There’s only one place he can find everyone’s scent as quickly as possible.
“Come on, Gray. I need to go to the laundry room.”
It takes him a trip to the laundry room and an hour of rearranging the clothes he’d taken from the dirty laundry hampers of his seven mates to feel like he has a nest he is happy with.
He’d have to get Leo and Jamie in to scent those blankets, and if Luca would cuddle him later, then it might be perfect.
It’s a hodgepodge of scents and textures, but to him, it’s perfect.
Grayson had stood nearby the whole time, and once he’d carried the stuff up from the laundry room, he hadn’t touched a thing or even commented.
Does he think it’s ugly?
He smells happy; his new basil-vanilla scent is rich and creamy, and their bond is glowing.
“Gray, do you…uh… do you like it?”
Like he’d been waiting for an opening, Nix’s alpha grins, and his eyes make the happy crescents that Nix is learning mean he is joyful.
“Angel-baby, I love it. It’s perfect.”
A wave of satisfaction flows over him, and he throws himself into Grayson’s waiting arms.
“You do? Do you want to come in?”
Nix walks backward until he can turn and pull the rainbow duvet back. Underneath, he’d placed a towel from Gideon’s hamper and the purple fleece blanket that had arrived today, still awaiting Luca to do his thing.
Grayson just waits until Nix is settled, and then he takes his alpha’s hand and pulls him in so both their heads rest on the green blanket.
“Oh, it’s really cozy. Are you happy?”
Nix really is. It makes him feel safe and content, like nothing bad could hurt him here. It’s a feeling he’s not had since before his parents died—or maybe ever.
He’d been safe as a child, but there had always been a monster under the bed some nights.
Then there really had been a monster in Nix’s life.
But this?
Being surrounded by the scents of people he loves…if there was a heaven, this would be it.
“I’m happy. Like nothing bad can get me here.”
He’s feeling a bit floaty, and even though Nix knows a bed can’t really do that, the scents help keep the bad thoughts away. Maybe Nix’s nest will help keep that lid on that mental box locked down tight.
He and Grayson spend the next hour lying there and talking about safe things.
Grayson is good at navigating the minefield that is Nix’s past and the fear of his future, and for that short time, Nix is grateful he can just be present and feel his body in this warm place.
The nest smells so good that Nix thinks it could only smell better if he had more of Grayson in it, so he kisses Grayson and—just as he’d hoped—his basil-vanilla scent blooms between them.
“Gray?”
When Grayson kisses him again, Nix just opens his mouth so Grayson can devour him with teeth and tongue, licking and sucking and nipping athis sensitive lips. The heat in his belly blooms hot, and he’s leaking slick in no time at all.
Abruptly, Grayson pulls away to lie on his back, breathing heavily, his eyes squeezed shut like he’s in pain, a sheen of sweat on his face.
Nix is surprised at the sudden stop.
