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“Yes,” I admitted, tears leaking from my eyes.
Jude appeared in the doorway. “Babe, what happened?” His green eyes were wide. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head, trying to reach for him, but my arms were trapped inside the blanket.
Jude stalked forward and helped free my from my blanket prison before he picked me up. He settled us both down on the couch. I plastered myself to his chest as I shoved my nose against his neck to inhale his soft scent.
It wasn’t an instant fix to my problems, but it definitely helped having Jude close by.
Jude smoothed a hand over my head. “Can you tell me what happened?”
I wanted to, but it sounded so stupid in my head.
I’d had a panic attack because the guys I’d known for all of three days might change their mind and kick me to the curb? That I’d suddenly become super dependent on all of them? That I wanted to trap all of us in the nest for the rest of my life?
“I think she’s just having a moment,” Elizabeth said carefully, “but she’ll be all right when her pack is all home.”
“Ridiculous that they were even called in so soon after their omega’s heat,” Grant snarled, having come inside with Jude but stopping at the doorway to the room. “I’ll call them?—”
“No!” I cried, my voice muffled from my face being buried against Jude. I didn’t want anyone calling Crew, Rhett, or Kellan and making them come home. It was bad enough they’d had to miss work because of me.
“No need,” Jude murmured, his tone low and soothing even as he spoke to the other people in the room. “They’re already on their way home.”
“They are?” There was no disguising the hope in my tone. I sniffled as I lifted my head.
Jude smiled at me, wiping away one of my tears with his thumb. “Of course they are, pretty girl. Don’t you get it? None of us want to be away from you.”
“Because of my heat.”
Jude rolled his eyes. “Because you’re you.”
Heat bloomed in my chest. Jude wasn’t an alpha, but he seemed to know just what to say, and just how to act, to set me at ease.
“We haven’t had much time to really talk, but that’s changing tonight,” Jude declared.
The front door opened and brought the sounds and smells of the rest of the guys. The pit in my stomach slowly started to fill in as I felt their personalities fill the house once again.
But then things went starkly silent. So quiet that the hum of the heater sounded like a siren blaring in the space. Right up until the first growl started.
And then all hell broke loose.
42
Hazel
“What the fuck happened?” Crew demanded, storming into the family room like a man possessed. His electric blue orbs locked on me, and he physically pushed his way through his parents.
Without another word, he snatched me away from Jude and pulled me up his body. I wrapped my arms and legs around him like a baby sloth clinging to a tree trunk. His hands cupped my ass as he held me at eye level. Rhett and Kellan bracketed my sides and Jude stood up behind me.
I sighed, the tension that had been holding me in a vise draining away as they surrounded me with rumbling purrs. It sounded like a motorcycle gang had rolled their Harley’s into the room.
It was perfect.
I pressed my cheek to Crew’s with a happy little whimper.
“I’m not going to ask again,” Crew hissed. “What the fuck happened to Hazel?”
Grant cleared his throat. “I can appreciate that you’re worried for Hazel’s safety, but do not speak to your mother or sister with that tone, son.”
