Page 16 of Raging Heat

“How would you know?!”He pushes off the railing and walks to the other end of the balcony, moving with jerky motions.“You’ve been pair bonded to Vera for years.If she’s been perfectly fine all that time, then you’re both clearly meant to be pair bonded.Pair bonds don’t turn into pack bonds, that just doesn’t happen.”

His pheromones are distressed and my first instinct is to send out calming pheromones, but I don’t, not yet.

He doesn’t seem to realise that the reason he’s getting this upset is because he’s trying to talk himself into leaving, not because he truly believes we would hurt each other.

He’s trying to rationalise why what he’s feeling can’t be true, and focusing on pair and pack bonds is only an excuse.

There’s one way to get him out of that really quickly, though it might be a bit messy.“That’s what my ex thought too, that she was someone who would only ever pair bond.She grew up, like me, with pair bonded parents.Nobody in her family had been pack bonded in generations.”

I notice the slight spike in Jorge’s pheromones, his body tensing up, alert, like I expected.I keep going.“And then, she found her fated pack, days before our wedding.Their wedding?—”

The growl Jorge releases is loud, his pheromones strong, angry, possessive.

Bingo!

I stop talking, giving him a level look, waiting.

It takes him a while to realise that I’m not saying anything anymore and he explodes.“How could she—” He growls again but stops when I hold up my hand and I finally send calming pheromones towards him.

“We were never scent matched.We were best friends who made a promise.”

Jorge lets out another growl and I growl back at him, stepping closer to him so he knows I’m serious.

“Don’tdo that.She’s not a threat to us.Vera and her are the best of friends.”

“Please, stop talking about your ex.”Jorge looks down, his breathing ragged.“It… It does bad things to my head.”

“I know.”I put my hand on his shoulder, and after he tenses for a moment he relaxes under my grip.“But I didn’t feel like arguing with you about pair and pack bonds for the next hours.You’re part of our pack, whether you believe it yet or not.”

“Fuck.You’re a bastard.”He glares at me.

I shrug.“I’m in no mood to bother with drama right now.Not when our Omega is about to go into heat.We’ve got more important things to discuss.”

Even if he thinks I’m a bastard, at least I now know how possessive he is, which is a lot.Both him and Mathew are very possessive, and this will be the first time they’re around Vera when she goes into heat.

We might not kill each other because we feel like the others are intruders, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we might have to deal with some domination clashes instead…

Oh, joy.

7

Vera

“How arethe four of us supposed to sleep in your bed?”I lean against Mathew as we’re sitting against the wall in our new nest room.“Someone’s going to roll off.”

He tightens his arms around me, letting out a soft laugh as he kisses my shoulder.“So, on top of ordering bedding for your nest, you also want me to order a bigger bed?”

“Ournest.”I look up at him and he smiles back.

“Fine,ournest.”He looks away, his eyes uncertain for a moment.

I know that he doesn’t believe me when I call it ‘our’ nest, but he’ll play along with me for now and I’ll keep repeating it until he does believe me.

“Yes, you’re going to have to order a bigger bed too.Unless Jorge doesn’t mind being pushed to the floor from time to time.Because I’m pretty sure that Caleb won’t be the one rolling off at night.”I play with my fingers over Mathew’s arm.

That makes him laugh and he nuzzles my neck.“I have a feeling we might want something a little more… sturdy for our bed.This one works fine when the three of us are having fun on it, but with four people, things might get tricky.”

“True.”I think for a moment.“I guess we’re going to need a pack bed.And to fit one in, we’re probably going to have to redo your whole bedroom.”

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