Page 95 of Finding the Forward: Part One
She laughed and chose a stall. “I’m mated, not dead. They're ridiculouslygood looking, and so very tall and muscular.”
“Yeah, they are,” I admitted, taking another and going about my business. “Jonas is Dean’s alpha.”
“The one that hates you and doesn’t think you can be a good alpha? That wasn’t the look of someone who hates you.” There was a flush of the toilet.
No, it wasn’t. My breath caught as I imagined him touching my face again. How he’d literally had my back, holding me up and keeping me from showing defeat in front of Mumsy. How he’d saidthat’s my little alphato me on the plane. I finished up and flushed, coming out to the sink where Grace washed her hands.
“He wasn’tconvincedI was alpha enough for Grif,” I said quietly, washing my hands under the warm water. It was a valid concern. Bringing someone into the pack was delicate. There’d been a lot of yelling when Harry joined the pack when I was a teenager.
Even more when he and Dad decided to have more kids via surrogates.
Objects hadflownwhen Creed ran into Grace at a conference, realized she might be our missing sister, and introduced her to Dad.
“I think Jonas has decided to give you some private tutoring to catch you up.” She laughed, drying her hands. “Grif and Dean are into you. Which one is getting bread from the starter I brought you?”
“Dean. Sourdough’s his favorite. Like I told Dad, Ireallylike Grif. Unless betas can have alpha scent matches, it feels fast for this to be love,” I confessed, reapplying my lip gloss. I needed some advice from someone who both had a scent match she adored and was very much in love with people not her soulmates.
“I’m not sure scent matches have to be alphas and omegas. Also, you don’t have to be scent matches to be madly in love. Sometimes you justknow. It is okay to be afraid. Love can be a little scary sometimes.” Grace put a tiny hand on my shoulder.
I gulped. “I’m glad to hear that. Because I’m a little afraid. Of love. Of fucking up like the parents did.”
She squeezed me tight. “I won’t let you fuck up like they did. Also, you have too big of a heart to let someone ghost their pregnant live-in girlfriend just because they found their soulmate. You’dnevertraffic their baby.”
I squeezed her back. The little I knew about Grace’s upbringing outside our pack was pretty awful.
“Thank you. Every day my feelings for Grif grow more and more intense. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. Not to mention Dean is...” I chuckled, cheeks warming.
“A horny giant omega that demands your attention, inserts himself into your life, and then makes you forget what it was ever like without him? Yeah, I have one of those,” she laughed.
Chance
Baba won’t let me take the train by myself. I want to see Mercy play.
My alpha dad, my beta mom, and my middle-school-aged brother Chance had moved to the Bay Area, where Baba was from. It was a super short ride from here on the ultra-bullet, but I understood him being a little young to take the train solo. Still, it saddened me that Mama wouldn't take the time to come. Given she had mostly worked from home, she was the one who'd made most of her games over the years.
“Grace.” I showed her the text. There was too much going on for me to make it happen. However, I wanted to see him. They were strict on the phone and screen usage, so we didn’t talk much. Chance and I were full bio-siblings, as was Dare, my brother going to university in Boston.
“On it. We’ll send Creed. I won’t get anywhere near him,” Grace told me. Her relationship with most of the six parents was rocky.
I let him know I was handling it. We left the bathroom and made our way back to the table.
Back at the table, Riley and Mercy devoured deep fried cookie dough. Grif’s head turned, his eyes meeting mine, a big, goofy smile crossing his face.
“I think they like you,” Grace whispered, grinning.
They did. I just might be in love with them, too.
Chapter Thirty
Grif
“Do you think they’re talking about us?” Dean asked as we sat at the table with Verity’s family, waiting for her and the tiniest omega I’d ever met to get back from the bathroom.
Well, I thought she was an omega. I’d never seen an omega so willing to stab someone with a fork before.
“Probably.” Spencer’s gaze never wavered from the bathroom door.
While I knew Verity’s big sister’s pack was in biotech, I’d somehow missed that their company wasCompass BioTek. Rich sister indeed. Our pack was rich. That pack had stupid money. Rumor had it, Spencer Thanukos bought heran islandfor a mating gift.
