Ivy
The Sunday morning light shone through the windows as I slowly peeled my eyes open. Demetrius’s warm arms held me close to his chest while Preston’s arms held my hips. I couldn’t see Isaac or Lukas, but their scents lingered nearby in the group bedroom.
Last night was a blur of laughter and fun. After dinner, we stayed up late alternating between card games and video games. At some point, I must have fallen asleep in Dem’s arms again, and I’m assuming he carried me to bed. But this time, it wasn't my bed; it was the group bed I found myself in.
I wiggled slightly, adjusting my position to get a better angle for my neck. Preston kissed me on the forehead before getting up, probably to make breakfast. Isaac quickly took over his spot next to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, tugging me gently to him. A soft growl rumbled out of Demetrius before he released me into Isaac’s arms and got up out of bed. Quickly enough, Lukas replaced Demetrius and buried his nose in my hair.
My heart swelled with joy as my eyelids grew heavy again. My pack, I thought as I drifted back to sleep.
***
“Breakfast!”
The faint sound of Preston downstairs brought me back to consciousness. Delicious smells of bacon, eggs, and toast drifted up from the kitchen, forcing me to sit up and stretch. Only Isaac remained beside me; the others had already left.
I pressed a kiss against his lips, which earned me a soft grumble of approval, followed by two arms pulling me closely against his chest.
“Come on, Isaac. Breakfast,” I softly whispered into his ear.
“I’m good,” he grumbled back until eventually he sighed, letting me go and sitting up on the bed.
I couldn’t help but laugh. His hair was all messed up, and his face was covered with lines from the blankets. I grabbed his hand and pulled him up out of bed.
“Let’s go eat!” I said, practically dragging him downstairs to the dining table in front of the beautiful windows. The rest of the pack was sitting, and soon we were all laughing, joking, talking, and sharing breakfast. After a few minutes of eating, Demetrius cleared his throat to get our attention.
“Ivy, every Sunday morning, we usually chat a bit about pack goals, upcoming events on the calendar, and where weneed support in certain areas,” Demetrius said before sipping his juice. “First, I’d like to say, congratulations, Arco pack. We’ve officially tricked Ivy into moving in with us, and now she’s ours.” He shot me a playful wink.
I smiled back at him, shaking my head with a sigh as the guys raised their glasses in celebration.
“How about after lunch, we grab the SUV and pick up the rest of your things at your apartment. Does that work for you?” Demetrius asked me.
With my mouth full of bacon, I gave him the thumbs up, earning snickers from the table.
“Great. Moving on, we need to discuss how to handle this announcement of the Arco pack finding its scent-matched omega.” Demetrius continued. “Lukas, you had originally suggested a slow approach to first introduce her as a dancer in the company.”
“I’ve run bios of all the new dancers on our website and social media pages,” Lukas replied. “However, rumors are starting to fly around very quickly that we’ve found an omega dancer, even going so far as to identify Ivy. These rumors are coming from inside the company. We can’t really silence our own dancers.”
“What do the ticket sales look like for our upcoming production? Are we seeing additional momentum behind these rumors?” Demetrius asked Lukas.
Lukas checked the ticketing site on his phone. “Wow…we have four of the six shows almost sold out, well above our pace for three weeks out from opening night.” He looked up to Demetrius. “I’d say this is a direct reflection of the rumors.”
“Do we announce Ivy before or after this production?” Isaac leaned in, grabbing an extra piece of fruit.
“Maybe we should use this production as a soft release. Ride out the rumors and let Preston and Ivy’s performances speak for themselves,” Lukas added as he put his phone away. “After this production, we roll out the announcement—bolstered by positive reviews and momentum.”
“That will put us right intoNutcrackerseason. You wantNutcrackerto be our big debut?” Preston asked.
“Nutcrackerwould be a perfect debut performance, but we’d need to alter it to highlight Ivy and Preston more.” Demetrius shook his head before turning to Isaac. “Can you re-choreograph the lead roles?”
“What kind ofNutcrackerdoes Arco Ballet perform?” I asked. There were so many different versions of the story out there.
Isaac paused for a moment as we all watched him. “We have the standard story. Clara and her Nutcracker travel to the Kingdom of Sweets, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy. We could alter it to just have Clara and her Nutcrackerprince become the Sugar Plum Fairy and her cavalier when they arrive in Act Two. I’ve seen that done before.”
“That would be a grand production to welcome this partnership,” Lukas nodded in approval.
With a sigh, Preston shook his head. “There are currently twentyNutcrackershows. We can’t dance the lead roles every night. The strain would be too much on our bodies.”
“We’ll alternate you with two of the other principal couples. You two can perform the Arabian duet on your off shows,” Demetrius replied.
