Page 29 of Pack Baines

“It’s still a treat,” I tell him softly. “Just not a burnt one. I don’t remember the last time I had pancakes, but I still know how to cook ‘em.”

When silence answers that admission, I wince and realize pretty quickly what it is I’ve done. Because they know how much I love pancakes, always have ever since Lowie and Leylan’s pack brought me in and fed me breakfast for the first time. I wouldn’t havestopped eating them just for nothing, and I just revealed more than I wanted to.

Chapter 12

Leylan

“What do you mean?” Evron asks, though I’m pretty sure we all know exactly what Juniper means.

Ever since her first pancake at mine and Lowie’s house, she’s been addicted. There isn’t any other food in the world, other than chips and pizza, that Juniper would ever go without. Knowing she doesn’t even remember the last time she had them? Something is very wrong there, and I’d bet my last dollar that I know exactly what that problem is.

Juno turns her back to us all, accepting the bottle of pancake mix from Geo before pouring a decent amount into the pan. As she does, she clears her throat, shrugs a shoulder, and says, “Don’t make it a big deal. Money has been tight since I was removed from the Henley Pack. I mean, money was tight before then, anyway, so it’s nothing new. It’s fine.”

I knew it. And based on my brother’s faces, they knew it, too, before she even had to utter a single word.

For her whole life, Juno has struggled financially. Knowing that struggle never abated in her absence is like a hot poker to my chest. She hasn’t had the money to buy things to make pancakes, to have the one luxury I know makes her pancake-loving heart happy.

Staring at her back, the way her tense shoulders raise higher, like she’s expecting an outburst at her admission,I vow there and then to make sure my girl gets pancakes every single morning, even if she grows sick and tired of them. An unlikely outcome, because I underestimated once how much she loved them, but still. Juniper will get her damned pancakes.

“What are you having on them today, Juju?” I wonder, taking control of the conversation before anyone has the chance to react to Juno’s confession.

I smile softly as I watch her shoulders drop, and she looks over at me with a grateful smile and a warmth in her features that I imprint the image onto my brain. “Chocolate chips and caramel.”

“Sounds good,” I offer, my smile turning shy the longer she looks at me. Pretty sure my cheeks warm, which is crazy, given what my brother and I did to her just a few short hours ago.

She turns back to her cooking, sneaking the spatula from Geo’s tight grip, flipping the perfectly cooked pancake while the rest of us fall silent. One look at my brother finds him quietly fuming, glaring at the marble countertop like he’s spit on his ancestors. Evron looks like someone just ran over his pet cat, while Geo looks ready to pummel his Hulk fists into the faces of anyone that breathes on him wrong. Other than the clenched fists, and tight jaw, Creek is the calmest of them all, rivaling only me. It’s taking everything inside me not to round the island and hug Juno until she softens into my chest, soothing the rage I can feel bubbling inside me at the thought of Juno not having everything she should have had in life.

“I can feel the tension in the room and it’s making me antsy,” Juno sighs, flipping another pancake before stacking it on a clean plate on the counter. “Please, don’t make it a big deal. I got by well enough, never went starving, had a roof over my head. So what I didn’t have enough cash at the end of the month for pancakes? It could have—”

“If you say it could have been worse, I’m going to come over there and spank your ass raw,” Lowie damn near growls, and my eyes widen as I turn an incredulous look at him.

“What the fuck, bro?” I whisper, eyeing him like he’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Not that he notices, matching eyes to mine staring a hole into Juno’s back.

Surprisingly, our girl snorts, peering over her shoulder at my twin before she says, “Bold of you to assume that’s something I’m not into. No good using it as a form of punishment if I’ll get something out of it.”

Fuck. Me.

Did it just get hot in here? Why is it so hard to swallow all of a sudden?

Lowie’s lips suddenly twitch, a smile almost breaking out, a smile only Juno could even pull out of him. But then it disappears just as fast and he warns, “Don’t make statements like that unless you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is, Angel. I’m more than willing to prove a point.”

The look he sends her says more than words, and I can’t help but spectate with fascination as Juno shivers and turns back to her pancake making, but not before I miss the pretty blush that stains her cheeks and scent the deliciously sweet aroma that comes pooling from her in waves of mouthwatering pineapple, coconut, and vanilla. And then she fans herself with her shirt and a drop of concern floats through the fascination, because if she has a heat spike so soon after the first, then there’s no doubt that she’ll end up in heat before the end of the week.

At least, that’s what every website I searched through claimed.

Subtly, I inhale deeply, relaxing the moment I smell only the slightest bit over the normal amount of sugary sweetness. No heat spike, just simple arousal that has my lips twitching, my hand wiping over my face to be rid of it before Juno can see it.

But then I’m wincing when she clears her throat, flips another pancake to perfection, and notes, “Based on the lack of reaction, I’ll bet a spanking that Lowie and Leylan have already shared what happened.”

Geo sends us a wide, panicked look as he slides the full plate of pancakes on the island, Creek winces with me, and Lowie shrugs his shoulder like it’s no big deal. And, in our defense, it isn’t. Because each of us has every intention of forming a pack around the little omega currently wielding a spatula like a pro, and that means making her ours in every way. To do that, one needs open communication. Might as well start now, right?

Evron, though? That man laughs before sidling up behind Juno, wrapping his arms around her waist and dropping his chin on her shoulder, much like my entire body is yearning to do. He cuddles right into her, a purr starting up from his chest that comes as easily as it did yesterday, and he mutters, “Of course, they shared, Blue. We don’t keep secrets, remember? Plus, it’s not like any of us missed the fucking smell coming from the living room.”

He kisses her bare neck before nuzzling her, and then I’m face-palming myself when the dumbass teases, “Pretty sure I’ve been hard since hearing the first moan and smelling that first lick of sugar. Couldn’t have hidden it even if they tried.”

“Oh my god,” Juno groans, right before she starts laughing, a completely different reaction to what I would have bet on. But I like it. The way her body relaxes against Ev, how she gives him an amused grin, how she doesn’t shy away from the conversation. If I weren’t mistaken, I’d say that Juno is already on the same page as we are, all without having to even have a conversation about it.

“Ooo, I like that title. You can call me God if you want, sweetheart,” Evron jokes, blowing raspberries on her neck and making our omega snort before shoving his face away. Then she goes about making pancakes again, like no time has passed, like we’re already in the throes of normalcy within a well-established pack, like she already knows she’s ours and we’re hers.

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