“It isn’t? I clearly remember you calling it yours.”
“I didn’t mean it. I was in heat.”
He steps closer, and when I stupidly don’t retreat, he takes another one, our bodies close enough I smell his minty scent and feel the delightful power of his Alpha. I’m only a day out from the end of my cycle, and if I didn’t know any better, my body feels like it might be gearing up to go again. Which is absolutely not going to happen.
Wilder cocks his head to the side, eyes softening. “I don’t want to believe that to be true, Iris.”
His answer surprises me. I thought he would have said something cocky back, trying to make me believe that I did. But there’s a sadness in his tone that both confuses me and makes my Omega want to comfort him.
“Is it only because I’m your scent match?” I swallow hard to keep from crying.
Mateo steps forward so I can see him again, neck slightly tilted in submission to show me he’s not a threat. “It’s your nest because you’re ours, mi conejita. The scent match is a beautiful bonus, but we want you for you.”
“That’s impossible, we just met.”
Augie clears his throat and joins Mateo. His features flushed and eyes bashful. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose,the action reminding me of the other times he did that over the last week.
“We may have just met, Iris, but I think this pack feels like they’ve known you for a long time.”
My brows furrow. “What do you mean?”
He rubs the back of his neck. “I planned to tell you how much of a fan I was of your work before everything happened. To be honest, I’ve had an embarrassingly large crush on you for a long time. My pack can confirm.”
“Large is even an understatement, mi amor. Sometimes I feel jealous.”
They share a lover’s smile, and Mateo presses a kiss to his mate’s knuckles before they both turn their gaze on me. The warmth between them shifts, wrapping around me too. Butterflies stir in my stomach, and my Omega preens under their attention.
“You’re being serious?” I ask.
Augie’s confirming nod only intensifies the flutter of wings in my belly. “I know it’s not the same as knowing the real you, Iris, but you’re everything I’ve dreamed and more. I think my instincts knew who you were, even through a screen. I’ve felt a pull to you from the moment I saw you. Don’t you feel it?”
His question echoes the one he asked me on set, before I agreed to come here and let this pack to see me through my heat. He presses a hand to his chest and I mirror his action. Just like before, there’s a pull there. One I felt the second our eyes connected on set, and my Omega trusts him implicitly. She wants me to run and jump into his arms right now. Let his calming energy and earthy basil scent soothe us.
I nod before I can think better of it, which makes his smile widen.
“There’s something else.” He looks over to Jett before he continues. “We figured something out while you were asleep. Tell her.”
Jett steps up to complete the semi-circle again, but this time there’s hardly any space between me and the pack. My eyes connect with his ocean blue ones, and that tug Augie made me aware of only grows stronger.
“Were you at the Producer’s Guild Halloween party in Beverly Hills two years ago?”
I raise a brow in question, but I nod.
Several emotions cross Jett’s face, but his shoulders relax before his lip tips up in a smile. “We were, too.”
“I don’t remember seeing you there.”
“Because we were there all but thirty minutes before I went into a rut and we had to leave.”
“That was you?”
Jett rubs the back of his neck. “It was. I don’t remember scenting you, but my Alpha must have known you were there. He wanted to find you and we couldn’t.”
Ours. They’re ours.
I want to tell my Omega otherwise, but I know she’s right. I’ve known their ours, but—
“I hear what you’re saying, but I told you what I did. And you all were just talking about replacing me.” I stare directly at Jett. “You said we didn’t have chemistry,” I repeat.
