Page 105 of Sunshine

Holly reached the pavilion shortly after I did, pulling her dark brown hair into a braid. She wore soft-looking jeans and a peasant blouse, managing to make it all look dressy and casual.

I stood up and we hugged for a moment before sitting down. Holly had been a fixture at the resort during our teen years. Holly’s parents were wealthy but self-focused, and they’d spent all their time traveling, forgetting she existed, unless they wanted to trot her out during fundraisers to show what wonderful parents they were and encourage donors to give more.

As a result, Holly had practically lived at my house, running around with Stella and me, and everyone in the family hadtreated her as an extra member of the Sullivan clan. When Holly’s parents had tried to buy her off to force her to attend the school of their choice but also never see us again, Holly had refused.

So they’d kicked her out. Raina had always acted like Holly was a surrogate younger sister, so the beta went from spending most of her time at our place to living with us. We’d started the event planning part of Cosmic Bonds partially because of Holly’s expertise, and the rest was history.

I secretly enjoyed having another beta in the family. Before Holly, the only one I’d been able to commiserate with had been my cousin Terran. And my younger cousin was a hunky bit of beefcake for a beta guy, so commiserating only went so far since he had to pry ladies off with a stick.

“Okay, spill. How’s it going with the pack?” Holly wasted no time at all before starting the interrogation.

I sighed, pulling out the cooler of food Logan had sent with me. We’d spend a sexy afternoon working on the menu and then having earth shattering sex on the kitchen island. “They’re amazing.”

“So you’re worried it will all end horribly.” Holly snatched up the Tupperware bins. “Oooh, look at all this food.”

“I’m going to get fat, dating Logan.”

“Hardly.” Holly snorted, picking up a pain au chocolat. “You need all the calories you can get between two alphas and an omega.”

“Especially during the heat?” I asked, figuring I would start with my selfish personal life before moving on to business, the actual reason for the meeting.

“Yes.” She sighed, chewing the chocolate croissant. “When’s Julian’s heat?”

“A week or so.” I coughed, taking my own croissant. There was also Croque Madam, aka a very fancy French ham and cheese sandwich, and mini quiches.

“Oh, girl. You better be exercising, and carbing up now.” Holly picked up her shiny pink phone and started tapping on it. “I’m going to send you some links. I should have sent these to you as soon as the dating became official.”

“I’ve already read a ton of stuff on the Internet.” ‘Betas preparing for a heat’ was a common topic, with advice that seemed akin to preparing for a marathon. Eating a diet high in protein and complex carbs, adding more stretching and cardio into the exercise routine, along with stranger and contradictory suggestions like ‘don’t have sex at all’ to ‘make sure you have sex with everyone in the pack’. No one could agree which was better for a beta’s hormones levels.

“What I’m sending are better articles with more practical advice.” Holly gave me the stink eye. “I know you forget to eat, and you probably aren’t doing any stretching.”

“Guilty.” I tried not to roll my eyes. When did I have time for that stuff? Never, that’s when. If I wasn’t doing a million things for Cosmic Bonds, then I was spending time with my guys.

“Seriously though.” I pulled out the Croque Madams, setting out paper plates. There was a cheesy white sauce poured over the toasted ham and cheese sandwich so we needed actual utensils to eat it. “Anything I should know? You handled Noah’s heat with just Aiden.”

Holly grinned, helping herself to the plates and sandwiches. “It sounds really impressive, but it was honestly just a marathon of sex.”

“Now who’s being modest?” I took a bite and melted cheesy ham goodness flooded my mouth. Logan was a genius.

“Aiden and Noah had tried having their heats alone before, since, you know, they’re not in heat at the same time.” Holly’seyes lit up with mirth. “Aiden really likes kinky stuff like bondage and edging, so it was easier to manage Noah in the beginning. Then we all got swept away by Noah’s hormones and forgot to pace ourselves.”

She pointed at me. “Which is why I’m telling you. Youhaveto prepare for it. You’re going to think you can have sex all the time for days on end, but if you haven’t got your fitness up, you’ll get to the point where you can’t move anymore.”

I frowned. “That sounds bad.”

“I was exhausted.” She shook her head. “Lucky for me, Aiden had enough presence of mind to come out of the hormone soup and we started taking breaks and tag teaming him instead of both of us at the same time. Also, we started eating and drinking more.”

I was glaring at my surrogate sister-cousin in exasperation before she finished speaking. “You could have texted us for help. We would have brought you food.”

“I know.” Holly held up her hands. “That’s what I’m telling you. You’re not thinking about food. Or sleep. It’s like being drugged almost, just nonstop need to be with your omega.”

“Hmmm, so how do alphas and omegas handle it?”

“They have more stamina than we do.” Holly smirked, and I figured she was remembering the benefits of that stamina. “The second heat was better. I prepared better, we knew what to look out for, and we paced ourselves.”

“Did your alphas help with that?” I tried to remember when Holly had brought Cole and Rafe, their alpha, into the pack, but I couldn’t remember.

“No.” Holly laughed, still looking exuberant. She acted like she was talking about Christmas morning. “Oh, they were there, but Rafe went into a rut almost immediately, and Cole wasn’t much better. I was more clear-headed and made sure my idiots didn’t starve to death.”

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