"He's really staying," she says quietly.
"Yeah."
"Are you okay with that?"
I glance at her. She's watching Jasper move through the hallway with his second bag, her expression unreadable.
"I don't think what I'm okay with matters," I say.
"That's not true."
"Isn't it?" I set my mug down harder than necessary. "He's here. He's unpacking. We adjust or we don't. That's how this works."
She flinches slightly. "Vee—"
"I'm fine," I interrupt. "Just... processing."
I leave before she can push further.
By evening, Jasper's room is functional. Sparse, but his. The door stays open most of the time, which I notice. Like he's offering transparency. Making himself available without demanding attention.
It's strategic. Careful.
I don't know what to do with it.
What I do know is that my instincts are jangling like alarm bells that won't shut off. New alpha in the house. Territory shifting. Pack dynamics reshuffling.
My omega brain doesn't care that this is supposed to help. It just knows everything feels unstable.
So I do what omegas do when they're stressed.
I seek out my alphas.
Eli first.
I find him in his room, folding laundry with the kind of precise attention that means he's thinking too hard about something. His scent—tea and linen and that subtle warmth—wraps around me the second I step through the doorway.
"Hey," I say quietly.
He looks up, and his expression softens immediately. "Hey yourself."
"Can I...?" I gesture vaguely at his bed.
"Always."
I climb onto the mattress and tuck myself against the headboard, knees pulled to my chest. Eli continues folding, but I can feel his attention on me. Checking. Assessing.
"How are you doing?" he asks after a moment.
"Weird," I admit. "Everything feels off."
"New pack member will do that." He sets a shirt aside, reaches for another. "Give it time. Your instincts will settle once they accept him."
"What if they don't?"
"They will." He glances at me, green eyes steady behind his glasses. "Jasper's good at this. He knows how to integrate without disrupting."
"He's only been here a few days."
