Page 96 of Slick Handling

I try not to think about where we would put a nursery in the house. There is no way it would fit. We need to move. We need to move and all the work she just put into her nest needs to get redone. Clover is going to be unsettled again. Will the new house be close enough to school for everyone to walk to? Is someone going to drop out so we don’t leave our pregnant Omega home alone? Should I stop playing so they can go for their dreams first? Could I be a stay at home dad?

“Who broke Apollo?” Mick’s voice makes me blink out of the spiral that I had been going on.

“Vaughn got Clover pregnant.” Griffin supplies easily, like our whole life isn’t about to change.

She would look adorable with her belly all full of our pups.

Not going to-

“She’s on birth control. Mama Joy took her to get the shot. Why didn’t you ask that before you came all inside of her?” This right here is why I love my Beta.

He’s smart and knows what’s going on. He’s an absolute treasure.

My arm goes around his shoulder and I kiss the side of his head. Breathing doesn’t feel like the hardest thing in the world right now, which I appreciate.

“Dream killer.” Griffin mutters before getting in the car.

I shake my head. Clover has no idea what she is getting into with courting our pack. Hopefully she sees how much we’re willing to care for her.

Dinner went very well.

So well in fact that as dessert gets brought out I’m terrified. Something has to go wrong. That’s how life works. Things go wrong and I have problems to solve. That’s my job in the pack. Fix things.

A hand squeezes my thigh and Clover is looking at me, eyes soft with concern.

“Hi, you okay?” She tucks herself against me. Leaning in so close to me that I get a heavy breath of her scent. It calms me down. It makes it so that even though the table is full of our pack we have this sense of privacy between us.

Twirling a piece of hair around my finger, I bring it up and scent her more. It calms me down a bit more and makes me less tense than I had been a second ago.

“I just want us to be good enough for you. I want us to have open dialogue and talk about the past and how things were for you growing up. It’s important to me that we provide for you and we talk about not only what we want right now, but in a year from now. I want to make sure that you’re cherished. That this is more than just a moment in our lives. You’d be a beautiful blip in our timeline, but you’d be a gorgeous forever.”

Growing up my family always talked about how when you know, you know. It’s different when it comes to Omega’s because there is a connection that can’t be denied.

We had all been trying to ignore the pull to Clover the first week she had stayed with us. A lot of good that did us. The pull was there and it made it harder to ignore everything that was possible between us.

Clover hums out with a smile.

Her other hand slides up, cupping my cheek.

“You’re going to make falling in love with you so easy, Apollo.” Her lips kiss mine and my head feels foggy.

Love?

She thinks she’s going to fall in love with me?

Oh fuck. I’m too old for the way my heart is hammering out of control. I can’t stop it though.

I pull Clover onto my lap as the waitress comes by, stroking the skin of her thighs as she lays back against me. Comfortable with the physical touch that we’re sharing.

“Can we talk about courting us now?” Mick has been so patient with everything. I know that he wants to talk about what things will look like for us moving forward.

“Aren’t we already courting? Did I read this wrong? I got gifts from Apollo and Vaughn. They were courting presents. This morning I…Vaughn…we….touched? Griffin and I have touched. There have been so many kisses. You took me to get a nest. We slept in my nest and-”

“And we want you to be our Omega so we are trying to make sure you’re comfortable with us so that we can have you join the pack. You’ll be the center of our world.” Griffin is unusually serious. “We all have goals and it’s important that we tell you about those because they do take up a lot of our time. You’ve been around us for a little bit so you can see our schedule. Do you have any concerns before we go over things?”

Clover catches the tip of her shoe on my calf, rubbing it there as she looks around. Her mind is whirling as she tries to think about everything.

“I mean…I know you all play hockey? I like going to games. I know that you practice and workout a lot. That it takes up a lot of time. Sometimes you travel for it?” They all nod their heads in agreement.

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