Page 6 of Pack Scratch Fever

AVERY

I miss the kittens.

It hurts, thinking of Snow’s sweet face and having to tell her goodbye.

Saying another abrupt goodbye to the Siamese kitten was torture, too, even though I know they’ll be in good hands.

But even worse, I miss Piper.

I don’t know the Omega. I barely spoke a few sentences to her, but I’m enraptured by that sweet lemon and mint scent.

I memorized her smile and the little expressions she made when she interacted with us.

How her eyes lit up when she saw the kitten we brought in, and the genuine smile she gave the creature.

Her heart is good. I see it, and I want to learn more about her.

Maddox sees it too, but he was acting like his obsessed, weird, flirty self, and I doubt that helped the situation.

And Poe’s just helpless. He’s so emotionally closed off right now that he would freak out if we tried to mention Piper again.

There’s a possibility of a scent match, and she could be the one for us, but Poe undoubtedly wouldn’t listen to what I have to say.

It’s frustrating.

I huff as I scroll through Furs and Purrs’ website, grimacing at the photos they have of the cats available for adoption.

They’re not the most flattering pictures, and I wonder how quickly they could get the cats adopted out if they had better portraits.

The light to the kitchen clicks on, and I see Maddox opening the fridge out of the corner of my eye. “Hey,” he says. “Don’t you have class in the morning? It’s two thirty.”

“Not until Thursday,” I mutter absentmindedly, clicking through each photo.

These are bad .

“What are you doing?” He joins me on the couch, sitting on the opposite side. He turns on the television, then glances my way. “Are you looking at their website?”

“Yeah. It um…could be better.”

He scoffs. “Yeah. It looks like it was built twenty years ago and was made by a high schooler.”

I shrug. “It’s possible.”

I scroll back to the picture of Piper and Blair, focusing on Piper’s face.

She has one dimple when she smiles. In the sunlight, her eyes are a brilliant golden hazel, and the scattering of freckles across her cheeks is hypnotizing.

“We need to find another reason to see her,” Maddox says, scooting closer so he can look at her photo. “As soon as possible. And ask her out.”

“Maybe you should try not being as intense,” I say coolly. “Have you heard of taking it slow? You spooked her off.”

“I’ve spent like half my adult life staring at a laptop screen. I’m desperate for something else.”

“That doesn’t mean you should look at her like she’s a piece of meat,” I chide. “As if you’ve never scented an Omega before in your life.”

Maddox rolls his eyes. “Don’t act like you weren’t as affected by her as I was.”

I clear my throat and look away from him.

The truth is, she did affect me, much more than others have.

I was enraptured by her. That perfect lemon and mint scent paired exquisitely with mine, and as much as I tried not to, I kept glancing at her neck.

The sweatshirt she wore hid her mating gland, but I couldn’t stop imagining touching the delicate skin underneath.

How sweet would she smell there?

“Avery,” Maddox says.

I huff and click through the pictures of the cats absentmindedly. “What?”

“She could be the one.”

I turn to him incredulously. “We spoke to her for five minutes.”

But a crazed look is in his eyes. “It takes people less than five minutes to know when they’ve found their Omega. We’ve been more than patient.”

I chuckle. “That’s not how this works, and you know it.”

Maddox has always been different. He’s the one to dive headfirst into things, is passionate to a fault, and fiercely loyal.

There’s a level of intensity he has that most people never achieve, and that’s him on a normal day.

He’s my packmate for a reason, though. His energy is infectious, and when he has his mind set on something, it’s almost impossible to change it.

“Tell me I’m wrong,” he insists. “I dare you. I mean, come on, you’ve been staring at her shitty website for ten minutes. You know she’s special.”

It’s been longer than ten minutes, but I don’t bother to correct him.

Instead, I nod in agreement. “But Poe’s not on board.”

“It’s not just about Poe,” Maddox snaps. “And he liked her anyway. I could sense it. It’s the first time he’s almost smiled in forever. This girl is special. I just know it. I feel it.”

“You feel a lot of things,” I smirk, and he punches my arm playfully.

“Don’t be a prick. Besides, we offered to volunteer, didn’t we?

” He motions to the screen. “I’ll revamp the website; you retake those awful cat pictures.

She’ll love it.” He points to one of the photos of the cat.

“That, for example. You can make that cat look adoptable, not like a possessed potato.”

Mister Whiskers.

If it’s possible for a cat to scowl, the feline is doing it. His yellow eyes are narrowed, and long dark grey fur stands up sporadically in clumps around its face.

Mister Whiskers also looks like he swallowed a bowling ball.

Adoption fee: free.

“Yeah,” I mutter. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“He reminds me of Poe,” Maddox adds.

I stare at the cat a little longer, taking in the displeased demeanor.

“He does.”

Maddox snorts. “He really needs a new job. That shit is killing him.”

I close my laptop. “Yeah, but good luck with telling him that. He has to figure it out himself; it’s not like he’ll listen to us.”

I’m aware that I’m lucky. Photography is my passion, and my job at Luna Community College pays well.

Not everyone has the luxury of enjoying what they do for work.

I yawn and am about to head to bed when I hear a faint sound.

At first, I think it’s a bird, but then I remember it’s two in the morning.

“Is that a baby?” Maddox asks, frowning and turning his head to the sliding glass door in the kitchen.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t think so.”

Maddow follows me as I head out of the room and to the kitchen.

Four different furry faces are pressed against the glass door, their tiny mouths open and crying.

“Oh, shit,” Maddox and I say at the same time.

More kittens.

“The rescue said this could happen,” I say cautiously, standing in front of the glass.

“Well, shit, what do we do?” There’s a hint of worry in Maddox’s voice, which makes me start to panic. “Why are they crying?”

I shrug, my eyes wide. “Maybe they’re hungry? I don’t know.”

“Well, we don’t have any cat food! Don’t they have a mom?” Maddox demands. “Isn’t she supposed to be feeding them?”

“We don’t need to freak out,” I say shakily. “It’s fine. There’s only four of them.”

We watch in horror as two more kittens come up to the glass.

“What the fuck!” Maddox yells. “What the fuck do we do?”

I stare at the little mouths, bewildered. “I don’t know,” I say honestly.

“Why are they crying?” Maddox demands. “Where is their mom?”

“Maddox,” I snap. “ I don’t know .”

“Well, fuck that,” he says. “We need to help them.”

“It’s two in the morning; I’m not sure what we can?—”

Another furry face pushes its way into the crowd, and my jaw drops.

“Oh, fuck this,” Maddox says. “We have to call her.”

I look at him. “That’s insane . We don’t even have her personal number.”

Another kitten shows up behind them, a blur of white running in the background.

“I’ll find it,” Maddox snaps. “It’s not that fucking hard to find it—what the fuck !” He flips on the light to the backyard. “Oh, Poe is going to be pissed .”

A large adult white cat with fat cheeks digs furiously in Poe’s precious herb garden against the back fence, then rolls around in the dug-up soil.

I’m grateful my packmate’s not home. That herb garden seems to be the only thing that has brought him any semblance of peace recently.

“Yeah,” I murmur, convinced our life has turned into some comedy, “find her phone number.”

Another adult grey cat stands on its hind legs and presses its paws against the glass door, leaving smudges.

I sigh.

It’s going to be a long night.