Page 20 of Pack Baines

They all nod, and my chest tightens, moreso when Juno nuzzles her smooth, relaxed face into my shirt and sighs so softly that I feel her breath warm a spot on my chest.

“Let’s not jump ahead of ourselves, though. We don’t know for sure what she’s taking to alter her scent,” Evron notes, resting his head against the back of the couch looking as exhausted as I feel.

We’re all quiet for a long moment, only the movie playing in the background breaking up the heavy silence that falls on us all. Juno remains blissfully asleep, almost too heavily asleep, but I cuddle her into my chest, enjoying the way she fits against me like a puzzle piece I’ve been missing for much too long.

“Should we bring up the topic?” Leylan asks quietly, his expression still painted in concern, eyes solely on Juno.

Creek is already shaking his head, and I raise an eyebrow at him. With a tired sigh and a longing glance at the woman on my lap, he answers, “I think we should wait for her to broach the topic. If she brings it up, we’ll ask. Otherwise, we should wait until she’s comfortable enough around us again that she’ll tell us on her own. Maybe there’s a reason she’s keeping it to herself. And maybe there’s a reason why she could be on suppressants in the first place. Either way, I’d rather hear it all from Juniper before jumping to conclusions.”

“Seems like we’ve done that enough as it is,” Lowie mumbles under his breath before he reaches for the empty plates on the table and carries them to the kitchen, leaving us all to stare after him.

The guilt I’d been feeling before doubles in size, knowing we all believed Juniper left us without so much as a backward glance. Worse is that we didn’t think to question it any deeper than preteen and teen kids would. It makes me wonder if we would have found her sooner had we actually pushed for answers, asked our pack parentswhat the hell happened. Maybe we wouldn’t have had to go eight years without the only girl we’ve all been madly obsessed about.

Just as I begin to spiral into a shame-filled pit of guilt and sadness, a tiny whimper yanks my attention away, my thoughts slipping from one thing to another so fast that it takes me a moment to process what I heard. Only for Juno to whimper again, a horrible, pained sound that hurts my chest.

“Is she okay?” Ev whispers, already on his knees in front of Juno and me, hands hovering between him and her as though he desperately wants to reach out and touch her.

I shake my head in confusion. “I don’t know, man.”

She whimpers once more, the sound quickly followed by a pained groan. I’m pretty sure I hear her pitifully whisper, “Please, don’t,” but there’s a funny ringing in my ears, my heart thundering hard enough that I’m sure Juno could hear it if she were awake. The distress in those almost muted words has my hold tightening on her, like I can protect her from her own dreams.

“Should we wake her?” Leylan asks just as his twin brother comes in, eyes Juno, and sighs with a sad shake of his head.

Without so much as a single uttered word, he strides toward me and scoops Juno out of my arms, quietly explaining, “She’s always had nightmares, remember? There was that one time we convinced her to camp in my backyard for the night and she woke up screaming and crying. Accidentally scratched me when I tried to wake her because she thought I was whoever it was in her dream.”

The memory comes back to me with all of the force of a tidal wave, and I sag into the cushions with a body ache that makes me groan quietly. “I forgot about that. She felt so bad when she woke up and saw the bloody scratches on your arm.”

“Imagine what the little tornado will do now,” Lowie grumbles, but I’m pretty sure I see his lips twitch before his face goes blank. He shakes his head, easily hoisting Juno up into his arms more securely, before he says, “We’ll put her in the guest room. Keepyour doors open in case the nightmare gets worse. We’ll hear her better that way.”

He then carries Juno out of the room, heading toward the stairs, and I suddenly feel like there’s a powerful magnet luring me from my seat that I’m powerless to ignore. Heaving myself off the couch, I follow after Lowie and Juno like a lost puppy, unable to let her out of my sight just yet. It’s almost like I’m worried she’ll suddenly disappear again if I can’t see her anymore, can’t see the rise and fall of her chest, her rosy cheeks filled with heat as she sleeps restlessly through her nightmare.

Another whimper tightens my chest, and I call over my shoulder, “Finish the movie without me.”

There’s no way I’m leaving Juniper alone tonight, even if that makes me crazy. Hell, I fucking am crazy. Crazy for that purple-haired beauty. Always have been, and I’m pretty damned sure I always will be.

And so, like some total creep, I follow after the moody twin alpha and our girl. I’m right on their tail as he carries her into the guest room that has very little personality, if any. The walls are bare save for some weird-ass picture Evron found on the internet, some abstract thing in shades of brown, beige, and nude. It goes well with the pale curtains that hang to the floor and the bedding that covers the springy bed that no one has ever slept in.

Gently, the gentlest I’ve ever seen Lowie be in eight years, he lowers her to the bed. Juniper sprawls across it the moment her back hits the cushioned bedspread, her shirt rising enough to reveal the creamy pale skin of her stomach. She lost her jacket not ten minutes into the movie, claiming she was too hot, which isn’t surprising. I run hotter than the normal beta, and alphas are naturally warmer, so sandwiched between Creek and me probably played hell on her body temperature.

With some adjusting, Lowie has her boots removed, tucking them at the end of the bed where she’ll easily find them. He eyes those skin-tight jeans like they’re amazing and the bane of his existence fora long moment before he looks over at me and asks, “Would it be too much to take her jeans off? Or would that be creepy?”

I shrug, having no idea. I mean, past Juno would have laughed at the idea of us having to drag her around trying to get her jeans off so she could sleep comfortably. But that was then, and this is now, and I have no idea how the little firecracker would react now.

“Your guess would be as good as mine, bro,” I finally answer, eyeing the jeans that don’t look comfortable at all to sleep in.

Lowie eyes them once more before scowling, and then decides the ‘fuck it’ approach is where we should go with this dilemma. Unbuttoning the jeans, he shuffles those tanned legs out of the dark material, keeping it vanilla and tame. So focused on his task and making sure Juno is comfy, he doesn’t see the boy shorts she wears, trimmed with lace that wrap around her upper thighs in all ways I’d love to replace my hands with.

My eyes widen at that thought and I look away before I become a perverted peeping Tom, clearing my throat before I decide to do something to help instead of standing here watching.

On quiet feet, I rush over to the side of the bed and tug the comforter from beneath Juno. She’s so light that it takes very little effort at all to maneuver her under the blankets and such. The moment I wrap them over her lithe frame, she burrows deep into it, and I can’t help but brush her hair back from her beautiful face.

“She’s a little warm. Should we take a blanket or two off her?” I wonder, peering over at Lowie only briefly before looking back at Juniper.

Lowie takes a seat on the bed, right beside her hip, and says, “Nah. She likes to snuggle into them, remember?”

Sure enough, Juniper starts to frown in her sleep, right before she starts tugging a blanket towards her. It’s like she’s seeking the comfort of it in her sleep, likely still in the depths of her nightmare.

“See?” Lowie snickers softly, helping her drag the blanket closer until she has it bundled against her chest, rubbing her face subconsciously into the soft material before settling. The frowndoesn’t disappear, though. In fact, it’s almost like it deepens, just before yet another scared or pained whimper slips past her parted lips.

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