My fingers itch to snatch some of the soft items back, to have them with me. My eyes dart from pillow to pillow to blanket, and Vee hums in the back of her throat.
“You want some of it in the front with us?”
I sigh and nod, then reach my hands out to figure out what I want.
“Is she nesting already?” Riley whispers behind me.
I hear him, but it doesn’t fully register; I just know my omega needs something.
My fingers land on a plush blanket and I tug it out, ripping off the packaging. Then I turn to Riley and wrap it around them, tucking the edges in securely.
“Um,” Riley says, wide eyes darting to Vee. “Okay, sure. I can be a burrito.”
I’m already pulling out two pillows, one with a knitted texture, and the other fluffier than anything I’ve seen before. I shove the knitted one into Vee’s arms, and the fluffy one goes to Brooks. Riley covers a laugh by burying his face in the blanket I’ve wrapped around him.
“You want our scent on these, Petal?”
“Yes please,” I say, my upper half buried in the back of his truck again as I search for what I want to have in my own lap.
My fingers brush on something they don’t recognize and I pause, then tug and wiggle until I can get it out. I tilt my head, staring at the croissant plushie with a cute smiling face on it.
“Ahhhh,” Riley says, and I turn to see them looking sheepish. “Well, that was supposed to be a surprise for you, but I guess the croissants out of the bag, so to speak.”
I stare at him, then at the soft plushie I’m already clutching to my chest.
“It’s for me?”
“It’s for you,” they say with a nod.
I rub it all over his face and neck, scent marking it, then I squeeze it to my chest and hop into the back of the truck. Amused chuckling drifts after me, and Brooks scoops the Riley-burrito into his arms, carefully depositing them in the back seat and buckling them in before we head home.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Neveah
Sage woke up before anyone else this morning and has spent hours alone in her nest already. As soon as I noticed she was in there, I offered to hire someone to put the wallpaper up, but she made the cutest disapproving scowl at the suggestion. She insists on doing it herself, saying she looked it up on Riley’s tablet, and she hasn’t let any of us in to see it.
It’s now early afternoon and I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin.
We’re all checking on her every couple hours. Knocking on the door and asking if she’s okay, if we can help, what she needs.
She sends us away every single time. Finally, I send Riley to the shop and Brooks to work, although they both keep texting me for updates. I think Brooks is going to cry soon if she doesn’t at least accept a snack, so I head back up there to try again.
“Sweetling, baby. I really need you to eat something.”
I wait, hoping she’ll agree, but there’s just a muffled, “eh” that comes from behind the door. I don’t know if I should beworried about her ambivalence or lack of appetite, but I am. I sigh, then decide to pull out the big guns.
“I’m worried about Brooks. He’s not handling you not eating very well?—”
The door flies open about six inches, only enough space for a stricken omega to stare out at me with wide eyes and a barely contained mass of wavy hair. Her sweet floral scent floats out the door, nearly distracting me from my mission.
“What’s wrong with Brooks?”
Maybe it’s wrong, perhaps it’s manipulative, but it’s also the truth. I am worried about Brooks. Though I’m more worried about him breaking down our omega’s door and barreling in to force food down her throat rather than anything that would actually be harmful to the alpha himself.
“He’s losing his mind about you not eating. I know you’re not hungry and you’re in nesting mode, but can I please bring you something? We’d all feel better knowing you let us care for you, it would help settle our alpha instincts.”
Sage blinks at me, then shuffles her feet as she pulls her face from the door to look into the room behind her. I catch a glimpse of turquoise blue, but refrain from peeking any further. She turns back to me with one decisive nod.
