Page 32 of Nesting With My Three Alphas
"I don't know," I said honestly. "I hope so."
"Me too," Charlie said seriously. "Because I think you need us. And we definitely need you."
We need you. Not 'want' or 'like having you around,' but 'need.' Like I was already an essential part of something I'd barely begun to understand.
"Why do you think that?" I asked, genuinely curious about her seven-year-old perspective.
"Because Dad smiles different when you're here. Real smiles, not just polite ones. And Micah hums when he's baking for you, which he only does when he's really happy. And Reed fixed our front door yesterday even though we didn't ask him to, becausehe said the lock was 'inadequate for protecting important people.'"
Each observation was a small gift, evidence that my presence mattered in ways I was only beginning to recognize. Important people. Was that what I was to them?
"Plus," Charlie continued, "you smell like you belong here. Like pack."
Pack. There was that word again, the one that made my omega instincts perk up with dangerous interest. Something primitive and satisfied stirred in my chest at being claimed this way, at being recognized as belonging to this small, fierce family.
"Charlie's got good instincts about people," Jonah said, his voice carefully neutral despite the intensity of his gaze. "Always has."
"Even about people who are kind of a mess?" I asked, trying to keep the question light.
"Especially about people who are kind of a mess," Jonah said firmly. "Those are the ones who need pack the most."
The certainty in his voice, the complete absence of judgment, made my throat tight with emotion I wasn't ready to examine.
"Speaking of pack," Charlie said, jumping up and brushing soil from her knees with dirty hands, "Reed and Micah are coming over for lunch. Reed's bringing his grill, and Micah's making his famous potato salad."
"They're what now?" I looked at Jonah in surprise.
"We usually do this on Sundays," Jonah explained with a slightly embarrassed smile, "but we shifted it to today. I meant to invite you yesterday, but with everything..."
"You should come!" Charlie said immediately. "Reed makes the best burgers, and Micah always brings way too much food, and we play games after lunch."
The invitation was tempting, maybe too tempting. The idea of spending another whole day surrounded by their warmth, their easy acceptance, felt both wonderful and terrifying.
"I don't want to intrude on your tradition..."
"Kit." Jonah's voice stopped my protest gently but firmly. "You're not intruding. You're... extending it."
Extending it. Like I wasn't disrupting something precious but helping it grow into something new.
Before I could respond, the sound of a truck in the driveway announced the arrival of Reed. Charlie raced toward the house, calling out greetings with the enthusiasm of someone whose world had just gotten significantly brighter.
"That kid has more energy than should be legally allowed," Reed's voice carried across the yard, warm with affection.
"It's the excitement of having Kit join our Sunday chaos," Micah replied, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
Jonah stood, offering me a hand up that I took without thinking. The brief contact sent a spark of awareness up my arm, and from the way his pupils dilated slightly, he felt it too. His scent intensified with the touch, wrapping around me like a warm embrace.
"Still want to run?" he asked quietly, his thumb brushing across my knuckles before he released my hand.
I looked around the garden we'd been tending together, at the bulbs full of sleeping potential, at the house where Charlie was already chattering excitedly about the morning's planting progress.
Hope buried in the dark, trusting in spring.
"No," I said, surprised by how much I meant it. "I think I want to see what blooms."
Jonah's smile was like sunrise, warm and full of promise. The way he looked at me in that moment, like I was somethingprecious and worth waiting for, made my omega purr with satisfaction.
"Then let's go see what Micah brought for dessert," he said. "He's been experimenting with apple cinnamon something, and Charlie's been his willing taste tester all week."
