Page 105 of Talk About… Dramay
Which meant one of my mates stole him.
“Henry?” I called out, listening until I heard his soft padding coming from behind Tate’s door. “There you are.”
He popped out the moment I opened his door, giving me a little happy bark. “Let’s go outside.”
“He was restless last night and I didn’t want to wake you. I took him for a late night walk and brought him up here after,” Tate explained as he walked out of his closet. For a moment I forgot what we were talking about, taking in his broad chest dusted in dark hair. He wasn’t as cut as Cameron and Hudson, but still broad and strong all the same. In fact, I liked that he had a bit more softness to him.
“Mmhmm,” I managed before he put on a shirt, chuckling at me.
“None of that or we won’t get out of this house today,” Tate said, voice full of promise.
He crossed the room in two strides and tugged me close, his lips slanting over mine. My body reacted in such an intense way, heat blooming through me, legs clenching, slick pooling, that I knew my actual heat was so close.
Like it had been for fucking weeks. I swear, I just wanted it to hit so we could face it. This strange limbo of amped up emotions and heat spikes were getting old. Fast.
Going out would be the perfect distraction from the unsteady chaos that was my designation lately.
“I take it Cam messaged you?” I asked, pulling away before we could take it further. Tate looked reluctant to let me go but nodded, nostrils flaring as he breathed in the evidence that I’d liked that kiss a bit too much.
He chuckled. “Come on, let’s get this old man outside. What do you say, Henry?”
“Is old man Henry coming with us?” Lane asked excitedly as we hurried down the stairs.
I hadn’t considered it, but the flea market was open to dogs. The only issue I saw was how Henry would do around all the people and noises.
He must have seen my hesitation, quickly trying to wave it off, but Roman stepped in. He was always there to read me better than anyone else.
“How about this? If you’re worried about how he’ll do around people and the crowds, then we’ll take it slow. If he seems uncomfortable, we’ll keep our distance. If he screams his head off barking, we’ll worry about that then. But a little socializing couldn’t hurt him. And if he gets overwhelmed, there’s enough of us—we could take turns giving him walks away from the crowd.”
The idea of going without Henry broke my heart. The old man deserved to have some really good experiences, and this was our chance to give it to him.
“Then yes, I think we should take him,” I agreed quickly. “I was just worried how he’d handle so many people.”
I could already picture him winning over the hearts of literally everyone he met, just like he did with us. How he was overlooked at the shelter for so long was still insane to me.
“You have to consider he was around a lot of people at the shelter, too. They didn’t say anything about him being aggressive or bad with kids. They usually disclose if they are. I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Cameron agreed. “We’ll just pay attention to his behavior. I’m going to go pack him up some stuff now. We all know if we need him to listen, we need treats.”
We’d already discovered that Henry wasveryfood-motivated. Be it a snack or even a drink, it had the old man perking up and looking around. The sound of a wrapper could wake him up from a dead sleep in seconds and he was always underfoot when we cooked.
He ate dog food—but only after he made sure he wasn’t going to get any of ours. If it wasn’t for the warnings about feeding table scraps, I might have caved more often. As it was, someone was always sneaking him a treat or two.
My pack was full of softies.
Henry loved every second of the car ride. This time, he wasn’t terrified and shaking, but perching himself on Tate’s lap to look out the window. He never barked, just had his little tongue out, panting happily. The window was rolled down just enough for him to get a good sniff of the outside air.
I was watching Henry while the guys were chatting around me. There were a few different conversations going on at the same time, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
In fact, I settled into my seat with a smile on my face. I think for the first time since we’d all come together, this truly felt like a settled pack. It wasn’t new, but had an old familiarity to it—like we’d been doing this for years.
There was always that fear among omegas that your pack wouldn’t get along. I had been terrified of that when we were coming together, especially that night on the dock. Now, only a few weeks later, we were already becoming a family.
Which was good because my heat was coming fast. I still needed to talk to them all again one more time about what that meant for me—specifically, being allergic to the suppressants and birth control. Obviously we’d been openly not using protection, but we haven’t had a full conversation yet and I couldn’t rest easy until we did.
The last thing I wanted to do was spend my entire life barefoot and pregnant. But I had a feeling, once I really got established with the clinic here and they spoke to my previous doctors, that hopefully we’d be able to find a new solution.
For now, I was just excited to have my pack—no barriers between us, no bickering, just everyone getting along like we’d been together for years.
I’d always hoped that my pack would have that underlying friendship like my parents’ pack did.