AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A purely emotional decision I came up with a million practical excuses for: I don’t want her driving hours to get to us when her hormones spike. She could hurt herself if she’s alone and loses lucidity. She won’t have to worry about rent anymore.
I repeat those facts to myself over and over again. Knowing full damn well that even if none of that shit were true, I’d still want her at home.
It made me nervous enough that she drove back early Monday morning, alone. She promised to stay on the phone with her friend the whole time, insisting she needed to at least go back to collect her “dang underwear.”
I started to argue that I would send movers to gather her things, but Archer cut in, reminding me of an omega’s need for their spaces to be private, and the necessity of keeping their special comfort items with them.
Basically—if I want her to stay with us, I had to let her go get her blankets.
And her dang underwear.
Still, I worried all the way through the morning, shuffling papers around my desk while I watched the guys’ practice through my wall of windows. I don’t think I even really breathed until Meg called me at lunchtime, chirping about whether she should pack this shirt or that one.
Little does she know, I plan to make her entire wardrobe obsolete. Today.
I’ve gotten into the habit of calling her each morning. At first, she kept insisting I get off the phone to work. I finally made it clear that getting her and her things to our pack house is my sole objective for the week.
That didn’t stop our omega from working, though. Each morning, I find a new email in my inbox. Each contains links to our new socials, potential marketing strategies, and advertising opportunities. Our ticket sales have already improved by fifteen percent.
I’ve tried to convince her to let me pay her the salary she deserves, but we’re at an impasse. She thinks allowing her to stay in our pack house rent-free is an even trade. I think she’s in for a surprise when she sees what we have planned for her.
Now it’s Friday, and Theo, Arch, and I are practically feral after four days without her. The team had its first away game last night for a Thursday Night Football special. They eked out another too-close victory, but Declan hasn’t spoken a word to any of us since. He knows Meg is moving in today, but he’s chosen not to comment on it.
Archer’s already at home, opening up the omega suite and airing out the nest. Theo bounced off to practice, promising to make it out in time to greet our girl.
Meg’s heavy sigh comes through the line. The sound immediately makes my stomach clench, the urge to root out the source of her distress a sharp knife to the gut.
“What about Declan?” she whispers.
A fresh bolt of pain strikes my chest. I turn and look out at the field behind me, searching the sea of black practice jerseys for twenty-seven—his number. I don’t want to tell her that he was gone when we all got up that morning…
Honestly? I’ve hated not having him around this week. I’m the pack alpha; and when one of us is missing or lost, I?—
I feel it.
More so now than ever. It’s like Meg has unearthed the place inside of me where I keep all my emotions locked away. Because it all just gushes up, now. The worry and regret and self-doubt.
Maybe I shouldn’t have told him to stay away Sunday night. Maybe he would have come home and joined in. It could have been a bonding experience for them. For all of us.
Fuck. What if he went out and banged some other woman because I made him feel like he isn’t welcome in our pack’s house? With our pack’s mate?
I know from the rasp in Meg’s whisper that she wants him every bit as much as she seems to want the rest of us. Even though he’s done nothing to deserve it, his nature calls to hers the same way her nature calls to each of us.
If he went out with another woman, it will hurt her.
“I’m gonna fix it, baby girl,” I vow, searching the field again. “Daddy will fix it.”
chapter
thirty-two
“Tell me I’m not crazy.”
I know I am, no matter what the girl says. Because only a crazy person agrees to move into a house full of alphas she’s only met three times.
And only a crazy person would have slept there with them on Sunday night.
And waking up buried between three massive, hard bodies would definitely make a sane person nervous. Not unbearably horny.
