You just couldn’t beat a good chocolate bar.
“Artie won’t eat it,” she said.
I grimaced at the mention of my brother. She was right. He’d never liked chocolate. That should’ve been her first warning to run away from him.
“He says he didn’t like it when you were kids, either,” Emily added.
“He never ate it,” I agreed. “When we went trick-or-treating, he forced me to trade him for all of his chocolates. If I didn’t want to, he swapped them while I was asleep. I’ve only had like three Starbursts in my life. He always took all of them.”
She snorted. “Asshole.”
“Right?”
“Yeah. He talks about how much of a dick he was to you sometimes.”
I lifted an eyebrow, having a hard time believing Artie would admit something like that to his mate of all people.
“He regrets it,” she added. “The way he treated you.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“I don’t blame you, but it’s the truth. We stayed up late on our wedding night, drinking and talking instead of fucking. He got all teary when he admitted that he wished he’d invited you.”
My throat swelled.
I’d gotten teary on his wedding night too. It had taken a lot of restraint not to let myself look up his social media profile, so I wouldn’t see any of the pictures from the event.
“I wasn’t against it,” Emily added. “But he was worried that if he invited anyone from your family, the alpha would show up with a bunch of jerks from the skulk. He didn’t want them interrupting or ruining anything.”
My forehead creased. “I’m sure he invited our dad.”
She shook her head. “Nope. There were only about a dozen people there. My immediate family, my grandpa, a few of our friends from college, and Bo. I’m not into massive group events. If someone didn’t change my ass when I was a baby or I don’t talk to them regularly, I couldn’t care less if they want to celebrate me.”
“I get that.”
The celebration thing. Not the part where even my dad wasn’t invited.
It was going to take me a serious chunk of time to process that.
“Are you and Bo going to have a wedding?” she asked.
“I doubt it. After today, I hope to never wear a white dress again. Me and Bo aren’t going to berealmates, anyway. Just roommates.”
Emily’s eyebrows lifted. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
Neither did I, to be honest.
“He could always decide to leave me, like most of the grizzlies used to leave their mates after claiming them. I think some of them still do,” I said.
“I can’t imagine he’s going to leave you after yesterday.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“Oh, I thought Bo was going to tear Hudson’s head off when the guy suggested kissing someone who wasn’t you. He was obviously in love with you.”
I snorted. “Ambrose isnotin love with me.”
She lifted an eyebrow in my direction. “Then what does love look like to you? He barely stopped himself from damning the consequences and going after you alone last night.”
