40. Maisie
maisie
Maybe I’m being dramatic, but I’m pacing all over the living room, Fergus following me as if he’s my shadow as all three of my Alphas sit on the couch across from me.
Birdie’s out of heat, and I’m just anxious to talk to her. Did she have a good experience? Did she bond with anyone? Is she feeling okay? Did they take care of her?
“Maisie, come here,” Greer says, and I follow suit, immediately coming to stand between his legs. Fergus plops his head on Lain’s lap for comfort and I get it. “Birdie is fine. Remember how tired you were? I’m sure she’s just sleeping and as soon as she feels up to it, you’ll be able to see her.”
I give him a firm nod. But there’s also the other side of everything. I’ve got to tell her that they’re all my scent matches and that I bonded with Greer, but she’ll be able to see that right away. What will she think?
We only briefly talked about staying, but now I’m all in. What if the heat went the opposite direction for her?
“Love, you’re stressing Fergus out,” Lain says, and I take a deep breath, and plop down between Greer and Callum, which really isn’t much room. I mostly end up on top of the both of them.
“If for whatever reason things didn’t go well for her, she can stay here, right?”
“That’s absolutely not the case, but of course she can,” Callum says first, which actually calms my nerves a little bit. In fact, I swirl on his lap so I’m facing him.
“What has Graham said?”
“They’re just as fucked up about her as we are about you. He’s with her now, she’s fine.”
“I won’t stop feeling anxious until I see her. Can you make something comforting to eat?” I ask him. The Alpha puffs out his chest, giving me a kiss on my temple and makes his way to the kitchen.
Lain whistles. “He would have told me to eat dog food. I’m so glad you’re staying.”
He messed up though, cause at the mention of dog food, Fergus is drooling and wagging his tail out of control, waiting to be fed.
“Alright, alright,” Lain says, petting down my hair as he gets up to go feed Fergus.
It’s just me and Greer on the couch and he easily wraps an arm around me.
He’s become a bit of a comfort blanket for me and I don’t even care.
I don’t need to be the strongest person in the room.
My feelings don’t need to be bottled up to be palatable.
He loves me for who I am, and it’s more than I could have ever asked for.
My phone chimes with a text from Birdie, and I nearly fly off the couch.
“Can you drive me to the farm?” I ask Greer.
“Of course I can. Just let me grab the keys.”
I feel bad that Callum was making food for me, but I’ve got to make sure Birdie is alright.
He lets the other Alphas know that we’re headed to see Birdie and the whole ride I’m bouncing my leg in anticipation. Greer plops a reassuring massive hand on my thigh and squeezes, his calming nature a soothing balm through the bond.
The moment we park, I’m out of the car and knocking on the front door. Greer trails behind me quickly in long strides.
Graham is the one to open the door with a reassuring smile. I’m immediately smacked with all their scents, and it takes me a moment to recover.
Scenting other people besides my mates is something I’m going to have to get used to now that I’m not on scent blockers or deodorizers. My nose twitches and Greer comes up to my side as I look at Callum’s brother.
“Where is she?” I ask, no time for niceties.
Graham blinks at me and points to the kitchen.
I don’t spare him another word as I make my way to the kitchen, wondering if I’ll find a distressed Birdie or worse. Yet, here she sits on her largest Alpha, Jamie’s lap, being hand fed crackers and cheese.
“Maisie!” she says cheerfully, getting out of his arms and coming to hug me.
She smells like all of them, which isn’t bad, but still something new to get used to.
“Can you guys give us some privacy?” Birdie asks and they do.
“Are you okay? Is everything good?” I ask, looking her over.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” she says, her eyes landing on my bond mark. “Holy fuck. Greer?”
“How did you know?”
Birdie shrugs, “I don’t know, he just seems to help get you out of your head. It makes sense that you bonded with him.”
“What about you?” I ask, as we both pull up our respective stools in the bright farm-house kitchen.
Birdie smiles, and she tells me everything, and I listen intently.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my sister this happy, and it surges through me, too.
I came here thinking this was going to be a painful trip, balancing work, trying to reconnect with my sister, and yet here we are, feeling more connected than ever before.
She talks animatedly, and there’s no way I could ever think she wasn’t fully in love. They’ve got a plan in place, and they support her art. They love her free spirit.
I spent a lot of time thinking no one could ever love me for me, but I always had that with my sister. No matter our differences, no matter our time apart, we were connected in a way that was unbreakable.
I’m off my stool, hugging her tight, which she returns.
“I love you so much, Birdie,” I tell her softly. “I’m so happy for you.”
She squeezes me hard one more time before pulling back, and I tell her everything. How I knew they were my scent matches, how I needed to tell them first, memories of my heat. She gets a good laugh out of the eye mask being lit on fire.
“I had already decided to stay, but I knew I needed Greer to anchor me. I haven’t bonded with Lain or Callum yet.”
Her throat bobs and she glances at me with affection.
“Are you planning on making them wait long?”
I bite my lip and shake my head. “No, especially not Lain.”
“That’s true. Make Callum work for it and all. You look lighter, Maisie.”
“I feel lighter. Oh, there’s something else.”
“What else could possibly be bigger than finding your scent matches and bonding with one of them?”
“I’m kinda getting two and a half million dollars for being wrongfully terminated,” I say, and Birdies eyes go wide.
“What the fuck?” she whispers out.
“Right? So yeah. What a week?”
“What a fucking week indeed.”
We stay at the farmhouse for so long that Lain and Callum come over.
Callum and Graham find themselves busy in the kitchen and the other guys are doing a bean bag toss in the yard as Birdie and I sit on the porch swing together.
The tension that first haunted us on this trip is completely gone. In a matter of weeks we’ve gone from estranged relatives back to the twin sisters we were growing up.
“Do you think Mom knew it would end up like this?” I ask.
Birdie snorts. “I don’t think she could have possibly known everything that was going to happen, but she knew this place would bring us back together.”
I rest my head on her shoulder and she leans her head on mine as Graham and Callum come to the backyard with plates of food.
Everyone is happy smiles, and as I look around so much of the fear I had slips away.
This is where I belonged all along.
I don’t even miss working for Dermdes. None of my old coworkers even reached out to me to see if I was okay. The high-pressure job, the title, it was all something I used to fill this void I didn’t even know I had.
Now I have these people in my life that hold a piece of my heart, and that void isn’t there anymore. I know without a doubt everything is as it’s meant to be.
My sister laughs and smiles with her pack, and I do the same as the night goes on.
Mom, your Omega daughters are going to be just fine, I think to myself and in that moment I let so much of the bullshit go and finally let myself be happy.