He pulls me into him. His forehead drops to my shoulder. "Yeah," he says quietly. "I do love you."
"I know," I say. "That's why you get a jacket."
"What jacket?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet. But there will be a jacket."
When we rejoin the living room, everyone is in the loose scatter of a pack that's stopped performing relaxation and is actually relaxed. Alex in the armchair. Malcolm stretched out on the couch. Rhys in his usual spot.
I settle onto the couch beside Malcolm and ask the question I've been carrying since the motel.
"I need to ask you all something," I say.
The room shifts. Just slightly.
"The scent match," I say. "When Alex broke the pack bond, the match dissolved. For all of you." I look at each of them. "Not one of you mentioned it."
Silence.
Malcolm speaks first. "I noticed."
"When?"
"Right after." He shrugs. "Didn't matter."
Rhys is quiet. Then: "I noticed too."
Everyone looks at him.
"I knew the moment it was gone," he says. "I'd been living off that match since Arden brought me your blanket. Holding onto it. And then it disappeared." He pauses. "It didn't change anything. I still wanted to be wherever you were. I still felt like your alpha. You were still my omega. Match or no match."
The room sits with that.
"Good," I say. "Because I need you to hear this." I take a breath. "I'm glad I got to experience the imprinting with you. The scent recognition. The bond tug. All of it. I wouldn't trade that. But this?" I touch the claiming mark on my neck. "This is what matters. The physical claim. The choice. Real love beats a scent match every single day. Biology didn't make us a pack.Wedid."
Finn eyes are bright and he's smiling.
"So," Alex says after a moment. "Pack bonds."
"Pack bonds," I agree. "How does that work? For alphas? They didn’t exactly school it on us at the registry. All they cared about was bonding omegas into them and getting us out of their hair.”
"Alpha pack bonds form over time," he says. "Through commitment, trust, proximity. The four of us have that already. We've had it for years. Rebuilding the connection will a process, not an event, but the foundation is already solid. It will take us less time than it did when we first formed."
"We're still registered as a pack," Finn adds. "The legal structure never changed. It's just the internal bonds that need to catch back up to what already exists."
"And me?"
"You're the new piece," Alex says. "Now that the flag is gone, you can be formally registered as our omega. I’ll file the paperwork this week." He looks at me steadily. "After that, as theclaiming bonds form with each of us, the pack bond strengthens. It builds. One layer at a time."
"How long?"
"Months," Malcolm says. "Maybe longer. But we'll feel it growing."
"I already feel it," Rhys says.
Everyone looks at him again.
He doesn't elaborate. He just looks at me with those dark eyes and the steadiness in them says more than an explanation would.
