Page 37 of This Pack of Ours

“Well, I’d totally be down for that,” Ez said. “Juniper is awesome.”

He looked over to where she was sitting and caught her eye, giving her a wink. She flipped him the bird, and he grinned at me.

“And Adrian likes her too, right, bro?” Ez tapped him on the arm.

“I’ll be fine either way,” he said, offering me a small smile.

Jhin caught my eyes again, looking at me for a long moment. Eventually he nodded.

“Okay. Great.” I grinned, feeling a bit of relief. “So, no pressure, but just getting to know her, and showing her you like her. And then I’ll ask her again.”

“Indeed. Juniper would be a good addition to this pack,” Jhin said. Vander snorted. His face had gone a bit red, and his mouth was set in a thin line.

“This is fucking bullshit,” he snapped.

I froze, my neck prickling.

Jhin sat up straight, a glare on his face. “Vander,”he warned. Vander sneered at him as Ez’s arm around me tightened.

“I didn’t even wantoneomega, but I guess we’re stuck with him because of a scent match. Now I have to deal with two?—”

A cold flash of panic curdled my stomach. To my surprise, Ez clapped his hands over my ears, knocking my glasses askew. It didn’t really do much; I could still hear him as he cut Vander off. He’d leaned toward Vander, and I found myself surrounded by watermelon lemonade.

“Hey. That’s too far, V. Not cool,” Ez growled, his voice harder than I’d ever heard it.

Jhin stood from the table, his stern voice coming back and making my head spin.

“Vander. Come with me. Now.” He turned and walked toward the balcony, and Vander stood and shot me a scowl before following him.

Ez released my ears, looking at me with concern.

“Shit. Sorry about that,” he said, straightening my glasses again. “I swear Vander isn’t always an asshole. He’s just been really off lately.”

“Not that it excuses what he just said,” added Adrian firmly, casting a pointed look to where Jhin and Vander were having a heated conversation. Ez glanced over, too, looking sad.

Vander and Jhin finished their conversation, and Vander was stomping out of the restaurant.

Jhin came back, sitting down in his seat with a sigh.

“My apologies, Kit. I thought he’d be alright to come out with us tonight. I know Vander can be… difficult, but the last thing I want to do is hide this from you. He hasnoexcuse not to be civil, however, and I won’t tolerate that from him.”

“Maybe I can help,” I said, glancing between them and fiddling with my sleeves. “I mean, that’s kind of what we do with our bond. Help balance alphas.”

Or maybe Juniper can, since he can actually have a conversation with her.

“Oh, yeah!” Ez said, perking up. “And the doctor said he totally needed to get laid. Actually, he has been a bit better since the heat.”

Adrian rubbed his forehead and shot me an apologetic glance. Jhin sagged a bit in his chair.

“I understand if he’s too much, Kit, and if you don’t want to continue this.”

“I can try,” I said hopefully. “Heismy mate, too. I get if he wants his space, but there must be some common ground. Maybe we can… co-exist.”

I mean, at the very least, he should bephysicallyattracted to me. And if a doctor said he needed to‘get laid’,I could start there.

I rubbed my nose. He was really hot. He had super thick lashes under a heavy brow, and even if he scowled all the time, it was with those beautiful, full lips.

Was it bad that I still wanted him to fuck me? And maybe have him sneer at me like that while he loomed over me, stripping my clothes off before telling me to bend over… I tried to cut the thoughts off, but my scent had already started to spike, and I stood up abruptly.

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