Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kiara
Ireach for my phone blindly, blinking my eyes open so I can see why it’s going off.
“Dad?” I ask, confused about why he’s calling me.
“Oh, no, Kiki. Did I get my times wrong? I thought you’d be awake by now. These damn time differences are going to be the death of me.”
I sit up in bed, glancing at my alarm clock. I’m surprised it says it’s after six.
I turn to wake up Crew, only to find the bed empty.
“It looks like Crew decided to let me sleep in,” I tell my dad, rubbing my eyes.
It’s Sunday, and after three days of twelve-hour shifts, I tend to sleep harder than normal.
“Should I call back?”
I climb out of bed, shaking my head as if he can see me. “No, Dad. Absolutely not. It has to be after midnight there. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
Dad chuckles. “We went out for dinner and a show. We just got back to the apartment. Ren’s the only one sleeping right now. The rest of us wanted to stay up and talk to you and Mason. How are things going there?”
“Do you mean have Mason, Alexander, and Davis declared their undying love for me?”
Silence follows my question, and I laugh.
“Hold on. I’m going to mute you while I go to the bathroom and get ready. Give me like five minutes.”
I don’t bother waiting for an answer as I mute the phone and put it on speaker. I can hear a muffled, hissed conversation and laugh to myself as I use the bathroom and wash my hands before brushing my teeth. I run a quick brush through my hair before unmuting the phone.
“So, have you all decided on a cover story yet?” I tease, grabbing Crew’s sweatshirt from the back of the chair and tossing it over my pajamas.
I swim in the damn thing, and it’s way too hot outside to be wearing it, but inside the house, it can be a little cold. I love lounging around in his clothes.
“Why would we need a cover story?” Dad asks.
“Hmmm…so you’re not going to pretend like you didn’t know that they were interested in me, and no one bothered to tell me?”
“It wasn’t our place,” Evelyn’s voice cuts off whatever my dad was about to say. “We were in an awkward position.”
I sigh, running my hand through my hair as I head downstairs. “I guess that’s true. I don’t know who all is home right now since I woke up, but we can jump on a video call if you want.”
Evelyn squeals. “Oh, can we? I miss all of your faces so much.”
“Yeah, I’m sure we can do that.” I stick my head into the kitchen, finding it empty before moving on to the living room, where I get a happy surprise.
Crew is straddling Davis, making out on the couch as Mason and Alexander watch. This wasn’t what I expected, but I am not complaining.
Heat courses through me as I consider who I want to join the most.
“Kiki?” Dad’s voice pulls my attention back to the phone, and since it’s on speakerphone, everyone else’s attention as well.
“Shit. Sorry, Dad. I found them. I’ll get Mason to set up the video chat on the TV, and we’ll call you back, yeah?”
“Yeah. Sure.” Dad hesitates. “Is everything okay?”
I snort, shaking my head as Crew climbs off Davis’s lap with a disgruntled sigh. “Everything’s great. We’ll call you right back.”
As soon as I disconnect the call, I turn my attention to Crew. “I see how it is. You left me sleeping in the bed so you could make out with the hot men downstairs.”
“That’s not—” Crew flushes as he cuts himself off. “Who’s being a brat now?”
“Still you.” I grin as I glance around the room. “As much as I’d love to do more of whatever was just happening, the parental pack is expecting a video call from us any minute now.”
“Fucking great,” Mason grumbles as he pushes to his feet, pausing to rearrange his dick before grabbing the laptop that’s attached to the TV in this room. “Just what I always wanted to do—have a video call with the parental pack while my dick is hard.”
I giggle, hurrying over to sit on Crew’s other side. “I somehow doubt this is the first time it’s happened.”
“She’s not wrong,” Alexander says as he moves to join us on the couch, although he leaves room for Mason to sit on my other side.
“Hell, your parental pack has walked in on us with our cocks out.” Davis snorts. “Damn, that was embarrassing.”
My eyes widen. “When did that happen?”
Alexander grins. “In high school, before your dad joined the pack. We were given a stern talking-to about not doing anything that might sully your innocence if you walked in on us before you moved in.”
“It was so fucking embarrassing,” Mason admits as he turns the TV on and sits in the open spot at my side. “You leave the door unlocked one time—”
“Once was enough. We never made that mistake again.” Davis laughs. “On the upside, all they did was talk to us about being safe. They never made us feel bad for being together—whether it was serious or if we were just experimenting.”
Mason shrugs as he fiddles with the laptop. “Yeah, they’ve always been cool. Even if they’re my parents.”
“I like our parental pack,” I tell him softly, and the smile he shoots at me does things to me.
“Me too.” He sighs, pulling up the video call app and hitting the call button. “Let’s try not to give them anything they can use against us later.”
Before anyone can respond, Delilah’s face appears on the screen.
“Delilah,” I squeal, wishing my stepsister was here and not in Europe. “I’ve missed your face!”
“I’ve missed yours too, Kiki. And Crew’s obviously.” She wrinkles her nose. “The rest of you, I couldn't care less about seeing your faces.”
“Thanks, Del. Love you too.” Mason flips her off.
“Did you really just flip your sister off, Mason?” Adan’s face appears beside Delilah’s, and he glares at his son. “That’s not how you treat omegas or your sisters.”
Delilah giggles. “At least he’s not trying to get in my pants like he is with Kiki—now that would be weird. And gross. Ugh, I grossed myself out.”
She gags, and part of me wants to laugh at her, but I’m mostly just embarrassed.
“Oh, no, ma’am.” I groan, burying my face in my hands. “I take it back. I don’t miss you at all.”
“Whatever. I’m about to go to bed. I just wanted to make sure this is really happening before I get my hopes up.”
I frown as I glance back at the screen. “Get your hopes up?”
“Oh, yes, sister of mine. I’ve been shipping you and these three idiots practically since Akira joined the pack.” She grins.
“You’re so weird, Del.” Mason throws his back to rest on the back of the couch. “And you’re making this weird.”
She snorts. “Am I? I don’t think so. Now, stop avoiding the question.”
“They’re courting me and Kiki,” Crew assures her, and I flinch against the surround sound squeal that nearly breaks my eardrums.
“Finally! See! I knew y’all were meant to be.”
“Okay, that’s enough out of you, squirt.” Dad’s face fills the screen as he lifts their laptop. A moment later, he sets it down before joining Evelyn, Adan, and Dylan on the couch. “Hello, my girl. I’m so happy to see you. Talking on the phone just isn’t the same.”
Evelyn sighs, leaning into my dad’s side. “It’s really not. Are you sure you don’t want us to come home early?”
“Absolutely not, Mom, but thank you. You’re only there for a few more weeks. We’ll still be here when you come home.” Mason shoots her a smile. “It’s kind of nice that you’re not here. It lets us figure all this out without your meddling.”
Evelyn gasps, bringing her hands to her chest. “Me? Meddle? I’m not a meddler.”
That sends all of us into peals of laughter—even Crew, who knows her the least.
“You know what? You’re all ungrateful. I’ll remember this.” She continues to act offended, but I can see the smile curling her lips. “But enough about us, tell me what’s going on with y’all. Are you really courting? I thought courting went out of fashion.”
“It did—in the city.” Alexander makes the word sound like a dirty word, and not in a good way. “You know we planned to court Kiara eventually. Crew is just an unexpected surprise.”
“About that.” Dad leans forward, eyes on Crew. “How are you dealing with this? I’m sure this isn’t what you were expecting when you moved to Champagne Falls. You weren’t expecting a pack who was already in love with Kiara, were you?”
“Not really,” he replies slowly, his eyes widening as he glances at each of us.
Holy shit.
Had we not told our parental pack that Crew is their scent match?
Oh, we are in soooo much trouble.
“Um…so, interesting story,” I start, wringing my hands in my lap. “Crew is their scent match.”
“What?”
“Excuse me?”
“Come again?”
“No way!”
All four of them speak at once, and I don’t even know where to start. All five of us remain silent as we wait for the shock to wear off.
There’s a devious look in Evelyn’s eyes as she leans forward.
“Let me get this straight—and please stop me if I get anything wrong. Crew, Kiki’s boyfriend of forever, is scent-matched to my son’s pack?
The pack that’s been obsessed with Kiki for years?
Oh, this is so much better than a soap opera.
I wish Delilah was still out here to hear this.
She would love this. Fate really is out there working her magic, isn’t she? ”
“Are you okay, Kiki? Crew?” Dad asks, his worry for us clear, and my heart grows another size. I really have the best dad in the entire world.
“We’re good, Dad, I promise. We’re happy about this development—no matter how unexpected it was.
” There’s no reason for me to admit just how freaked out I was when we found out.
That’s something I can discuss with him one-on-one when they’re back in Champagne Falls.
“Things are going well, and sorry for not letting you know Crew was their scent match. Everything happened pretty quickly.”
“I guess it’s a good thing you’re finishing up the pack house then, isn’t it, boys?” Dylan chuckles. “It sounds like you’ll be needing it pretty soon.”
My stomach flutters as I keep my eyes locked on the screen, afraid to turn my head at all. We haven’t really talked about bonding and becoming a pack outside of the broadest sense of conversation.
Surely, that’s where we’re headed, right? And that’s what we all want—I think.
It’s definitely something I need to chat with Crew about because when his heat hits, I want to make him mine—and vice versa.
I’m not a hundred percent sure about the others, but that’s just because I haven’t really allowed myself to think about it too hard.
“Way to make things awkward, Dyl.” Adan snorts. “But since he mentioned it, how is the construction going?”
“Good. We’ll be done in a few weeks—probably just before you’re back, actually. I’m just glad I decided to pay the crew to do it. If I kept doing all the work myself, it was never going to get finished.”
“And I’m sure it had nothing to do with staying at the house when Kiara returned, right?” Evelyn giggles.
I bury my face in Crew’s shoulder. “Can we end this conversation now? Why are you all so embarrassing?”
“That’s one of the few privileges of being a parent, darling girl.” I can hear the smile in Dylan’s voice, and they should be damn glad I love them—because after this conversation, I’m seriously considering relinquishing any and all rights to them. They can claim some other children to embarrass.
“And on that note, I think we should head to bed and give the kids some time to themselves.”
Look at my dad saving me from further embarrassment.
“We love you all,” Evelyn blows kisses as everyone calls out their goodbyes.
Silence surrounds us as the call ends, interrupted only by my growling stomach.
“Sounds like it’s time for dinner.” Davis jumps to his feet. “What sounds good to everyone?”
And just like that, any tension falls away. This we can do.
After all, we’ve been doing it for over a week already.
The rest of it can wait until we’re ready to discuss it. There’s no reason to have the big conversations just yet.
We have time.