Page 52 of Sincerely, Pack Pucked
I glowered at my pack mate. I wanted to help Mable, but dating?Fucking hell.“Maybe for now, we should all take a breather, grab some food and relax. When was the last time you ate? Real food, not sugar.”
Mable pouted, a bratty expression in her eyes, as if I couldn’t tell her not to enjoy sweets if she wanted them.Fuck. That shouldn’t have been so damn tempting, but it was.
“I had a cereal bar for breakfast,” she said quietly, not meeting my eyes.
“That’s not real food,” I admonished. “Come on—let’s go make some lunch.”
As I spoke, I stood up, and headed into the kitchen, kicking up a wave of Mable’s scent again. I nearly buckled at the thick tease coloring the syrupy fragrance now. Instead, I opened the fridge. As I perused the contents, the rest of my pack and the little omega trailed after me.
“It looks like we have the stuff for quesadillas or sandwiches. If neither of those sound appealing, we can order takeout.”
When I turned around, Mable was gaping at me again, and the things that ran through my mind when I saw her mouth make that little O werenotfor the faint-hearted.
“Quesadillas sound good. Thank you. Just no chicken. It’s been giving me the ick lately,” she admitted with a blush.
I was going insane. There was no other way to describe how jarring it was being around this omega. One moment, I was panicked, thinking she was the end of my pack, and the next, I wanted to pull her into my arms and protect her from everything that was bad in the world.
Maybe a bit more.
Ugh, no time for that, Devin. Just feed the girl and go from there.
Chapter 18
Mable
Maybe I had hit my head on the way to the coffee shop, and a severe concussion was causing me to imagine things. Because—and I didn’t mean this lightly—what the actual fudge?
A concussion seemed afarmore likely explanation for the situation I found myself in than the idea that a pack of gorgeous alphas was now huddled around me in their kitchen. All I could do was watch as the members of Pack Pucked wandered around the room, preparing the food.
Could I even keep calling them that?
“What is your pack name?” I asked as Devin started piling ingredients into a skillet, the room filling with the scent of peppers and frying oil.
“Pack Garnett,” Percy replied while brewing a cup of tea, which seemed like an odd choice with Mexican food, but who was I to judge? “We took Devin’s name as our pack name because he is the pack lead. We each maintain our individual last names for work.”
“Oh. That’s…unusual. Why did you do that?” I asked, the urge to know more about them helping to ease the tension that still pulled the muscles in my shoulders taut. We had neverdiscussed their work over messages, but now everything was different.
Jasper snorted, shaking his head at me with a grin. “Have you ever watched a hockey game, Maple girl?”
I shook my head. It was a little embarrassing to admit in a roomful of athletes, but my knowledge of the sport was limited to knowing it took place on ice.
“The commentators refer to the players by their last names while they’re giving a rundown of what’s happening. Can you imagine how confusing it would be if there werefourplayers going by Garnett? Garnett passes to Garnett who knocks it to Garnett. Score!”
A smile lifted the corner of my cheek, and I nodded. I hadn’t thought about it that way. “Actually, that makes a lot of sense. So, who do you play for? Is there some sort of local team?” “Yes and no.” Saint laughed. “We’re in the NHL, the big boy league. Our season ended recently, though, so now we mainly have practice until August, when things amp up in the preseason.”
My brows rose to meet my hairline, and that nausea that had been dogging me since I was forced to spill my guts to all of them doubled down. Big boy league? What did that mean?
“Oh…”
“You have no idea what that means, do you?” Saint asked, cocking a brow as he focused on me.
I shook my head. I might have been going crazy, but I could have sworn the look on Saint’s face was elated when he realized I had no idea what he did for work. Though, given what Devin had said…
It was pretty obvious from their penthouse apartment that they had more money than they knew what to do with. The value of the place was probably depreciating from my presence alone, and could stand to take the hit because it was already worth a buttload. I wasn’t familiar with this sort of world full of opulenceand wealth. I was the child of a single beta mother; my life was nowhere near as grand.
These alphas didn’t seem the slightest bit phased, though.
“You guys are all shockingly calm,” I said, running a hand through my hair, which caused the sweet scent flowing from me to mingle in the air with theirs. “Especially since you just found out that you’re going to have a baby.”
