Page 14 of Knot That Serious

“I’ll never tell,” he quipped with a grin.

“So you guys aren’t a pack?” Beckett asked.

“Nope.” Jack sipped at his drink from the straw, deeming it creamy enough and willing to sacrifice the rest of the whipped cream.

Beckett hadn’t even begun to stir his drink, slowly making his way through the whipped cream mountain. What if he didn’t have enough to mix in?

“Are you looking for one?”

Jack frowned down at his cream soda. “No, not really.”

He never usually entertained questions like these. Hell, he never usually made it this far into the date.

“You’re asking an awful lot of questions,” Jack mused. “I have some of my own.”

Beckett leaned back, body language screaming open book. “Ask me anything.”

“You’re single,” Jack said, and Beckett nodded. “You’re set up, with your fancy sales job and everything.”

Beckett nodded again.

“So, presumably, you’re well-off.”

The man didn’t even blink. “You’d presume correctly.”

“So how the hell haven’t you been all packed up yet? What skeletons do you have in your closet?”

Beckett hummed in thought. “Well, to be honest, I’ve just never found someone I clicked with. Definitely not several someones, and never enough to consider packing up.”

Alright, Jack couldn’t exactly find anything wrong with that. Eli was his best friend, and she held all the other categories, too, like Beckett had pointed out. Roommate, co-worker. If it wasn’t for her, Jack couldn’t say that he wouldn’t be in the same boat as Beckett.

And when it came to Eli, neither of them were actively looking for a pack. It’d always just been… them. They were happy as they were.

“I get that,” Jack admitted. “We haven’t really needed to find a pack. We have each other.”

“How did you guys meet?”

Jack smiled. “We grew up together. Our families are friends.”

Beckett’s lips twitched. Jack wished he could read the alpha’s mind. “That’s quite a long time to be with someone.”

“I know,” Jack admitted softly. “Are you looking for a pack, then?” He tilted his head at the alpha.

Beckett simply shrugged. “I’m looking for whatever finds me.”

What a perfectly neutral non-answer. How slutty of him. Jack squinted.

At his look, Beckett chuckled before finally stirring his drink until the pale consistency matched Jack’s. “I just mean, I’m not looking for a pack, but I’m not not looking for one, either. I’m happy as I am.”

Jack nodded, accepting the answer. “That’s how Eli and I are.”

Beckett sipped his drink, lips pursing around the straw. “She sounds important to you.”

“Oh, she is,” Jack replied.

“So am I gonna have to win her over, too? You know, earn the roommate’s approval?”

Jack snorted. “Good luck with that.”

---