Page 208 of Just Wait

“Come on,” Riser says, catching my attention. “The elevator is here.”

“Kincaid, Parish, and Tennyson are around here somewhere,” I tell the women, stepping into the elevator. “You might be able to find them and get a quick autograph.”

I don’t experience even an ounce of guilt about leading them on. They might be able to run into Kincaid, but I doubt they’ll be able to locate Ten and Parish.

Lumen’s safety and comfort come first.

Riser joins us in the elevator, hitting the button for our floor.

The door closes, and I say, “You’d better hit a couple other floors. Otherwise, those women will likely start stalking ours.”

“Good idea,” he says, nodding. “By the way, in the future, I’d like it if you referred to Lumen as our girlfriend.”

I could bristle, but I completely get where he’s coming from, so I nod. “I’ll work on that.”

We’re still getting the hang of being a cohesive unit, but we’ll get there.

“It’s your turn to step up, Mal,” Kincaid says as the three of us stand outside the nest in our new room at the resort.

“We should send him.” I nod, pointing at Riser. “We both know he’s better at putting her at ease.”

“Let’s rock, paper, scissors for it,” Riser says, crossing his arms over his chest. “She told us she wanted time to set everything up. I’ve been taught that you don’t enter an omega’s nest without an invitation.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve heard that too,” I growl, jabbing a finger at his chest. “Why are the two of you so determined to set me up for failure?”

“It’s been close to two hours,” Kincaid says. “Someone has to check that she’s okay.”

“You said you would be the bad cop,” I remind him, quirking an eyebrow.

Let’s see him get out of this one.

“No one has to be the bad guy here.” Kincaid crosses his arms. “All you’re doing is checking on your girlfriend.”

“She never gets mad at you,” Riser says, shrugging. “Hell if I understand how you manage it, but she finds everything you do to be cute.”

I can’t help it if I’m adorable.

That doesn’t mean my packmates should throw me under the bus.

I growl, telling them that.

“Rock, paper, scissors, it is,” Kincaid says.

Those fuckers have figured out some way to cheat against me in rock, paper, scissors.

Five vicious games later—thanks to a few ties—I let myself into the nest.

It smells exactly like Lumen.

That electric scent of hers is everywhere, with hints of pears and roses mixed in.

While it’s mostly dark, the stairs up to the den-style nest are lit with LED lights, likely so someone doesn’t fall and break their neck.

My heart drops when I spot Lumen. I thought she might have fallen asleep, and that’s why she never came for us.

I was wrong.

She sits up against the head of the bed with what I think is a throw blanket wrapped around her shoulders.