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“Rare like omegas?” Luca giggles and sits so he can stick his nose in Nix’s neck. It’s his second favorite place on Nix’s body to stick his nose.

“She’s yours, Gray? Our daughter? Really?” Nix whispers, and then he smiles that big smile again. “And that makes you happy ?”

Grayson smiles back and nods. Scared, but happy. Especially when Nix bursts into tears.

Whoa.

The faces of his mates would be funny if Grayson weren’t entirely focused on his baby-daddy’s tear-stained face. “Angel? Hey, now what’s this about?” He catches his omega against his chest while he just cries harder.

“I think he’s happy,” Leo says, offering Grayson an open bottle of water so Nix can drink when he’s calmed down.

Rowan pulls out two plastic-wrapped crackers from his pocket. They are the kind hospitals offer with soups at lunch.

Grayson accepts them, and when he meets Rowan’s eyes, he sees nothing but relief and love. He offers one cracker to Nix, who eats the whole thing in one bite and then offers the second to Luca , but holds it so he and Luca can take tiny nibbles of the shared snack.

“You look better already, Rowan,” Gideon teases.

“What!? Me? No. I’m the same. Same. Dad to one baby or two , nope, I’m entirely not relieved. I can handle it.”

It’s comical, because the alpha had fainted not an hour ago at the idea he might be a father twice over. He sees their skeptical gazes and bristles. “You know what? Fuck off. Everyone. Except you, Nix.”

Nix is laughing the hardest, though, so it just sounds ridiculous.

“Thank you for the crackers, Rowan. I’m starving. Gideon, you promised you were going to cook, right?” Nix gets up so he can straddle Gideon’s lap, bringing his game right to the lion’s door.

Or whatever the right metaphor is for a kitten facing down a lion.

“I said no such thing, Kitten.” Gideon puts his hands on Nix’s hips and then down around to grab his ass-cheeks. “I heard you had a smart mouth today,” Gideon purrs, and Nix gives a full-body shiver.

“How would you know?” It’s pure bratty sass.

Gideon tilts his head to the side. It’s “classic Gideon” when he’s contemplating whether Nix means that to get a reaction, or if he’s sincerely making a dig at Gideon’s absenteeism.

It’s probably a little of both.

Luca squeaks, and Grayson suddenly has a lapful of aroused beta, with two fingers of Grayson’s hand in his hot, wet mouth. Grayson is quick enough to slide a hand under Luca’s bare ass where it’s burning hot. Bet it’s a pretty shade of red, too.

Gideon must decide that Nix means to get a reaction, because there’s a musky summer storm rolling in, carrying the sweet vanilla-bread scent.

“Kitten, smart mouths get spanks. Do you want to say you’re sorry and try again?”

“What do you care? You haven’t been here to worry about my smart mouth or teach me better, anyway,” Nix says before flicking Gideon’s nose with his fingers.

“Well, shit,” Leo mutters.

“Gid,” Jay says, preemptively.

Gideon raises his hand to stop them, but doesn’t take his eyes off their prize. “Last chance, Kitten.”

Nix throws back his head and laughs. “You’d have to catch me first.”

He’s so alluring, Grayson isn’t the only alpha in the room so mesmerized that they don’t take that for the warning it is.

Nix is off Gideon’s lap and out the back door in his bare feet before any of them can process what he’s said.

Jay is fast enough to get Rowan on his belly before the run can trigger a multi-alpha chase.

But the wolf has Grayson on his feet in an instant, Luca dumped unceremoniously on the floor.

His arms and legs wrap tightly around one of Grayson’s legs, as the wolf drags the smaller man three steps before Grayson wrangles it back under control.

It lurks, growling and snarling in the back of Grayson’s mind.

“Gray?” Gideon asks. He’s close enough that Grayson can smell the thunder and lightning a chase causes.

He’s asking if he can go fetch their wayward omega; if Grayson can control himself enough to let him.

It’s admirable, the degree to which Gideon can hold back his wolf when he so clearly wants to chase. His mate’s muscles are tensed, and his eyes are flashing red and then brown, sharp fangs biting into his lips.

Is it okay?

Can Grayson let another wolf run his pregnant soulmate down in the snow, and give him what he’s asking for so blatantly? The wolf gives him a resounding No! But Grayson’s wolf hasn’t earned that right yet.

He forces the tiniest nod, and Gideon is gone.

Grayson focuses on the growling, squirming Rowan to get his mind off Gideon and Nix.

“Mine.” Rowan’s trying to buck both Jay and now Leo off.

Whatever it is about Rowan needing to run Nix down, it defies all reason. Rowan says it’s because he’s done it a hundred times, and every time Nix runs, Rowan has to follow—that it hurts him if he doesn’t.

He’d not been clear if it was in his dreams or—like Grayson—it’s something he just knows.

Grayson still feels a little of that now, but since they have acknowledged their sweet, floral-scented baby, the wolf seems less like it has something to prove, like he doesn’t have to work quite so hard to convince Grayson with crazy ideas and displays.

“Rowan, come on. He’ll be right back. Deep breaths,” Jay says as Leo runs a hand through Rowan’s hair. It seems to calm the wild beast, so Jay relaxes his guard, and Leo steps away.

Luca gives them two seconds of warning, sensing what they had not, before Rowan throws Jay off and vaults over the back of the couch.

He’s out the door, and Grayson doesn’t stop to think twice before he follows.

He lets the wolf out, and they catch their rival enigma on the patio.

The wolf’s vision is sharp, and he sees Nix and Gideon’s footprints in the snow, but they aren’t who the wolf is thinking about.

Right now, Grayson is thinking about showing Rowan’s wolf who is strongest.

Grayson knows enough not to let the wolf pit himself against their Pack Alpha for fear they might win, but Rowan is so much bigger and stronger than ever.

When in the past Grayson had always refused to fight, it wasn’t because he feared failure; it had been because the wolf just couldn’t be bothered.

It had been in existence for two years before Jay’s wolf, and Rowan had presented not even two years ago; Grayson’s wolf has had nothing to prove until now.

The patio is slick with ice from the sun melting some of the snow cover, and then, as the sun moves along the horizon, it freezes again.

Grayson tackles Rowan to the ground, and the momentum forces them across the slick surface of the patio and directly into the icy cold of the partially drained pool. It’s covered for winter, only half full of water, but they somehow slip under the weighted vinyl cover.

The cold burns at Grayson’s skin, tearing at his lungs as his weight drags both him and Rowan further under the soft cover. It’s so shocking that it lets him get the wolf under control once again.

It must work the same for Rowan, because he can feel his mate’s large hands pulling him to the surface.

The cover is so heavy that it keeps trying to push them back under.

He can’t feel his feet to gain purchase on the slimy side, but he can get his hands over his head to hold up the cover while Rowan treads water holding them afloat .

Suddenly, the cover is ripped off, and the light is blinding.

Jay has his hand in the back of Grayson’s dress shirt, helping him out of the pool, while Leo is doing the same for Rowan.

On the other side of the pool, Luca is holding two pieces of the pool cover in his hands, clearly having pulled it clean off. The tiny beta is shaking with fear and cold, but he hasn’t let that stop him.

“F–fuck-kk. That’s c-c-old,” Rowan whines.

Pulling them into the living room, Luca disappears upstairs while Leo starts pulling Grayson’s clothes off and chucking them back out the door.

“Shit, you two. You took ten years off my life. Fuck.” Jay has Rowan naked in an instant, and for some reason, it occurs to Grayson that that is the smallest he has ever seen Rowan’s cock in the entire two years he’s been looking at it.

It makes him snort out a bark of laughter.

Luca appears with purple towels from his towel warmer, and they almost burn when Leo wraps one around his shoulders and another around his hips.

His laugh gets Rowan’s attention after a minute, and he figures out very quickly what has Grayson laughing.

Of course, near-death experience aside, gallows humor would be the first thing out of Rowan’s mouth, but he settles with: “Listen, asshole. Mine is still bigger than yours, even after that frigid dump.”

Leo starts taking his clothes off when Luca returns a second time, this time with blankets from the nest.

Nodding, Jay does the same thing. “Good idea. Okay, the couch, you two. Luc, sweater off.”

Jay sits on the couch and pulls Grayson down on one side of him. The touch of Jay’s warm, bare skin burns, but it won’t be long before their Were physiology gets them warmed up.

Especially with Leo on his other side and Luca sitting naked in Rowan’s lap, his legs thrown over the top of Grayson’s.

Under the multitude of pack-scented blankets, Jay’s smooth skin does more than warm him; it offers comfort that Grayson has taken for granted these past few months.

He realizes that the wolf has largely eschewed seeking physical contact with his other mates except for Nix and in fights for dominance, Rowan.

His chest burns with shame at having neglected them, especially when he had always prided himself on loving each of them individually, separate from the group.

“I’m sorry,” he chokes out, and puts his wet head on Jay’s shoulder, unsure about how to better verbalize his regrets.

“I’m okay, Grayson,” Rowan says, his voice muffled from his spot in Luca’s armpit.

Grayson gives a watery laugh. “I know, Ro. Besides, that was your own damn fault.”

“He’s right, though. Fuck, Rowan. You could have drowned,” Luca whispers and runs a soft hand over Grayson’s cheek.

“You were pretty hot, though, Luc. I wonder if there’s a video of you ripping the pool cover off like that? Do you think?” Rowan asks. “Jay, can you reach your phone on the table? You have the longest toes.”

So that’s where Gideon and Nix find them ten minutes later, Nix damp and dirty, and squirming with his pink, bare ass high over Gideon’s shoulder.

The seat of Gideon’s pants is wet, and there’s a smudge of dirt on his cheek.

He stops for a moment, wrinkling his nose at the stale pool water smell, and asks, “Everyone okay, then?”

At Grayson’s nod, he turns on his heel, smacks Nix’s ass, and heads toward his bedroom while Nix squawks and curses.

“Put me down, Gideon Carnell. Right now. Fuck you. Fuck you, I say!” There’s another smack. “You’re not the boss of me!” Nix yells, kicking his legs, but he’s wearing a sly smile and gives them a thumbs up.

The door lock beeps, and there’s a minute’s pause before Finn throws his bag over the far end of the couch.

Arms crossed, there’s a frown on his face when he mutters, “What the hell happened? And why do I smell rotten leaves, chlorine, and,” he raises his perfect nose, “slick? Did I miss the good parts again?”