"Rhys." Arden's sounds professional but warm. "You're wanting to go out."
"Yes."
"Alex," Arden says. "How did Rhys do when Drake arrived?"
Alex glances at me. "He restrained himself."
"And when Eli and Jasper came?"
Malcolm answers this one. "He went upstairs. Stayed there."
"And how does he seem around Vee generally?"
There's a pause. Then, from Alex: "Calmer than I've ever seen him."
Arden is quiet. I can hear him thinking. I know what that sounds like by now.
"I think he's ready," Arden says. "He's put in months of work and a grocery store run isn't a high-risk environment. The key variables are crowd density and unexpected alpha contact." Another pause. "Keep Vee close. Within reaching distance at all times. Don't let other alphas approach her. If things get tense or he feels overwhelmed, you leave and try another day. No shame in that."
"Understood," Alex says.
"Rhys." Arden's voice shifts. Direct now. Just to me. "You've done the work. You know your signals. You know what to do if it starts going sideways."
"I know," I say.
"One more thing." A beat. "If you're going to be in the world again—really in it—you need practice. And having Vee there is an advantage most people don't get." A pause. "She's good for you. You're good for each other. That matters."
He says goodbye and Alex ends the call.
We all look at each other.
"Fine," Malcolm says. He sounds like a man who has decided to accept defeat and is doing so without grace. "But I'm driving."
I don't fit in the second row of the SUV. My knees are at a difficult angle and I've had to turn sideways to accommodate my legs in any reasonable way.
Alex spent three minutes trying to convince me to take the front seat, but I wanted to be near Vee.
The guys agreed with the collective expression of men who find the situation unreasonable and endearing in equal measure. Malcolm's eyeroll was visible in the rearview mirror before we'd cleared the driveway.
Vee is next to me. I take her hand as we pull onto the road.
Her skin is soft in the specific way I've been cataloguing for the past several days, learning the texture of her like I learn everything I want to keep… carefully. With the intention of holding it in memory as long as I can. Her fingers lace with mine without hesitation.
I look out the window.
The world passes. Trees first, then road, then the outskirts of town. I breathe steadily and take inventory how Arden taught me. Heart rate: elevated but managed. Muscles: tense but notlocked. Alertness: high. All of it within the range I've learned to function inside.
Vee's thumb traces a small circle on the back of my hand.
The inventory numbers improve.
The store is larger than I expected. Fluorescent lights. The ambient sound of carts and conversations and refrigeration units running. The smell of a hundred overlapping scents, which takes a moment to process before I can organize them in a way that’s manageable.
There's mostly betas here. Alex notices this before I do and I feel the small release of tension in his shoulders from across the cart.
There's a pack down one of the aisles—alphas with their omega, doing their shopping, perfectly ordinary. I clock them immediately and file them under monitored. They aren't a threat or a problem. I just need to know where they are.
We start moving through the store.
