20. Hazel
Chapter 20
Hazel
T he drive back to the pack house was somewhat awkward with Sebastian in the back seat.
“Are you sure you want him to come with us, Duchess?” Roman asked, glancing in the rearview mirror at him.
“Just for a day or two, so he knows that I’m safe.”
“If you’re sure, though I reserve the right to punch him again if he upsets you,” he said as he turned onto the street that led to the pack house.
“I’m right here, you know. I can hear every word you’re saying.”
“Well, crap.” I sighed in an overdramatic voice. “And here I was, thinking you’d lost your ability to hear.”
Seb snorted. “If any of us is going to lose our hearing, Hazelnut, it’s going to be you.”
“What?” Roman’s voice was sharp.
“Hazel likes to listen to music while wearing earbuds at top volume. She does it constantly, no matter what I tell her, and I can always hear the song from clear across the room.”
“I like loud music when I study.” I pouted.
“Duchess, that isn’t safe.” Roman frowned, looking between Seb and me, concern on his face. “You won’t be doing that again.”
I raised my eyebrows at him before turning to look at Seb in the back seat. “If you’re going to gang up on me, I will kick you out myself. Or worse, I’ll give your number to that puck bunny who wouldn’t stop stalking you last year. I’m sure she’d be really interested to know what you’re up to now.”
He raised his hands in surrender. “I’ll behave for now. Don’t go giving my number out to psychopaths, please. But when it comes to your safety, I’m still going to tell them.” He shrugged.
I opened my mouth to say something rude, but Roman’s laugh cut me off. “You know what, Coombs? You’re not all that bad. It could be useful to have someone that has insider information on Duchess around.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Two years ago, the doctors wanted her to walk more, in general, so she and a bunch of friends got those step-tracking watches and had a little contest—you know what this woman did?”
“Come on, that was not my proudest moment, and it worked out for the best, anyway,” I grumbled.
“She fluctuated between making me wear the damn thing when I went for my runs or putting it on the leash of her friend’s dog.”
Roman burst into laughter. “Okay, that is quite smart, Duchess.”
“I got the gift card to the ice cream shop, didn’t I? And I shared it with you, Sebastian, so shut your mouth.”
“But you lay in your nest and hardly moved for weeks.”
“I was conserving energy,” I said primly.
“She also thinks a bag of gummy worms is a meal,” Sebastian said, a grin clear in his voice.
I looked forward, but I could feel Roman’s eyes boring into me.
“Duchess…”
“Hush. They’re delicious.”
“Yes, they’re delicious, but you’re pregnant. Please don’t tell me you think gummy bears are a whole meal.”
“Gummy worms, and no. I also have chocolate with them—don’t you two growl at me!”
As soon as the car pulled into the drive, I didn’t hesitate to open my door and stomp toward the pack house, ignoring the two alphas I was leaving behind.
“Hey, sweetness, you okay?” Cormac asked as I made a beeline for the fridge. He was walking down the stairs with an empty box in hand, clearly having just been to whatever room was going to be my nest.
“They’re ganging up on me!” I growled as I opened the fridge door with a bit more force than needed. Glancing through the shelves in between the half-eaten blocks of cheese, the protein shakes, and the vegetables, I found what I was looking for.
Chocolate.
It felt like the perfect time for a snack. Without preamble, I opened up the bar of chocolate and took a bite, turning to look at the doorway, where Roman was standing, his eyebrows raised as he took in the sight of me.
“Pregnancy cravings,” I said simply, closing the fridge door and taking another bite.
“You’re going to be a handful, aren’t you, Duchess?”
I nodded. If the alphas planned on ganging up on me, I was going to make their lives hell.
A small part of me loved the idea of having my best friend near as I went through this insane experience of living with three random alphas who got me pregnant, but now, I was beginning to see the downsides of such an arrangement.
Sebastian knew me very well, probably a little too well.
“Okay.” Cormac drew out the word. “I think it’s best I take Hazel to see her new room before you guys start snapping at each other’s throats.” As he spoke, he gently wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me toward the hallway and up the stairs. “Want to explain what’s going on there?”
“Sebastian’s telling Roman all my deep, dark secrets. Even though he hates Roman, he’s telling on me, that I ate gummy worms for dinner. That was one time! Okay, maybe two, three, at most!” I babbled.
Cormac hummed, pulling me along the hall, pushing me gently through an open door. My rambling was cut off when I took in the space.
Phillip was standing on the far side of the room, next to a very large bed that was completely bare. Next to it sat several of my nest boxes.
That wasn’t what grabbed my attention, though.
No, it was the walls .
They were beautiful.
They had been painted—recently, judging by the smell—to look like a pink and purple sky full of clouds.
The pastel clouds reminded me of a watercolor painting. It was tranquil and truly beautiful.
“Whoa,” I whispered, turning and taking in the room. Other than the walls, it was a blank canvas, and my hands were already itching to open my boxes of nesting supplies and start making the room mine.
Cormac dipped out of the room to grab another box of supplies from the car, leaving just Phillip and me.
“Do you like it?” Phillip asked, looking at the walls. “We can change it.”
“Don’t you dare change it!” My words came out in a rush. “I love it.”
A smile graced his face as he nodded happily. “Good. Are you tired? Do you want to take a nap in Roman’s room, or do you want us to help you build the nest?”
I looked at the empty mattress, chewing on my lip. Ideally, I would build the nest myself. There was something about other people touching the nesting materials as I was trying to make the nest that was inherently annoying to me. It had something to do with my omega instincts demanding I build the nest.
At the same time, I was still rather weak, given everything that had happened, so I could probably use the help.
“Is it okay if I do it, then instruct you on the things I’m okay with you helping with?” I asked. “I know that probably didn’t make much sense, but it does to me.”
“I’m not foolish enough to argue with a pregnant omega. Just tell me where you want me.”
Tied to a bed, naked?
Shaking the thought out of my head, I focused on the boxes. Now was not the time to be having sexy thoughts about the alphas around me. I had nests to build, babies to grow, awkward situations to survive.
“Okay, let’s get to work.”
“Let me get the rest of the boxes. There’s more than just your stuff, if you want it,” Phillip said, wiping his hands on his jeans, not meeting my eye.
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
He turned to look at me, uncertainty clear on his face. “Well, when we picked out the paint for this room, we may have gone a little bit crazy and bought a lot of nesting supplies that matched? Honestly, Roman was like a kid in a candy store, and he had a credit card at his disposal, so we went a bit crazy. You are under zero obligation to use any of the stuff, and if you don’t like it, we will find a new home for it. There’s curtains, I thought we could make a canopy, and I?—”
He was rambling, like he was nervous about my reaction, and that made my chest buzz. Taking two quick steps forward, I wrapped my arms around his midsection and crushed myself to his chest. “Thank you,” I mumbled into his chest.
He hesitated a moment before wrapping his arms around me.“I want you to be comfortable here,” he admitted. “I know it’s a big change.”
“It is,” I agreed, “but I am comfortable with you guys. It’s not exactly logical, but I think I’ll like it here.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to make this work for you.”
I pulled back, smiling up at him. “I know you will. You agreed to Seb staying. That speaks volumes. Now, shall we build a nest?”
Building a nest with Phillip, and Cormac occasionally helping, turned out to be a rather pleasant experience.
I stood off to the side while I instructed them to move or pass me things. My focus was on the order of the blankets and pillows and throws on the nest. The guys, on the other hand, focused on putting up a beautiful pink, glittery, shimmery sheer canopy all around the bed.
It was quite possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I couldn’t believe they had picked it out.
Weren’t men supposed to have notoriously bad taste? Everything they’d chosen in their pile of nesting supplies matched the theme of pastel clouds perfectly.
They had even purchased matching curtains in pastel tones that worked perfectly at blocking out all the light from the large window that had a built-in seat. When I’d entered the room, the seat had been a bare, cold wooden thing, and now it was covered in a number of different pillows and blankets—a mini nest by the window.
“There are fairy lights in that box,” Cormac informed me as he folded a blanket that I didn’t want to keep, putting it in a box of discarded nesting items.
“Fairy lights?” I turned to him with wide eyes.
“Oh yeah, you’ve got choices. There’s one that covers the entire wall, so you can have a wall of shimmering lights. We have a set that can just go around the bed, and we’ve got LEDs. What do you prefer? Personally, I think the ceiling ones are the best.”
“Ceiling ones?”
The pair looked at one another with a smile before Phillip spoke. “Let us set them up.”
When they said fairy lights that went on the ceiling, I certainly didn’t expect the ceiling of my newly constructed nest to have rows of dim lights twinkling like a beautiful twilight.
“Are you trying to make it so I never leave this room?” I asked seriously. “Because this nest is way better than the nest I had back at Dallas House.”
“Good!” Cormac said, leaning over to plant a kiss on my cheek. “Only the best for you, sweetness.”
Taking a step back, I took in the nest in its entirety.
It was perfect.
Dimly lit, comfortable, and more importantly, it smelled like all the alphas.
With a happy squeak, I jumped into the nest, rolling around a few times until I was comfortable.
“You like it?” Cormac asked.
“It’s pretty perfect,” I agreed with a happy nod.
“Why don’t you lie down for a bit? It’s getting late,” Phillip suggested.
Minutes later, I was out like a light, lulled into an easy sleep, surrounded by my familiar nest and the scents of my alphas.