Page 29 of Pixel Perfect Pack

Kito shakes his head. “I can’t hear what she’s saying.”

“Me neither,” Orion groans, spinning his body away from the door and letting himself slip down the wall until he’s perched on the ground. “And if I hear that dick yelling at her I’m going to want to rip his face off.”

As if on cue, we hear Jack yell, “I should’ve known getting with you was a mistake! Have fun being a slut, I’ll make sure this whole town knows how easy you are.”

Jess yells something back at Jack but it’s muddled by the thick wooden door, her voice not carrying quite as loudly as Jack’s is. Before we have a chance to move back from the door, Jess is pushing back into the house. I fall backwards first, knocking my elbow. Then Kito falls, making a loud grunt of a sound as he hits his head for the second time in the space of ten minutes. Both of us end up sprawled across the living room floor, looking more like those chalk drawings of murder victims than we do fully grown alphas.

Jess scowls, “Were you guys spying on me?”

“Not so much spying, per se,” Kito replies with a nervous grin.

“Just eavesdropping,” Orion adds, smiling up at Jess sympathetically. The anger fades from his face the second he meets her eyes.

“Okay, you guys are being weirder than usual. Ever since we got back from the beach you’re all shooting me these long, pleading glances and pouting.” She pauses, waiting for one of us to argue. None of us do. “Let’s get out of here.”

Nineteen

Jess

I might have made a mistake bringing Orion, Kito and Adair out in public. I forget sometimes just how small my village is and even getting out of the car with three alphas draws an enormous amount of attention from the locals. Orion with his black hair and even blacker tattoos covering his arms and hands. Adair and his angelic beauty and strong, lithe figure. Kito in his cropped band t-shirt with his sharp, angular features. I try to take in the scents of ground coffee, old books, heather, sea salt, ginger and bergamot. All of them mixing and melding together make the most spectacular perfume, but it’s difficult to pinpoint the individual notes I need to help me calm down.

I needed to get the boys out of the house. Heat or no heat, it’s been too difficult trying to keep my hands to myself when I’m near them. It’s like their bodies sing to mine on this deep, siren level I never knew I had. The thought that these alphas are my scent matches comes crashing down on top of me once again. Every time I think about it, I consider how impossible it is. How rare it would be to just happen upon three scent matches. But every time I’m close to them, especially now that my heat has passed and I can think a little more clearly, I feel that sense of belonging I’ve never had before. The feeling that no matter what I do, I’ll never be able to get away from Kito, Orion and Adair. And I don’t want to. Why would I want to?

A fear of commitment? A fear that I’ll end up just like my dad, alone and heartbroken? If I let them in my life, they’ll make me whole. But what happens if they leave and I’m just sitting in the shattered pieces of my life all over again?

“In here,” I say as we reach Violet’s Tea House. The yellow front is decorated with blue flowers, the windows are lined with lace curtains not too dissimilar to the ones I have at home. The boys have to duck down to get through the door but as we enter the smell of freshly brewed tea and home baking fills my lungs and I’m home.

“My dad used to bring me here every Saturday after he got the papers,” I explain as we wait at the doorway for Violet or one of the few waitresses to come and take us to a spare table. It’s tourist season so the place is ridiculously busy, but they always make an effort to save a couple tables towards the back for locals.

“You were close with your dad,” Orion says with a smile. “I remember you telling us about him.”

“We lived just a mile that way,” I continue, pointing out the lace-lined window. “Old farmhouse on the outskirts of the town.”

“Oh Jessamine, what a joy,” a voice comes from in front of us. I’d know that strong, Scottish accent anywhere. I turn away from the windows to find Violet grinning up at me from her minuscule height. “And you brought… company.” If I could compare Violet to anyone, it’d be Mrs Doubtfire. She’s a stout woman who carries herself with the confidence of a fully grown man. But she always makes an effort to welcome people into her place with a smile, no matter how intimidating she might be.

“Jessamine?” I hear Kito giggle and I shove an elbow back sharply, hoping I manage to hit him in the ribs. The high-pitched squeak that follows leaves me grinning in my success.

“Hi, Violet,” I reply, motioning to the boys. “This is Orion, Kito and Adair. They’re friends of mine.” I’m sure she can tell by the warm blush spreading across my cheeks that they might be more than friends.

At least I hope they’re more than friends.

“Adair, oh what a lovely Scottish name for such a bonny laddie.” Immediately Violet presses her hand up to Adair’s cheek and squeezes. I have to stifle my laugh by covering my mouth with my hand.

“Come oan then, in ye come. Nae use standing there,” Violet encourages, finally leaving Adair alone long enough to lead us through the traditional tearoom and towards a table. She sits us at a table barely big enough for three normal-sized people. It’s chaotic and hilarious watching Kito, Orion and Adair try and fit themselves into the white wooden seats without getting tangled in the floral tablecloth.

“Right, what for ye?” Violet readies her notepad and pen, smiling down at me.

I glance at the three alphas and laugh, they look so out of place it’s like something out of a comedy skit. “We’ll do four cream teas, please.”

The boys look at me with raised eyebrows. “Trust me, best you’ll find in Scotland.”

“I’m not much of a tea drinker,” Orion grumbles, shoulder to shoulder and crushed between Adair and Kito.

“Well we need to talk and my dad always used to say you can’t have a serious conversation without a cup of tea and a full belly. So, here we are.”

It’s true, he did say that. I still remember sitting him down to tell him I didn’t want to go to university, back when I was seventeen. I told him abruptly in the kitchen and he immediately made a point of putting the kettle on and making a plate of sandwiches. After a long chat, I did decide to go to uni. At least for a year until my chronic illnesses started to flare up for the first time.

Turns out me and stress don’t get along so well. It was a grim time in my life, not knowing why my body was betraying me. It took years of doctors’ appointments and hospital stays before I had any answers. A simple virus and some stress and my body had started to think of everything as a threat. At least, that’s what the doctors told me. It took ages before I was able to sit down and think things through, decide the best way to live my life when I’m in a body that’s constantly trying to tear me down.

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