“I lost ten bucks.” Matteo admitted to me in a whisper, “I thought you’d wait until after the trial.”
I could be mad at them that they’d been betting on something so important, but I was far too happy about the sudden turn in my situation that I snorted good-naturedly and asked: “So, who won?”
“That would be Theo and Cobb.” Aria pointed at the alpha and beta sitting in the front seats.
“I’ve caught you opening your mouth to say it a few times, but you kept stopping yourself.” Cobb confessed, “I didn’t think it would take some psycho lighting a trashcan on fire for it to finally happen but, hey, I’m turning into a silver lining kind of guy.”
Matteo’s chuckle filled the car as he wrapped an arm around me. “Welcome to the family, Tibby. You’re stuck with us, forever, I hope you know that.”
I leaned in and inhaled his pumpkin spice scent deeply, letting it calm my frayed nerves and, even though we were driving away from our apartment, I finally felt like I was home.
––––––––
––––––––
“Holy shit.” Matteogaped up at the woodland lodge that the Worthingtons were letting us use as a safehouse for the next few weeks. We were all standing in front of the SUV staring up at the, quite frankly, impressive property.
“Now Tibby,this, is what I like to call ‘fuck you money.’” Matteo joked, as we continued to stare up at the lodge. “We are by no means poor, but the Worthingtons make us look like paupers in comparison.”
I’d known that Eloise’s grandmother was rich, but I couldn’t have imagined justhowrich she was. The Worthingtons had been in San Francisco since it became an American city in the 1840s, but just looking up at the structure in front of us, I was just now realizing that my best friend operated in a completely different hemisphere than I did.
“This is definitely better than any safehouse that the FBI could have provided,” Cobb commented. “It probably has better security too.”
The lodge in question was an imposing log cabin structure. The center of the house was made up of different sized stones that gave it a very rustic look. A curved stone staircase led up to the large double front doors. Two large stained glass windows sat on either side, and they shone in the late afternoon sunlight. Three larger windows sat above the doors and probably let tons of light into the house.
Red logs made up the wings on either side of the house, and there were several balconies built into the front and side of the property, probably leading to various bedrooms. Theo led the way up the steps and input the code to unlock the front doors before pushing them open. The mountain lodge vibes continued as we stepped inside and directly into what looked like the living room. Warm wood covered the floor and led to a huge stone column fireplace that matched the stone on the exterior of the house and reached up to the top of the vaulted ceilings. A huge green leather sectional faced the massive fireplace and a large TV that was mounted just above it. Behind the column of the fireplace was a sunny dining room with even more windows reaching up to the top of the ceilings and showcasing the redwood trees outside.
Directly in front of us, as we walked in, was a rustic wood staircase that led upstairs to the rest of the house. Underneath the landing at the top of the stairs was a doorway into the kitchen which, just looking at the wooden arch entryway, was probably also following the ‘expensive rustic’ style of the rest of the downstairs. To my right, was another doorway leading into a recreation room with pool tables and comfortable looking bean bag chairs.
“When I asked for something that was easily defensible, Mrs. Worthington said that this is one of their smaller properties.” Theo said with a whistle as he put his bag down just inside of the front door. “I don’t think her definition of small and mine are one in the same.”
“Definitely not.” Aria laughed as she hurried up the stairs. “I call first dibs on picking out a room!”
At her words of challenge, Matteo and Cobb chased her up the stairs shouting that it wasn’t fair and that it should be agreed upon by all parties and they left Theo and I still standing at the foot of the stairs.
I slid my hand into his, “Do you want to go up and pick out a room?” I asked. Despite the fact that I now felt comfortable with my place in Pack Simmons, I still hadn’t done more than kiss the alpha next to me.
Theo, however, was still working on catching up and shook his head. “You go ahead. I’m going to wait for the rest of the team to get here.” He said, referring to the small team of FBI agents that was going to be helping protect us, and pressed a kiss to my forehead before heading back out of the front door.
So, I climbed up the stairs with my bag, more than a little dejected at Theo’s disinterest in me.
“Tibby, we found the nest...what’s wrong?” Aria was standing breathlessly at the top of the stairs when I finally made it up, and her cheeks were pink from running around like a little kid.
“Nothing,” I quickly put a smile on my face.“What does the nest look like?”
Aria’s expression told me that she wasn’t going to let it go that easily, but she grabbed my hand and pulled me down the long hallway and into a large room. The room consisted of a round half-moon sectional that faced a rustic looking TV stand. Large windows made up the wall opposite the door and led out onto a balcony. It was sunny and airy and completely not what an omega would like.
“This is a nest?” I asked incredulously, staring at the room.
Aria grinned at me, “This is only the first part of the room.” I dropped my bag as she pulled me towards a door that I thought would lead to a closet. Instead it led to a dim, windowless room.
“Watch your step,” Aria cautioned and I was about to ask her why as I stepped inside, when my foot met open air. I squawked, briefly afraid that I was going to fall face first into the dark room, but Aria’s strong hands held onto me until I had pulled my foot back to safety and steadied myself.
“It's a sunken nesting room.” She explained as she stepped inside, the lip of the floor came up to the top of her knees as she held her hand out to help me down. I kicked off my shoes and stepped down into the empty plush room. It was circular shaped with cushioned walls and a ceiling that had silk drapes hanging from it, making the ceiling seem much lower than it actually was.
“These were super popular in the seventies,” Aria flopped down onto the cushy mattress and tugged me down to lay next to her.
“It’s nice.” I said as I looked around the room, it was definitely cozy. “I don’t know how I’d arrange nesting materials here either though.” I still hadn’t felt the urge to put nesting materials in any kind of order. I loved them, they were soft and comfortable against my skin, but in the three, almost four, weeks since I’d started sleeping with them it didn’t really matterwherethey went, as long as I had them.
