Page 21 of Pack Fever

“This one may not be so easy to handle,” he admits, then exhales heavily, as though whatever is going on weighs on him.

“Well then, show us,” Seth states.

We head down the hallway of the place we’ve called home for years. The building might appear rundown to an outsider, but to us, it’s comfortable and safe. It’s where we strip away our fame and become the three friends who simply play our music.

Finally arriving upstairs at Jasper’s room, he strides over to the bathroom and pauses at the door. Hand on the handle, he turns to us with an intensely serious look.

“Now, have an open mind,” he says. “And whatever you do, don’t be your fucking jerk self, Reed.” He grins mockingly.

My shoulders flinch back. “Fuck you. Now, open the damn door.”

The moment he swings it open, my mouth falls open at the sight in front of me.

It’s a gorgeous, petite blonde passed out in the shower stall.

Dread curls in my guts.

“What the fuck have you done?” Seth’s voice slices through the silence.

Chapter

Five

DANICA

The first thing I notice when I wake up is that the bed is too comfy to be the rock-hard mattress at the shelter or a pile of leaves and twigs in the woods. No log overhead, no bugs for company—just me in a bed that feels like a cloud. Added bonus… it comes with the most delectable chocolate and blueberry scent that has me pressing my face into the pillow, inhaling the smell.

The last thing I recall is a pair of heavenly eyes that seemed to look straight through to my soul and a deep voice that could command a storm. He rushed me into a building, which I guess is his home, and told me to wait in the bathroom as he dealt with the enforcers.

I curled up in the shower stall, shivering with fear, my world spinning as the first tingles of my heat were making a show. Then I remember starting to pass out from how tense I felt.

So, Mr. Candy Eyes must have carried me into his bed sometime afterward.

I take a few moments to shake out of the trance his scent puts me under, then I quickly scramble out of bed, the Nexus enforcers finding me heavy on my mind.

I’ve heard that it can take weeks for an Omega’s heat to come into bloom, and it starts in small snippets of changes in the body, of uncontrollable arousal, of passing out from the overwhelming changes in our bodies. It makes me wonder if that’s what I felt with both the guy at the club and the Alpha in the alley.

Both times, I reacted so hungrily for them; it scared me.

Moving over to the window, I pull aside the drapes and squint into the daylight that looks already past midday, searching for the Nexus van and for the men, but the coast is clear.

That’s when the low murmur of voices reaches me from outside the bedroom.

I freeze on the plush rug. Have the enforcers found me? Did they get into the building?

I tiptoe to the door, my heart hammering in my chest as fear tugs at my chest. Peering into a hallway that leads to steps going downstairs, I see three men. The one with his back to me has chestnut hair, shaved at the sides and back, longer at the top. Then there’s the gorgeous Alpha I met downstairs with his deep-blue eyes, and a third man with shorter, dark blond hair and heavy tats covering his arms and neck from what I can see from my viewpoint.

There’s something tempting about them, too, all three standing tall, with broad shoulders and chests. They’re dressed in casual jeans and shirts, looking so gorgeous. If I passed them on the street, I’d do a double take.

They’re in a heated discussion.

“She must have passed out, but that’s not the point. You saw she’s in trouble,” the Alpha who brought me to his bedroom is saying.

A chill trickles down my spine at the memory that he saw the Nexus enforcers coming for me. Then I begged for his help. My breath hitches because the thought of being turned over to the authorities has me plotting escape routes in my head. Leaving town is a priority.

The longer I stare at them, arguing about me bringing trouble to them, the more I swear they look familiar, as if I’ve seen them somewhere before, but I can’t pin it down.

“And why’s it our problem?” the guy with his back to me asks.

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