Page 36 of All Packed Up

“What the hell did we just get ourselves into?”

“I don’t even know.” Arlo sighed, collapsing onto the couch. That pretty omega popped into his head. “I need a smoke.”

Chapter 10

WENDY

As soon as Nic closed the door on the alphas, he leaned against it and leveled Wendy with his gaze. Her galloping heart kicked a little faster, stomach in her throat.

“They are talking about your alphas, right?” he asked, gaze heavy with concern.

“I should have known,” she said. All day she’d had this… anxiety. Like she was just waiting for something. “I felt off when I woke up but…” She’d chalked it up to the heat.

But now she knew it wasn’t even her own anxiety. It was fucking Derek.

She squeezed Knuckles tighter, but he grumbled in displeasure, wiggled free of her embrace, and waddled over to his food bowl.

Wendy should have noticed something was weird when his breakfast had gone untouched. She’d figured he was hiding under a bed or the couch or somewhere else cave-like for her little goblin.

“I’m so sorry,” he said softly.

Wendy jerked her gaze back to Nic. “What for?”

“He probably slipped out when I was distracted by the cheese board.”

“What? No, it’s not your fault. He likes to go on late-night adventures, and he’s used to the outdoors, remember?”

If he hadn’t come back by sunset, then Wendy would have begun to worry.

“At least it was Arlo that found the alphas instead of you,” she offered with a chuckle.

But it fell flat, belied by her nerves.

Nic nodded. “They would have smelled you on me.”

“What if they get inside?” she blurted. All it would take was one alpha to sniff her out, and she had four searching.

“Wendy,” he began and rubbed his eyes. “I’m so sorry to ask this. But I think I need to know more about your alphas. What are we up against?” Nic motioned to the couch, and even though her heart was pounding at just the thought of them, she sat. What were they up against?

“I don’t know what you need to know,” she admitted. Where did she even start? Did she tell Nic everything?

As the silence stretched on, she bounced her knee as her thoughts ran wild. What would Nic think of her once he knew everything? Would he blame her like she blamed herself?

“You’re afraid of them.”

Wendy startled at Nic’s assumption, her knee going still.

Even if all of this was her fault, still… “Yeah. There are four of them,” she started, her eyes drifting closed. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice sooner but I can…” Wendy winced. “I knew I felt weird when I woke up, but I didn’t recognize why. I assumed it was the heat.”

“But?” he questioned.

“It’s Derek. I can feel him now that he’s closer.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper as she lowered her head into her hands. “I’ve never been this far away from them, so it’s not something I’m used to.”

“Derek’s the one who marked you?” Nic’s voice was gentle, but she heard the steel behind it.

Wendy pulled her legs up to her chest, wrapped her arms around them as best she could, tits getting in the way and all.

“That’s him. There’s Joshua, Roman, Gavin, and Derek, who I would consider the… well, the others listen to him.” And they’d expected Wendy to as well, once she’d started trusting them. “They are wealthy. They can probably pull strings and do whatever they want. Get out of any trouble they get themselves into.” Or at least that was the impression she’d gotten.