Heidi rolls into my arms, and the fun dissolves, “Seriously, Tris, I’m good. Pack Lowly can’t touch me, and they won’t. It’s a business transaction, everything is in black and white.”
What she says hits me hard for some reason. I guess it’s not too hard to see that those reasons might include Tyson flipping me off, Maverick standing me up, and King being who he is. And even though I’m sad for Heidi, the tears that fill my eyes are also due to my own growing realisation that maybe pack life is not for me either.
The words I say resonate personally. “Even if you’re pretending, you’re okay, I want you to know, I’m so fucking heartbroken for you. I’ve never seen you so happy. I think you were falling in love, Ho.”
“You can’t fall in love in a couple of days, Tris,” Heidi says forlornly, but we both know that’s complete BS. You can. People do all the time. “Anyway, it’s not like being alone is going to be hard to get used to.”
“Are you going to move back to Unity?”
Heidi shakes her head, “I don’t think so. I’ll come back here after seeing Raney pack. I need to do this properly if I’m going to succeed.”
I’m gutted, but at the same time I am so damn proud and in awe at this strong, fierce Omega. “You’re going to be so fucking amazing running Verdune. Margot and Allan will be so proud of you.”
Of course, Heidi slaps me away, trying to keep our chat more on the lighter side. “Oh god! Now I am going to cry! Hey, Tris, you know I’m so happy you’re here.”
I crawl over to her, sneaking in another quick cuddle, “I know, Ho. I know, I’ll do your hair and make-up after you pack. We’ve got an hour or so before Koz’s team picks us up.”
We move on to easier conversations… food and Raney packing, because holy shit, talk about a turn of events. Our girl went from unpacking with her exes to rekindling the goddamn sweetest first love I’ve heard of and slowly rebuilding her relationship with two other Alphas from her childhood. Her happy ever after is freaking amazing. Selfishly, I’m also absolutely freaking thrilled because going to see her pack means another precious few hours with King. Hopefully.
“I can’t believe Raney’s going to pack, well I mean, that sounds weird considering she was always going to pack with Koz.”
“Right?” I snort still a little caught up thinking about King.
“Tris, what the fuck is ‘right’?” she mimics.
I search for a response, but she beats me. “You better not be getting all glassy eyed about seeing King again. Raney will shove her foot up your butt if you so much as look at him.”
I roll my eyes, spinning off the bed at the same time. “Oh please. I’m excited to go back and see Raney and watch her pack, that’s it.”
Heidi doesn’t let it drop though. “You’re acting dodgy as shit, you’re up to something,” she accuses.
And I completely side-swipe her by turning our conversation back to her, because Heidi is great at pushing other people to talk by refusing to talk about herself. “We can chat about anything you want, Ho, including Alphas that break hearts or we can do it when we get together with the others.”
“We’ll wait,” she snarls, unimpressed. “Oh shit, Tris, I didn’t tell my security team. That’s the last thing I need is their bitching.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Help me pack, and make me look presentable,” she says as she bursts into action.
The both of us race around her suite grabbing clothes and makeup, filling her brief case before I sit her back down on the bed and start working on her. We don’t talk as I give her a facial, but I know just being with Heidi is the kind of support she needs right now.
Swiping off the hydration mask, I use the gold leaf gel pads to do their magic on the dark bags under her eyes before I massage the stress out of her shoulders. The look on her face is peaceful, well more peaceful than when I arrived.
A knock on her suite interrupts us but I whisper to her to stay and soak in the moment. I sneak through and Millie greets me again but my gaze drops to what she’s holding.
Of course, Heidi isn’t where I left her, her eyes full of emotion that seems to swirl even more when I explain the basket of kittens. “Special delivery to, Rohi?”
Heidi bolts in the opposite direction, and I chase after her not entirely sure what’s going on. I find her on her phone pacing.
“NO! No! No! No! I am not going to look after kittens, Kairo. Get your sneaky ass back here and pick up this basket.”
“And the box of food,” I add, for no other reason except I speak without thinking.
“What?” she snarls, talking to me, but Kai the Alpha who did her dirty is still talking on the phone.
I hover for moral support, letting her have some sort of privacy. As opposed to eavesdropping, I focus on the kittens. They’re kind of cute. I mean they’d be downright adorable if they have fur, but they’re naked.
Heidi talks softly to him until she loses it completely. “Clearly, you’ve been busy, Kairo, buying gifts for people who do not need gifts when all they wanted was a fucking reason why their scented-mate would lie to them! Or I mean you could explain to me, why you fuckers drugged me and leftme a-fucking-lone! Now someone better look after these things because I’m leaving!”
