Page 224 of All Packed Up

“You did it at the same time?” Wendy asked, eyes wide.

Arlo’s cheeks darkened in a blush. “Yeah. Mine’s on the back of my neck.”

A flash of heat speared her as she tried to imagine how they’d done it.

Tate’s forearm… and the back of Arlo’s neck. Tate must have been on top.

Does that really matter, you perv?

Of course it did.

Was that rude? Fantasizing about the alphas with them right in front of her? As if they hadn’t just spent the last couple of hours exploring each other’s skin.

A soft, scratchy mew echoed around the room, and Arlo leaned over the bed, reaching down to retrieve Brass. He deposited the kitten on her chest and her heart melted all over again at the little paws indenting her skin.

“When a bond is done right…” Tate began, and she gave him her attention, though she still stroked between Brass’s ears with a few fingers. “It’s emotional, powerful. You feel closer to that person than ever before, you can feel what they’re feeling.”

Arlo cleared his throat. “And at the moment we were feeling a lot of things. So no, I’d say it didn’t hurt.”

Wendy hummed at the information, wondering what it would be like to do it the right way. To bond with someone she loved instead of against her will.

“Why do you ask?”

“Because I think…” She trailed off, dropping her gaze to the kitten as it made biscuits on the sheet covering her chest. “I think I want to bond with Nic,” she whispered. “Is that stupid?”

Was it too soon? There was a lot still going on in their lives. Griffith was still working on finding a place big enough for all of them, and Nic was just beginning the rebuild on his gym, in a different location this time. Insurance had considered the whole thing a loss, so the beta had been stressed about that too.

“Wendy,” Tate murmured. “Come back,” he teased.

She blinked up at him, realizing he’d called her name a few times. “Hi. Sorry.”

“Don’t check out on me now,” he told her.

“How, exactly, are you going to bond a beta?” Arlo asked, hesitantly, as if afraid to burst her bubble.

Betas and omegas couldn’t bond. But alphas and betas could. And alphas and omegas could.

“I was gonna bond his alpha too,” she admitted, cheeks flaming hotter than ever. Why was she so embarrassed to admit it?

“Griffith?” they both asked in disbelief.

Wendy paused. “Yes… but maybe not after that reaction. What do you know that I don’t?” she demanded.

Her and Griffith had been talking more, had finally set aside their differences. The alpha had proved he’d cared about her, would protect her when he’d stood up to the Sterling Pack.

The alpha loved Nic. And Nic loved her. And she loved Nic.

But Wendy was too scared to admit she loved Griffith too. Too stubborn to tell him that he’d done it. He’d wormed his fucking way into her chest and taken up his own space, planted his flag and called it his. Right there beside Nic.

Was he not open to a bond with her? Had Griffith already said something?

“No, no,” Tate was quick to amend. “Nothing like that.”

“You guys just argue a lot,” Arlo admitted.

“It’s called bickering.”

“It’s called foreplay,” Tate corrected her. “I’m just surprised you’re finally admitting it. It’s about damn time.”