Page 56 of Big Knot Energy (Shadowverse)

And now Amir.

“We’re celebrating!” Issa repeated to Cyrus when he sidled up to the bar and leaned one hip on a bar stool.

“What are we celebrating?” he asked with an amused quirk of the brow.

“Don’t ask. It’ll piss you off,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

“Lots of things,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. Grabbing a shot glass, she raised it high and yelled, “To a full pack.”

Just before she put it to her lips, she hesitated, turning to look at Amir with wide eyes.

“Um…I don’t think I was supposed to do that.”

“Do what?” he asked.

I frowned at Ax and Cyrus, wondering if they had any clue as to what she was talking about. Ax had a direct link to her emotions but couldn’t exactly read her thoughts through their bond. He shrugged. Cyrus shook his head.

“I called you pack,” she said to Amir. “But I’m not your alpha. I’m not…I’m just a beta.”

Amir wrapped an arm around her shoulders, careful not to spillhis still full shot, and kissed the top of her head. “You’re my beta. And I’m your omega.” And then he lifted his eyes to Ax, Cyrus, and me, waiting for confirmation as to whether he was our omega, as well.

“As long as you continue to make her smile like that,” Ax said, gesturing toward Issa with his shot glass, “you are absolutely pack.”

“Um…aren’t you supposed to claim him?” she asked, a wide grin bisecting her beautiful face.

“We’re not biting him in the middle of the bar, baby girl,” Ax said.

But fuck me if the mere thought of claiming him then fucking them both where everyone would see and know exactly who these two belonged to didn’t make my dick hard as granite.

“So…to pack?” Issa asked with raised brows and the sweetest, widest grin.

“To pack!” Ax yelled, lifting his drink high.

All five of us tossed back the shot, four of us chuckling at the face Issa made as the whiskey hit her tongue then burned its way down her throat.

Her nose was still wrinkled as she started collecting our shot glasses and setting them on the bar. “I’m practicing for my first day,” she said with a shrug when I raised my brows in question.

“You realize you can’t drink on the job, right?” Cyrus teased.

“Duh.” She threw her arms over her head and yelled, “Another shot!”

Tonight would only go a few ways if she kept drinking. She would either end up drunk and horny, drunk and puking, or drunk and passed out.

I was totally down for option one but didn’t want drunk Issa to make any decisions sober Issa would regret in the morning.

And one of us had to stay sober to get the rest of the pack home.

She’d declared Amir pack without technically asking us, but I wouldn’t deny my girl a damn thing. If he was willing, I was more than ready to move him into the omega wing tomorrow if for no other reason than to see how much more he could pull her further out of her shell.

“Why don’t we take this party home, instead,” I offered. “That way,we won’t have to keep yelling over the music and one of us won’t have to be the parent of the group.”

Cyrus smiled softly and shook his head. Because he knew he would end up the parent of the group. I might have been pack lead, but Cyrus was the one who always made sure we were all taken care of, made sure there was always enough food in the house, even before Issa had joined us. He was gentle and caring yet would rip someone to pieces for fucking with his family. Just like a momma bear.

Or…poppa bear. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate being compared to a female bear.

I almost laughed aloud at my own rambling thoughts. I wasn’t drunk; far from it. But the realization that Issa had publicly declared Amir as our omega, the fact he’d agreed, and the fact we were all heading back to the house together…

I was fucking nervous.

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