“You look overloaded,” she says quietly. Quiet enough that no one else can hear. “There’s no judgment in that. It just means your brain is doing a lot of work.”
I swallow, trying not to flinch at the clatter of a dropped fork.
She nods toward the hallway. “I keep a guest room set aside for people who need a reset. I take patients in my home office and sometimes it’s necessary. It has dimmable lighting, weighted blankets, and noise-canceling headphones. Would that help, or would you prefer to stay where you can see Winnie?”
The fact that she gives me a choice steadies me more than anything.
“Just—tenminutes,” I manage.
“Perfect. Ten minutes is a great reset window.” She gestures to the hall. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
Ten minutes turns into an hour. I bury myself under that weighted blanket and doze off a little, my brain finally shutting down to get away. But when I get up, I feel more prepared to take on the space again.
Unfortunately, no one is in the house when I emerge. I follow the sounds of light clinking and laughter to the sliding glass door. I open it and find everyone seated at a long outdoor dining table on the patio. Winnie smiles when she sees me and gestures me over. No one stares at me or asks where I’ve been. I don’t know if that’s Winnie’s doing or her mother’s, but I’m grateful.
The pack is seated all around her, but there’s an empty chair next to her and she pats it, indicating it’s for me.
My pack silently passes me food while they continue their conversation. I lower my mask enough to eat. Something I could not have managed before the reset.
The acceptance chokes me up a little, and I lean down toward Winnie, scent marking her cheek with the exposed ridge of my nose. She inhales lightly. Her face turns toward mine, and I can see her eyes searching around my face. I know what her omega is looking for.
I tug down on my jacket with one hand exposing that side of the long column of my throat. She leans up, using my bicep for leverage, and nuzzles in, scent marking me.
Normally public touching really freaks me out, but in this house, filled with so many people and yet not one of them judging me or making me feel freakish, it’s actually okay. Good, even.
Three sets of tiny eyes are staring at me when I look back. I stiffen. Kids tend to have the most to say about the mask situation.
But instead of some comment about me looking like death or the devil, the smallest girl asks, “Are you our uncle now?”
Winnie chokes on a forkful of food. The other guys just chuckle.
I look into Winnie’s beautiful dark eyes and her freckled, crinkled smile, and I can’t imagine being anything else.
“Yeah, kid. I am.”
Winnie
By the time we get back to my cabin it’s late but the full moon casts a bright enough light to see by. The entire ride home I was thinking about my pack. How the entire bonding reveal went so much better than I could ever imagine with them there. How they synced with my family despite our differences. How magical the whole thing seemed. We haven’t brought up their bomb about possibly taking over ownership of Stella’s shop but somehow it seems like an even more plausible idea than it had this morning. Our lives have somehow fitted together even more closely than they had before.
The guys cut their engines when we pull up in front of my cottage. There’s a pause when we all get off the bikes. It suddenly feels so weird having to say goodnight to them. Like today, at my parents’, was a turning point, and I don’t really want to be alone in the house without them.
The thought of all of them in my little bed/nest with me sends a beat of warmth through me.
I look at the alphas, still in their helmets, and my imagination starts to run wild. I've done chases before. And damn it was fun. But it was with an alpha and one beta that I was never seriously dating. What would it be like to be chased—craved—by all of these alphas? I hesitate for only a moment before making my decision.
“You remember the items at the top of my boundaries list?” I ask.
Five helmets swivel toward me.
“Keep the helmets on, and catch me if you can,” I say as I bolt into the woods.
There are other houses out in the woods, but they’re few and far between, and as long as I stick to the areas I know, we won’t come near them. We won’t be seen or heard.
I’ve been running for at least ten minutes now, and while they seemed to have me cornered twice, I know these woods better than them, and I managed to slip away both times, narrowly. Everything in me screams to run, to let them chase—every molecule wanting to outrun them and still be captured. I dodge between trees, not actually knowing if they’re following, but sensing it anyway, deep in my bones.
I slide behind a thick tree, holding still, trying to keep my breathing even and steady. The breeze slides over my skin like fingertips. The leaves shiver.
A tree branch snaps behind me and to the right.
