Page 122 of Lost
“It’s very small,” she says. “There’s a crawl space in my closet that I shoved a cotton pallet inside with a pillow. I rarely use it because I have issues with small places.”
My heart cramps as I think about how much she loves this house, but there are things that aren’t working for her here. Her life is outgrowing it.
“Where do you feel the safest?” Lars asks.
“This entire house is usually my safe space, but it just feels wrong now,” she says, her lips twisting.
It’s getting late, but I need to figure this out with Nova.
“Come get into bed,” I murmur, holding out my hand to her. “Feel my touch, smell my scent and let it calm you.”
I can see this deep welling fear in her eyes, and I want to beat the fuck out of Adrain Royal. He scared her.
Nova’s hand trembles as she takes my hand and I hate that. I’m her rock and she’s mine. We just need more time, I know it.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” I ask, walking her to the room. Caleb and Lars trail behind me, their large bodies actually welcome.
“I’m free for the most part,” she shrugs. “I don’t have any appointments. I was going to drive downtown for fabric to make myself a new dress.”
“Can I come? I’m calling out for the next few days. Dr. Royal and I have been taking up all the shifts apparently, and Human Resources thought we were fully staffed. The level of delusion at that hospital makes me insane.”
“Ah, yes. That would be nice,” she says, looking at me funny.
“Caleb and I will meet you for lunch,” Lars decides.
“Maybe we can go see the street caves after,” Caleb muses, surprising me. “I had a thing for rock formations as a kid, but they’re very cool to see. The ceiling isn’t low enough to make it feel suffocating either, Nova.”
“There are caves in Minneapolis?” she asks, jaw dropping.
“Cool, huh?” Caleb smirks. “The only way to make your inner omega happy that we’re your alphas is to make you feel adored. We kind of skipped all of that, even with the increased dates. Life has just been hectic, and the only way to try to slow it down is to find and hold onto the good things.”
Nova looks at him as if she’s never met him before, and he simply shrugs.
“I plan to spend the night tomorrow, Nova,” Lars says. “My staff will give me shit if I come into work in yesterday’s clothes. I’ll pack a bag.”
“You have a bigger bed, so I plan to snuggle too. Count me in for the sleepover,” Caleb says.
Both of them hug and kiss Nova, telling her goodnight before leaving.
“We suck,” I grunt, guiding her toward the bed. “This is late, but Caleb is right. We need to backtrack and show you that we’re not going anywhere.”
“You haven’t shown me anything different once my heat hit,” she murmurs.
“Yes, but I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get so tongue tied,” I groan. “Everything just locked up and I couldn’t even tell you I was sorry.”
“So you have a hard time peopling," she murmurs. “I get your best parts now.”
“True, but my schedule?—”
“Was out of your control,” she says, her hands fisting in my shirt before pushing it up to reveal my body. “We’ll get through it. Dr. Royal just really freaked me out with his little talk.”
“His bedside manner is supposed to be better than mine,” I grumble. “A rejected bond bite is bad news, but we can fix it. I’m pissed that it’s mine that’s the problem. I want to fix it.”
Helping her, I pull off my shirt and start undressing. I’m beginning to really drag ass and I’m ready to hold my girl in my arms to sleep.
“The way I understand it, you have to work together to do that,” she says, yawning.
We finish undressing and crawl into the giant pack bed. These are usually custom made, I can’t believe Hollis managed to pull this off on a whim.
