Page 59 of Pack Larsen

I’ll be damned ten times over if you couldn’t hear a pin drop between us, Cynthia’s eye twitching with a sudden fury as her gaze drops to my shoulders and neck, searching for something that isn’t there.

When she doesn’t find any sign of a bond mark, her shoulders relax, and the shark-like grin is back in place. “Pack mate? Silver, I wasn’t aware you found a pack to take you in.”

The bitch says it like I’m a stray dog in need of rehoming, and I roll my eyes at her snide comment.

Again, Pace comes to the rescue, chuckling before pressing a kiss to my temple. I know it’s a show, but it doesn’t stop the wild butterflies swarming my stomach at the press of his lips on my skin, his smoke-and-leather scent surrounding me just as effectively as his body does. “Oh, we didn’t take Silver in. Quite the opposite. She lured us in with her blinding smile, beauty, humor, and heart of gold. We’re a very lucky pack to have found her, and moreso when she agreed to be ours.”

I swear, it looks like my mother’s head is on the brink of explosion. Poor Philip looks deeply uncomfortable, and I have to bite the insides of my cheeks to tame the laughter that wants to break free.

“Yours?” my mother scoffs, forgetting her sweet mommy act, likely knowing it’ll do her no good here. “I see no bond marks. She can’t possibly belong to you and yours.”

The way she says it makes it sound like she’s talking to a pack that have just crawled from the slums, and it pisses me off something chronic. Anger suddenly burns through my veins and I inhale, ready to give her a piece of my mind, when I’m suddenly tugged from Pace’s arms and into a lean body that I’ve dreamed of for months. Ink-covered arms wrap around me in a loose hug as Munro draws me to his chest, his jacket missing to reveal the tattoos along his arms, neck, and the flashes between his open-collared shirt.

“Hey, princess. How about that dance you promised me?” Munro drawls, his voice turned sensual and sexy and not at all what I’m used to. It fucks my head up enough to distract me from my mother’s outraged huff.

I’m nodding before I realize it, and I feel Pace press another kiss to my head as he demands, “Save me one. I want you in my arms and as close as I can get you while I show you off as ours.”

He says it loud enough that I’m sure it’s for Cynthia’s benefit, but it sets off an indescribable yearning in my chest. I want what he’s suggesting. I want it like I want my mother to fall in a puzzle of cow piss, with a desperation that shocks me.

Just as Munro pulls me away from the alpha and my mother, I hear Pace’s voice drop into a lethal snarl as he warns, “You bring another man to my omega at any point in the future, you won’t like the outcome. I’m her alpha. We’re her pack. She doesn’t need whatever you’re trying to sell. She has enough to keep her occupied and very satisfied. Now fuck off and crawl back to the hole you clawed your sorry ass from.”

I hear my mother gasp loudly before she damn near screeches, “You can’t speak to me that way. How dare you, you insolent little—?”

I lose whatever she says next, because I’m being twirled onto the dancefloor the next moment, stunned and trying to catch up with what just happened.

“Sorry. Figured you needed rescuing,” Munro mutters as soon as we’re in the middle of the dancefloor. We’re the only two people here, and I have to bite back the uncomfortable niggle in my chest, focusing on Munro’s face and not the people likely looking at the two weirdos swaying back and forth awkwardly to the classical music playing from the harp.

Laughing somewhat hysterically, I shake my head and mutter, “I feel like I’m having a fever dream or something.”

Munro snorts as he lifts my hand and places it on his shoulder while he claims the other in his, dropping his free hand to my lower back as he pulls me in close, much closer than appropriate for a dance at one of these functions, but I can’t find it in me to care. It feels too good, too comforting, like he’s trying to mold me to his front so I feel comfortable about where I am and what just happened. “Don’t sweat it. Your mother is storming away from Pace. If looks could kill, I’m pretty sure your alpha would be dead on the floor by now.”

“My alpha,” I sigh, shaking my head at the madness of it.

“He’s absolutely yours, princess. We all are, we already told you as much,” Munro reminds me, as though I’ve forgotten the conversation we had in the car. It’s pretty hard to forget something like that, but it’s also something entirely different to hear it and live it. Yes, they told me this thing between us is real, that they’re all in, but never has anyone claimed me as theirs without an ounce of hesitation. Not once have I experienced the rush of pure happiness that came to me when Pace put my mother in her place, protecting me like an alpha should his omega.

It takes a little bit of time for that to sink in, for me to finally realize that this thing between us really is real. They do want me. It’s not a show, they’re not putting on an act to fool my mother. There was a sincerity to Pace’s declaration that I can’t ignore, and my heart starts beating rapidly when it finally slots into my brain that I’ve actually found a pack to belong to. I’ve found my pack.

“There it is. That smart brain of yours,” Munro teases, and I peer up into his dark eyes, my mind filling with a euphoria that bleeds through my body. Everything they’ve done for me tonight already swarms my brain, overshadowing everything else. All the shit Munro gave me suddenly means fuck all to me, because he’s standing here with me, badly swaying to a shitty song as he saves me from my mother. He’s grinning down at me like he’s exactly where he wants to be, has who he wants and needs in his arms, and everything else doesn’t matter.

It’s too much for me to handle, and I feel my eyes fill with emotional tears before I can stop them. When a single tear slips free and falls into my hair at my temple, Munro’s face falls and he strains, “No, don’t cry. It fucking kills me when you cry, princess.”

His face falls into a severe scowl, as though he’s pissed at my tears that I can’t help, and I shake my head as I make the decision he’s waiting for. With a huff of a laugh, I cup the back of his neck suddenly and I yank him towards me, my lips colliding with his in an explosion of need and urgency.

Munro freezes for all of two seconds before he growls against my lips and takes control of the kiss. His tatted hands are sinking into my hair and tugging my head backward as he devours me like a man starved, his tongue tangling with mine so suddenly that I’m assaulted with pine and citrus. I sigh and melt against him.

It’s completely inappropriate, I’m pretty sure I'm perfuming, and I’m all too aware of our surroundings, but I can’t find it in me to care. All I can think of is Munro. Of Pace, Aero, Haze, and Rage. Of the pack I’ve found, the men that claimed me in front of my mother without skipping a heartbeat.

I kiss Munro harder, moaning softly against his mouth as one hand tightens in my hair and the other bands around my back and he leans me backward into an elaborate dip that makes me lightheaded.

I’m so lost in the moody beta that it takes a moment for sound to filter in. When it does, I can’t help but giggle against Munro’s mouth, my smile growing until it’s impossible to keep kissing. Munro’s grin matches my own when he pulls back a fraction, shaking his head slightly with an eye roll as Alek claps loudly from somewhere nearby, hooting and hollering enough that other people start joining in. “Woo, yeah! That’s my cousin right there, getting her face mauled by the mafia!”

“I’m going to kill him,” I laugh, dropping my head back as my body shakes with amusement.

Munro snickers before pressing a kiss to my bare neck, muttering, “I’ll provide an alibi.”

I’m still laughing when he pulls me to standing, twirling me awkwardly in the direction where Alek is standing with his pack, grinning like a Cheshire cat and eyeing Munro like he’s about to give him the ‘big brother’ talk.

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

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