Chapter 28
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Dhara
“Wait... No.” Gavin stared at the three men who had completely stolen my heart. I stood just behind them, already fighting tears as he tried to convince them it was too much.
“You need this gear if you’re going to end up with a career like ours,” Conrad said firmly.
“We picked this stuff because we know it works,” Lachlan added. “We trust this brand and know you’ll be safer with it.”
That hit me right in the chest. They were better father figures for my brother than I ever could have imagined.
“But...” Gavin’s voice cracked. “It’s too much.”
“If we couldn’t afford it,” August said gently, “or if we didn’t want to do it, we wouldn’t. I know trusting people is hard but you can trust us.”
Silence stretched between them. They didn’t rush him just like they didn’t rush me. Finally, Gavin nodded.
“Okay.” The word came out shaky. We were more alike than I realized.
The salesman, who’d respectfully stepped away to give us a moment, cautiously approached again.
“So, you’d like to purchase all of this?” he asked as he looked from the pile to the rest of us.
“Yes.” Conrad didn’t hesitate. “We’ll take everything. Do you offer delivery? That’d save us a lot of trouble.”
“Absolutely. I’ll get everything arranged.” He motioned Conrad toward the register to settle the bill and leave our address.
I stepped beside Gavin, wrapping my arms around him.
He looked at me uncertainly. “This is okay, right?”
“It is.” I squeezed him tighter. “If they want to take care of us we should let them. They’re our pack. We’re meant to lean on each other. And one day we’ll take care of them, too.”
That finally seemed to finally click just like it had for me earlier that day.
He smiled. “We will.”
His attention drifted back to the mountain of equipment. The guys hadn’t held back. Every piece was top-of-the-line.
I understood why it overwhelmed him. But if they wanted to help build Gavin’s future how could I say no?
Even if I would have to remind myself of that same lesson when we reached the nesting store.
The pack led us out of the sporting goods store and into the rest of the mall. This place was enormous. Gavin and I had spent years shopping almost exclusively at thrift stores and discount outlets.
Once my mother took “her” share of every paycheck there was never much left.
Walking through stores like these almost felt wrong. Part of me still expected someone to stop us and point out that we didn’t belong here.
One day I’d contribute. I’d find my own way to give back to this family.
“We’re going to have to get you to the arena early,” Conrad said as we walked. “We need to break in that gear before your next game. You don’t want to step onto the ice wearing brand-new equipment.”
“Okay.” Gavin nodded seriously.
Every ounce of kindness these men showed my little brother made me fall a little harder for them.
Being surrounded by their scents all day didn’t exactly help. They grew even stronger as we spent more time together.
Lachlan slipped in behind me. His arms wrapped gently around my waist, pulling me back against his chest.
Without thinking, I leaned into him. My omega sighed contentedly. Apparently, we’d both decided we liked being constantly touched.
“You still look worried, gorgeous.” His voice rumbled softly beside my ear. The warmth of his breath sent a pleasant shiver down my spine.
The moment he asked, every worry I’d been pushing aside came rushing back.
“I need to make an appointment at the clinic.” The words came out quietly. I swallowed hard. “I want you guys to come with me.”
Lachlan didn’t hesitate. “Of course, we will. We’ll all be there. I can give you a copy of our practice schedule. That way you can book a bit easier.”
Another piece of the weight I’d been carrying quietly lifted. “That would really help.”
He kissed the top of my head. “You don’t have to do scary things alone anymore.”
By the time Conrad, August, and Gavin caught back up with us, we were already moving toward the next stop.
“The nesting store,” August announced dramatically. He flashed me a grin. He was far more excited about this than was strictly necessary.
Even though I was uneasy about it, I was also excited. I’d barely gotten to explore that side of myself. I wanted to know what my omega actually liked. And I wanted to let all three of them discover that with me.
Gavin slowed in front of a gaming store. His eyes were glued to the display window.
“You play video games?” Lachlan asked. His attention immediately shifted to my brother.
Gavin shrugged. “My mom was never going to spend money on something fun.”
Lachlan looked toward the storefront. “We’ve got almost every console at the pack house, heck, half of them are in your room now anyway. Want to go look?” He looked at me. “As long as that’s okay.”
If Gavin wanted something as simple as video games, I wanted him to have that chance. He deserved to be a kid.
“Go for it,” I said. Gavin let out a whoop and gave me a hug.
“Why don’t you two head in there?” Conrad suggested. “Gavin isn’t going to enjoy wandering through a nesting store.”
“I’ll catch up,” Lachlan agreed easily.
I reached up and brushed a kiss across his lips. “Thank you for being so good to him.”
His expression softened. “You both make it ridiculously easy to love you.”
Then he kissed me again before disappearing into the gaming store with Gavin.
August immediately hooked his arm through mine and Conrad moved to my other side. Together they steered me toward the nesting boutique as if they thought I might run.
“Listen, firecracker.” August’s teasing smile faded into something gentler. “I know this is going to be hard. You hate people doing things for you. But this isn’t just for you. It’s for all of us. We need our omega settled. We want a nest that actually feels like yours.”
“I’ll try,” I said. I meant it, too.
He nudged my shoulder. “When your omega tells you she likes something… just try to listen to her.”
As if it were that easy. If I’d known how to simply hand the reins over to my omega, wouldn’t I have done it years ago?
Or at least, the moment I found them.
“Why don’t we just walk around and you tell us what speaks to you?” Conrad suggested.
I let out a breath through my nose before forcing myself to move.
I walked ahead of them, going down the aisles slowly.
My fingers brushed over the soft fabrics as I took in all of the random decorations and bedding.
I’d never seen so many colors and textures of blankets, pillows, and sheets in my life.
They’d done such a good job with the nest that the basics were already done. I had plenty of bedding, sheer fabric over the walls, and twinkle lights that warmed the room to just the right level of dimness that my omega craved.
All it was missing was my touches.
We kept going past the bedding and into the random decorations. Maybe starting with the accents in the room would make it a bit easier to pin down the things that called out to me.
How pathetic was it that I didn’t even know if I really had a favorite color or if I liked cute or practical things?
The stress was climbing by the minute until finally August put a hand up to stop us.
“This isn’t working, and I’m not going to let this turn into a stressful mess. Let’s go check out the pre-done nests. You can look around and tell us any of the aspects you like, even if it’s one thing from every single one of them or nothing from any of them.”
“Okay,” I agreed easily because he was right. This was not how I wanted to spend my time.
The pre-made nests were adorable. They were little alcoves decorated to look like miniature nests. Some had sunset and ocean themes, others had night skies. There were several that were done by color and a couple more with cute gothic aesthetics.
My eyes scanned over each one meticulously, taking in every detail, but nothing so far had jumped out at me.
“I think I really like earth tones and green,” I managed, pointing over to a boho-themed one. I liked the macramé, hanging plants, and gauzy fabrics. They were soft and light, and they just looked so serene and inviting.
“Okay... I really like this one,” I said again, a little louder this time, standing in front of it and taking in all the aspects.
“We may have painted the nest too dark for this. We should probably pick out a new paint color,” Conrad said.
But I shook my head quickly.
“No, no. I like the color. Everything about the nest is perfect. I just think I’d like to add some of these elements in.”
I didn’t want a picture-perfect nest. I wanted something that meant something. The fact that the guys had created that for me and had given me a base to go off of was everything. I wouldn’t change a single detail, but I also wanted to make it mine.
In the end, we found darker versions of all the boho things I liked instead of the whites and creams. It was black and dark greens, and I loved them so much that I could feel my omega practically bursting with excitement.
“I’m so proud of you,” Conrad said, leaning in and pressing a kiss to my forehead.
My eyes watered, and I couldn’t really explain why other than the fact that it felt so intimate and caring.
These men proved every single day that I’d made the right choice by letting them in. They’d kept every promise they’d made me so far, and I knew they would do anything in their power to keep doing just that.
Lachlan
“Are there any genres you like?” I asked as we started walking through the store. “What system do you want to start with?”
“I... I don’t really know,” Gavin stuttered over the words.
“No big deal. I think my favorite one to play on is the PlayStation. How do you feel about that?”
“That’s good,” he said, almost relieved to have a direction.
“Do you think you’d like something with exploration or fighting or something casual?”
He shrugged, glancing over the titles carefully. He was taking this seriously, but I also knew damn well that this kid wasn’t going to go over the top. He was afraid of taking too much already, especially after the gear.
“Well, why don’t we pick out a few different ones? If you don’t end up liking them, one of the other three of us will,” I reassured him quickly, hoping that would help alleviate some of the guilt that I didn’t want him to feel in the first place.
We looked around quietly for a while before he froze and turned to me.
“I’m really glad that you guys found Dhara,” he said quietly, not looking at me but at the floor. “She’s done so much for me. She literally took every hit for me. She deserves something good in her life.” His voice cracked and he had to take a few breaths to fight off the tears.
“You are something good in her life,” I said firmly, leaning down and forcing him to finally meet my eyes.
The moment he did, his blue eyes started to water. I gave his shoulder a squeeze.
“We love your sister, and we want to make her happy, but we also love you. I know that it seems sudden, but the moment we scent-matched with Dhara, we were all in. We wanted this life with you, too. I can’t promise to be a perfect man.
I’ve never been responsible for a preteen,” I admitted with a small laugh, “but I want to do right by you. We want you to tell us if we’re doing something wrong.
But no matter what happens, we will always be here to protect you and give you guys what you need.
That makes us happy. It fulfills us. I need you to understand that, Gavin. ”
He swallowed hard, his eyes wide and full of so much hope and longing that I felt my own eyes watering, too. I blinked the tears away, but I didn’t hide it. He deserved to see that he had an impact on me, too.
Gavin blew out a breath and finally shook his head.
“It’s honestly been so weird... but really great. I like that we get to do things like normal people for once. Having dinners. Going out shopping and being allowed to look at something that might make me happy with no guilt trips or mean words.”
“We have a whole lot of experiences ahead of us,” I promised, “and we want you to know that you’re a priority just the same as Dhara. We’re not going to suddenly pack up and leave you behind, okay? I promise you that.”
“Good,” Gavin said, and the way his shoulders drooped a little, I could tell that had been a fear of his.
This kid might not realize it yet, but he was mine, and we were doing everything we could to fight for him.
Gavin would be officially ours before too long, and his mother would be nothing more than a distant, awful nightmare they’d never have to see again.