Please, she whispered, and the fight drained out of her voice.Please, just this. Just let us have this one thing. You don't have to let them in. You don't have to complete the bonds. But let us nest. Let us feel safe for just a little while.
"I'm not nesting," I said out loud, to the empty apartment, to myself, to her. "I'm fine. I'm in control."
I wasn't. The blanket was so soft in my hands. Impossibly soft, the kind of plush microfiber that was meant for burrito-wrapping yourself on cold nights, that I'd bought years ago specifically for its texture and then barely used because nesting was what omegas did and I wasn't that kind of omega.
Except I was.
I had always been exactly that kind of omega. I'd just been too afraid, too ashamed, to admit it.
Please.
I was so tired. So scared. So overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours that I could barely remember what normal felt like. My body was failing. My omega was awake and pressing against walls that had held firm for seven years. And somewhere out there, three more alphas were waiting to trigger three more bonds that would either complete me or destroy me, and I didn't know which possibility terrified me more.
The blanket was so soft.
"Fine," I whispered. "Fine. Just... fine."
I started gathering. It wasn't frantic this time, wasn't the unconscious midnight wandering that had built the nest I'd made unconditionally before. This was deliberate. Conscious. A choice, however reluctant, made with full awareness of what it meant.
The throw blanket came first, clutched against my chest like armor. Then the couch cushions — the soft ones from the back, not the decorative ones that were more style than substance. Thehoodie draped over my desk chair, the one I'd owned for years and worn until it was impossibly soft and smelled like me and only me. Extra pillows from the hall closet, still in their plastic packaging from when I'd bought them on sale and never gotten around to using. A fuzzy blanket I'd forgotten I owned, shoved in the back of a cabinet, probably a gift from someone I couldn't remember for an occasion that had faded from memory.
I carried everything to my bedroom in armfuls, my omega humming with quiet satisfaction each time I added something new to the pile.
The nest from last night was still there — I hadn't dismantled it, hadn't had time between waking up and running to meetings and fleeing from alphas whose scents still clung to my memories like perfume. Now I added to it, consciously this time, building the walls higher and the center softer.
My omega guided my hands without words, a gentle pressure that saidhereandyesandperfectas I arranged each piece. The throw blanket went around the outer edge, creating a soft barrier. The couch cushions formed a foundation, supportive but yielding. Pillows built up the walls, creating a protected space in the center. The hoodie and the fuzzy blanket layered in the middle, creating a cocoon of softness that practically begged to be crawled into.
When I finished, I stood back and looked at what I'd created.
It was beautiful.
Actually, genuinely beautiful, in a way that surprised me given how reluctant I'd been to build it. A perfect circle of softness and safety, layered in shades of grey and cream and pale blue that shouldn't have worked together but somehow did. The pillows formed protective walls just high enough to feel enclosed without being claustrophobic. The blankets created a cocoon in the center, layered and arranged with an instinct I hadn't known I possessed.
My omega practically vibrated with satisfaction.
See?she whispered.This is what we needed. This is what we've always needed.
I climbed into the center of the nest.
The effect was immediate.
My racing heart began to slow, the frantic pounding settling into something closer to normal. My breathing, which had been shallow and fast since I'd walked through my apartment door, finally deepened, each inhale drawing in the familiar scent of my own space, my own safety. The fever still burned beneath my skin, and the bonds still ached in my chest, but the edge was taken off. The desperation that had been clawing at me for hours finally, finally eased.
Safe, my omega sighed, settling into the softness with a contentment that felt almost foreign after so many years of being caged.Den. Nest. Safe.
"Okay," I whispered, curling into a ball in the center of my creation, pulling one of the blankets over me like a shield against the world. "Okay. This helps."
I lay there for a long time, cocooned in softness, forcing my scattered thoughts into some kind of order.
Facts. I needed to focus on facts.
Fact: I had five soulmates.
Fact: They were all members of SIREN, the most famous alpha pack in the country.
Fact: Two bonds had already triggered in less than twenty-four hours.
Fact: Three more were inevitable — not if, but when.
