Page 188 of All Packed Up

“Where does it upload to? Can you view it?”

Nic stared at the other alpha, wondering why it mattered. “Every six hours get uploaded to the cloud. Why?”

They already knew who’d done this, who’d burnt down years of memories, progress, and growth in the name of petty vengeance.

“Is it on your laptop?” the alpha asked, already crawling his way through the tent. “I’ll go get it for you.”

“Yeah… it’s there,” he said numbly.

“Okay,” Griffith announced.

Nic picked his head up, but the alpha was already crawling his way through the tent. “While Arlo handles that, Tate, come with me. Grab a jacket and your shoes, I need your help setting up the timed feeder,” Griffith commanded.

“Wait—wait!” Nic snapped, freezing the alphas in motion. Wendy pulled back to watch the events. “What are you doing all that for?”

Grif sighed, crossing his arms, picture-perfect exasperated alpha if there ever was one. “Well, I’ve got to make sure Daisy and Darla and the others are okay for a few days while I’m gone, don’t I?”

Nic stared at him, the pieces dangling out before him but unable to get his hands around them to put them into place. Grif sighed. “I’m not very well gonna send you back into the city alone to deal with this, am I?”

“Aren’t you?” Nic questioned.

Griffith rolled his eyes. “I thought you were the smart one here.”

Nic recognized the attempt at lightening the mood, in his big bumbling Griffith way.

“Aren’t you out on parole? You can’t be near this,” Nic pushed.

Nic had no doubt that if they came face-to-face with these alphas that Griffith would let his fists do all the talking. It might be what those alphas deserve, but Nic refused to lose Griffith again like that. “You’re not going.”

“Says who?” he asked, brow arched.

“Says the smart one,” he countered.

Grif’s upper lip twitched in that cute growl thing he used to do. It’d been years since he’d seen it, and despite everything, he felt a flutter of something like butterflies against his stomach.

He was too old for butterflies, but it didn’t make their wings stop.

Arlo returned before Nic could decide if he wanted to hit or kiss those full upturned lips of Grif’s, and the conversation died as they waited for Arlo to work his magic.

The alpha’s fingers clacked over the keyboard and tapped at the mouse pad, and it was only moments before Nic realized they’d all gravitated. Each of them spied over Arlo’s shoulder, watching him work the camera software like he’d designed it himself.

“Do you know when the fire started?” Arlo asked.

“Uh…” Nic pulled out his phone, scrolled through the notifications, and tried to figure out the starting point of the text messages. Just when all the letters and numbers were starting to blur, a hand eclipsed his vision and slid the device from his grip.

“We’ve got it, if that’s okay,” Grif said.

Nic nodded as Wendy’s arms tightened around him, as she tried to comfort him.

He leaned into her, buried his face in her neck and tried to count his breaths before he broke down.

The thing about mourning was that even if it was what you needed most, you often didn’t have any time for it.

Nic didn’t know when it had gone from trusting these stoners with a simple task of finding cheese to operating his security system, but with only a glance in Arlo’s direction, it was clear this was his thing.

So Nic breathed in his omega’s scent and let someone else handle the video tracking.

Warmth nudged against him, and he lifted his head from Wendy’s neck to find Griffith next to him, concern dripping from his expression.