17. Meggie

17

Meggie

I 'm still half asleep when I hear banging on our apartment door. I've always been a lighter sleeper than the guys, so I rush out of the nest to get it before whoever it is wakes up the entire floor. Harrison is already there, pulling open the door, to a flustered and breathless Emily.

"You've gotta…clean room…They're…" She bends over with her hands on her knees. "They're doing room sweeps."

Harrison curses, and we fly into action. I run towards the bathroom with Emily hot on my heels. "How do you know?"

I can hear Harrison yelling at the guys to get up. His fist pounding on the walls as he goes.

"They came to our room already. I snuck out to warn you, but it won't be long before they get here." She's still panting from running from her room two levels up to ours, and I can't even begin to express my gratitude to her in this panicked moment. She's my hero.

"Why are they checking rooms?" I shove the ziplock of pills, both my blockers and suppressants, into two more ziplocks and then into my shampoo bottle. Shit, I really hope it doesn't leak. "Have they ever done this before?"

"Not often." Emily says, looking over her shoulder as Dante passes, carrying an armful of blankets. "I heard them say someone tipped them off."

"About an omega?!"

"I think it was about steroids. But if they're searching, they'll take anything that's contraband. The room next to us snuck in bottles of champagne and got charged $3,000."

With the pills taken care of, we dart into the makeshift nest. The guys are scrambling to throw the mattresses back up on the beds, tossing pillows and blankets in a more even spread. Nils throws a duffel bag at us and we shove some of the blankets and pillows in there just as there's another knock on the door.

"Fuck! It smells like sex in here." Harrison hits the wall with the palm of his hand. "I'll stall them. Spray the place down!"

He goes for the door, while I go for the bottle of scent-neutralizer we bought last night. It's cheaper than the stuff I usually use, and it's got a gross chemical smell that makes us all sneeze as I douse the room and each of us in it.

I can hear Harrison talking to whatever security team or committee representative got put in charge of checking rooms. There's the bark of a dog that comes along with the noise of voices.

"A dog?!" I hiss in Emily's direction.

"They didn't have one when they checked our room. Someone must have joined them."

The guys dive for beds, no one caring which one.

"Emily hide!" I say, knowing they'll be suspicious if they see her here after they already checked her room. But there's nowhere to hide. The rooms don't have closets or even much in the way of furniture and they're about to search them, anyway.

"Most of my pack's in here," Harrison says just outside the door. It swings open, and he breaks into a fit of coughs from the smell.

The man with him scrunches his nose. "Why does it smell like someone took a bath in scent-neutralizers in here?"

"Sensitive." Harrison taps the side of his nose. "Don't like the scents of all of my pack mates."

The guy seems to buy it. He steps all the way into the room as Oz puts on a good show of just having woken up and Ellis puts on a horrible one. I sit down on Ellis's lap to distract from his poor acting.

"What's this all about?" Nils asks, cool as ever.

"Just a routine room check," another man says from the doorway. He's holding the dog leash, and I recognize him as the older alpha we saw when we came through security that first day. He's not in military uniform today, but he's no less imposing. The dog is still in its military vest—do dogs wear bullet-proof vests or is it just to note them as working dogs like service animals? It's embroidered with Gunner and I wonder if that's the dog's name.

The first man, a beta, starts digging through our things as the alpha lets the dog wander. We awkwardly sit there saying nothing until the dog stops right in front of me and starts sniffing my leg.

"Who's a good boy?" Oz squats down next to us and ruffles his hand along the dog's head. We're all holding our breaths, hoping it's enough to distract the German Shepherd.

"Refrain from touching the dog." The stone-faced alpha gives the leash a slight tug to gain the dog's attention. His nostrils flare. Shit, has he scented me? No, he's not looking at me. He's looking at Em with an intensity that's kind of unnerving.

The dog gives a cute little sneeze from the scent neutralizers I doused myself in and moves on.

"Weren't you in another room?" The beta says, his eyes narrowing on my best friend. "What are you doing here?"

Em freezes. She hates being put on the spot, so I answer for her. "We were just going for a run." I give him my sweetest smile. "We like to run together in the mornings. Helps clear the anxiety about competition, you know?"

I don't think Em and I have ever run together in our lives. We'd rather be in the water than dripping sweat as we slam our feet into the pavement. Hopefully, we won't have to carry out the rouse and follow through with going for a jog.

The beta nods and leaves to check the other rooms. But the alpha with the dog tilts his head and studies Em more closely. "Where are your shoes?"

"Um… I, well… forgot them?"

"You forgot shoes?" His brow furrows.

"Diver." She points to herself, laughing awkwardly. "Not used to wearing them much."

"Sometimes we run barefoot," I add. "It's supposed to be good for your arches."

I think I read that somewhere. Right?

His frown deepens. "You shouldn't run barefoot in the city. You could get hurt."

"Oh, well, yeah, of course, I'll just…" She juts her thumb towards the door and steps in that direction, but he blocks her path. It looks like he's about to say more, but then his partner hollers from the next room. "Nothing in here."

"All clean here too," another voice answers. I didn't realize there were three of them.

Em and the alpha are in some kind of standoff in the doorway, and I can't tell if it's sparks I'm seeing or if he's got something against her for some reason.

Ellis gives me a look and mouths, what the hell? I shrug. She hasn't mentioned anything about a military man to me, but it sure seems like something's going on between them. I just can't decide if it's good or bad.

After a beat, he steps back enough for her to squeeze past, but not enough for her to avoid brushing against him. He follows after her.

I don't let myself relax until they're all finally out of the apartment. I squeeze Em tight before she goes, the officers behind her knocking on the door across the hall. Harrison does a visual sweep of the living room before starting to close the front door, but then a voice from in the hall stops my blood cold.

"Come on in. I've got nothing to hide." Daniel frickin' Teague. I knew all of Team USA was in the same building but—

I step toward the door, looking around Harrison's broad frame and, sure enough, there's Daniel standing in the open doorway across the hall and staring back at me.

"Mornin', Meggie. Pack Hart." He gives us a little wave and a smile that's way too cheery. Then he turns and closes the door behind him.

Daniel has been across the hall this whole time. Why does Em have to be two floors away but Daniel gets the apartment right across from me?!

I'm stuck to the spot in shock. Harrison nudges me out of the way so he can close the door and lock it.

With a sigh that takes all the air from my lungs, I slump against the wall.

"Pack meeting," Harrison says. "Now. All of you."

We follow our pack alpha into the little sitting room. He's the only one who stays standing, and he seems almost as imposing as he did last night when he manhandled me out of the party.

"That was too close." His stoney gaze sweeps over us.

"It got my blood pumping for sure," Oz quips. "Just need to direct the blood to the right area now. A little naked morning cardio, anyone?"

Harrison glares at him. "Do you all want to get caught?"

There's a chorus of no and nah and course not as we all respond at once.

"Good. Then things need to change. No more nest."

I wince as if he's struck me, but I know he's right. His eyes soften for just a moment as his gaze meets mine. "I'm sorry, Meggie. I know what a comfort it is to you. But if we hadn't had warning—"

"No. I understand."

"You can still sleep with me, gorgeous." Nils smiles and pulls me onto his lap. His warm embrace helps ease some of the tension.

"We should get to the gym. Today will be a tough game." Dante stands, rolling out his shoulder.

"So no naked cardio?" Oz whines.

"I'm not done." Harrison rubs the bridge of his nose even though he isn't wearing his glasses and normally only does that when he doesn't have his contacts in.

Dante sits back down. We all look at our pack alpha, wondering what more he's going to say.

"We've had two scares in the last twenty-four hours. Meggie's blockers aren't working as well as they used to, which we knew would happen. That means we need to be extra cautious."

A pit opens in my stomach as my body recognizes what he's going to suggest before my brain does.

"No more sex. No kissing. No cuddling. No feeling her up." He makes eye contact with each of us. "If we want to win this, we need to stay focused, and Meggie needs to stay hidden. We can't have her perfuming in public again."

"Oookaaay," Ellis says, dragging out the word. "But in the room it's fine, right?"

"No!" Harrison snaps. "What if they do another room check and we don't have a warning? Do you want them to scent her all over this place? We got lucky this time."

"It's unlikely they'd do two room checks," Dante says.

"We're all celibate for the next two weeks," Harrison decrees.

"I haven't even broken in The Buckingham Phallus yet!" McQuinn hollers.

Harrison ignores him. "This is final. As your pack alpha, as your teammate, as your friend, I don't want to see any of us get caught in the crossfires if this goes south. So no physical intimacy." His eyes land on Nils holding me in his lap. "Of any kind."

Nils looks like he wants to fight him. The alpha pheromones in the room surge, so I stand up to keep the peace. "It's okay. There's only eleven days until the closing ceremonies. It's not that long."

It feels like an eternity, though. How could I have gone so long without sex, not even thinking anything of it, but now the thought of just a few days without my men makes me ache?

"This is gonna be a long two weeks," Ellis grumbles.

Harrison shoots him a glare. "Put it into the game."