“You’re nosy,” I complained. He pouted at that. “Yes. We’re going to.”
“And then the scent match will dissolve.” Marlowe sounded thrilled by the prospect. “The Loranger pack’s scent match to me, I mean.”
It would dissolve. Any time you changed the composition of a pack, there was a chance of a scent match dissolving, but this was a big change. They would be joining my pack—an omega-centric pack that was based around Kiara.
Plus, there was the fact that I was Marlowe’s blood relative. I couldn’t be scent matched to my brother. The universe, gods, or whoever governed scent match magic were smart enough to realize that was fucked up.
If the Loranger pack stayed scent matched to him after bonding Kiara, it would be a freak accident.
“It better, because that would be weird,” I said.
“And when the match is dissolved, I’ll be like… a normal person to them!” he exclaimed. “We can all have dinner and it won’t be awkward and your omega won’t hate me.”
I wasn’t as confident it would be like flipping a switch, but I wasn’t about to rain on my brother’s parade. They’d had to deal with a lot of emotions around his rejection—primarily feeling unworthy, especially Dash. Mercury a little bit, too. It wasn’t Lowe’s fault, but it was hard to just turn that off.
The first dinner was going to be awkward as fuck. We’d make it through, though. They were my pack, and Lowe was family. It wouldn’t be good if they couldn’t at least be civil.
“My omega won’t hate you regardless,” I said. “You have your own pack and no interest in the Loranger pack.”
Marlowe snorted, grabbing his drink and taking a big sip through the straw. “Usually, you’re the one lecturing me, but you have a lot to learn, big sis.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“It doesn’t work like that,” he said simply. “If I was scent matched to her pack, Kiara would hate me on principle. She might anyway, because of the history.”
“You and your pack literally met your scent match mate and you love her,” I said.
“Yeah, but I joined the pack before we met her, so she’s my scent match too.”
Part of me was confused, but then I remembered the way Kiara had pettily scent marked my whole apartment after I’d fucked Ambrose that first night. She was a possessive omega and didn’t like to share. Marlowe had always been more of a share-er, and he had a point about the scent match logistics.
“Point taken. I’ll tell Kiara to be on her best behaviour,” I said.
I didn’t tell my brother that I might have to give her a command to not stab him. She still kept Nyla with her at all times, and with her colourful weapons history… Better safe than sorry?
He laughed like I was joking. “She just needs to be herself. Everyone is going to love her.”
Well… I can see her clashing heavily with Denzel, my least favourite of Marlowe’s alphas.
But I’m going to keep that to myself.
We moved on to more casual topics for a while. Small talk about life stuff. Marlowe was going to a new yoga studio and was curious to know if Kiara would come. He knew yoga wasn’t exactly my thing. No one in his pack was a huge fan either. Kiara was one of his last hopes. He beamed when I told him I would pass on the invitation, even though I said not to hold his breath.
As we were wrapping up and Marlowe was sucking down his second blended coffee beverage, I cleared my throat and tried not to avoid eye contact when I brought up the elephant in the room.
“You’re not upset that I’m with your scent match pack, are you? I don’t want a people-pleasing answer, Lowe. Your real feelings only.”
He tipped his head to the side, hair falling into his face. The dark curls were just a touch too long, ready for a trim. He took a second to think, fiddling with the edge of his plate.
“I’m not upset,” he said. “I was a little… worried, when I first found out. You know I need people to like me, and I was horrified that my sister’s pack might hate me. I always said I’d win your pack over if you ever decided to join one, but it wasn’t that simple with the Loranger pack.”
There was a lot of baggage, that was for sure. These concerns were right on brand for Marlowe.
“Are you still worried?”
“Yeah, but there’s no way Dash can hate memorethan he did before, right? I was persona non grata for the Loranger pack. They were furious when my pack went to them for help during the fiasco earlier this year.”
Fiasco was one way to put it. Not the word I would have used, but whatever.
