Page 1 of Pack Larsen

Chapter 1

Munro

“This is stupid,” Juniper, my purple-haired, unbiological but soul-deep-bonded twin grouches from the driver's seat of her brand-new truck that includes all the bells and whistles. A truck she was gifted for her birthday from someone who she won’t name, though there’s absolutely no doubt whoever it is has money. Like,realmoney. I’m talking, dropping a hundred thousand dollars on a truck for someone else, kind of loaded. And I have a funny suspicion I know exactly who it is.

She glances over at me, ignoring my narrow-eyed glare, then in the mirror at Aero and Pace, and shakes her head like she’s disappointed in us all. Hell, she very well could be. After all, we’ve had this argument several times before and after her birthday, and yet nothing has changed other than the dire need we now face for somewhere to live. “Why don’t you just call he—?”

“Nope. Not doing it. Shutting it down right the fuck now,” I interrupt with a vehemence that shocks even myself.

“You’re such a stubborn bastard, Ro. Fucking hell, what is even your problem with her?” Juniper snaps back, only one wrong word from either of us before she gets real pissed. And a pissy omega who hates everyone is not the omega I want to be sitting in the truck with. Hell, Aero isn’t even the omega I want to be sitting in the truck with, and he’s pack.

As it was, the little she-devil with pink, blue, and purple pastel streaks in her pale-blonde hair and molten-silver eyes much like her namesake seems to be taking up far too much of my thoughts, conversations, and air. She’s a proverbial thorn in my side that I can’t seem to be rid of, and it drives me fucking crazy as much as it pisses me off. So much so that Juniper doesn’t even mention her name anymore, sick and tired of the glare I will send her if she so much as whispers the first syllable.

“He has a crush,” Aero supplies from the back seat, and I turn my nasty glare on the asswad I’m supposed to love like a brother.

“You’re dead to me,” I state calmly, but the ball of sugary sunshine simply grins before his attention is dragged away by the leader of our merry little band of rejects.

“Leave him alone, and check out this house,” Pace demands, handing his beat-up cell phone over to Aero before rubbing his hands over his tired face. The search for a new home has been a demanding one, with time running short until we’re rendered homeless.

After the owners of the house we’re currently renting decided at the last minute that they wanted to sell and move on to greener pastures, we’ve been fumbling for somewhere new to stay. Now that we don’t have an actual house, we’ve been forced to seek alternative housing. Unfortunately, the motel is draining whatever funds are coming in, bleeding us dry enough that it’s become far more dire than it was to find somewhere a little more stable, wallet friendly, and costs less than what we’re paying for a sub-par motel room shared between the five of us.

Sadly for us, anywhere close by to the university and the twins' workplace is already taken or costs way more than what our budget would allow. Hell, our budget would only allow a shoebox for all five of us to fit in at this rate. I’d take that over the bland motel room that only contains one place to sit and two single beds that don’t make for a comfortable sleep when forced to share with another dude. A dude that kicks, too.

“Fine,” Juniper snaps, quickly following it up with an exhausted sigh. “I still don’t see why you guys won’t just crash with us if you won't speak to the bubblegum Voldemort.”

Aero, the sleep kicker, snorts, slapping his hand over his mouth to stop his giggles, and I catch a brief hint of Pace’s smile before it’s gone just as quickly as it appeared. Apparently, my pack finds the purple-haired demon beside me hilarious, moreso when her sarcasm, wit, and endless parade of banter is aimed in my direction.

“We already explained why, hon,” Aero soothes, because of course he does. After all, if any of us in the truck knows how to calm an omega, it’s the other omega sitting in the truck with us.

Juniper rolls her eyes, leaning her elbow on the window frame and mussing her vibrant-purple hair up in the process. “You know what, you’re all too fucking stubborn for your own damn good. We have the space, we don’t mind the company, and you guys are toeing the line of desperation at this point. Let me help you.”

“You are helping, kid,” Pace chimes in, clapping Juno on her shoulder in a brotherly fashion that makes me want to roll my eyes. “You’re helping scout out potential prospects.”

I have no idea when it happened, likely when Juniper Baines was ran off the road by her psychotic foster brothers and almost killed in the process and Pace got badly injured while trying to protect her, but she and my family have gotten much closer than I ever imagined we could be with anyone we didn’t intend on bringing into the pack. Sure enough, pack Baines have quickly cemented them as an extended family of sorts, each of them offering help, showing up randomly to hang out, or simply pitting Juniper on us when he’s hormonal and wanting space from her protective and clingy alphas. They don’t stay away long, often with Lowie and Leylan hanging out with Rage and Haze while Juniper spends a couple of hours in silence with me or Aero.

“Is it because you guys are afraid of hearing sex noises or something?” the prickly omega blurts, scowling at the road. “I mean, the room is soundproof, for one. Secondly, get over it. Packs have sex. Don’t be such prudes. And thirdly… I don’t have a third point. I didn’t think that far ahead. All you have to worry about is Evron walking around shirtless. Man is allergic to clothes, but he keeps it contained… mostly.”

“Fucking hell,” Pace groans, though I’m convinced I catch his lips twitching again. Not quite a smile, but enough of an indication that he isn’t being such a stiff as he usually is. Something only Juno brings out in him, apparently.

“What? The guy likes to freeball. Don’t judge,” Juniper snickers, grinning at the groans of despair that fill the truck.

“I really wish you wouldn’t talk about your alpha’s balls,” I grumble, throwing my hood up over my head as I slouch in my seat, uninterested in hearing about the balls of any other male in existence. I mean, that’s what her pastel-haired little princess is for, right? If she wants to talk balls, she can do it with the pain in the ass I keep trying and failing to ignore.

“Geez, is there anything I’m allowed to talk about, your majesty? If I knew you were so high maintenance, I’d never have befriended you,” Juniper snaps, grouchy all over again, my bad attitude rubbing on her.

The guys in the back snicker and snort, but I simply shrug a shoulder. “That’s a lie, and you know it. We were meant to be best friends.”

“You’re more like a brother I want to strangle, but whatever. You live your delulu life, babe,” she retorts, shaking her head and reaching for the radio volume control, switching the true crime podcast she’s been half listening to all the way to max.

Groaning as a chick talks about a man who murdered his wife and unborn child, I roll my head to stare at my platonic twin flame and yell, “You’re going to burst my eardrums!”

“Good!” she yells back, and that’s all that’s said while we sit in loud silence as Juno drives us to the first potential residence for my pack and me.

By the time we reach the first place, an apartment that looks to have seen better days just on the border of town, I’m fully informed on Brewing Murder’s host, Darci Coffey, opinion on the killer of the podcast we’ve been forced to listen to and am about ready to haul myself out of the truck for a brief taste of freedom.

Thankfully, Juniper parks outside of the apartment building and turns the truck off, silencing the podcast and its morbid tales. I wish she hadn’t and my eardrums were still being assaulted when the jackass blurts, “Well, this looks like a shit-hole. You’re not choosing this place over my house. I forbid it.”

“You forbid it, huh?” Aero snickers, leaning between the headrests to kiss her head aggressively, forcing her to swat him away with an eye roll.

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