Page 40 of Pack Baines

Well, shit. I’m pretty sure, despite my very best efforts, that the satisfied grin I’m trying to hide still breaks free, and Lowie’s grin grows to match. “You haven’t been with anyone else at all?”

He shakes his head, watching my reaction, and I blow out a breath and bite my lip to try and dampen the giddy little smile that begs to be set free.

Rolling his eyes with a great deal of amusement, Lowie snickers, “You don’t have to look so pleased about it.”

I scoff. “Please. Like you weren’t on the verge of creaming your panties when I told you you were my first.”

Silence answers me, right before the guy starts laughing so loud that I can’t help but grin into his chest, shaking my head while I bask in the sound of his chuckles.

“You’re right, so I’ll let you off the hook this time,” he teases, kissing my forehead with so much affection that I almost want to weep like a little sissy. “But, if your curiosity is getting the better of you, I simply didn’t want anyone that wasn’t you. The others had the same sentiment, too.”

At that, I’m pushing up and peering down at Lowie with eyes as wide as saucers, doing my best to compute exactly whatthatmeans. Because it almost sounded like he was insinuating that Creek, Geo, Evron, and Leylan are all—

“Is your brain stuttering right now?” the man beneath me goads, enjoying my confusion and shock a little too much for my liking.

I slap a hand over his mouth, which makes him laugh again, and ask, “Are you saying all four of you never…?”

“Never,” he confirms.

“You guys didn’t date or anything?” I push, needing to know everything about their dating history, almost like I’m trying to find loopholes or whatever, trying to debunk the fact that not only was Lowie a virgin, but so are the others. “Like, not even a dinner. A lunch, even? A goodnight kiss?”

Lowie is already shaking his head, looking like he’s holding in more of his laughter, but his eyes are shining enough to tell me how funny he thinks I’m being. I’m not being funny. I’m being deadly serious.

“There’s absolutely no way the five of you, who look and smell like you do, didn’t have a string of random hookups, leaving a trail of broken hearts after yourselves,” I blurt, disbelieving but desperately wanting to. I don’t know why, but there’s a funny little flare in my chest that brightens knowing I’m their first. I’ll be their only, too, if all goes well.

“You’re fucking adorable, you know that?” Lowie taunts playfully, brushing my unruly purple hair from my face, lips twitching as his gaze roams all over my face. “No, Angel. We all made an agreement years ago that if we couldn’t have you, then we didn’t want anyone. There hasn’t been a single date, late night booty call, or relationship in the years that you were gone. And you know we didn’t date before you left. It was you or nothing for us.”

He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but it very much is. Knowing that, in the years I’ve been gone, they all felt the same way I did. If I couldn’t have them, then I wasn’t interested in pursuing anything with anyone else. There’s far too much satisfaction in the knowledge that all five of them didn’t seek out comfort from any other girl, alpha, beta or omega. I’m the only one, and that is doing some crazy things to my mind and body.

“I really love that dopey look you’ve got going on right now,” Lowie quips, tracing my smile with his thumb.

“I really love that you guys still thought of me, even while I was gone,” I whisper in return, nipping at his thumb, and smiling when that intense gaze of his darkens.

Lowie wraps his arms around me, dragging me over his body until my face is hovering over his and he’s gazing softly up at me like he’s never seen anything quite so beautiful. I know I’m blushing, heat pooling in my cheeks, but I don’t shy away from the intensity, even as he confesses, “Every single day, Angel. You’ve always been the center of our universe. There wasn’t a day that went by that we didn’t think of you, mention you in passing, or buy something we thought you’d like before feeling stupid about it. And every single day, we all hoped and prayed and begged to whatever higher deity there is in existence that you’d come back to us. Don’t, for one second, doubt that we very much want our present and future wrapped and entwined with yours. You belong to us, Angel. You always have been.”

My insides turn to mush, my heart liquidating right there in my chest, and my eyes prick with the threat of tears. Clearing my throat does nothing to remove the emotion from my voice, but I pushon as I say, “Then it’s a damned good thing I’m completely on board with that plan. Pretty sure I’m steering the ship, because there wasn’t a day where I wasn’t desperate to find you all again.”

“We’re a family, Angel. And we’ll always be with one another from here on out, okay? You’re our girl, and we’ll be yours until the stars fall from the sky,” Lowie breathes, tracing small patterns along my spine.

Sure enough, a single tear falls from my eye, and he smiles at the little drop before reaching up and kissing it away, rubbing a thumb beneath my eye when he pulls back. When my breath escapes with a shudder, I drop my chin to my hands pressed to his chest and shake my head. “When did you become such a romantic?”

Lowie shrugs, pushing my hair from my face as he strokes my cheeks, and says, “When it comes to you, Juniper Baines, I’m a romantic every fucking day.”

I huff a laugh, my eyes shuttering closed at his touch, and it doesn’t take long for that exhaustion to return. The steady ministrations of Lowie’s hands slowly send me into a drowsy state, and before I know it, my head is resting on his chest while he runs a hand through my knotted hair.

“Get some rest, Angel,” he whispers sweetly. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

And so, trusting him to be there when my eyes open again, I fall asleep on top of him, content and happy and safer than I’ve felt in so fucking long.

***

“Angel, you have to wake up or else you’ll be late for your first day,” Lowie whispers, interrupting a pretty good dream where I was sleeping in a cloud and five beautiful guys kept bringing me food and comfy things.

“Five more minutes,” I grumble into a nice, warm pillow. It’s not as soft as I thought it was, but it’s comfy enough that I feel the pull of sleep luring me into a dreamland once more.

Those fluffy clouds are swatted away by the infuriating cushion beneath me. Laughing, Lowie squeezes my ass and hisses my bare shoulder before he says, “Up you get, baby. I want to feed you before you start your classes.”

I pop one eye open. “What are you feeding me?”

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