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I recognized Nicky’s voice immediately. Luca looked in that direction, horror on his face. “Oh shit.”
I froze like a deer in headlights even though no one could see me from where I was on the couch.
“Hey. What are you doing here?” Nicky asked.
It was only a matter of time. “Fuck me.” I popped my head up, dragging my dress back into place. “I didn’t know you were coming back already. I thought you’d call first.”
Nicky stared at us like she had absolutely no idea what to make of the two of us. “You…Luca, what the fuck?! Luna? What?!”
One of Nicky’s alphas, Gabe, paused in the doorway. “Nicky, what’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d love to know.”
Of all the reactions I had expected Nicky to have, anger wasn’t one of them. She marched toward us like she was going to war, and I leapt off the couch, rearranging my dress a little more to fully cover me as Luca yanked up his jeans and pulled on his shirt.
“Nicky, we can explain,” Luca insisted.
“Yeah, I think you’d fucking better. I don’t even know what thing to be mad about first.”
Dread and panic sank their vicious claws into my chest as I tried to process the situation on too little sleep and too much anxiety. Why was she so mad?
Gabe tried to soothe her. “Let’s take a deep breath.”
“Oh, there are going to be zero deep breaths. My friend and my brother are screwing in our house! When did this happen? How long has this been going on?”
Luca was flushed pink. “Since the wedding.”
“The wedding?!” Nicky shrieked. “That was almost a year ago.” Tears sprang into her eyes immediately and made their way down her cheeks.
Luca probably shouldn’t have led with that date, but now that he had, I could watch the fury and sadness wash over her. I entered damage control mode, rushing closer to her. Right now it didn’t matter that we’d planned to tell her, because all she could see was that we had kept this from her. She could be mad at me, but I wasn’t going to let Luca bear the brunt of what had been mostly my decision.
“Fuck, I’m sorry, Nicky. Please don’t cry. This is all my fault. Luca wanted to tell you and I made him promise to keep it secret.”
“Why?” Nicky asked softly. “I don’t understand. I love both of you. I would’ve been so happy you were together.”
I struggled past my own panic. I couldn’t let my scent sour. This moment was about Nicky, not me. “I know.” And I did, though I was kind of hoping she would have focused more on that than what she had walked in on. I nudged Gabe aside so that I could get her in a hug. “That’s why I couldn’t tell you. No one knows. I knew if we told you, then Allie would find out, and the two of you would’ve been invested, and I can’t handle pressure like that. I would’ve fucked it all up and then things would’ve been weird. You’d have chosen Luca when we broke up because he’s your brother and I didn’t want to lose you. I needed time to make it solid, and by the time it was, we had been secret for so long I didn’t know how to say anything. I’m so sorry.”
It wasn’t strictly the truth, because a few people did know, but that wouldn’t help our current situation, so instead I’d poured out the reasons I hadn’t wanted to tell her to begin with. Everyone else in my past had always chosen someone that wasn’t me, and there was still that evil little whisper in the back of my head that the people who loved me now would do the same when it came down to it.
If they had to choose between Luca and me, I knew who would lose.
I watched Nicky process everything, saw her move through the stages of grief in her eyes before settling on acceptance. Her voice cracked when she asked, “So, now what?”
I turned to Luca, unsure what to say. I let Nicky’s alpha take over again and stepped away. “I don’t know.”
Nicky turned to her brother. “Luca?”
He stared at me as if I might be able to give him some sort of guidance, running his fingers through his hair as he tried to figure out what to say, and then freezing in place as the rest of Nicky’s pack came into the house.
“Why does it smell like sex?” Billie asked.
My cheeks burst into flame. Apparently the universe wasn’t done with my humiliation. I fidgeted with my dress, trying to smooth it even more. “That’s my fault. I swear I was going to steam-clean the couch. I just didn’t know you’d be back already.”
I had been intending to do a lot of things before they came back, including laundering everything on the couch nest, which was now a jumbled mix of my nesting supplies and what had been there when we arrived.
Billie looked between Luca and me, a mischievous smile on their face. “Called it!”
I cast a nervous glance at Luca.
