Page 68 of This Pack of Ours

For a second, she was stunned into silence. She looked like I’d slapped her, and then she actuallysnarledat me.

“I’mtryingto be a good host.”

“Really. By leaving your items unmarked and then harassing people when they use them?”

“Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Being adick. You know why I can’t do that.”

“God, Juniper, we’ve all already fucked you. You don’t have to worry about keeping our minds chaste.”

“I’m not talking aboutthat, asshole. You guys already have to deal with my fucked-up scent enough.” Her redness was now surrounding her nose, and she blinked a bit.

I stared at her, wondering if this was some kind of joke.

“What are you talking about?” I said. Instead of continuing her angry tirade, she seemed to shrink a bit. Her eyes were looking a little wet, and her breathing was becoming more erratic.

What the fuck? I wasn’t used to arguing with people who had fuckingcryingin their arsenal. How on earth was I supposed to win now?

“I know it’s not supposed to smell like this,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “I didn’t get to develop into anormal omega. I fucked it up, okay? I fucked up my scent and now I smell sour all the time, and you don’t have to be such a dick about it.”

I squinted at her, trying to process what she was saying.

“Wait. You think I’m being a dick by telling you to scent mark things? Because you think your scent is bad?”

“Obviously,” she said in a thick voice. She sniffed, and then her lip trembled. I ran my fingers through my hair. Part of me was demanding I apologiseimmediately. That she’d probably feel really nice if I hugged her right now. And it would definitely be the best feeling in the world ifIwas the reason she cheered up again.

This must be some omega witchcraft or something. I liked it a lot better when we were ready to tear each other’s throats out.

“I don’t think your scent is bad,” I said, not quite keeping the annoyance out of my voice. “None of us think that. Don’t you think you would have noticed if we didn’t like it, I don’t know, when we were with you for the entirety of your heat?”

“There were a lot of pheromones,” she said, her voice hard. At least she didn’t seem to be right on the verge of tears anymore.

“Okay,” I said, exasperated. “I’ll prove it to you. If you’ll let me get some clothes on?”

She sniffed again and stepped aside. I went into the room and got dressed. The rest of the pack were still sleeping, but I’d made enough noise that they’d probably wake up. I met Juniper in the kitchen and grabbed some tea towels from the linen cupboard.

“Scent mark these,” I said, holding them out to her. Her eyes darted to mine and then back to the tea towels.

“Fine,” she huffed, taking them and bringing them to her neck. She hesitated for a second, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do, but then figured out how to rub her scent onto them. Sour cherries and spice flooded me as she held them back out. Really? She thought this smelled bad? I held her eyes, keeping my face neutral as I took them. I went to the kitchen and placed them casually around the space, one on the table, one tucked into the fridge door and another on top of the coffeemaker.

“That’s your plan?” She gave me a funny look. I rolled my eyes and nodded for her to follow me to the balcony.

The bedroom door opened, and Adrian crossed to the bathroom. I waited until the door shut, leaving us alone once again, before leading her to the balcony.

There. The perfect spot, right in front of the double wicker chair by the glass doors. I crouched, shouldering the old blanket that had been left outside.

“Come here,” I said, indicating the space in front of me.

“What? Why?"

I tugged her down so she was kneeling in front of me, and she gave an affronted squeak as I leaned over her. One of my arms wrapped around her, and the other dragged the blanket to cover us both. She gave a little huff as I pushed us both so we were peering through the hole in the back of the chair. We had a decent view of the kitchen from here.

“This is ridiculous,” she hissed, trying to wiggle free.

“Just wait and watch,” I said, settling into my pseudo-hug. She felt very nice beneath me, but that wasn’t the point. Jhin was the first to appear in the kitchen, hair combed and in his day clothes already. He went to open the fridge door, and froze as he saw the cloth there.

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