“Seriously, I expected this thing to be dry…but now I feel even worse that the poor guy lost his life for no reason. Nobody can eat this thing. It’s like trying to gnaw through a boot. You’ve seen that Christmas vacation movie from the 80’s, right? Where they cut into the turkey and it just cracks open and hisses out steam. I thought we were gonna have that sort of situation with how hard it was for your grandpa to cut the thing open. This is seriously inedible.”
She’s giggling now, her face pressed into my side, soft snorts of laughter filling the air before she tilts her eyes up to me. “Thanks, Pretty Boy, I needed that…well, something to keep from crying again. Listen, how about I trade you turkey jerky and potato for your taco? Abuela always makes the best tamales, and you need to at least have a bite…though if you want more than that, you’ll need to go down and get your own.” Sarah pulls her plate off the nightstand and sets it in her lap, unwrapping the corn husk and using her fork to cut a piece off the aforementioned tamale. She skewers it with a fork before holding it out to me.
The flavor is great, but as with all tamales, I find the texture incredibly off-putting. Still, it’s better not to tell Sarah that her grandma’s food makes me gag, so I just nod and smile around the mouthful as I attempt to choke it down without chewing. She finishes off the rest and my taco before looking nervously between me and the door.
She doesn’t even have to say anything as I take her plate out of her unresisting hands and head for the door. Sasha is waiting at the bottom of the stairs and glares at me as I walk past her. She mutters something about wasting food, but that bitch can eat the whole boot leather bird herself for all I care. I’ve got tamales to find for my girl.
Chapter 20
When I agreed to look at houses over the holiday break, I didn’t expect it to take up the entire week after Christmas. But here we are, house number twelve, and my packmates won’t stop bickering. Seriously, how much does it take for a realtor to drop you as a client? This poor woman.
Leaving my two packmates arguing like toddlers in the living room, I follow our realtor, Alice, into the kitchen. Honestly, this place is nicer than I could have imagined. I’m shocked it’s in our price range. But she says it’s on a short sale…which I’ll need to Google once I get a chance so I don’t look like an idiot for not knowing. Even her fake smile is strained as she walks me through the dining area and points out the six bedrooms. Then we come to the crux of all the arguments—the nest. While this place would solve Alistair’s main complaint that we need the additional space for a library, he seems strenuously against anysort of nesting space. Meanwhile, Spence is insisting we need one “just in case.”
While I’m all for planning for the future, I don’t really care about any of that. If the house has a nest and we get an omega, fine. If we don’t end up with an omega, we can turn the space into a game room or some shit. I just want to actually have enough space that we each get our own room, and maybe a small dining area so we don’t have to stand around the kitchen counter to eat. If it happens to come with an area for a guest room and Al’s library, then I guess that would be nice too.
Alice is trying to give me time to look around, and I’m doing research on my phone. According to Zillow, this house sold five years ago for almost twice what they’re asking now, so what’s the catch? A speedy search for short sale answers that question. We are going to be idiots if we don’t buy this house. It’s way above what we would normally be able to afford. Fuck…don’t we need an inspection or something? I turn to ask Alice about that, but we’re interrupted by raised voices traveling down the hallway into what I’m guessing is a den or family room where we’re standing.
“And I’ve told you, we don’t need a nest…it’s an…an…an unnecessary extravagance! Just ask Kelly. How would a beta feel if she wanted to join our pack and saw we had a nest. She might not feel like she’s good enough. Did you think of that?” Now Alistair sounds like he’s just grasping at straws, but poor Spence looks upset. The big guy will do just about anything to make people happy, and he’s about to have some kind of existential crisis.
We’re done with this argument. We don’t have to use the nest as a nest if we don’t need it, but this house is too good to pass up. Tuning out the apparent toddlers that are my packmates, I turn to Alice. She’s visibly grinding her teeth, and her left eye has taken on a noticeable twitch…well, that’s not good. “So, Alice,how do we get the ball rolling on this? Do we just put in an offer? Do we need an inspection or some kind of cash upfront? I read about something called earnest money, so we have some of that set aside, and a pre-approval letter from the bank.”
Her shoulders visibly relax, and she stares up at the ceiling, her lips moving briefly…probably thanking whatever deity she follows that she’s almost rid of us. I can’t even blame her as Alistair’s voice starts to get shrieky…oh, it’s aimed at me this time. Fun.
“What do you think you’re doing, Paul! This needs to be a group decision, and we can’t afford this house; it has too many things we don’t need. There’s no point in having a…” He stops talking, staring pointedly at Spence, who’s grinning like he just won the lottery. Like I have signed and stamped my approval on some imaginary omega that’s all ready to move into this new nest that we don’t even have yet. Fuck me sideways. Alice’s eye goes back to twitching as she stares between the three of us.
Alistair looks like he’s firing up for a second tirade, but I cut him off. “No, listen. This house is worth almost twice what they’re asking. We need to get it inspected and I can check the local records to make sure nothing’s wrong, but we’d be idiots to pass this up, ok? It’s not an extravagance. Our mortgage payments will be just slightly higher than the rent on the apartment, man. Just fucking go with it. You two are never going to agree on anything, so I’m putting my fucking foot down.”
There’s a sharp intake of breath, and Alice looks aghast at my language. I can’t even blame her; I’ve been the laid-back one this whole time, just trying to keep these two from strangling each other.
Alistair’s voice is almost a whine. “But we don’t need a nest, what about—” And I’m done.
“Listen to me, Alistair. Spence and I have been infinitely patient about you not wanting an omega. That’s fine, we don’tneed one, but we are getting this house. I don’t care if we have to convert the nest into a goddamned tiki lounge, ok? Just because it’s a nest now doesn’t mean it has to stay a nest. We can figure it out later, just chill the fuck out!” Three pairs of eyes stare at me in shock, and I smooth the wrinkles down on my T-shirt just to give my hands something to do. I’m the mellow one; I don’t argue, I don’t freak out. But I am fucking stressed with so much right now and these bickering nincompoops aren’t helping.
I’m getting too old for this shit.
If I lose my job, at least we can still swing the payments on this one.
Unless I go to jail…in which case I’m kicking the shit out of Xan when I get out.
I just want one goddamned thing to go right this year.
And the year is almost fucking over.
Alice clears her throat, bringing me out of my morose musings. “Well, gentlemen, if you’re sure, then let’s head back to my office and go over your offer.” Alistair grumbles a little, and Spence is bouncing on the balls of his feet. He’s vibrating like he’s trying to hold all his excitement in…and failing miserably. Poor Nadine, if he doesn’t calm down, he’s gonna shake that poor little car to pieces.
Chapter 21
Step one, graduate college. Step two, get a job. Step three, get a house—like an actual house, not our apartment. Which sucks, ’cause I really like our apartment—it has a lot of great memories, but it’s not a house. My little sisters have been trying to coach me on how to be an adult, which is kind of depressing since none of them have even graduated college yet. And Claire is still in high school. But, they’re smart and they don’t have the stupid alpha instincts driving them to look for a mate.
They’ve all got good heads on their shoulders and they told me that finding my people is important, but I also need to make sure that any girl I bring home is safe and comfortable and I can take care of her. Tiffany is the next oldest to me, and she said that women want someone who can show commitment and security. What’s more committed than a thirty-year mortgage? My stomach rolls at the thought. Not the committing to a girlpart, that would be a dream come true—but I’ve never even bought a car.
Oh shit, I think I’m gonna throw up.
It feels too easy, signing off on such a huge decision. Something that’s going to affect the rest of my life. I mean…what if something happens? What if we meet an omega who wants us to move away from here? What if our pack breaks up, do we all still have to live together? All of our names are on this paperwork, but what if they get tired of me…or what if Al finds someone who makes him decide we aren’t worth it? I’ve known Paul forever, we’re basically brothers, and I know he isn’t going to look for anyone, but Al still wants to find someone he can share his life with.
I trust him, but I just…I don’t want him to be unhappy for us. He says he’s ok with this, buying a house together, but what if his aversion to having a nest is worse than I thought? What if I drive him away by insisting on stuff like that? I know I can be clueless about things, and what if he finally has enough one day and leaves us? This isn’t the straw that maimed the camel, right? He’s not gonna go away just because he didn’t want our house to have a nest, right? I shouldn’t have pushed.
A warm hand wraps around my wrist where it rests on the paperwork I’m supposed to be signing, and my eyes flick up to Paul. His expression is pinched—this year has been so hard on him with work, and now our fighting. He may not even like the house; it’s not like we asked. I really am a terrible packmate. “You ok there, Little Buddy?” It’s been a running joke since we were teenagers; I’ve always been the biggest one in my class. Even though Paul was years older than me and Josh, we were closer to the same size. Then I just kept growing.
