Her Knotty List (MVP: Most Valuable Pack #4)

Chapter 45

chapter

forty-five

*Definitely Not Spam*

Zane

I’m about to do a face mask. Anyone want one?

Knox

A face mask? Like from hockey?

Micah

lol pretty sure it’s a skincare thing, Knox.

Zane

it has collagen in it. AND peptides.

Gunnar

You have a photoshoot we don’t know about?

Zane

hate all you want, but I’ve gotta make sure our girl has a nice seat.

throne, really.

Micah

…

Fine, I’ll take one.

Gunnar

JFC

What is my life?

Make it two.

Zane

good boy

Daddy?

*Knox has left this group chat*

Micah

Not again.

“I cannot believe you got a whole winter-freaking-wonderland but didn’t buy a second mattress,” Gunnar snaps.

Some things—like the outdoor decorations, the throw pillows, and the blankets—were easy to get here within hours. Other things, however…

“You honestly gonna tell me that any of us would volunteer to sleep in a different room?” I reply. “I got a bigger mattress that will fit us all, but it won’t be here until tomorrow.”

Same with Emma’s final surprise—a state-of-the-art nest pod that will fit on the big balcony of the Omega Suite. That’s going to require a crane and some installation, but it should be good to go well before her heat next week.

Zane tosses his pillow in the air and fluffs it. “So, we’re doing this, then? One bed? Booktok would go wild .”

I have no idea what that means, but I shoot him an annoyed look anyway. Those are typically a pretty safe bet in reply to anything Zane says that ends in “-tok.”

We all fall silent as we look over at Emma, asleep in the middle of the mattress. I honestly suspect she passed out from sheer excitement. All evening, she never once stopped grinning or bouncing around to look at all the things I had airlifted in to make the house more suitable for her. She and McKinley even rolled around in the new blankets I left on the couch.

“Who gets to be next to her?” Gunnar asks, puffing up like he’s ready to wrestle for it.

I snort a smirk. He really is a competitive klutz. “Since it’s my damn bed, I think I’ll claim at least one of the spots.”

“I’ll take the other one,” Gunnar decides.

Micah laughs tersely. “Oh, will you ?”

Zane isn’t having it either. He scoffs. “Nuh-uhh. Rock, paper, scissors, Hot Shot.”

My dog chuffs while he trots right between our legs, leaping onto the mattress and settling along Emma’s left side.

All four of us stare for a beat before laughing. “Fuck,” Micah chuckles. “That’s a smart dog.”

“Too smart,” I agree, scratching at my beard before I bark my pet’s name softly. He makes a low groaning noise and sighs at me like I’m exasperating. When I motion toward his dog bed, I swear he rolls his eyes before he hops down.

Gunnar jumps at the spot before the others can. Micah shakes his head but doesn’t argue, walking around to the other side of the bed and settling as close to the edge of the mattress as he can.

Zane chortles. “Fine, fine. But tomorrow night, we switch.”

I ignore the territorial impulse that says I don’t want to have to share…and find it’s getting easier and easier to do .

Because this? This is what Emma needs. And that makes it more important.

I still grumble while I shuffle in between Micah and my baby girl, though. Can’t let these assholes think I’m going soft.

Or soft er , given I just redecorated my whole damn house simply to see the look on Emma’s face.

And, fuck me , it did not disappoint.

We all shift around, trying to fit without overlapping. Micah manages to balance on his side and give me enough space to curl around Emma. We still have a sliver of space between us, but Zane sidles right up to Gunnar’s back. His body goes stiff.

“Look,” the chef smirks, unbothered, “It’s either my chest near your back or we can bump butts all night. You know I don’t mind either way, Hockey Boy.”

Gunnar makes a long-suffering sound, but I catch the way his mouth twitches up. “Whatever, Magic Mike, just keep it in your pants.”

Zane shrugs, snuggling closer with a yawn. “I make no promises.”

Micah reaches his long arm out to hit the bedside lamp. Darkness swells through the room—the pure, perfect kind you can only get out in the mountains. No light pollution or neighbors or streetlamps. Downstairs, the light from the damn internet router drove me crazy because I’m used to this .

Maybe the lack of light is good for us all, because the silence that falls seems a lot less tense than it has on other nights. I’m getting used to the way Zane has to rock back and forth to settle in. How Micah always stretches his legs twice before going still. I guess they’re probably getting accustomed to my habit of clearing my throat as I close my eyes.

Once all those ticks are appeased, I wait to see who’s going to take the bullet and speak first. For a second, it seems like we might all just fall asleep like normal people.

But then Micah murmurs, “Emma told me she loves me today. ”

For a long second, no one so much as breathes . Gunnar’s the one who finally breaks, an exhale quivering out of him. “She—she did?”

I hear Micah’s swallow. “Yeah. We were—We scratched something off her list. And after, I was holding her, and she just... said it.”

I blink in the deep darkness, barely making out the curve of Emma’s cheek. Of course she said it first. Our sweet, open-hearted girl would never hold something like that back.

I stroke one knuckle down the side of her face, unable to care about the jealousy stinging my stomach. Not when I have to know if she got what she needed in return.

“Did you say it back?” I ask, my voice low.

Micah sounds like he’s smiling. “Yeah. I did.”

“Good for you, man,” Zane replies, blowing out a loud breath. “I never thought I’d be such a chickenshit. But I’ve known that I’m in love with her for days, and I haven’t said anything.”

Gunnar’s gray eyes are nearly invisible as they follow the same trail mine have, looking at Emma’s face. When he finally glances over at me, I see his feelings before he sets his jaw and says, “I’m in love with her, too.”

My head nods, but I’m not sure if I’m agreeing or approving. It seems to calm him somewhat, though, because he stops gritting his teeth and asks, “What about you, Knox?”

I shift a bit, lying on my back and not caring that my shoulder grazes Micah’s spine. Who fucking cares? What I’m about to say is going to change all of this anyway.

“I think I’ve loved her since the first second she looked into my eyes.”

I can still picture her in this very bed, wrapped up in my tartan blanket, blinking those big green eyes up at me. She was scared, and she’d been crying, but I’d never seen anyone so beautiful in all my life. I think that was the moment some hardened, hurting part of me sunk into her, craving all her softness. All her light .

Zane interrupts my musings. For the first time since we met, he sounds small. “What do we do?”

Fucking hell .

I’m done questioning why, but my Alpha really fucking hates itwhen any of these guys struggle. I breathe through the instinctive jolt of dominance that answers my jag of concern, making sure I don’t put any command into my words.

“We tell her.”

Gunnar hums. “Together?”

That idea rings through the room and slowly sinks in, feeling more and more right with every moment. “I think she would like that,” Micah finally answers. “Feeling like we’re all…”

“Together,” Gunnar says again.

An answer, this time. Not a question.

Because that’s the thing.

None of this is a question anymore.