She smiles. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just happy to see you again. Are you staying? Can we talk?”
I hesitate. “I have to get back soon, but… I can come back? I mean, if you… if you want?”
“Yes!” She laughs as Emery tugs on her hand, a determined look on her face. “Please do.”
She bends down to listen to whatever Emery is whispering in her ear. They both look at me, Emery hiding behind her hair as Molly straightens with a grin. “Emery would also like you to come back, so she can braid your hair. It’s settled – you have to come back now.”
A small, genuine smile touches my lips as Emery sticks her thumb into her mouth.
“Well, then,” I say to the little girl. “In that case, I promise to come back.”
Her smile feels all the sweeter for winning it.
Ava’s hand touches my back. “Shall we go back now?”
Taking a final look at Molly, I nod. “I… I’m a little overwhelmed.”
“It’s to be expected,” Ava reminds me as we start making our way back. “Your heat is coming. This time is for nesting and spending with your pack. Enjoy it, Gabrielle. Remember that a heat does not equal a bitemark – and you don’t have to take that step if you’re not comfortable with it."
I choke back the nausea rising up my throat. Ava saying it out loud makes it all too real.
My heat is coming.
Which means… I have a choice to make.
Ava has made it clear that there’s a place for me here, if I want it. An opportunity to learn more about myself, to focus on my own personal growth and decide what it is I truly want. And then there are the pack of alphas who have shown me so much love and support that the idea of leaving them physically tears at my chest.
But… what if we only feel this way because we were forced into a situation none of us saw coming? Given a little space, a little distance to clear our heads… would we still feel the same way?
Even the thought of pulling away from them makes the back of my throat ache. Nate picks up on my mood immediately, his eyes anxiously scanning me as he pulls me close and I bury my face in his chest, breathing him in.
How have they become soessentialto me so quickly?
“Home?” he suggests, his hand stroking down my back. Even that one word chokes me up even more, how easily he offers it.
There are only two things I’ve ever wished for. Looked up at shooting stars and squeezed my eyes shut.
The first? Choices. To make my own way, to not be restricted by my designation or trapped.
The second? A home.
Now, it feels like I have to choose between them. And the unfairness of it all has me crawling into Nate’s lap in the car on the way back, losing myself in his scent as I try to gather my thoughts and he holds me silently, giving me the space to think as he strokes my hair.
When we get back, I brush off Axel’s concerned face, Hudson’s offer of food and Cade’s frown, and I bury myself in the soothing comfort of my nest, wrapping myself up in blankets and tucking myself in until I have a truly uncanny resemblance to a burrito.
I’m fighting a losing battle with the blankets and suffocation is becoming a real risk when it’s tugged off my face. I take a great, gasping gulp of air, my face bright red.
“Little spoon.”
Cringing, I let my head fall back with a thud as Axel leans over me. “Can we just pretend you didn’t have to untangle me from my own nest for a second?”
I am aterribleomega. I’d probably fail the classes at the Omega Center.
Axel carefully maneuvers his large body into the small space left available, thanks to my overzealous blanket-wrapping. Propping his head on his hand, his green eyes bore into me, and I squirm. “Talk to me, Gabrielle.”
I would, except I don’t know how to put what I’m feeling into words. How can I explain this to him in a way that makes sense?
Huffing, I throw my hand over my eyes. “Just ignore me. I’m having a moment.”
