Page 177 of All Packed Up

Pausing with a handful of grapes, Wendy glanced up at the beta, picked up on some vibes.

“But you never know,” she added nervously. “It could be my ridiculous heat hormones fooling me. We might want to wait until after it passes.”

Nic leaned back, propped himself up on a pillow, and crossed his ankles. “Am I always a popular topic of conversation?”

Grif made a choking noise, and Wendy was clearly a godsend for the man because she covered his ass.

“You’re kind of the only thing we have in common,” she said, her smile soft.

The beta seemed to falter at that, crossing his arms and staring up at the ceiling, the twist of fabric at the peak of the tent. “Well, I can’t fault you guys that. You couldn’t find anything else to talk about?”

“Why would we?” Griffith asked with a smirk. “When you’re the most interesting one?”

Wendy’s cheeks heated as she witnessed Grif flirting with Nic. It was beyond adorable how quickly Nic flustered under the alpha’s gaze.

Glad I’m not the only one.

The crunch of her cracker was like a gunshot going off in the tent. It drew both men’s gazes, as well as Tate’s and Arlo’s where they pretended not to be eavesdropping, and she lifted her hands while she mouthed, “What? A girl can’t snack?”

Griffith let out a laugh, a low rumble she wished she could have felt with her cheek against his chest.

Most of her water was gone after she had her palate’s worth of cheese and fruit and crackers.

Arms wrapped around her from behind, and she leaned back into Nic. Brushing her hands over his forearms, she traced one of the veins and felt the familiar warmth stoke up again.

Wendy settled into Nic and felt his chest expand against her back. It was comforting, feeling his warmth sink into her, his scent surround her.

“I’m gonna take this back,” Grif said. Wendy cracked her eyes open and realized she didn’t remember closing them.

“Are you gonna come back?” she found herself asking.

It scared her that she wanted him to say yes. That she wanted that alpha close because… just because.

Why did it matter if he came back? She wanted to say, but the words died on her tongue.

Then Griffith was nodding, and her mind quieted, and she relaxed back into Nic.

She was shameless as she watched Grif’s bare back flex and move as he knelt to fit his way out of the tent.

“You part of the Grif fan club now or something?” Nic asked close to her ear.

She chuckled, shaking her head. “Not quite, just… he’s not as bad as I’ve been letting on.”

Tate tsked across the tent. “Just takes one knot. Next time she’ll be wearing a shirt with his face on it.”

“Oh, shut up,” Wendy called out, snickering. “That’s not it.”

“Oh, so there is a reason?” Tate teased, sliding through the blankets and sheets to make his way to her.

Wendy pointedly ignored the alpha, because even if there was a reason, she wouldn’t know how to describe it. There wasn’t one specific thing that suddenly swayed her into not totally despising Griffith.

The damned alpha was sneaky like that.

The rustle of blankets drew her attention, and she blinked to find Arlo making his way to her with a grin. “Would you wear a shirt with our faces on it?”

Wendy couldn’t help the laugh. “One hundred percent, unironically. That’s way better than socks.”

“It’s louder, right?” Arlo teased, sliding closer and pulling her away from Nic, his warm arms curling around her before framing her ass and kneading.