Page 78 of This Pack of Ours

I’d almost been banned from the store for fighting another omega for it after she snatched it from Kit’s hands.

I screamed again and grabbed one of the lava lamps, hurling it against the back wall. It properly shattered, and I grabbed the next one, throwing it as well. Those fucking bastards just walkedaway after what they’d done tome. ToKit.

I stormed out of our room, heading toward the front door. I didn’t care what the fucking consequences were, I wouldnotlet them leave here without paying for this. Someone said my name, and a hand grabbed my arm, but I tore free.

The door.

The GPRE.

There was another body in my way, and I ducked under it, hand reaching out, almost at the doorknob?—

Another scream tore from me as I was wrenched away, strong hands held me back, and I struggled, lashing out, kicking and biting. My torso was pinned to the floor and an angry pair of ice-blue eyes met mine. He had me pinned down.

“Help me, Vander,” I choked, trying to wriggle out “They’re getting away?—”

“I know,” he replied, teeth gritted, and I could see he was furious at that, too.

“Thenfucking help me kill them!” I shouted, pushing with all my might, but it was useless. I screamed again, but this time it morphed into a wail, and then I was sobbing on the floor, choking on tears of frustration and rage. I was so fucking hot and my face ached, and everything fucking hurt.

Vander released me from the hold, and I curled up, still sobbing. He shifted; his touch surprisingly gentle. He pulled a stray blanket under my head as a makeshift pillow, and his arms wrapped around my waist, his head resting against mine.

Even after I’d run out of tears, my body still wracked with juddering breaths, I didn’t want to get up. I didn’t want to see it again, or face it, and if I moved, I’d have to deal with it. Vander tried extracting himself from my sticky form at one point, but I held him close.

“For fuck’s sake,” Vander said, but he didn’t really sound annoyed. “Bring him here.”

Then Kit was next to me, his glasses off and his face wet and red. We didn’t say anything, just moved close. I closed my eyes. More blankets were being pushed around us, on top of us, and I was miserable but cosy, and so, so exhausted. I drifted into sleep.

* * *

By the time I woke, the apartment had been cleaned. I poked my head out of the blanket pile we’d been tucked into. Blue plastic bags of fabric had been piled by the door. I stared at them. Evidence of the massacre.

“Sorry, Juniper. We didn’t know if you’d want to try and salvage them or not,” said Adrian, who had noticed I’d woken up. Despite my nap, I still felt exhausted as I looked at the bags.

The door opened, and I heard Vander swearing as a mattress came into view.

“We should have just gone via the balcony,” he was saying.

“No, it’ll fit, dude,” came Ez’s voice, and I watched as they somehow managed to navigate the mattress from the narrow staircase into the apartment.

“What’s that?” I asked, looking at it.

“Oh, well… it’s not much, but we went out and got some of the basics," said Ez, trying to tug the mattress over to my room by himself. I felt his aura split the air as he heaved, but it still wasn’t moving much.

“It’s the angle, you dolt,” said Vander, giving the mattress a kick. Freed from whatever physics had been holding it in place, both it and Ez shot across the room.

I laughed and both golden-green and blue eyes turned to look at me.

“What?” I said, eyes flicking between them.

“Nothing,” said Vander, while Ez said, “Sick. First laugh is on me.”

“Youwere the joke.Igot her to laugh first," said Vander smugly, and nodded to Adrian, who followed him down the stairs.

Ez started to wrestle the mattress into my room, and I bit my lip, following him inside. Where our nest had been, it now looked so… plain. Bright light shone in through the window, and the rugs had been piled neatly to the side, exposing the pale wooden floor. The hangers that had held up our canopy were still there, some of the fabric missing, and the lights were all turned off. Ez was dragging the mattress onto the bed frame.

I wrapped my arms around myself, blinking at the room. I’d had the nest for so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to be without one. Without a place to crawl into and feel safe, one that smelled of me and Kit and the various items of clothes from the pack that he’d tried to hide. I fought the urge to slink back into the pile of blankets on the floor and hide in there forever.

Ez straightened the mattress, and caught sight of me by the door. He jogged over. His shirt was sticking to his chest and his watermelon lemonade scent thick in the air as he neared.

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