Page 151 of All Packed Up

“I haven’t ever been part of an omega’s heat,” Nic confessed, warmth heating his cheeks as if he was still drinking tea. “But I’ve heard they can be… intense.”

“I haven’t either, for the record,” Grif interjected. “What’s on your mind?”

Annoyance spiked in Nic’s blood. Griffith was acting so rational, so casual. All polite and concerned. He leaned against the back of the truck, giving Nic his full, undivided attention.

He hated that it brought to life butterflies he hadn’t felt in years.

“Well… I think we should kind of have a plan? I was thinking since I don’t have a knot, she’s probably going to want the alphas closest. So I figured I can focus on keeping everyone hydrated and take care of the food and whatever else is needed.”

Grif stared at him for a long moment, cocked his head to the side. “I haven’t been part of a heat, but Nic, that’s not how omegas work. That’s not how their heats are. Wendy will want all her… well, I know we aren’t a pack but we’re the people she’s chosen to spend her heat with, the next best thing. All that to say, omegas want their people. And you’re part of that, dummy.” Grif poked him in the chest. “Wendy’s going to want all of us there. It’s a scent thing.”

Nic’s throat dried. He didn’t… Nic couldn’t…

Am I gonna have to watch Griffith fuck Wendy?

He’d be so close to Griffith, surrounded by all those pheromones. How would he be able to keep holding himself back? Their kiss the other night was burned into his memory, and only brought older ones to the surface. And damn him, but Nic missed the alpha too. He wanted more.

And it was exactly because of that he chose to say, “Oh. Well, I’ll make sure we stay on opposite ends of the nest.”

Grif blinked long and slow, as if trying to translate a dead language. He leaned a hand against the bed of the truck and Nic tried his fucking damnedest not to look at the veins decorating his arms or the shape of his hand.

“Why would we do that?”

Was this alpha serious?

“Because,” he began, waving a hand out as if it was serious.

The alpha waited for him to continue.

“Because I’m not doing this,” Nic gritted out, pointing between them. “Isn’t what’s between us complicated enough? We don’t need to be getting involved again. There’s too much history we could get tangled up in.”

What didn’t this alpha get about that? Wasn’t what they went through the first time hard enough? Why make it any harder when they knew they were going to split ways at the end of all of this?

The thought made Nic freeze.

They were going to split ways at the end of all this.

He felt like he’d just been punched in the gut.

Were they really just going to drive away after Wendy went through her heat and they had taken care of the Sterling Pack?

Why had Nic thought of every scenario but the obvious one, the one he knew he expected when they’d first pulled in the driveway?

Griffith laughed, but it was a tense sound. “Really, Nic? You want to service the same omega during her heat but we can’t—”

The growl Grif swallowed his words with was sexier than Nic wanted to admit. That growl had vibrated next to his ear in the past too many times to count. He could still remember the way it made shivers break out across his skin, like it was doing right then.

“Yes,” he choked out.

Griffith stared at him, eyes bewildered. “You’re totally serious.”

Nic nodded. He wanted boundaries, lines he knew not to cross so there would be no misunderstandings.

Because letting himself indulge was letting himself have a taste of what could be in a perfect world. A world where he could have both Wendy and Griffith with no consequences.

However, in this world, the two of them could barely get along, so he had to stop thinking like that. Like… what if they did get along? What if Wendy liked Griffith too? Hell, what if she wanted them all? Nic and Griffith as well as Tate and Arlo? A proper pack.

“You telling me you don’t miss it? Us?” Griffith asked, tone accusatory. Nic couldn’t answer because he didn’t want to lie, but the truth was even more damning.