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“We should get out of your hair and let you get settled,” Luca said, his cheeks still bright pink.
“Stay,” Nicky snapped.
What would us staying accomplish? If she was mad, we weren’t going to have a productive conversation, and I couldn’t say anything to stop her from being mad if she was determined to be that way. She and the rest of the pack were fresh off the heat, and I tried to remind myself of that. Had any of them been prepared for Jasper to go into heat? There was the possibility she’d gotten pregnant during the heat and was already showing symptoms with her wonky designation, but I didn’t want to blame that when it could easily be the physical toll heats took on betas. Nicky was probably in pain, exhausted, and in need of a long rest.
Tony set his hand on the back of her neck gently. “I don’t know if that’s the best idea right now, baby girl. Why don’t you rest and we’ll invite Luca and Luna over later?”
At least her alphas could see sense.
Nicky sniffled, not quite over her tears, her body radiating with tension. “Fine.”
She stalked right past us and marched up the stairs without another word. Her whole pack stared after her, all of us standing awkwardly in the wake of her fury.
Jasper stepped forward. “Let me go talk to her.”
With Jasper and Nicky gone, our links to the pack had disappeared, and we were left standing before practical strangers.
“Don’t mind Books,” Billie said. “The alphas took a lot out of her this week and she could do with a couple hundred hot baths. Thanks for keeping an eye on our place and the babies.”
“You’re welcome,” I said after a beat of silence. “It wasn’t the easiest to do.”
“Can I get either of you some tea while we wait to see if Nicky’s coming back down?” Hana offered.
The last thing I wanted was to sit around with them at this moment, but I wasn’t sure if Nicky would be even more pissed if we left, so I agreed and sat at the breakfast table with Luca by my side. I envied the way the pack moved around the space, the familiarity they had here that had been completely foreign to me during my house-sitting. They alternated being downstairs with us, slipping away to drop off their supplies, shower, and change, all while we sat and waited to see if Nicky wanted to talk to us.
“Do you think she hates me?” I asked Luca.
“I don’t know that Nicky really hates anyone,” he replied. “She’ll come around.”
“Let me go see what’s happening,” Hana said, disappearing up the stairs. A few moments later she came back down. “We’re going to get Nicky to rest for a while, but we’ll have you over tomorrow to talk, if that’s okay?”
I didn’t have any choice but to agree. “I work my night shift until 4 AM and then I’ll be seeing my sister and nieces, but I can come by after.”
Hana nodded. “I’ll let Nicky know and leave it to her to schedule with you. Do you need help getting your things out to your vehicles?”
“I think we can manage.”
Billie hopped over to me with a wad of cash in their hands, splitting it in half to hand to me and Luca. “For helping out.”
“You don’t have to pay me for that,” I replied. “I kept a list of everything we ate and I’ll replace it tomorrow. I wish for a lot of reasons you guys had called before coming home. I was going to do so many chores and have all of our stuff cleared out already.”
“Yeah, this heat was not one of planning. I think all our brains melted a little bit. Take the money, though. Do whatever you want with it. Keep it, spend it, donate it. I promise if we ever do this again, it’ll be planned much better, and don’t worry about replacing anything. The least we could do is feed you while you’re here.”
One by one the pack disappeared upstairs, leaving only Hana to supervise while we extracted my bedding, and packed up our overnight bags. I stared at Luca over the tops of our cars. Nicky knew now, which probably meant we had a very short time between now and Luca’s parents finding out.
I pulled out my phone to text Allie.
Luna:
Nicky found out and she’s pissed
If she says anything to you, could you maybe not tell her you already know?
Allie:
I definitely can
Why’s she pissed?
