But I didn’t want their judgement. Their pity. Their anger at Benjamin over something I could have prevented if I’d followed the rules they’d laid out when I was a child.
Most of all, I didn’t want them to scare off my pack.
West let Lavinia in, and my sister leaned against the wall beside the door with her arms crossed over her chest. Her foot tapped impatiently.
“Can’t it wait?” I asked.
“When have you ever known our fathers to wait?”
“You and Mira could catch them up on everything that’s happened.”
“We’ve already told them all that we know.” She sighed. “They’re currently most interested in what your motorcycle club has been doing with the O’Connors, and we don’t know a thing about that.”
That was a front and I knew it.
OK, theydidneed to know about the drugged ammo, at the end of the day.
Their primary motivation for doing it now was definitely to size up my alphas, though.
“Fine,” I mumbled. “Tell Nico that if they come back with any bruises, I’ll never speak to him again.”
“He’s going to request at least one free shot,” Lavinia said, a sly smile crossing her face.
“No free punches.”
“I’ll inform him. If your alphas are respectful, he might even behave.”
He better. I was more fragile than I’d ever been, but I would go on a rampage of epic proportions if he decided to punish the pack for anything that happened. They weren’t to blame—I was the one sneaking around onto Windsor territory to see them. None of them had known that was a problem.
Conrad sighed, pressing a kiss to the side of my head and moving me gently off his chest. “Probably need the chance to test my legs, anyway. Spending time with you healed me right up.”
I would have told him to stay put, but he managed to stand on his own. He didn’t even wobble.
Mercer got up too, giving me an equally sweet kiss on the cheek. “We’ll find you right after we’re done talking business.”
“Assuming we can still walk,” Conrad joked.
Rolling his eyes, Mercer stayed close to his packmate’s side as he walked slowly to the door. West came back to me, giving me a parting kiss—his was placed on the tip of my nose.
As he tried to leave again, my heart rate increased.
Their scents already felt so far away, with no one in the bed with me.
What if they were gone so long that all I could smell was cucumber and moss? Benjamin was trying his best to remind me that he existed, and I didn’t know if I could keep him at bay on my own.
My fingers wrapped around West’s forearm, and he froze mid-step.
“Stay. Please.”
I couldn’t have all of them leave me at the same time. Then there would only be Benjamin’s empty echoes.
“Mercer should stay with you,” West said, gesturing for his pack lead. “Or Conrad.”
Nibbling on my bottom lip, I didn’t let go of him. “Why not you?”
“I’m not…” He trailed off without finishing. “One of them will stay with you.”
Did he not want me? Was the entire heat a lie—something he’d felt he had to do because I was in pain? Would he have cuddled me and scent marked me and stayed with me if his packmates had been by my side first?
