Drake catches my eye in the rearview mirror. "You okay back there?"
"Perfect. Love being babysat."
"We're not babysitting," he says. "We're... collective shopping."
"Is that what we're calling it?"
Marie's fingers twist in her lap. She's quiet, uncertain, probably wishing she could disappear into the upholstery.
Drake pulls into the grocery store parking lot and finds a spot. "Alright, team. Let's make this quick and painless."
The grocery store smells like coffee, detergent, and too many people. My instincts twitch at the new scents, at all the unfamiliar alphas and betas moving around nearby. Marie's scent curls in close to her skin, tight and watchful.
Drake grabs a cart, positioning himself between us like a referee. "You have the list?"
She pulls the folded paper from her pocket. "Um. Fruit, yogurt, bread, milk, snacks, Eli's tea, Drake's granola bars, Ragon's protein powder..."
"Yeah, that sounds right."
We walk the aisles.
It's not awful.
It's awkward, but not to the level of bloodlust.
Marie hesitates over brands, clearly worried about choosing wrong. I want to be annoyed, but some part of me remembers my first weeks with my pack, terrified of putting the spoons in the wrong drawer, and I can't quite get there.
"Just grab the yogurt that doesn't look like it tastes like regret."
She huffs a small laugh. "What about this one?"
She holds up the kind Drake likes. I nod. "That one."
"You knew immediately."
"I've been feeding him for years. It's not a superpower."
"It kind of is."
We keep going.
She reaches for strawberries, fingers hovering. "Is this okay?"
"Do you like strawberries?"
"Yes."
"Then get them."
She looks at me like I've said something profound. "My last pack always picked. What we ate. Where we went. What I wore. It feels wrong to just choose without approval."
A familiar ache flickers through me. "Yeah. It feels wrong the first dozen times. Then it feels like breathing."
Her shoulders loosen a fraction.
In the tea aisle, she pauses. "Do you like chamomile? I thought maybe we could both drink some at night. If it's been a bad day."
"You planning on a lot of those?"
