Page 55 of Nesting With My Three Alphas
The relief that crossed their faces was immediate and profound.
"All of us?" Reed asked.
"All of you," I confirmed. "I choose all of you."
"And when your heat comes?" Micah asked carefully. "Because it's going to be soon."
My cheeks flushed again, but I didn't look away. "When my heat comes, I want it to be with you. All of you. I want us to be a real pack."
The air in the room shifted, charged with the weight of what we'd just committed to. Forever. Family. A future built on choice instead of circumstance.
"So what happens now?" I asked.
"Now," Reed said, standing up, "we get you moved in properly. Tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Your heat could start any time in the next day or two," Jonah explained. "We want you settled and safe before that happens."
"What about Charlie?"
"She's going to her Aunt Emma's tomorrow morning," Jonah said. "She's been looking forward to it for weeks. We've just moved up the timeline a little. It'll give us privacy for your heat."
The casual way he said it, like my cycle was something they were all invested in rather than something to be managed or endured, made my omega purr with satisfaction.
"I can't believe this is really happening," I said softly.
"Believe it," Micah said, reaching over to squeeze my hand. "You're stuck with us now."
"Good," I said, squeezing back.
As we began planning the logistics of my move, I felt something settle in my chest that I hadn't realized had been tense for months. These three men weren't just offering me protection or convenience. They were offering me belonging. Love. A future where I could be exactly who I was without apology or shame.
For the first time since fleeing Chicago, I wasn't just surviving.
I was choosing to thrive.
This time, I wasn't waiting to be chosen. I was choosing.
And I was going to do it with a pack who saw all of me and wanted to stay anyway.
Chapter 18
Kit
The evening air was crisp with the promise of autumn as I stood in the doorway of my duplex, looking around at the space that had been my sanctuary for the past few weeks. It seemed smaller somehow, emptier, like it had already begun the process of releasing me back into the world.
It was strange how little I actually owned. Two suitcases of clothes, a box of art supplies, my coffee maker, and a handful of personal items that had survived my flight from Chicago. Everything that mattered to me could fit in the back of my car with room to spare.
"You sure you don't want to keep anything else?" Reed asked, carrying the last box out to his truck. "We can always come back for more later."
"This is it," I said, taking one final look around. "I traveled light."
It hadn't been a choice. It had been survival. Marcus had controlled so much of my life that when I'd finally found the courage to leave, I'd taken only what I could carry and what he wouldn't notice was missing. Thankfully I had my own bank account. There were a lot of omegas who’d been in my position that weren’t able to say the same thing.
But now all of that was behind me and I was moving toward something instead of away from it. Toward a family that wanted all of me, broken pieces and all.
Jonah appeared in the doorway, Charlie bouncing beside him with the kind of energy that suggested she was either very excited or had consumed too much sugar at dinner.
