Page 54 of Pack Rivals, Part One

"This looks incredible." Her words sound genuine – to my utter surprise – so why the frown? "And, oh god, you went to all this effort."

"You're worth it," Axel says, pulling her down to sit.

She raises her hands, her cheeks pink with embarrassment. "Nobody ever made me a picnic before." Her gaze skips over all the breads and meats and cheeses, the salads and fruits and the little jars of pickles. "I have to be upfront with you all, though."

"About what?" Axel's frown matches her own.

"Last night," her cheeks turn a shade redder, "I was all lost in these new omega emotions and what I said about dating, well, on reflection, my first plan was a better one. I'm not ready for that yet."

I have no idea what the hell she's going on about. Partly because I'm transfixed by her pretty pink lips and partly by her scent. So much better than I remember. Plus, she recognized me, right? And there is something familiar about her, if only I could place it.

"What do you mean?" Axel asks, clearly as confused as I am.

"I've decided I'm definitely not dating. Right now, I mean. Maybe in the future I will. But I can't say how long in the future because I need to mend my heart after my horrible break up and get my head around all this crazy stuff that's happened and concentrate on me. Find a job (if anyone will give me one) because I lost mine. Although, you know, this morning I realized I could go to college (if I could save enough money) and study like I always wanted to."

We all stare at her, trying to make sense of the stream of consciousness that shot from her mouth.

"Do omegas go to college?" Nate asks.

"No idea," she replies, pinching a piece of bread between her finger and thumb, "I'm still sort of finding out about this whole omega thing." Her eyes flick up to ours. "Which is why dating is going on hold."

Axel looks crushed, utterly crushed. More so than the time we missed out on the Kanship deal to Pack Boston.

"But it's not a no to dating forever?" Nate says, squashing a grape between his finger and thumb until it squelches and makes him smile.

"No … I don't think so."

"And you're looking for friends, right?"

"Friends?"

"You just moved to the city. You have no friends."

She swallows. "I have one friend. Plus my cousin and my aunt."

"You need more friends than that."

"I guess."

"Then no dates, but we can hang out as friends." Nate looks up from his squashed grape and smiles. His smiles are pretty spectacular; all sparkling green eyes and dimpled cheeks. They don't call him the baby-faced killer for nothing. The omega shivers. She tries to hide it but she does. And my spirits lift. She says she doesn't want to date. She says she needs time to herself. I wonder how long that idea will last. In fact, I'm pretty certain we can have her spinning a 180 again by the end of this picnic.

Axel remains quiet and brooding on his side of the picnic rug, as Nate and I help the omega to pile up her plate with all the goodies we have spread out. That's fine. Lots of girls like the brooding act. There's a reason Mr. damn Darcy is so freaking popular.

"Did you make all this food?" Bea asks as she takes a bite of bread spread with pate.

"No," I say, "Nate's the only one who can cook."

"I don't cook fiddly crap like this," he says.

"But we thought a picnic would be nice," I add quickly.

"It is. The city can be overwhelming. It's nice to get away. Up here is beautiful."

"It was Axel's idea," I say, jerking my head his way.

"It was?" she asks. Her eyes go sort of transfixed when she looks at him, a bit the way his do when he's looking at her.

"I …" He glances my way and I wink. "Yeah, it was."

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