Page 62 of Pucking the Enemy

“Just so you know, there isn’t anywhere for you to sleep,” Roman declared. “There’s another room that we were intending to turn into the nursery, but it’s empty at the minute, so you’re going to be sleeping on the cold, hard floor… Are you okay with that?” His words were clearly a test. I was curious how Sebastian would respond.

He took a deep breath. “If it’s what I’ve got to do to be here with Hazel, it’s what I’ve gotta do.”

Cormac scrunched his nose. “That made far too much sense for me. Why is he making sense?”

When Hazel had agreed to move in, I expected her to come with enough bedding and soft, squishy things to fill several stores. That was part and parcel of having an omega living with you.

I hadn’t expected the books.

Which, in hindsight, was quite stupid of me, because Hazel was studying English. It made sense that, the following day, the entryway of our house was filled with boxes of books.

“Is this her entire collection?” I asked Sebastian, who was moving every box without complaint. I had to give him credit; his back was probably in pain after sleeping on the floor, yet he was lugging her stuff around without a single grumble.

“This is part of her collection. The rest is in storage.”

“Holy fuck,” I muttered.

“Hazelnut can’t pack light to save her life.” He laughed, picking up another box and heading toward the living room, where we had cleared a few shelves for her.

Shaking my head, I followed him. He seemed to know his way through our house already.

“Have you eaten?” I asked. I wasn’t exactly pleased that we had a guest, but I wasn’t going to be outwardly rude to him.

Plus, Hazel would be upset if he starved.

“I had a protein shake. Thanks.” He nodded as he opened up the box and started pulling out books. “I should probably put these on the shelves, but I feel like Hazel’s going to murder me if I put them in the wrong order. I did that once accidentally.” He shuddered at the memory.

“She can be a vicious little thing, can’t she?” I said, grabbing a few books from the box and gently placing them on the shelf.

“Oh yeah, she always has been! When we were eight, she shoved me out of a treehouse because I told her that the doll she had just gotten looked possessed.”

“You guys have been friends that long?”

“We were five when we met. We lived near each other and snuck out together a lot to go get frozen Cokes. Her parents were super strict and didn’t let her have a lot of sugar.”

My eyebrows raised. “I thought sugar was one of the primary food groups for omegas?” That wasn’t true, but it could have been, considering omegas were notorious for having sweet tooths.

“Her parents despise the fact she’s an omega. They treat her more like a beta. They had her on suppressants the moment she presented.”

I mentally filed that information away for later. Unfortunately, if Hazel’s parents were difficult, then it could make our futures somewhat uncomfortable. They were the grandparents of our unborn child, after all.

“They sound wonderful,” I declared in my most sarcastic voice.

Sebastian chuckled ruefully, pointing at me with one of the hardback books he was about to shelf. “They are something. I don’t know if I want to be in the same room as you, or on another continent, when Hazel admits that a pack of alphas got her pregnant. Her mother’s head may just explode.”

“Sounds messy. Is Hazel awake yet?” I looked in the general direction of her room.

“I haven’t heard a peep from her. You should probably go nudge her awake. She has class in two hours.”

“You have her schedule memorized?”

He shook his head. “While I have a decent memory, her schedule is absolutely insane, so I took a photo of it. I can send it to you, if you want?”

“I would appreciate that.” Knowing more about Hazel’s day-to-day life would be helpful.

I was starting to see what Roman meant about Sebastian being helpful.

“Look, I get that we’re enemies on the ice…” Sebastian sighed, standing up straight and meeting my eyes. He had dark cycles and his face was wary. “But when it comes to Hazel, I’ll happily put everything aside. I just want what’s best for her, and if you guys want the same, I think we can get along.”

---