“Perhaps it’s your overbearing nature, the one demanding that everyone else do what you say.”

Izzy abruptly stands, her food uneaten.

“Leave the plates, I’ll clean them up later like a good little house omega.”

She pivots on her toes and is gone before I know what to say to any of that.

When she’s out of earshot, Trick blows out a strained breath and leans back in the uncomfortable dining chair. He tosses his napkin onto the surface like it disgusts him.

“That could’ve gone better,” he mutters.

“Which part?” Vin asks. “The part where you apparently knew there was an omega living in our house and decided not to tell me or the part where we made her think we only want her to stay out of pity?”

“She didn’t even want me to know, V.”

“Yet you still figured it out and hid it from me.”

“Us,” I add.

I may not be pack to these guys, but her being here impacts me too.

The two of them glare at me like I’m an interloper, but I’m not.

They know I’m not.

I’ve had time with them now. With all three of them. I like being around them. It’s comforting in a way that’s more than being accommodating or even acclimation.

They treat me like they treat each other and not like a guest.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been comfortable in a place. Even growing up at my folks’ house never felt quite like this.

Being raised by betas was part of the reason I fell into hockey to begin with. The slice missing at home was filled in locker rooms and on the ice with brothers tied to me with sweat and not blood.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I tell them. “I’m living here for at least the rest of the season.”

And we might be pack.

I let it hang over us at the table, because even if I feel it, then they may not. I’m not asking for a rejection right now. There’d be no way to laugh it off or recover when the sour heaviness of the day and argument has settled on the room.

“We aren’t kicking her out,” Vin says.

“I agree,” Trick adds.

Good. If they kick my bunny out, I’ll be going with her.

“It’s not because I feel bad she doesn’t have anywhere to go,” Vin adds. “She says she does, but if there were better choices, she’d never have moved in with us.”

“Also agreed.”

They both wait for me to agree, and I nod under the weight of their stares.

“I’m so fucking pissed at you,” Vin says.

“I know. I deserve it. But I’d do it again.”

“For her.”

“Yes, for her.”