“So work for us,” Tic suggests immediately. “We’ll pay you better than the bank, and we’ll be able to control your exposure to other alphas.”
Haven pushes my hair behind my ear. “You can work from home and keep your classes at the gym so you’re still seeing people.”
I wince. I used to love my yoga classes, but now being surrounded by happily bonded omegas, most of whom try to convince me I’ll be okay, is tough. Really fucking tough.
Jude saunters in, heads straight to Haven and drops a kiss on her forehead, then her lips humming with pleasure in his throat. I look away, their blissful happiness makes my throat tight in a way that it never has before.
I don’t resent my best friend’s happiness. I want her to be happy, she deserves it. More than anyone I know. It’s just hard to watch at the moment.
“What are we talking about?” Jude asks, wrapping his arms around his mate.
“Ren got let go from the bank today,” Haven tells him.
Jude winces and gives me a pitying look that makes my teeth grit. “That sucks, Flo, I’m sorry. What kind of a plan are we looking at?”
Haven shrugs. “Gotta find her a job where she can work from home. Tic’s gonna look at your company and see-”
“No,” Jude says quickly. “No, you shouldn’t work for us.”
It hurts. The rejection of the very notion that I might be an asset to their company. Jude sees it and smiles to soften the blow. I hate how much it reminds me of Forsythe giving me the same kind of look just before he broke my heart.
“What I mean is, you should let us invest in you instead.”
“Invest?” Haven asks before I can.
Jude grins all golden retriever energy. “Yeah. You said you were getting all kinds of requests for the name of your designer,right? All those dresses you wore on the show? Why not turn that into a business? You can offer custom designs.” He smacks a kiss on Haven’s cheek and then fetches his laptop, opening the screen and placing it in front of me. “I was working on this as a surprise for your birthday, but since we’re talking about it now-”
He clicks into a program and I gasp. “It’s-It’s beautiful.”
And it is. Really, really beautiful, and understated which isn’t really Jude’s strong suit. Pale pinks, greys and creams. The first picture I see is of me, barefoot, a sketchbook on my lap, fabric around me. He must have taken this while I was preparing for the show.
Below it is a rotating carousel of pictures of the dresses I wore during filming, with names scrawled across it in my own handwriting.The Pirouette. The Arabesque. The Plie.
Jude clicks to another page as Tic and Haven crowd around behind us. This one is a page of my less fancy designs, the clubbing dresses I’ve made, the skirts and tops, the high waisted pants. The dance and lounge wear. The pajama sets I made for the pack.
Page after page Jude shows me talking the whole time. “I thought we could get some of the simpler things into production right away. Creed’s been scouting for warehouses, where we can store them for shipping. And then you can also have people submit requests for consultations for custom designs.” Another click and there's a form for that. “I also started a few social media accounts for you, if you want to move forward with it.”
Haven’s nodding behind me. “The evening dresses you can keep as names of ballet moves. And the workout clothes you could name after yoga poses. And oo! What if you did a line of swimsuits and named them after the other omegas on the show!”
I laugh at her enthusiasm, though it comes out somewhat choked. “I’m not sure about that. But it’s something to think about.”
Jude clicks back to the landing page. “And the name is just a place holder-”
“It's perfect,” I say, tears filling my eyes. “It’s so fucking perfect, Jude. I-Thank you.”
Haven sniffs behind me. “You did so good, baby,” She says in a tone as watery as mine. “So good. I love you so much.”
Jude hums a pleased noise. There’s the sound of them kissing. Hot and heavy over my shoulder. Tic tsks. “Take it elsewhere. Ren doesn’t need to see this.”
I glance over my shoulder in time to see Haven climbing Jude like a tree as best as she can with her oversized belly, and him carrying her out of the room.
A large brown palm slides onto my shoulder, squeezing gently. “You want us to move forward with this, Ren?”
I swallow around the enormous lump in my throat and nod. “I-yeah. Yeah, I think I do. But I don’t- I haven’t a clue where to start.”
“That’s okay. That’s why you have us. We’ll help in whatever way we can.”
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to thank Haven enough. Not just for being my friend, my family, but for bringing me this pack as well, these four scary as hell alphas who have offered me their unwavering support, for no other reason than that I’m important to their omega.
