Pember stood abruptly and leant against the windowsill. “What?! No, of course not! I just… you said yourself, time is short and I?—”
“It might be short, but it’s notthatfucking short. Like I said, your backpack’s too full. In fact, it’s not just full, it’s fucking bursting at the seams. Seeing you earlier, the things you’re carrying… you seem like you’re at breaking point, or very close to it.”
Sighing, Pember leant against the windowsill. “I’m not. I’m fine?—”
“Really, Pem? Because the way your wolf ripped out of your skin says otherwise.”
“I don’t… Well, maybe I…” He swallowed, unable to get his words out. “I’m sorry, Blake. I’m so sorry, I?—”
“Would you stop apologising? Please? If I didn’t want to help I’d have either left you there or fetched Maya. I’m only sorry if I scared you in the woods.”
“You didn’t scare me. Not at all. I just… I don’tdothat. Omegas are stereotyped as emotional, sex-mad baby-making machines enough as it is. I don’t just casually throw myself at every alpha that catches my eye,especiallynot in the workplace. Shit, I’ve never even had a disciplinary at work, let alone gotten hot and heavy with a colleague in the bloody showers.”
“Is that what you think? That I wanted a quick fumble with an omega to pass the time?”
Pember sighed. “Wasn’t it?”
“Do you truly think so little of yourself?”
“Why are you answering questions with more questions?”
“Are you going to stop apologising?”
Pember sighed and shook his head. “You’re still doing it.”
There was a pause, then Blake said, “I like you, Pem. In case that wasn’t fucking obvious. I like you, because you’re funny and kind, you’re hard working, and because you’re the sort of person that makes moonshine at the bottom of the fucking garden.”
Pember blinked rapidly and craned his neck to see if Blake’s light was on. It wasn’t, because Blake was at the morgue, with the body. “H-how do you know about that?” he said.
“I saw you on Val’s patio with the brewing kit.”
“What? When? I didn’t know you were home.”
There was another pause, before Blake let out a long breath. “Yeah. I came home for a few hours this afternoon, because…” his words trailed off.
“Because?” Pember prompted.
“Jesus Christ, Pember are you really going to make me say it?”
“W-well, no, but?—”
“Rut. I went into rut. It didn’t last long, so I came back for the evening shift. I thought it was better not to talk to you, so as not to prolong things.”
Pember’s mouth hung open behind his hand. After an awkwardly long pause, Blake said, “Will you say something, please?”
“I… um. Rut. Because of?—”
“You.”
Pember felt like all his nerve endings were fried. “I’m?—”
“You better not be about to apologise.”
He was.
Eventually, he swallowed and slumped back into his nest. “I think… I think we need that risk assessment. And anyway, it’s not moonshine, it’s elderflower wine.”
“I was joking about the risk assessment.”
