He examined them.
Those were a bit more rusty than the others I’d collected, old and worn from frequent use. The base colour was a bronze shade, not like the silver of the library keys.
Phantom’s expression pinched, and then he silently handed the keys back to me.
“Am I in trouble?” I asked quietly.
He sighed heavily, cupping my cheek in his palm and squeezing my thigh with his other hand. Leaning in, he brushed his lips against mine, and I whined, trying to lean closer for a real, proper kiss, but he didn’t give me one. He pulled back, staring into my eyes with a faint smile finally quirking his lips.
“You’re not in trouble, Little Omega. Could you stop taking keys for your nest, though?”
My teeth sank into my bottom lip. “I don’t think I can do that. I need them.”
“What if we get them for you? Is that OK?”
He’d… help?
My heart raced as I clutched the rut cage keys tightly in my fist, staring at him. I wanted to get all the keys myself, to prove to Sin that I could protect them, and to my alphas that I could makea proper nest, but I had already gotten into trouble with one of the sets I’d found.
And this way, all the keys would be special. They’ll be gifts from my pack.
A grin grew across my face as I mulled over the possibilities, and I gave him a hearty nod. “Yes! I have to approve them, though. They’ve got to make a noise that I like when they jingle together, and the edges can’t be too sharp but also not too dull. It’s hard to find good ones, but you can help if you want to.”
“We’d all love to help. I’ll get you a new set to replace the library keys, so you don’t feel like anything is missing.”
My chest tightened and my grin dropped. “I have to give them back?”
Oh no.
Phantom’s expression was conflicted, but he nodded. “They only have the one set. Used to have two, but one got lost a while ago. No one will be able to get new library books unless we give them back.”
The keys clinked against each other, hidden from view in his fist.
They were supposed to be part of our nest. Mine and Sin’s.
I flexed my fingers against the fabric of the pillow.
But I did like my fingers. I really liked my fingers, in fact.
Pushing away from Phantom with a huff, I let him keep the library keys, and curled up in the deepest corner of the nest.
They’d better get me a good replacement set.
35
PHANTOM
There was a large enough group that Crescent joined the others for lunch. I carefully went through her nest to find all the keys she’d snatched in the short time since she’d arrived.
A couple of safe keys.
A keyring that looked to have maintenance room keys.
Some handcuff keys, looking like they were made for the thin, novelty kind of cuffs—I bet those were the ones she’d nicked from the Emerald pack.
Some tubular keys, like the kind they used for bike locks.
And then, of course, the key to one of the fucking rut cages. The Marshall pack were probably going feral trying to find it—it was a small comfort that she hadn’t snatchedallthe cage keys. Only one.
