Page 99 of Holly Jolly Heat
I smiled, running my fingers through his hair. He purred softly, the sound still new enough to make my heart clench.
My alpha. My alphas. My pack.
This was real. This was mine. This was everything I'd been too scared to reach for.
"Michelle." Ro's voice, still rough with sleep. "Stop spiraling. I can feel your thoughts racing through the bond."
"I'm not spiraling. I'm processing."
"You're overthinking." He pulled me back against his chest. "We won, omega. The battle's over. You can rest now."
"There's too much to do. Clients to call, emails to answer, strategy to plan?—"
"After breakfast," Dex interrupted firmly. "After coffee. After you've taken care of yourself. The work will wait thirty minutes."
"But—"
"Michelle." All three of them said it in unison, and I felt their unified determination through the bond.
I was outnumbered. And honestly? They were right.
"Okay," I conceded. "Thirty minutes of rest. Then I work."
"That's our girl," Lucas said, his purr rumbling through his chest.
So I lay there, wrapped in my pack's arms, feeling their scents surround me and their emotions settle warm through the bond.
For thirty minutes, I wasn't Michelle Rodriguez, manager and trailblazer and industry disruptor.
I was just Michelle. Pack omega. Loved and claimed and home.
It was perfect.
Breakfast was a celebration that masqueraded as a normal family meal.
My mom had made everything, pancakes, eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and somehow there were even pastries from the local bakery. The kitchen table groaned under the weight of food.
"This is excessive," I observed, eyeing the spread.
"This is celebration," Janet corrected. "My daughter changed the industry last night. We're celebrating properly."
"I didn't change the industry. I just announced my pack bond."
"You announced it with such professionalism and transparency that the ethics committee praised you publicly," Bill said, flipping pancakes. "You made it safer for every omega who comes after you. That's changing the industry, mija."
Maya appeared with her tablet. "The data supports that claim. #PackAndProfessional has 47,000 posts in twelve hours. Sentiment analysis shows 89% positive. You've been quoted in four major publications. Three universities are discussing adding your approach to their business ethics curriculum."
"Maya—"
"I'm just reporting facts. You're literally being studied as a case example of professional transparency. Own it."
Josh wandered in, still in pajamas. "Lucas gained 50,000 subscribers overnight. Ro's production company got seventeen client inquiries. Dex's security consulting business, which didn't exist yesterday, has twelve requests for information. The pack bond didn't hurt your careers. It launched them."
I stared at my teenage brother. "Dex doesn't have a security consulting business."
"He does now," Dex said mildly, appearing with coffee. "I registered the LLC this morning. Apparently there's demand forsecurity consultants who understand both physical and digital threat assessment in the creator economy."
"You what?"
