Page 73 of Pack Favero

“Mine,” she murmurs, shaking her head in disbelief. “You guys were building me a library?”

Chuckling, Laz steps inside, the others following after as he says, “Well, technically, Barnes and Alek built the library. The twins painted, and I found the furniture, so it was a team effort. But Mac is right. The idea was spawned by the professor.”

She looks over at me with hearts in her eyes, and I realize then that I really had no reason to be nervous. I knew she would love it, and based on the way the bond thrums with emotion, there’s no doubt that she’s a very happy omega right now.

So, while she’s feeling this happy, I lead her to the desk and point at the envelopes I know she will recognize. Sure enough, she gasps when she spots them, sliding the envelopes of money she has tried giving me over the months off the desk and swats me with them. “What the hell is this?”

Feeling a little bashful now that she’s focused on me, I ignore Ford as he whistles and teases, “Ooh, Champ is in trouble now.”

Instead, I drag Zira close by tugging on her summer dress, the envelopes ending up squished between us as I explain, “That, Freckles, would be your book-spending money. Since I know you wouldn't accept our money to pay for your reading habit, even though what’s ours is rightfully yours now, I found the best solution for the money you keep giving me that I don’t want. I’ve been keeping it all in Laz’s office drawer, trying to figure out how to give it back without you possibly biting my head off. This was the answer.”

Disbelief paints her features prettily and she stutters before she says, “So, this is everything I’ve been giving you? For nine months?”

I nod. “I told you I wasn’t going to accept your money, Zira, and I meant it. And now that you finally agreed to stop being so fussy with money, you’re going to accept this as mereturning what is rightfully yours. I know you pay your share in whatever miniscule bills we have, and money is never an issue, so I want you to spend this on filling this room with all of the books you love or want to read. I want you to have your safe space.”

Tears instantly fill her eyes, and I know I’ve hit the mark with that last sentence, and I lean in to kiss her until she’s no longer on the brink of tears. When I pull away, I blurt, “I hope those are happy tears.”

She nods rapidly before laughing loudly, looking around again like she can’t believe what she’s seeing. It’s as though she’s stunned that I took what she told me and provided a solution that she couldn’t refuse, and I love that she loves it so much already, especially after the conversation we had before.

We were lying in bed one morning, lazing on a Sunday as we often do now, and I learned that, as much as she loves working at the library at North Five, she doesn’t find the same peace in it anymore after Hunter ruined it for her. I hate that he took something that important from her, and I hate more that she had to learn it a week into going back to work, but now she has somewhere untainted that she can grow and build up to be what she wants it to be.

If that just so happens to be the library from the animated movie with the beastly alpha and the beauty omega, then I’m all for it, so long as Zira is happy, content, and full of the love we try to show her every single day.

Which isn’t hard, because Zira Favero is the easiest person to love, and I’ll do it until I’m long gone from this world and even after.

The end.

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