Page 43 of A Pack of Honey
Cole's big hand lands on the back of my neck under my ponytail. "Time to eat, Little One."
I close my eyes and nod. The tension slips from my muscles at finally having the decisions lifted from my shoulders. We go straight to Front Street, the heart of Traverse City, and eat at the smallest mom-and-pop restaurant I've ever seen. It's practically the size of a bedroom, and our pack takes up more than half the seating.
The food is nirvana. I'm proud of my cooking, but it's mostly all down-home comfort food. This place does special twists on things like savory squash waffles with turkey and gravy, roasted rabbit with a sweet sauce, and stuffed blossoms. It's all strange and new and delicious.
I ask the guys questions. They explain how they all met. Cole tells a particularly funny story about Luca trying to pick up Cole's sister, and how Cole ended up consoling him when she rejected him flat out.
Jess and Hunt also met in college, about ten years after Luca and Cole graduated.
"Kinda always wanted to be more than friends," Hunt admits. Jess has a devastated look that I don't quite understand.
"I'm sorry I fucked that up so badly," Jess whispers. At my questioning gaze, he explains. "In and out of college, I was too busy fucking around to get my head out of my ass. Even after we were packed, I couldn't get it together. Then we started looking for omegas." He shoots me an apologetic look. I take his other hand, not holding Hunt’s. Luca had hinted at this. Some kind of issue with Jess during the courting process.
"We both knew we wanted an omega,” Jess says, “but every single omega that matched the pack didn't match between Hunt and me. Either her scent didn't match me, or it didn't match Hunt. Or if it did match either of us, the omega had an issue with their packmates being interested in each other. Even though we'd only just started exploring that aspect of our relationship, it was important to me.
“Besides all of that, I knew, in my gut, that they weren't what my alpha wanted. He was always roiling beneath the surface, finding fault in any omega. Until you." Jess leans down to me and scent marks the side of my face with his. I scent mark him right back. This is a tough story for him. His scent has turned to charred grass, baked too long in the summer sun.
"The way my alpha was reacting to everything, I just couldn't handle it, so I just…" He trails off, looking to Hunt, who looks back at him, steady and supportive.
"We all reacted badly," Cole cuts in. "We shouldn't have pushed you so hard. We didn't—I didn't realize." It's his apology. He can say he's sorry. He does it with me, but as the dominant alpha of his pack, it's hard for him to submit even in this small way.
I don't care. I shoot him a glare.
His jaw works like he's chewing on the words before saying them. "I'm sorry,” Cole gruffs out.
The other men around the table just stare, jaws slack.
Luca opens his mouth.
"Not a word," Cole barks lightly. Luca snaps it shut, and I giggle. Cole smirks at me, and his gaze sends a hot fire licking up my spine.
After dinner, we did some more shopping. By the time we're done, my feet are sore, and I'm glad for the drive home because Jess plants my feet firmly in his lap and rubs them the entireway. By the time we get to the farmhouse, I'm ready to crawl into my bed and call it a day, but I freeze at the bottom of the stairs.
"What?" Cole asks. There's a slight tinge to his scent. I'm learning to read all of them. It's worry. He always strives to care for me, and sensing discontent puts his alpha on edge.
"I want…" I trail off. I know what I want, but I also know that, on top of feeling a bit like a demanding brat about asking for it after they bought me five billion things at the store today, it's logistically impossible.
"Tell us." Luca's voice cuts through my thoughts. It's a request, and when I meet his eyes, they're soft for me.
"I want to stay with all of you tonight. But until the omega bed comes, there's nowhere to sleep together. The biggest bed in the house right now is mine, and it's a queen." And a queen certainly won't fit four huge alpha's and an omega.
Alpha purrs erupt around me. They're as into the idea as I am.
"Okay, so we can't fit in one of the beds in this house. What's the biggest space?" Jess asks.
"The living room if we move all of the furniture to the walls," Cole immediately replies.
"Do you think we could get them down the stairs?" asks Hunt. He's peering up my curved stairwell.
"Only one way to find out." Jess bounds past us all and up the stairs like an overexcited puppy. The guys start following, and I move to follow them.
Cole stops me with a hand on my neck as he passes. "Go relax, Little One. We've got this."
I nod. I want to help, but I'm so tired.
I curl up on the couch, and think I'm falling into a light sleep when I feel the couch jerk and almost panic. But Cole is on one end, and Hunt is on the other. They're moving the couch to the back wall, and all of the other furniture has already been moved.
"Sorry, Bumblebee," Hunt says. "We left it for last."
