Sugar Coated

45

Delaney Linwood

Em's fingers were jittery as they traced along my arms, belying a deep-seated unease that went farther than the short-lived fury I'd thought the girl had dredged up. Even now after Jax and Andres were puttering around the kitchen, he hadn't let me go even as he'd dried dishes at their sides he'd done it with me in his arms.

By now, the others had maneuvered us back over to the loveseat, picking up on that agitation. Em was quiet for a long time, speaking need through those touches from his wandering hands. His anger had burned out and now he seemed needy and almost vulnerable in a way that spoke to me. I turned in his arms and he started to grumble at the movement but I used the change in position to lean into his chest and look up into his face, to look at him.

"What do you need, Em?" The clatter of dishes quieted for a bit, the only hint that Andres and Jax might have heard my murmured question.

Em's arms tightened. "Stay in my nest?"

"As long as you want me there I'll be there." It wasn't the request I'd expected, though I knew just as well that sometimes you needed to hear the words a second time and I'd tell them to him as many times as he needed, as many times as I needed to hear them, "I'll stay. I'm yours."

He hesitated before leaning forward and stealing a soft kiss from me, as tender as could be, "Can the others come too?" He asked and it staggered me.

"It's your nest, Em. You can have whoever you want in it. I'm not the one who decides who can and can't come in there." Certainly when I'm not even pack.

He looked away from me, fighting some internal struggle for a second before he met my stare again, "Do you remember what Andres said?"

"He has a penchant for running his mouth, remind me?" That got a laugh from the other end of the room, didn't know from whom though.

"That my brain would know you're a Beta, but my instincts would say you're an Omega?"

I did remember that in a foggy abstract way that blended in with getting railed on the breakfast nook. It sounded like something he could have once said at least, "Yeah."

"It's your nest too." Em didn't elaborate any more than that, but I felt the sting of emotion behind my eyes at it. It was a heady thing to know that this omega's safe space now included me intrinsically. It was also a little terrifying and overwhelming.

"They can come." I didn't want this pack tiptoeing around me in their life. It wasn't conducive to...living, especially if I was going to be a long-term thing. I hoped I'd be a long-term thing anyway.

Em snorted at the line but didn't engage with it in the same way he might have earlier today before the run-in with the girl I'd come to learn was named Katherine Lacoste.

The rest of the night was quiet, but given the fact that no conversation happened regarding the nest situation yet everyone converged I had to assume there was some communication down their bond. Jax and Andres had changed in their rooms or after a shower, wandering in well after Em and I were bundled together and nearly asleep.

It was as unobtrusive as possible and the niggling worry that I'd be a fourth wheel and an awkward addition bled away as soon as Andres' arm draped over my waist, gently tugging enough that Em growled, which only caused Andres to laugh and press against me from behind.

Jax was last to join, turning off all the lights in the house that we'd haphazardly left on like incompetent monsters. He dropped in behind Em, routing his arm underneath his neck so he could use it as a pillow. I could just see the honey of Jax's eyes behind Em as he pressed into the pile of heat and limbs.