Page 43 of Pack Deception: Part One

I know he means well, but he also has no idea what he's talking about. When you spend as much time with someone as I have with Mason—intimate, private moments—you start to understand them on a level that nobody else can. If I call Mason right now and tell him I'm helping Summer through her heat, two things will cross his mind: first, he'll be worried that his mate is okay, because that's just the kind of person he is. Always putting other people first. Then he'll start to think that I waited until he was gone to seduce Summer. The past will blend with the present and blacken his otherwise practical mind. But if I'm there when I tell him, I can reassure him. Read his mood andseeany reactions he could otherwise hide through a call.

"Drop it. Maybe make yourself actually useful and get her some water and something to eat for when she wakes up," I say in a neutral tone, pushing aside my anger. At my goading, he straightens up, glances at my knot still firmly locked inside Summer, and nods his head. With small, graceful movements, he stands from the bed without rustling us too much. There isn't even a hitch in her snoring; she's wiped.

Clanking comes from the ten square foot kitchen as Hudson's body bumps into the fridge while he tries to rummage through the cabinets. I'd laugh at the image if I weren't also seething at how my mate is being forced to live when we can take care of her. She deserves better than this apartment, but I know we have to hold off on moving her into the pack house. Fuck's sake, though. All of our problems could be solved if she knew she's our mate. But I also know that whatever happened to her that made her unaware of it, is what's holding us back from shouting it on every rooftop. For her, I can be patient.

Twenty-Five

Hudson

A half emptybag of chips, some carrots, and a jar of pickles. That's all my mate has in this place. Well, that and a bottle of tequila. There's no food here. Every time I close an empty cabinet, my blood boils a little. How have we let her live like this?

"I'll be back," I snarl at Mav, grab Summer's key to her building, and start shoving my clothes back on. Even though everything in me is screaming at me to get back in bed and cuddle my mate, I have to make sure she's got enough food to fucking live.

"Where are you going?" he hisses at me, and I know he's still livid for me butting into his and Mason's love life. But seriously, fuck him. Honesty is always the best thing to go with in these situations. Mason will appreciate him being upfront, rather than keeping it from him to spare his fucking feelings. But I've made my opinion known. If he ignores me and fucks it up, that's on him.

"To get our mate something to eat." Then I'm out the door, making sure it doesn't slam and wake her up. I may not know a lot about omega heats, but I know she should sleep while she can.

There's a twenty-four hour grocery store a few blocks over, thankfully. It's pushing one in the morning on a Saturday, so the streets are still packed with partiers, drunks stumbling out of buildings and bumping everyone they pass on the way to their next bar. A group of women giggle and shoot me suggestive looks as I pass that I pointedly ignore. I don't have any interest in meaningless hookups anymore.

I make it to the store and grab one of the bigger carts, ready to fill it with as much as I can carry on my walk back. I don't grab drinks, because those'll take up too much arm space. In my head, I'm already thinking about coming back after her heat breaks and stocking up on those. Instead, I fill the cart with fruits, vegetables, cheeses, bread, and some non-perishables. Then I make my way to the candy aisle and grab chocolates, sweets, and even a few sour items. Next time she's awake, I'll ask her what she prefers so I can get what I know she likes on my next trip.

After checking out, I load my arms to overflowing and start the walk back to Summer's, eager to have her in my arms. I'm hustling down the street, barely glancing at the teeming crowds of people as I pass them. So I'm caught off guard when someone throws themself at me. I stiffen, ready to throw off whatever drunk fuck is clinging to me, when the sour smell of tart cherries filters through, surrounding me.

Fucking Amanda.

I could gag at her cloying scent. A couple months ago, I would have sworn she didn't smell so off-putting. But since meeting Summer—and having her sweet, addictive honey and nutmeg scent consume me so completely—everyone else's scents make me want to get sick.

"Baby, I've missed you. Come home with me." The alcohol on her breath could start a fucking fire.

"Get off me, Amanda. Go find someone else to fuck. I told you I'm taken," I growl, giving her a small enough shove to get her off me but not send her flying like I really want to.

She scoffs. "That's never stopped you before. I'll let you fuck me in the ass the way you like." I want to laugh at her attempts at seduction. But then my dick twitches as her words remind me of being inside Summer.Fuck,she felt so good, squeezing the life out of me. It was easily the best sex I've ever had.

I feel a hand graze my semi-hard cock, and I jerk a whole foot back at the contact. "I knew you missed me, baby. You're hard just thinking about me," she purrs, eyes half vacant from all the alcohol. It’s no excuse though.

"Don't fucking touch me!" I roar at her, and she whimpers, skidding back a few steps and baring her throat in submission at the bark in my voice. "I swear to fuck, Amanda, come near me again, and I'll have you arrested." I'll have to call our lawyer to get a restraining order served to her, so she knows I'm serious. But I'm not going to let her cause a rift between me and my mate.

Her scent—already bitter—sours even more at my tone, and I know I've scared her. Good. I adjust the bags on my arms and take off toward Summer's apartment. Every step closer to her lightens the black cloud around me that Amanda managed to conjure. Building in sight, I pick up my pace to a near jog. When I make it to the outside door, it's a little bit of a struggle to maneuver the bags enough to place the key in the hole without dropping them all. I manage, though, and race up the stairs to her apartment. Since I never locked her door, I twist the knob and step in without having to open it.

The moaning and panting register before anything. Her heat must have woken her up for another round while I was gone because Mav has her on her hands and knees and is pounding into her from behind. Sweat beads along his temples, running down his face at the pace he's set.

"About time," he snarls at me. "She's been asking for you." My heart wants to lift and sink at the same time. I'm pissed at myself for leaving when she needed me, and soaring at the fact that she missed me at all. One look in her eyes, and I can tell the heat is trying its best to drag her under. Her eyes are half-glazed, and she's whining, begging for more even though she's already in the middle of another round with Mav. My poor, sweet omega. I rush to set the bags down in the floor of kitchen and then race back to her side.

I stop in front of her and watch as she rubs herself furiously to completion. Mav's hips stutter for a second, but he starts up the same rough strokes when she stops squeezing him. I'm too busy watching where his dick disappears inside her, stretching her pretty pink cunt, that I startle as her hands reach out and yank me toward her by the waistband of my jeans.

My cock has been hard since the moment I walked in and smelled her perfume all over the place. But now that it's about to find a new home in her mouth, it throbs even more. Just as she is about to pull my pants down, she growls. It's as vicious of a growl as I've ever heard from her, and then it breaks off into a small sob. She shoves me away and—Mav still moving inside her—rearranges her nest so Mav's clothes and her blankets are closer to her. She buries her head in them, but I still hear the muffled sound of her sobbing.

My eyes bug out of my head, and I look at Mav, wondering what I did. He glances between the two of us, just now registering something other than how her pussy must feel, and frowns. A few seconds later, he sniffs the air, and his lip curls in disgust before he's glaring at me in a show of obvious distrust.

"What?" I demand, immediately going on the defensive. I don't know what the hell I could have done.

"Why do you smell like Amanda?" Maverick hisses, voice low as he stops thrusting into Summer so he can chastise me. But she pushes her hips back and whines when he stops. Though I'm not sure if she's whining because he said another woman's name or because her heat pains started up again. She won't lift her head up out of her blanket and clothes pile.

Oh.

Scenting, and scent marking, are incredibly important for alphas and omegas, but especially so during a heat, when everything is heightened. Right now I smell like another woman, and Summer's omega does not like that. "She accosted me on my way back from the grocery store. I didn't touch her." Summer still won't glance up. I realize having another scent around right now might actually be physically painful for her, and my heart breaks.

Fucking Amanda.

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