Page 145 of Pack of Crooks

Once we’re all boarded and Sprinkles is safely in his special seat the pack installed just for him, I plop down next to Lottie.

“Hey, sis.”

She smiles. “Hey. I’m so excited.”

“I am too, but Lottie, Norway? Do you know how cold it is?”

“No colder than New York,” she counters with a shrug. “Besides, would you rather be in the city, or surrounded by northern lights?”

“Okay fine. Those will be pretty cool.” I glance at the pack who are discussing the plans for the week. We’re staying at a high-end inn. There will be sledding, skiing (which I still suck at), and everything anyone could need to have a good holiday.

“Hey, Hazel?”

I glance at Lottie. “Yeah?”

“Do you think I’ll ever find a pack like yours?”

My chest twists at the thought of Lottie going off on her own, but she’s seventeen. Soon enough, she’ll be twenty-one and ready for her first heat. She can’t stay little forever, but god I wish she could. I can’t protect her from heart break. I can only hope she knows when she’s being treated right. “I think,” Itell her, draping my arm across her shoulders and hugging her. “That you’ll have a lot of packs vying for your attention and it’ll be up to you to pick the right one.”

“How do I know when it’s right?”

“I guess the best way to describe it is… you know when Mom had a good day and took us out for ice cream then a movie—but the whole time we were on edge, just waiting for her mood to flip and everything to go bad?”

She nods.

“When it’s right, that dread isn’t so loud. It’s not completely quiet, but the right pack will never make you sick to your stomach. They’ll never make your chest fill with acid. And they’llnevermake you jealous of another omega or woman.”

“That makes sense.” She sighs, pets Sprinkles’ head, and gazes out of the window. “Sometimes I still can’t believe this is our life. It’s like a dream.”

I pinch her.

“Ow!”

“Oh good. You’re not dreaming.”

She narrows her eyes. “Ugh, you’re so annoying.”

“You love me,” I tease, squeezing her.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t let it go to your head.”

Chuckling, I relax into the seat as the jet begins to race down the runway, the world blurring by until we’re lifting off the ground, soaring above the ugly gray clouds and toward a bright future.

After all, what more could an omega want?

***