“What if she doesn’t like the nest we have?” I ask, worried that maybe Alphas don’t know how to do that kind of shit. If she hates it, she’ll already have one foot out the door.
“If she hates it, then we will redo it,” he says easily.
“So we’re on the same page?” I ask him.
He raises a dark eyebrow at me and shrugs. “If you mean the page where we speed up this whole courting process by getting her to want to stay at our house and never come here again?”
“Yes, that would be the page I’m on.”
“Then perfect. We’re all reading the same book,” Sterling says as we get back into the rig and head back to the station.
Another hour and we’ll be free. I wonder if the house will be drenched in her cherry scent when we get home.
When Sterling and I walk through the door, the last thing I expected was to find Hailey crying and Hayes doing his best to try and comfort her.
Automatically I’m on high alert.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” Sterling says, beating me to it as he rushes over to Hailey, rubbing her back.
“Uh. Her cat. It got scared when she let it out of its carrier and we haven’t been able to find him,” Hayes says with wide eyes.
“He’s probably so scared,” Hailey says as she wipes her face.
Her scent has a bitterness to it that I need to make go away.
“Let’s find him and then put him and his things in the guest room for now until he gets more comfortable with the house,” I say.
“We’ve looked everywhere,” Hailey says. “What if he slipped out when the door was open when we were moving my stuff in?” she says, her tears starting all over again.
Hayes looks more worried than I’ve ever seen him. Fuck. I’m dead on my feet, but there’s no way I’ll be able to rest if our Omega is in distress.
I can’t stand the sourness of her scent, and it’s like every instinct I didn’t know I had sets in. I open my arms and Hailey nearly leaps into them as I rub my cheek against the top of her head, my chest rumbling with a low purr.
“We’ll find Smokey. We’ll take care of you,” I tell her.
Sterling is rubbing small circles on her back, and she tries to even out her breathing.
“Does he have any treats or toys that he’s really responsive to?” Sterling asks.
“I already tried opening a wet food can. He also really likes the laser. I think it’s in the plastic bag with his toys.” She sniffles, gripping on to my T-shirt for dear life.
Sterling goes to get the laser pointer and we agree to search the house in sections. That way, if maybe he’s changing hiding spots, we’ll be able to grab him.
I hold Hailey’s hand as we head into the office on the first floor. She has a toy that’s a mouse dangling on a string, and she sways it around while she sniffs.
We stand in the center of the room when we hear it. A soft little thud. Hailey’s eyes are hopeful, but we both stand there in silence, waiting for the sound to happen again.
When it does, I get down on my belly, the hardwood against my cheek as I look under the bookshelf. It’s such a small gap between the floor and the bottom shelf. I don’t know how the little fucker got in there, but sure enough, yellow eyes are staring wide at me as he pushes his body back into the corner.
“He’s under here.”
“Oh thank fucking god!” Hailey exclaims, her body landing on top of mine as she squeezes me with all her might. “Thank you.”
“How are we going to get him out?” I ask her.
“Well, now that we know where he is, maybe if it’s alright, we could move his stuff in here for now and let him get used to the space. It smells a lot like you and Sterling in here,” she says, her body still on top of mine.
“And that’s a good thing?”
