“Ohhhh,” Amber says dejectedly as her shoulders fall. “But it would be so much fun. It would be like a sleepover! Pleeeease?”
“I won’t pressure you into anything,” Eli says as he holds his daughter against him, “but it’s an option, if you get tired of this place.”
“I don’t like that this place is on the first level,” Walker says as he strides back out toward us.
“You know, I was thinking that,” Knox says. “At least in her other apartment, she was up a few floors.”
While the four of them talk around me, I just turn and look at the new space. The white-washed walls. The popcorn ceiling. The lack of decorations. The entire place devoid of any sort of a life.
I want my nest. I need my nest. But I don’t even have furniture in this place. I’ll have to get an air mattress. How much was Knox able to retrieve from my kitchen? Do I need any of my baking supplies? What about my mixer? I don’t see it in the kitchen.
I don’t even realize I’m swaying on my feet until a large set of hands comes down onto my shoulders.
“Hey, hey,” Walker murmurs against my ear, “take a breath.”
“We do have a bigger kitchen as well, if you need that,” Eli says.
“Yeah,” Amber says as she nods her head with vigor. “You can use anything, really.”
“If you need a commercial kitchen for your baking,” Walker says as he begins massaging my shoulders, “you can use one of the kitchens at the vineyard. There’s two of them, but only one is ever opened at a time.”
That gives me pause. “You work at a vineyard?”
He chuckles. “I own the vineyard.”
That’s what his scent reminds me of: grapes, oak, and pine. Wine, and the barrels it is aged in.
“I don’t know,” I whisper softly.
I can’t stay with a random Alpha and his daughter in their house. That’s crazy talk. I don’t even know these men. Who are they, anyway? Just a bunch of Alphas walking around horny at some Blossom Festival in their hometown?
The heels of my hands press into my eyes and I rub, hoping and praying that when I pull them away, I’ll be faced with the morning again.
Maybe this is just all a bad dream.
“Daddy? Is she okay?” I hear Amber ask.
“Why don’t you go wait in the car, princess? We’re almost done here,” Eli says.
“Awww,” Amber mutters. “Fine.”
Pickles barks and moves away from me for the first time since we pulled up hours ago. I gasp and lift my head, watching as he rushes after the little girl. My eyebrows raise in shock. Pickles never leaves my side.
Eli moves after my dog before I reach for him, stopping him before I can think about what I’m doing. My hand lands on his arm. I feel the strength of his forearm beneath my touch. And when I look up into his face, he’s staring down at our connection.
I quickly pull my hand away. “She’s fine with him. I have him trained well.”
“Right,” he murmurs, still looking down at where I was touching him.
Sirens whoop outside again. A couple of cars honk their horns. Lights begin flashing, and they beam right through the sliding glass door that heads to the little balcony outside. A balcony that I won’t be able to cool anything on because it’ll get stolen.
I feel sick to my stomach. The Omega inside of me whines, but I swallow down the sound.
This isn’t my home. This isn’t my kitchen. I don’t have furniture, so I can’t build out my nest. I don’t have the money to go out and buy all new things for my kitchen. I have to check my bank account balance. I’m going to have to pull things out of my savings.
The room tilts around me as another surge of hormones rockets through my body. It evaporates the bones from my legs.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” Walker says when he catches me.
