Page 159 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

Hudson looked at me as if the answer had been obvious for longer than I’d been brave enough to ask. “Yes.”

Lincoln’s arms wrapped around me from behind, gentle around my stomach, firm everywhere else.

Hudson’s mouth found mine. Lincoln kissed my neck, careful and warm, his beard brushing my skin. Hudson’s hands slid from my face to my waist, then over my stomach, where the babies were quiet and apparently satisfied with the evening’s level of drama.

“You’re staying here,” Hudson said against my mouth.

“Bossy.”

“Certain.”

“Fine distinction.”

Lincoln’s voice warmed my ear. “Useful one.”

I turned my head enough to kiss him too while Damien’s message stayed on the phone screen, unanswered.

Chapter 26

Mary

Two days later, the elevator dinged, letting us know Damien had arrived.

I waited at the far side of the sitting room. That sounded cowardly but it was strategic, actually. I’d positioned myself near the window with Sienna beside me, and a cushion in reach in case I needed to do something with my hands that wasn’t clawing my own skin off.

Hudson stood beside the fireplace, calmer than I expected, while Lincoln waited near the sofa, his thick arms folded in a way that made his biceps look bigger than ever.

The doors opened and Damien stood in the center. He looked exactly the same as he had in Boston. Sandy hair, his pretty-boy face, and jock shoulders that still tried to convince the world he was taller than five foot eight. He had the same mouth that had kissed me in the library…and months later told me we weren’t exclusive.

He looked at me, and his eyes narrowed, then his face went blank before recognition landed and fury came right behind it. “Marli? What are you doing here?”

I hated that name from his mouth now.

“Mary,” I said. I was sure I had already told him as much.

His eyes moved over me, then to Hudson, then Lincoln, then slowly they came back to me and the room seemed to shrink around the silence.

“What the fuck is this?”

Hudson took one step forward. “Damien.”

“No.” Damien laughed but it had an edge to it. “Don’t Damien me. What is she doing here?”

“You need to sit down,” Lincoln said.

“I don’t need to sit down. I need someone to explain why my ex-girlfriend is standing in your apartment smelling like both of you.”

My stomach dropped.

Betas didn’t scent the way alphas and omegas did, not with the same depth, but he could smell scents. It’s not like they didn’t exist for betas. And now mine was wrapped in Hudson and Lincoln now. In their home, their hands, their bed, their care, and their choice.

“She’s not your girlfriend,” Hudson said quietly.

Damien’s head snapped toward him. “I know that.”

“Do you?”

“Don’t talk to me like that.”