Page 96 of The Packaged Deal
Kandi leans back in the chair, tilting the front legs off the ground. “I’m all for killing him.” My words are dark but my tone is darker still. “We need to find out who he was beforehand. Now that Sven and I no longer work for Raptore, it’s going to make it all the harder.”
“Our kitten has claws,” I murmur with amusement. Thinking of how violently she defended us. No one has ever done that for me before.
Kandi snorts. “Yeah, maybe not a good idea to end our relationship with the pack, though. Missy won’t answer my calls. We’ve been best friends since I was told to be her bodyguard.”
“I’m sorry?” I say, but I’m not sure I am. Pack Raptore has way too much influence on Sven and Kandi for me.
“You're not, but it’s okay. Oh, look, our darlings are home.”
I sit up, but otherwise, don’t move. Sven comes crashing in through the front door first.
“That’s ridiculous. Chicken nuggets aren’t a food group, they’re not even food.”
“How dare you! Take that back!”
“I will not. I’ll take you to a place that makes a crumbed chicken breast that is to die for. You’ll never eat nuggets again.”
“But I like them,” Jade whines. “They are tasty, especially with gravy.”
“You like lots of wrong things, but I will help to widen your horizons, so you no longer have to rely on scraps of cardboard coated in tasteless breadcrumbs.”
“Or you could let me enjoy what I enjoy.”
Sven shakes his head. “I bet you don’t even like beer.”
“Oh ,my god, of course, I hate beer. It tastes like piss. It’s nasty.” Jade shudders dramatically and sees me, ignoring Sven’s mournful cry.
I open my arms as she throws herself at me, hugging me tight. I love the way she holds me. She pours her whole body into it.
She bounces out of my arms and flies over to Kandi, straddling the beta’s lap.
But now she’s not in my arms. I can finally work out what that smell is. I look up at Sven and find him staring fixedly out the window. He has that look, and I just know. Sven fucked Jade.
That satisfaction grows stronger and crystallizes inside me. I meet Kandi’s eye, and she grins at me over Jade’s shoulder.
“You’re back,” I say to Sven.
He flicks me a heated look, glowering over his shoulder at me. I really have to fight the urge to slam him against the wall and growl at him to look at me like that again. To just give me that dismissive, angry look. Just dare him to do it.
My fingers twitch, but Jade is watching with a knowing smile. I get the impression she understands a hell of a lot more than she says. As I watch, she stands up with that grin on her lips, makes eye contact with me, and wanders slowly out of the room.
I turn my back on the alpha, knowing that will piss him off more than anything else I do, and follow the omega deeper into my house.
She glances back coyly, and then adjusts the blankets on the couch. I watch in amusement that dies and gives way to blind panic as I realise that her intense shifting of furniture and adjusting of blankets and blinds isn’t just a thing, it’s a heat thing.
Sven triggered her heat.
“What’s the matter?” Kandi asks.
I almost forgot about her.
“See the frantic adjusting of that corner of the blanket? The drawer full of snacks I did not know about? She’s reached a critical point in her cycle and has tipped into pre-heat. Fascinating.” I watch with the clinical eyes of my doctor side while I take a moment to melt down inside.
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
“What do we do?” Kandi asks in concern.