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I looked at the coffee table. “So you came home and instead of relaxing you’re doing…menus.”

“For us,” he said. He wrapped his arm around my waist, and I breathed in the guanabana tropical green scent of my other alpha. I rubbed my face on his cheek. A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know who he was. Now I couldn’t imagine life without him.

I kept expecting to feel weird around him. Like maybe I was stealing Ember’s alpha, or maybe Ben would get jealous, but that never manifested. Instead, the five of us just felt right, especially now that we were living together.

My old fears of being rejected resurfaced for a moment. Sure, they wanted me now, but several months of me being neurotic about…everything, and it would get old.

I squashed the thought. It was an old wound that haunted me, nothing more.

“We don’t need a four-course meal all the time,” I said, even though we mostly ate normal things. “I didn’t realize how much planning went into feeding five people.”

When it was just me and Ben, we ate a lot of takeout, or occasionally I cooked really simple meals like spaghetti, or chicken and rice.

“I like it.” He kissed my cheek. “Helps me focus.” He picked up a piece of paper, and it was a long list of snacks. “I like making long lists of things and then narrowing it down and grouping things together. Like if we have pulled pork one night, we could have carnitas another night.”

“Makes sense. I could go shopping with you?” I gestured at the grocery list. “I used to do a lot of the shopping, or we’d order groceries online.”

“I was going to go to the farmer’s market.” He rubbed his cheek against mine. “But if you’d rather stay in and rest, that’s fine. What do you owe your freedom to?”

“Someone canceled so we moved some other artists around,” I said. “Ben stayed because he’s the sound producer on both albums but I’m not needed for this part.”

“Sounds glamorous and chaotic.” Alejandro grinned. “Like being a chef.”

“Exactly.” Reluctantly I slid off his lap. We could do sexy things later. “Let’s go get food for our pack.”

The thought built a warm bubble inside me. I had a pack. We were a pack.

Alejandro drove, and I let myself relax. Pushed aside my worries about my career and failings and tried to just live in the moment.

We’d checked in with the police about who had trashed Ember and West’s nest, and so far they had no leads. It burned me, that someone out there was making my omegas feel unsafe. But until we had something more to go on, we were stuck.

In the meantime, we would hover around them. I opened the group chat and texted a message, asking if anyone had any cravings for the week, because Alejandro and I were going to the store.

Ember:be careful

“Ember is makingsure we’ll be careful,” I told Alejandro since he was driving. “And also we’re out of chocolate-covered pretzels.”

“They’re already on the list,” Alejandro grinned. “But good to know.”

I asked him about work that week, their spring menu, and it was nice to hear about the world of cooking for a little while. Alejandro pulled into an open-air farmer’s market. The space held rows and rows of food, fresh honey and bread, homemade jam, and all sorts of things.

At first, we just wandered. I’d expected a search-and-destroy sort of mission, but Alejandro picked up a grapefruit, set it down, and wandered down the next aisle.

“Thinking?” I followed behind him.

“Yes, musing.” He handed me some oranges. “I like touching the produce, thinking about the dishes.”

“Sounds…creative.” I smoothed my hair back, pulling it into a low ponytail. “I guess cooking uses a lot more creativity than I realized.”

“Oh, it can be really specific and exact. But it also requires creativity.” Alejandro picked up a bunch of mangoes. “Sometimes I feel like I’m all washed up. How many more dishes can I come up with? They’ve all been done before.”

“Sounds like music.” I wrinkled my nose.

“Very much so.” Alejandro put some mangoes into the basket. “I go through periods where I just make the dishes I’m supposed to make, do the work, you know? But sometimes I think, what if I made a new dish?”

“Do you want your own restaurant someday?” The air was chilly, but it felt nice against my jacket, and there was something calming about wandering around the aisles. Alejandro was very at home, and it was like seeing another facet of him.

“I’m supposed to.” He smiled. “But no, not really.”