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She took off down the short hallway past the dining room, making us all smile. I caught Trevor’s eye, and he gave me a crooked grin so similar to Theo’s that my heart skipped a beat. He tapped Daniels on the shoulder and said they would ask the front desk about luggage trolleys to bring the boxes up. As they left, Mom went to explore her suite, off the kitchen, leaving Nate and I alone for the first time since I could remember. We stood there for an awkward moment before both speaking at the same time.
“This place is really fan?—”
“About what happened at that pa?—”
He pushed his hands into his pockets and chuckled but I caught his slight grimace.
“What I said at the party. I never got to explain, but when I said to play along, I just meant that night. I had the apartment lined up and I was going to tell you to move in and that we’d get Aubrey out too, but it all went to shit. Then I heard your Alpha talking to the dads and I knew you were alright.” His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “I know I’ve had to keep my distance to keep up appearances but, I swear, I would never have let anything happen to you two or Mom. I—I know about you working with Haven.”
I was surprised my neck hadn’t cracked with how quickly I looked around to make sure Mom wasn’t listening.
“How do you know about Haven or about me working for them?”
“I went to college with Seph, er, Persephone. They were a few years older than me, but we became friends and I helped, financially, however I could. When I started to worry that I’d need a back-up plan last year, I reached out to them. Didn’t realize they’d go and recruit you, but they said you were happy and that you were really helping them, so I just stayed quiet, as usual.”
It struck me how isolated Nate must have been all these years. Having to pretend and distance himself from Aubrey and me, thinking that he was doing it to keep us safe, only to find out that it had all been for nothing. I moved toward him and put one arm over his shoulder and the other around his ribs, pulling him in for a hug.
“I wish you’d told me, but it doesn’t matter now. No more doing things alone. We’re in this together. All of us.”
The tension bled out of his shoulders as his arms came around me and his forehead dropped to my shoulder.
“Deal. I missed you, E.”
“Missed you too, Nate.”
We released each other, pulling away at the sound of feet coming into the room. Aubs ran to stick her head between our chests and wrap her arms around our backs, forcing us together again.
“The gang’s all together again. But better this time because I’m not ten!”
Wheels knocked gently over the threshold, and I turned to see a scowling Daniels pushing a trolley full of boxes into the apartment.
“The building is safe enough from non-residents but we have no idea who lives across the hall. You shouldn’t leave the door open with the Omegas here.”
Aubrey’s back was to Daniels so she looked up at us and gave an exaggerated eye roll while sticking her tongue out before schooling her features and turning to face him.
“Less talking and more manual labor, Guardzilla. I’ll show you where to put the boxes.”
Aubrey flounced off toward her room, a trail of vanilla pound cake scent followed her, broadcasting that the anxiety and fear she felt had been left at the house. That she was happy here. Daniels started to follow her with a bemused smile on his face before he shook his head slightly and smoothed his features into his trademark frown. The sound of more wheels heralded Trevor’s arrival and Mom came out of her room.
“Trevor, is it?” At his nod, she continued. “Those boxes can just be left on the island for now. We can sort it out as we go.”
He ducked his head but stayed quiet before wheeling the cart into the kitchen and unloading the boxes, with Nate’s help. After a few minutes, Daniels came back out with an empty cart and they both went down to the truck to load them up again. Mom and I opened box after box as they came up and I helped move them into the appropriate rooms for her and Aubrey to unpack when they could.
After a couple hours, we’d unloaded everything from the truck. Trevor and I offered to stay and help unpack but Mom waved us off making me promise to bring the pack over soon so she could meet them all properly. I went to find Nate and Aubrey to let them know we were leaving. Nate was in the room with the Murphy bed that also doubled as an office. He was keeping his apartment, but he wanted to stay here while Mom and Aubrey settled in.
“Hey, we’re going to head back to the pack house. The truck is empty, and Mom won’t let us stay to help.”
“Okay. Hey, would…” He looked down at the floor, shifting from one foot to the other, then looked back up at me. “Would you want to get a beer sometime? I haven’t played a video game in years, so you’d kick my ass if we played but… I’d like to hang out.”
“Definitely, though things are really crazy right now. We just got Shae back, but Theo’s in the hospital, and I’m trying to catch up with school and everything.”
Nate pasted a fake smile on before nodding but there was no disguising how he deflated or the raw notes of sadness in his scent. I pulled away from the doorway and wrapped him in a tight hug again.
“I’m not rejecting you, idiot. I’m trying to explain that things aren’t exactly safe for my pack and my schedule is insane. I’ll make it work as soon as I can. But, if you wanted to, you could come over to my pack’s house. We could game one night and get pizza? You could meet the rest of the pack?”
He pulled back and this time there was a genuine grin on his face, making me smile in return.
“Yeah, I’d really like that. I need to check that Daniels will stay here while I take the truck back but let me know when and I’ll be there.”
