Page 123 of This Pack of Ours

I gaped at her.

“How on earth do you know that?” I asked. She shot me a cool look.

“I’m over emotional and nesting. That’s phase two. Then I always get this strange calm gap right before everything hits.”

“But—”

“I don’t want to talk about it, so no more questions unless you want to get barred from attending.”

“That’s a thing?” Ez asked, looking alarmed.

“She’s justjoking,” Kit said, taking her arm as she walked back to the other room. Juniper snorted.

Ez crossed over to grab some coffee as Kit and Juniper returned with more armfuls of nesting stuff.

“I’m taking some of your clothes!” Juniper called from the bedroom.

“You want me to tell you where we keep the underwear?” I called back with a grin. An angry face poked out of the door.

“I grabbed those while it wasdark,” she hissed. “And they wereclean.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Ez said. “Lots of people have a thing for underwear.”

“Barred!” Juniper pointed a finger at him, face flushing.

“Oh man,” Ez said, his face falling. He looked at me in panic. “She serious?”

“You can’t bar him from your heat!” I snapped. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Barred,” Juniper hissed, her finger pointing at me now.

Ez kept darting worried looks toward the bedroom as he got his coffee.

Adrian had left, saying something about nesting supplies and leaving us to deal with Juniper.

By the afternoon, all of us except Kit had been barred. Adrian had been barred because he’d been out all day. She’d told him over text.

She was sulking in the nest as Kit tried to reason with her. I was in the living room, working very hard to pretend I wasn’t hanging onto every word that came out of the half-closed door.

“Juni, I’m not even an alpha,” he pleaded.

“I’ve got toys.” Her voice was resolute.

“You barred Jhin because he asked you if you were done with your water glass.”

“It was a very aggressive question,” she said, her voice wavering.

“I know that, and I love you,” said Kit. “But you’re honestly telling me you don’t want any of them at your heat when it comes?”

There was a pause, and then the sound of sobbing. “N—no,” she said thickly. “I want them.”

Ez would be relieved. He’d been convinced she’d actually follow through with barring him.

“I just… I know you claimed me, and they’re fine with me joining the pack. But I don’t know if they really want me, you know.” She sniffed. “I just… you’re their scent match.”

“Oh, Juni, of course they want you.” Kit’s voice was sure. There was another sniff from Juni and then it was quiet.

I ran my fingers through my hair. What the fuck was with these omegas and thinking we didn’t want them?

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