Page 189 of All Packed Up

The alpha lifted an arm, and Nic slotted himself underneath it. Grif pulled him close, and Nic wasn’t going to miss his opportunity—maybe the last one—to have them both.

So he tugged Wendy into him again, let Grif wrap his arms around both of them and rested his head on Wendy’s.

It was strange how his heart could feel so broken and whole all at the same time.

Arlo’s typing, clicking, and their soft voices filled the nest, Nic let himself be surrounded by the comforting scents of his omega and the alpha he’d once called his too.

Because once he returned to the city, he didn’t see himself coming back.

There would be no time, no reason.

Wendy’s heat was over. But instead of relaxing around the nest and spending a few extra days with the alphas who’d helped her with her heat…

They had to leave. To tend to his gym and figure out what the hell had happened. And somehow, he had to make sure the Sterling Pack kept their hands off Wendy too.

Easier said than done.

They knew where he lived. Where he worked. They wouldn’t be able to hide at the gym, the alphas made sure of that.

“I can hear you spiraling,” Griffith murmured.

Nic chuckled, though humor wasn’t really what he was feeling just then. “It’s what I’m good at,” he responded.

Nic couldn’t fathom it yet, that his gym was really gone. The same gym he trained with Griffith at. With Stellan. It was the same gym his dad had always brought him to, told him about, prepared him to take over one day, as bitter as he was about it. Nic had fallen in love in that gym, healed in that gym, rebuilt the gym to be his.

And now look at it.

Burnt to a crisp.

Nic shook his head, the idea far too large for him to process right there.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Pictures weren’t the same.

Until he saw it in person, he could believe it was just a really, really good prank by Ashley and the crew.

God, how he wished that were the truth.

“I’ve got it,” Arlo said softly. “It was last night.”

Picking his head up, he eyed the alpha, the pinched expression on his face Nic only saw whenever they were being chastised by the landlord for smoking.

So this wouldn’t be good news then, would it?

Bracing himself, Nic sucked in a deep breath and faced the alpha.

“What do you have?”

“The fire broke out around eleven last night. No one was around, so no injuries.”

“Do the cameras show anything else?” Tate asked.

Like who did it? They were all hoping.

“I haven’t found any evidence of like, someone throwing a Molotov cocktail or anything, if that’s what you mean.”

Nic grumbled at the alpha, Tate’s lips twitching over his shoulder.

“There’s only one little odd thing, and it’s this person peeking in the front door,” he pointed out.