,” I said while she was elbows-deep in a mountain of decorative plushies shaped like succulents, “can I come with?”
She tilted her head, taking me in. “It’s Bryce’s place there so you would have to ask him, but I’m fine if you want to come. We have a lot more getting to know each other to do.”
Those words were another relief. Her being bonded to Jesse and Bryce created extra competition for me, but I was nothing if not determined. If she ended up not wanting me, I would have to make peace with that, but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
She leaned against me as we stood in line to pay, relaxing when I wrapped my arm over her shoulders. Her sweet pecan praline scent was a gentle cloud around her, peaceful and content. After the baby was born and weaned, her scent would probably shift. I wasn’t sure how much of the creaminess was because of the pregnancy and how much was her natural scent. Either way she was delicious, and my crisp apple scent blended with her praline, making the two of us smell like the caramel apples I always got at the state fair as a kid.
“Question.”
“Answer.” She stuck her tongue out at me.
Too fucking cute. “So I know you told me that you were working on a community housing project with a nonprofit in San Jose. Would you be interested in continuing that work?”
“Definitely. I really loved it for the time that I did it,” she replied.
“My mom runs a nonprofit here. A big one. I could reach out to her, get you connected.”
Ava chewed her lip. “If we stay here, I would love that.”
“She’ll want to meet you anyway. She can be a bit prickly at first, but she warms up fast, and I know she’s going to love you the second she meets you.”
“How do you know that?”
I didn’t give a shit if it was fate or hormones, or what the fuck ever. Being around Ava was a peace I hadn’t anticipated, and I planned on sticking around as long as she let me.
“Because—” I kissed the top of her head. “—I’m well on my way to that myself.”