"Complicated how?"
He doesn't answer right away. When he finally turns to face me, his grey eyes study me like I'm a medical puzzle he's trying to solve.
"You really don't know, do you?" His voice is softer now. Almost gentle.
"Don't know what?"
"How we feel about you. How we've always felt." He shakes his head slowly, and there's something sad in the gesture. "You've been walking around for years thinking you were just Callum's girlfriend, when we..."
He stops himself. Presses his lips together like he's physically holding back words that want to escape.
"When you what?" I press, taking a step toward him. "Pedro, please. I'm standing in your guest room at five in the morning wearing someone else's clothes and I have no idea what's happening. Just tell me."
"Get some sleep, Jess." He's retreating now, pulling back behind that grumpy exterior like it's armor. "We can talk tomorrow. When you're not about to collapse."
"Pedro..."
But he's already gone, pulling the door shut behind him with a soft click that sounds louder than it should.
I stand in the middle of the room, heart pounding, mind racing in circles.
How we've always felt.
What does that mean? What have they always felt? And why does the thought of it make my stomach flip and my palms sweatand my omega want to tear down this door and demand answers preferably while being pressed against more bare alpha chests?
I need to talk to someone. Someone who isn't a Negrorio. Someone who can tell me whether I've made a terrible mistake or stumbled into the best decision of my life.
I'm shoving underwear into a drawer at five in the morning when my phone rings.
Sharon.
I answer, wedging the phone between my ear and shoulder. "Before you say anything—"
"You're living with them." Sharon's voice is thick with sleep and disbelief. "All four of them."
"My bathroom exploded."
"Your bathroom exploded."
"Flooded. Whatever." I grab a bra, stare at it, shove it under a towel where no one will see it. "And Carlos showed up and now I'm here and one of them growled this morning and I think I'm having a breakdown."
Silence.
Then: "Start from the beginning. Slowly."
So I tell her. The flood at three AM. Carlos in that henley that should be illegal. The kiss that made my toes curl. Moving into their house. Four alpha scents hitting me all at once. Pedro catching me. Sergio's growl that made my omega do backflips.
By the time I'm done, I'm sitting on the floor surrounded by half-unpacked clothes.
"They're courting you," Sharon says.
I laugh. It comes out slightly hysterical. "That's insane."
"Four alphas. One omega. The growling. The protectiveness." Sharon yawns. "Jess, they're pack-courting you."
"They're Callum's friends—"
"Were. Past tense. And now they're free to—"
