“The best,” he says softly. “You’ll like her, I think. I haven’t spoken to her for a while.”
I pick up the context. “She’s not happy with you.”
He shakes his head. “About as happy as I am with myself,” he says quietly.
Flipping the pancakes, I almost dance when they come out a perfect golden brown, and Jax laughs. “You like this.”
“I do.” I shrug. “I’m not ashamed of being an omega. I love cooking for people. Housekeeping in general, really.”
Taking care of people.
I’m dishing up when Logan comes back in, sliding into a seat as Jax takes the plates and passes them around. He slides his arms around my waist as I go to sit down, lifting and dropping down into a seat with me in his lap. “Sit with me, shortcake. I’ve missed you.”
I protest half-heartedly. “Jax. I should sit down.”
He gives me a charming smile. “You are sitting down.”
Leaning over, he cuts up a piece of pancake and holds it up. Gray starts laughing, and I mock glare at him. “What is it with you guys and hand feeding me? Do I not have hands of my own?”
Jax tugs on my braid. “It’s an alpha thing. Indulge us.”
“It is?” I glance around, but they’re all focused on me. Rolling my eyes, I lean forward and take the food off the fork, chewing it. “Are choo happy naw?”
Swallowing, I reach for my coffee. Jax continues to feed me in between eating his own food, and I take it grumpily until my plate is clean.
“There.” I cross my arms. “Want me to show you my mouth, too?”
He groans in my ear. “Hell, yes.”
God, he makes everything sound dirty. And tempting.
Before I can respond, Logan jumps up. “We have… some things for you,” he says, clearing his throat. “For your nest.”
My ears prick up. “You do? But I already have stuff.”
Tristan tilts his head. “The store in Herrith didn’t have much in the way of nesting materials, so I made do. But here, there are plenty of shops that cater for anything an omega might want.”
My eyes round as Logan comes in, his arms full of pretty packages. Gray gets up to help him, clearing off the table so he can place them down in front of me.
Sopretty. Even the wrapping is lovely, a mix of jeweled tones secured with different pieces of ribbon and string.
My hand hovers over one, and I look at them uncertainly. Logan gives me a nod. “Go on, Bonded. Open them.”
They don’t have to tell me twice. Carefully, I pick one out, a magenta-colored gift with dark blue ribbon. It slides away as I tug it with my fingers, and I lay it out on the counter to save it before I undo the pieces of tape.
Holding them up, I grin at Logan. “I love fluffy socks.”
The socks are the same color as the tissue, knitted with a white cuff around the edges and little pom-poms hanging off.
I dive in, my excitement only growing as I show off each one. There’s a large wire heart with an ‘S’ in the middle, decorated with pretty lights to hang on my wall, patchwork bunting with a mix of floral and stripes that I can already see hanging up, a variety of rocks and crystals for my shelves. My breath catches when I unwrap a thin, perfectly formed glass rose with a green stem and pale pink petals.
“I’m scared I’ll break it,” I say softly as I hold it carefully out. “These are beautiful, Logan.”
Every single gift is something special.
Gray leans forward. “Here,” he says. “Open this one next?”
I laugh in delight at the small, floppy fox teddy. “Oh, he’s sweet. He’ll go nicely with mygrowingcollection of woodland animals.” I wiggle my eyebrows at him for emphasis.
