Page 43 of Pack Down Bad

“Knox?” I glance down at his arm and get distracted, my eyes tracing over his forearm, up the crook of his elbow, along the length of his bicep muscles, up to his broad shoulder flexed to hold me in place. “He’s harmless,” I conclude breathlessly as I resist the urge to stare at his chest next.

“Belle, focus.” Mia snaps her fingers to draw my attention back to her.

Oh, I’m focused, alright. Focused on how hot Knox looks without a shirt on. I bet he would make a killing with his art if the buyers knew he looked like this while he paints.

“Is this Stockholm Syndrome or something?” Mia asks, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

“What? No.” I shake my head to clear the brain fog coming from another building heat spike. This time, I can feel the early signs of my temperature rising, my palms growing clammy, and sweat beading around my hairline. “This isn’t some kind of weird kidnapping thing; this pack is my scent-match.”

Mia gasps. “Your scent match? Why didn’t you lead with that?”

She takes them in with a completely different expression now, her eyes open with curiosity instead of narrowed with suspicion. I swear,scent matchis the most magical combination of words to our kind. After a moment, her eyebrows pinch with concern again.

“That explains a lot but not everything, you’ve been missing for two full days,” Mia points out in an accusatory whine.

Yeah... “After I left the bar, I got lost in the snowstorm and somehow managed to drive hours out of town before I wrecked my car into a tree. Luckily, Rhys happened to be returning from town and saw my car. He rescued me.”

Mia blinks rapidly.

“Hours?” she repeats.

I nod solemnly. My self-preservation wasn’t so great that night.

“If you drove hours out of town, you would have passed through the next town,” Mia argues. “Did you circle back at some point? Because you’re only like thirty minutes from town here, maybe forty, as bad as the weather was the other night.”

What the fuck?

I glance back at Rhys, who suddenly finds an interesting speck on the floor to stare at instead of meeting my eyes. The other guys do the same as I try to look at each of them in turn. Percy reaches out to hold onto Knox’s bicep as if he needs comfort from the head of their pack.

“It’s a long story.” I turn back to Mia and try not to grind my teeth as I realize I might not know the real story of how I wound up in the pack’s house, hidden on the side of a mountain. No need to let her know that yet, though. She’s worried enough without seeing me confront the guys over the inconsistencies of our meet-cute.

“You can tell me all about it on the drive home,” Mia suggests. “Right after we talk about what happened at the bar,because I have so much to tell you.”

“Oh... uh, no thanks.” I shake my head, pink hair flying wildly around my face.

“Please,” she clasps her hands together and begs. “I can’t stand knowing you’re mad at me. Please let me explain and fix things.”

“I’m not mad anymore, but I still can’t go with you.”

“Why not?” Mia seems genuinely perplexed.

I can hear the guys shuffle around behind me for a moment and then press closer, letting me get a big whiff of their scents to remind me why I’m rejecting Mia’s offer.

“I’m going into heat practically any minute now,” I explain, thinking that will be the end of the conversation.

Mia’s jaw drops. “You’re not due to go into heat yet, are you?” Her eyebrows rise as she looks behind me at the guys and connects the dots. “Oh, shit. Do you want me to drive you to a clinic?”

All three of my alphas let out a pained noise at the suggestion, the sound giving me goosebumps.

“No!” I blurt out instantly.

A clinic would be thesafechoice. Going into heat with this pack that hasn’t marked me is so risky, but I can’t imagine leaving. The alphas and I still have so much to figure out.

And apparently, I’m not as far from town as I’ve been led to believe.

“I need to stay and figure things out with these guys,” I explain to Mia, since she’s staring at me as if I’ve grown a second head and announced I’m entering the state fair’s pie-eating contest.

A rumble of surprise sounds behind me.

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