I worked away at the list I’d made for a while longer, cross-referencing my purchases with the spreadsheet I’d built of Eva’s outfits and other belongings from the photos I’d taken in her flat. Crossing off the items that I’d already been able to locate.
Easier said than done, for the most part. Of the hundreds of entries I’d created, I’d only managed to track down a dozen of them at best.
Frustrating.
In the plastic container on my desk, my companions had become much less active in the daytime hours. Still, I enjoyed the companionship of the little nocturnal bugs.
They were comforting in a way that their fully-realized counterparts around the room were not. Maybe owing to the fact that they were still alive.
But soon, there would be more than a tupperware of worms for me to raise.
With a little luck, Eva would be pregnant any day.
That was sure to stop this ridiculous infighting. And, if it didn’t, I would put a stop to it.
There was nothing worse for a pregnancy than stress. Meaning that my packmates would need to settle their differences, and quickly.
Eva’s wardrobe, though a fairly dull project, wasn’t difficult. But her second problem, the lifetime ban she’d received because of Indigo and my carelessness? That was trickier.
I’d already reached out to my contacts who were within the company’s periphery with little success. It seemed like I was going to have to be more creative than sending a few e-mails on this one, given that most of the responses I’d received so farwere no more helpful than information that I’d find in an online search.
I clicked purchase on the vintage top, hoping that the early naughts style was even a hair closer to the design of the shirt that Eva had lost, and ticked it off my list, soaking in the small feeling of victory as yet another item fell to superior wit and skill for utilizing o-Bay.
A soft knock sounded against one of the panes of the windowed door to my office, and I looked up from the screen, catching a glimpse of creamy white thigh from where Eva waited in her pajamas outside.
“Come in,” I called, closing my tabs.
It would be more special for Eva if the replacements were a surprise, instead of a project that I was working on with no end date. The vision was clear in my mind: Eva opening her closet doors, expecting the few basic pieces she’d managed to salvage, only to be shocked by even her hardest-to-find pieces.
She opened the door, timidly poking her head inside with a wary look at the walls.
My eyes lifted to follow hers, the corner of my lips tilting upwards into a smile. “See something you like?”
“No,” she said flatly, entering the room in full and closing the door. “Indi, Joon and Marcus went on their date, and I’m bored.”
“Bored?” I echoed, frowning a little. “Find something to do?”
“That’s what I’m doing,” she said, glancing at the plastic container on my desk like it’d stolen her loot after a boss fight. “But my alpha is a fucking weirdo who keeps disgusting maggots on his desk.”
“Whoa,” I said, pushing away from the desk in my rolling chair and offering my hands to the omega. “First of all, they’re silk worms. Not maggots?—”
“Still gross, for the record,” she said, rounding the desk with an anxious look at the pinned insects lining the walls.
“And second, they have names.”
Eva took my hands with a heavy eyeroll that had me considering pulling her over my knee. “They’re disgusting, why the fuck do you have them?”
“To make silk,” I said, like it was obvious. Realistically… it was. What other reason would I have to breed silkworms?
“Right,” she muttered, her eyes narrowing. “Are you just going to disappear again tonight? Or are you at least going to make sure that the others come home first?”
My eyes caught on the bite mark on the side of Eva’s neck.
“What’s with the attitude, tesoro? Don’t you have two other alphas and an omega to keep you company?” I took a deep breath through my nose, trying to get a hint of who made our little omega into an official member of our pack, but Eva’s earthy matcha and sweet strawberry overpowered all but whispers of anyone else. “A mate?”
“Does it matter?” she snapped, eyes darting towards the silkworms peacefully snoozing in their plastic enclosure on the desk. “I came looking for you, and you weren’t here, Cameo! What if something happened?”
“I’m sure whoever bit you could’ve handled it,” I said, my head tilting.
