Page 143 of Pack Scratch Fever
“I missed the three of you,” I admit. “A lot.”
“That happens with scent matches, babe,” Maddox smirks, and I scowl at him. He chuckles at my expression.
“It feels like it’s been years, not days,” Avery admits. “But seeing the cats helped. I did some more portraits of them yesterday.”
I smile. He has a genuine connection with the cats, just like Maddox does, but I’m still not sure about Poe.
“They’re growing on me,” Poe smirks, and I furrow my brow at his tone. He acts as if there’s some inside joke I’m not aware of.
Or maybe it’s because I’m still sick, and my body is weak from infection. Maybe I’m just imagining things.
“Also,” he adds, his eyes warm. “I missed you too. More than I can explain.”
Comfort spreads through my chest, relief that I’m surrounded by my three scent matches.
They feel like home.
They saved the rescue for me and took care of the cats.
They stood up to my parents when no one else would.
I…adorethem.
There’s another word I want to say, another feeling that I’m trying to ignore, but my inner Omega screams it in my head.
We love them.
Yet the terror is still there, the fear that I can’t repay them for what they’ve done.
What did I do to deserve it?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Poe watches me closely. “You’re worth it, Piper,” he says. “You’re worth everything.”
I nod.
“I know you don’t believe it,” he says softly. “But we’ve got forever to prove it to you.”
The doctor knocks on the door and enters, startled when she sees the pack.
“Oh. I was going to go over some things with you. Do you want them in the room?”
“Do you want to stay?” I ask the three of them. I look to Maddox and Avery, who sit on my right side, and then to Poe, who’s sitting near my left.
The three of them nod, and I smile.
I’m discharged a day later.
It took a bit of convincing, but the Alphas finally get me to agree to recover at their packhouse.
Poe is the one who will take me to their house from the hospital, and both he and Blair stay as the doctor goes through my discharge paperwork.
I’m to rest for a week and take it easy.
That’s not going to happen.
