Page 97 of The Heat of Us

“Have you not told her how you feel about her because you’re afraid of scaring her off or do you actually not know how you feel?”

Remy’s hand froze, outstretched towards some decorative pillows.

Oh for Christ’s sake.

“I swear, Remy, if it’s the second one—”

“It’s neither, ok?” he snapped.

I wasn’t going to let this slide. “Then what is it?”

“My mother is trapped in a bond with my father. It was never something I looked at and thought ‘hey, one day I’d like to have that’,” Remy said quietly.

I absentmindedly wondered if Hazel knew she was collecting a misfit pack filled with parental issues. Or maybe somehow she did, knowing we would need a family with each other. “When you think about bonding her, are you thinking about how you can keep her under your thumb?”

He looked outraged. “No! Of course not.”

“Then what?”

Remy’s face grew wistful, distant. “She feels like…what I’m meant to shape the rest of my life around.”

My body relaxed.

“I didn’t expect her, you know,” he continued, almost stoic. “I didn’t expect to ever feel this way about someone.”

That was certainly relatable. “I don’t think any of us did, Remy. Including her.” I picked up an olive green sheet set with some sort of shiny finish that the label promised was very luxurious. “This one.”

Remy had a quilt cover in his hands in a slightly different shade of green. “Think it can go with this one? It’s a little mismatched but—”

“No, they work though.” I nodded my approval. “I think she’ll like it.”

The lady checking us out abandoned her attempt at small talk quite quickly once she figured out neither of us were in the mood for it.

“I’ll get this,” Remy said, pushing in front of me slightly.

I held my ground, refusing to let him shove me aside. “You already know we’re splitting it,” I gritted out.

One of us was going to be prime of our pack eventually.

Remy was just taking a little longer to realise it was going to be me.

We returned to the apartment to find Aleks’ hand down Hazel’s pants as a string of expletives fell from his lips.

“Fuck you needed this, didn’t you? How long were you sitting here soaked for?”

They were both still fully clothed despite our absence for a good couple of hours.

In all honesty, I was pleasantly surprised by Aleks’ restraint considering Hazel was injured. Putting his omega’s wellbeing ahead of his dick? If that didn’t make him a shoo-in as a packmate I didn’t know what did.

“Is she close?” I asked breezily.

They both jumped. “Ben,” Hazel pouted. “I only just convinced him I was allowed to have an orgasm.”

Remy was right behind me. “The mattress guys aren’t far away in their truck so I would work quickly,” he told Aleks gamely.

“This is…so weird,” Aleks muttered under his breath.

I looked at Hazel. “You want to come?”

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