“What are you doing?” I ask him breathlessly.
“Carrying you over the threshold,” he says, gravity entering his eyes as he looks down at me. “I want to do this right, shortcake. Right from the start. And that means you get carried inside.”
Tristan, Logan and Gray follow us as Jax carries me, Gray jogging past us to unlock the doors.
“Welcome home, Sienna,” he murmurs as we pass him, his blue eyes bright on mine.
Home.
I look around, taking in the bare walls and floors. “It feels like it should look different, somehow,” I note. Everything else feels different, but the house feels the same. Like it’s been holding its breath, waiting for us to come back.
Tristan comes in with a stack of boxes in his arms as Jax lowers me carefully to the floor, keeping my back against his chest and shamelessly wrapping his arms around my waist so I can’t move. “Did you ever wonder why the walls were so bare?”
I tap on Jax’s arm, but it doesn’t budge, so I resign myself to staying where I am for a little while.
Oh, the hardship.
Frowning, I look at Tristan. “I did. I asked Logan once, actually.”
And he was rude as hell about it, too.
Logan’s cheeks tint a dark red as he comes to stand next to me. “We left it that way on purpose,” he admits. “We wanted our mate to be able to decorate it the way she wanted.”
He smiles at me. “So we have plenty of space to create more art, like we did in Herrith.”
I bite my lip, not wanting to let on how much I like that idea. I spent a long time poring over coursework during my training at the Hub, creating my dream home through fabric and paint. I can already see some of the tweaks I’d like to make, but I hold the words back on my tongue.
Not yet. Not until I’m sure I’m staying.
And I’m not even talking about the Denied appeal.
Jax nuzzles into my hair, and I bat him away, twisting out of his hold half-heartedly. “Jax.”
“Shortcake,” he rumbles. “Are you gonna keep the brunette look? Because I’d love whatever color your hair was, but I’m especially partial to the pink.”
My hand jumps to my hair. I can take the brown out now. God, I miss my hair.
Pursing my lips, I tap them with my finger. “I actually quite like the idea of experimenting,” I say casually. Moving over to the mirror, I tweak some of the strands, pulling them down as I watch the pack’s reactions from the corner of my eye. All of them turn towards me, Tristan stopping mid crouch to put down a box as their eyes follow my movements.
“I kind of feel ready for something more adventurous. There was this really pretty shade of lime in the box Jess got me. I think I might try it out.” Spinning, I tilt my head at them. “What do you think?”
All four of them gawp at me. Jax’s eyes bulge.
“Shortcake…” he says pleadingly.
“You don’t like the idea?” I drop my mouth into a truly omega-worthy pout.
Tristan gives Jax ashutthefuckuplook as he stands up. “You’ll look beautiful with any shade of hair,” he says weakly. “Even lime. It’ll be…bright?”
I beam at him. “Sobright. Almost reflective.”
Jax lets out a tiny moan, and I can’t hold back my snort. Tristan’s eyes narrow as I clap my hands over my mouth.
“No lime,” he guesses, tilting his head to the side. When I shake my head, still trying to hold back the laughter, he growls.
“Tease, Sienna Michaels.”
“Wait,” Jax gasps. “So you’re not dying your hair green?”
