Page 40 of This Pack of Ours

I glared in his direction.

Jhin and Adrian looked at each other.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Juniper, it would be very helpful to have access to a dryer," said Jhin in his smooth, solid voice. “Just for one night. We would, of course, respect any rules you need to feel comfortable.”

Everyone—except Vander—was looking at me.

I chewed my lip.

I couldn’t let alphas into our apartment. That was a fact, wasn’t it? But at some point, the Argo pack had become the exception in my mind. The idea of letting a pack of alphas into our apartment should make my skin crawl, but with them it… didn’t.

Moments like when Jhin had given me his handkerchief, or when Adrian had knelt to help me clean up that coffee spill. When Ez had escorted me up the stairs, or even fucking Vander when he’d shown up to make sure our door was locked in the middle of the night. I didn’t like feeling like I owed them something. So I could give them this, and then we’d be even. I’d be done with them.

“One. Night,” I gritted out.

Kit and Ez high-fived as I sighed. The pack started to pack.

EIGHT

JUNIPER

Me and Kit had gone ahead to prepare the apartment while they finished up.

I was already regretting this. It was one thing wearing my contacts for an hour or two while I was out, but now I’d have to wear them in my house too.

“Kit. Take down those photos of us.” I pointed into his room, to the string of pictures that featured us together. With my very golden eyes present.

“Smart," he said, going to unhook the string and carefully putting them on his desk. He stared for a moment at the picture of us and Dee, before adding it to the pile. He pulled a shoebox from the closet and laid them inside.

We’d just finished setting up the bedding when Kit glanced at his phone.

“They’re here,” he said, beaming and practically running down the stairs to greet them. I followed, and met them all at the downstairs door.

“Okay, here are the rules. Me and Kit sleep in my room. You all will share the spare room. If you make a mess, clean it up. Don’t eat labelled food in the fridge. Don’t leave the toilet seat up. And if for some godforsaken reason it comes up, keep anyfuckingto Kit’s room.”

“We’re not animals,” muttered Jhin, looking aghast.

“Question. How big is the spare room?” asked Ez.

“Big enough,” I said sweetly.

“I’ve got a giant futon, and I pulled out our guest stuff too," said Kit. He was bouncing on his feet.

I stepped aside and gestured for them to go up. I was very uneasy about how comfortable I felt about this. I may have gone a little overboard trying to compensate for my internal lack of suspicion. I’d called Daisy in the car, and she’d gotten one of her dads to go raid the Safe House storage and bring three extra locks for my door.

And motion detectors for the corridor, and a baby monitor.

Just in case.

ADRIAN

I pulled a load of clothes out of the dryer and replaced them with some wet ones. There was a lot to dry, and we’d also hung up clothes and linens all over the apartment. Jhin had said we should bring anything we didn’t want to risk getting ruined.

I carried the armful of laundry to the spare bedroom and stepped inside. I wasn’t sure I trusted Juniper’s definition of ‘big enough’.

There was a queen-size futon, and then a twin inflatable mattress shoved to the side.

“Maybe one of us could sleep on the couch?” I suggested, eyeing the layout doubtfully. I dumped the clothes onto the bed for sorting.

---