Page 19 of My Omega's Gift

“What brings you here?” He poured cocoa into two adorable marshmallow-shaped mugs.

“I told Kurt we needed more towels.”

“Okay, but what brings you here?” He held the frosting out, and I grabbed a cookie, scooping up a huge dollop.

“I’m just nervous. I’m meeting his pack today.” Nervous. Terrified. Same thing.

“No, you’re not.” Elias set the frosting down.

“What do you mean? Of course I am.” Unless he knew something I didn’t, which given his track record was a very real possibility.

“You’re not meeting his pack today. You’re meeting your pack. Your new pack. This isn’t about them accepting you.”

I started to argue, but he put his finger to his lips, indicating I be quiet.

“This is about you deciding if that’s where you want to be. And if you don’t believe me, ask Kurt. He’s as nervous as you are.”

“How do you know? Did he talk to you?” He’d been acting normal around me, but then again, I’d been pretty wrapped up in my head, so it was a very real possibility I missed something.

“No. But he’s in love with you, and that means this matters to him. Trust me, our alphas are like that.”

I took a bite of my cookie, needing time to think. Elias was right. This wasn’t about them accepting me. It was about seeing if I belonged there. Kurt had told me over and over that his home was with me and the baby. If his pack became my pack, great. If not, he was fine leaving.

But some part of me didn’t believe it. Power wasn’t a lineage thing with this pack or a violence thing either, not from the way Kurt described it. That didn’t mean giving it up was an easy thing to do.

“Okay,” I said finally, leaving it at that.

We shifted the conversation to lighter topics. I asked Elias about his sparkly top and how the glitter project had gone. The craft went about as well as I’d suspected it would—glitter everywhere, even on the front porch—but he loved the result, and Christmas required glitter, so it was a win-win.

After a cup of cocoa and a few more cookies, I followed him to the laundry room and grabbed a couple of towels. We did actually need them, even if it had been an excuse to sneak awayfor a few minutes. He stuffed them into one of his oversized paper bags like the one with the lasagna.

“This only has towels in it, right?” I teased.

He smirked. “You saw me put them in. What are you talking about?”

I hugged him the best I could, given my belly being in the way, and waddled back to the cabin, where I found Kurt setting up the computer. He’d borrowed some contraption to make the internet work here to give us some privacy. I appreciated it.

“I got the towels.” I held up the bag.

“I’ll put them away.” He kissed my cheek—the one I’d hated for so long—and took the towels into the bathroom.

When I folded up the bag, I found something else inside: sandwiches, potato salad, macaroni salad, and more cookies. Elias had managed to put an entire lunch inside without me noticing.

“Looks like Elias sent us a picnic.” I set the bag on the counter. We would eat after the video conference. There was no reason to rearrange the small fridge for that short period of time.

“A picnic.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind and kissed where he marked me as his. “That sounds like him.”

It was meeting time. Kurt helped me sit in the right spot for the camera angle, took the seat beside me, and then hit “accept.”

Marco, his beta, appeared on the screen. I knew it was him because he wore a name tag, the first of many things I was about to discover the pack did to make me feel more at ease.

“We’re so glad you’re here!” Marco said with a wave before stepping back to reveal the pack behind him. “You got a good one with Kurt. He’s an amazing friend, a wonderful alpha, and I’m sure will be a doting father.”

The pack were nodding their heads, smiling from ear to ear, each one of them wearing a name tag. I couldn’t read them from this angle, but there would be time to learn their names later.I already learned the most important thing about them, just in this quick snapshot.

Not a single one of the wolves stared at my face or looked at me with disgust. No one whispered to their neighbor. No one giggled. There were greeting me and letting their alpha know how happy they were for him.

And in that moment, I knew where I belonged.

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