Page 21 of A Nest of Maple & Mist

Eventually, I pulled up outside a tiny yellow cottage nestled at the edge of the lake. I’d been so distracted on the drive over, I hadn’t even realized I’d arrived until the GPS lady started saying, “You’ve arrived at your destination” over and over again.

A riot of colorful trees flanked the small cabin. I grinned, never getting tired of the view. Leaves crunched under my feet as I walked up the cobblestone pathway. The front door opened before I could even knock, Fern’s wide eyes beaming.

“She’s here!” Fern squealed, dragging me inside.

Laughter greeted me, and I put a smile on my face.

“Mia, this is Hazel and Lily,” Fern said, gesturing to the two women sitting around a massive table covered in wine glasses, snacks, and a bunch of papers and dice.

Hazel raised a goblet of wine in salute. Jet-black hair with purple highlights waterfalled down her back. The omega smelled of chocolates and raspberries, her black dress highlighting her curves.

Lashes fluttered with her smile, her dark eyes sparkling.

“Thank God you’re here, Mia. These two need a Cleric or a Druid at minimum if you all want to survive what I have planned for you.”

“Hazel’s our dungeon mistress,” Lily said, giggling.

“What?” I asked, afraid I had walked in on some sort of kinky omega orgy.

“Jesus, Lily,” Fern said, rolling her eyes. “Give Mia a chance to get settled before you start with all the crass jokes. Dungeon Master, or Mistress as Hazel prefers, is just the leader for the DnD campaign.”

Lily shrugged, tugging a plush blanket higher on her lap as she popped a chocolate into her mouth. Her sugared lemon scent reminded me of tarts and graham crackers.

Sweatpants two sizes too big for her rolled down her hips, a hoodie shrugged over her slender shoulders. Dark, glossy curls bounced near her collarbone, the bronze highlights in the strands glowing in the light.

After a glass of wine, I felt a little more like myself. Hazel spent the next thirty minutes patiently explaining how DnD worked. My eyes went wide when she told me this session would take three months to finish.

She wrote a “short” arc for our first story.

We had different definitions of the word short, but I didn’t complain.

I never really had a group of friends to hang out with. At college, I focused on my classes, never having time to hang out with others. This was nice.

“So,” Hazel said, leaning forward, her painted lips resting on the rim of the glass. “Fern says you’re staying with the Hawthorne Pack. How’d that happen?”

If anyone other than Hazel asked that question, I’d probably be annoyed. But the other omega was so unbothered that it did the opposite, putting me at ease. I wanted to get a lot off my chest, but I didn’t want to trauma-dump.

Well, that ship had sailed.

I spent the next hour spilling my guts. I told them the whole sordid affair. Including how Shane dumped me via text when we were teenagers. Wine made me loose-lipped and whiny.

“What me to kill him? I can make it look like an accident.”

I wasn’t entirely confident Hazel was joking when she made that offer. Based on the way neither Lily nor Fern balked at the comment, it wasn’t an unusual comment from the Dungeon Mistress.

Then I told them how Northeast Property Management scammed me. How Jason found me and brought me home like a lost puppy.

And how Jason, Shane, and Ty were my scent matches.

“A scent match,” Lily whispered. “I thought those only happened in those smutty books that Fern reads.”

“Shut up. You read them too,” Fern huffed, tossing a throw pillow at Lily, who ducked just in time. “You’re the one who recommended that Bonded, Bound, and Bitten series.”

I laughed. No one seemed to mind that I had just shelled out five years of trauma. Hazel pushed a plate of cookies my way, and Lily bounced into the kitchen to make milkshakes, claiming ice cream worked miracles.

“A scent match. That’s a lot. How are you feeling?” Fern asked, crossing her legs under her butt in her chair.

“Confused. Jason is… He’s wonderful. I had a crush on him when we were younger, and he’s everything I imagined in an alpha. He’s steady. He doesn’t push, and I can tell he would do anything to take care of me. Ty, too. He’s so sweet. Then there’s Shane.”