16. Nelly
Nelly
My heart comes alive when I see Beau.
That's… new.
Levi steps aside immediately. "Looks like the outside tried to drown you, Talcott."
Beau huffs out a quiet laugh as he steps into the apartment. Rainwater drips from the ends of his hair and the shoulders of his dress shirt as he slides the grocery bags down into his palms.
"Apparently we all had the same idea," he says as he nudges the door shut with his foot.
"Sheriff over here bought enough supplies to survive the apocalypse," Levi says.
Nash folds his arms over his chest. "I did not."
Levi points toward me. "He bought her a stuffed animal and some blankets, too."
My cheeks instantly burn.
Nash clears his throat. "For nesting purposes. She's struggling. I don't want her to struggle."
That makes my cheeks burn even hotter as Beau looks at me. His lips twitch like he's trying not to smile before he sets the grocery bags down at his feet.
"That's… surprisingly thoughtful," he says.
Nash grunts something incoherent and I try not to think about it too much. Because he's right.
It was thoughtful for Nash to do that.
Stupidly thoughtful.
And I don't like how it makes me feel all warm and mushy inside.
My fingers curl tighter into the excess fabric of Levi's oversized shirt as I shuffle back to the window.
It's really coming down out there, and I can't help but think of the house.
It's been a while since The Grove has had a storm system sweep us away like this.
We don't usually get this kind of rain in the mountains.
Beau's gaze settles on me. I can see his muted reflection in the window, something careful in his expression now. Almost tentative.
And guilt immediately punches me in the throat.
I know I need to talk with him about what happened between the two of us. I used him, is what I did. Maybe not intentionally. It felt right in that moment. But still, getting right back to work without so much as a conversation was definitely a dick move.
The memory flashes through my brain and my thighs squeeze together. Beau beneath me on that couch, running hot through my veins. It's like I can still feel his hands on my hips, not guiding so much as hanging on for dear life. And God, the sounds he made when I—
I shake my head. Nope. Not thinking about that right now.
Absolutely not.
My thighs squeeze together again just as a violent crack of thunder explodes overhead and makes me yelp.
Every head in the apartment whips toward me.
"Well," Levi says slowly, "there it is."
I whip around and glare at him. "Don't."
"You're scared of storms?" Beau asks gently.
I don't look at him. "No."
Lightning flashes bright through the windows as another boom rattles the apartment.
I flinch so hard my shoulders jump.
Levi points at me. "That's fear."
I turn back toward the window. "No, that's just a completely reasonable biological response to the sky trying to kill us."
Nash watches me in the reflection of the window. He makes his way toward me, cloaking me in his shadow before he reaches for the blind cord.
"Don't," I warn.
"It's not good for you to dwell on something you can't fix," he says.
Then, he snaps the blinds shut.
"You don't own me," I say as I look up at him.
"No, I don't," he says as his gaze locks with mine. "But you have to stop watching the storm. You're only going to fray your nerves. Whatever comes with the house, we'll deal with it after the storm system passes."
I march away from the window and drop back down onto Levi's couch. "Whatever."
Nash sighs. "You're obsessing, and it's only going to make things worse."
I scoff. "Excuse me?"
"You're obsessing, Nelly, and you know it. There's nothing you can fix right now. You did everything you could, and now we just have to wait."
I thrust my arm toward the window. "My house is out there!"
"And staring through Levi's blinds trying to manifest a clear view of it isn't going to magically stop the rain."
"I hate you."
"I know."
Guilt fills me as Levi snorts into his coffee. Beau cups a hand over his mouth, and it makes me grind my teeth together. I don't hate Nash. He's a good man. Stoic, sure. A bit surly when it comes to his Alpha side, absolutely. But he's safe, and he does a damn good job protecting this town.
I just don't like not being in control.
"Nash, you don't understand," I murmur as I sink down into Levi's very comfortable couch, "that grading needed another layer of gravel before Levi plucked me off my feet and—"
"Oh, so now this is my fault?" Levi asks.
"It's mud, Nelly," Nash says.
"It's structural mud, Nash," I echo.
"That's not a thing," he fires back.
"It's absolutely a thing," Beau interjects.
"All of you sound insane," Levi says through his chuckling.
"At least I know how to express my emotions instead of bottling them up," I say as I shoot Nash a look, "unlike some people in this room."
His hands move to his hips. "I'm expressive."
"You vacuum your curtains."
"That's called 'cleanliness.'"
Levi lets out a laugh and Nash turns his attention to him. "Shut up, Levi."
That gets his laughter to stop. "You shut up, Nash."
"How about everyone shut up?" Beau asks.
Levi saunters over to Nash. "You know Nelly's more than welcome to stay here if she wants. I'm sure my couch is much more comfortable for nesting than yours."
Nash's expression hardens. "She already has a safe place to stay. She's got her things where she wants them. It makes no sense to uproot her when she's already scared of the storm."
Beau sits down next to me and leans over toward my ear. "Got any popcorn?"
I crack a smile as I watch the two Alphas go toe-to-toe with one another.
Over me.
There's a fluttery feeling in my stomach when Beau's thigh presses against mine.
"Yeah, well," Levi says with a scoff, "she clearly likes my couch better."
"I hate your couch less, there's a difference," I say.
"Wow," Nash says with a grin, "what a glowing endorsement."
I sigh. "Guys, really. I'm fine where I—"
"She's staying with me. Stop trying to yank her around just because you've been acting weird lately," Nash says.
Levi's eyes narrow. "You don't own her, Nash. She can go where she pleases."
Something dangerously close to a growl vibrates in Nash's chest, and that's when Beau stands.
"Awww, the show already done?" I ask with a mocking pout.
Beau slides between the two of them, his voice smooth and calm. "Okay. Everyone needs to just take a breath before the testosterone in this room poisons the air and chokes us all out."
That makes me snort, because he's right. Their scents are filling the room quicker than my instincts can bat them away. And damn it, they both smell divine.
All of them do, really.
I don't know what that's about, either.
"You're both acting a bit ridiculous," Beau says as his head pans from one Alpha to the other. "Nelly's more than capable of deciding where she wishes to ride out the storm. She knows she's safe with all three of us. So, wherever she needs to be at a moment's notice, that's where she'll be. Right?"
I hold up my hands in surrender. "Hey, I'm just enjoying the party. Don't drag me into this."
Another flash of lightning makes me brace as thunder slams down onto The Grove. It sounds like a damn bomb going off, and I have to swallow down another yelp when I flinch. But then, something unexpected happens. Something that makes this whole situation worse.
A deep ache rolls through my middle.
Oh, no.
No, no, no.
Please, dear God, not now.
The room keeps moving around me while Beau tries to defuse the tension. I lock my eyes with the floor and go as still as I can. The pain drops into my hips and morphs into an invisible vise that cranks against the bone. Warmth spreads through my veins. Lead settles in my limbs.
I close my eyes and count the weeks since my last heat.
"No," I whisper under my breath.
I'm not far enough along in my heat cycle for this to be happening. I should have at least another month. Yeah, sure, I know stress triggers things early. I know fear can do the same thing.
As well as scents.
Beautiful scents.
The scents of all three men my lungs want to drown in.
Oh my god. I don't have a proper nest to have my heat in. Panic slams into me so hard that my vision swims. I can't go into heat here. Not in an apartment complex full of Alphas. Not with Levi smelling like smoke and ink. Not with Nash's instincts already halfway feral.
Not with Beau smiling at me like I hung the sun just for him.
Speaking of Beau. "Nelly?"
I blink hard before the couch shifts beside me. The room tilts, and something both hot and cold floods through me. My limbs go heavy while my head goes floaty, and fear cramps around my heart.
"Hey, Nelly," Beau says as he crooks his finger beneath my chin and pulls my attention to his face. "Talk to me. What's going on?"
"Well," Levi says quietly, "that explains a lot."
God, he can smell it. Of course he can. "Don't say it like that. Shut up."
"Nelly," Beau says as his hand falls to my knee and squeezes softly, "when's your heat supposed to start?"
My voice is a helpless whimper. "Not for another month."
"Come on," Nash says, his voice swimmy in my head, "let's get you back downstairs and tucked into bed."
"I'm okay," I whisper as I try to stand. "Beau?"
"I gotcha," he says as his hands wrap around my arm.
My legs wobble when I try to get up, and my knees buckle. But before Beau can even react, a pair of impossibly strong arms comes around me. They band around my waist and hold me steady, and my head falls to a very warm chest.
I breathe in deep, and the scent of cedarwood and leather fills my lungs.
"Nash," I whisper.
"I gotcha, Nelly," he murmurs. "We won't move until you're ready."
His voice is so soft that it slams something deeper into my gut. Something that makes me want to bury my nose into the crook of his neck and never come up for air.
"What can I do?" Levi asks. "Let me do something."
Nash's voice rumbles through his body, vibrating my forehead against his chest. "Go downstairs and grab all of the things off my couch. Take them to the second door on the right down the hallway. That's where Nelly's staying. Let's see if we can't get her comfortable nesting in that bed, at least."
"It's not time," I whisper.
"I know," he murmurs. "I'm going to scoop you up whenever you're ready."
"I'll count us down," Beau says as he rubs my back. "One."
I whimper softly.
"Two," he says calmly.
"Okay," I whisper.
"Three," Beau says.
And then, Nash scoops me up like I weigh nothing.