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She comes to a dead stop just on the other side of my office door, shocked and clearly feeling the need to flee. I nudge her forward with a gentle hand at the base of her spine and she takes one stumbling step, then two. Enough for me to close the door and lean against it. Preventing her escape before she even has a chance to try.
She pulls her eyes off the four alphas in the room long enough to glare at me over her shoulder. I think I hear her mutter “fucking sneaky asshole” under her breath before she turns back around.
She stumbles back when she finds Ford only inches away from her, his long legs eating up the distance between them in the time it took for her to glare and insult me. He catches her before she can fall, hauling her against his body, burying his nose in her neck, taking deep inhales of her skin.
Vee just stands there, hands fisted at her sides like she’s trying to keep from touching him, spine straight, body stiff. “I can’t smell you,” he murmurs. “Pipsqueak, I need to smell you. Scent you.”
She shakes her head wordlessly, finally lifting her hands. But not to hug him back. We all watch as she wedges her hands between their bodies and pushes him away. He growls and tugs her closer, sliding his cheek along hers, down her neck, scent marking her so everyone will know she’s his… ours.
“Ford, stop,” she chokes out, sounding… devastated. Why the hell would she be devastated? My brain flickers back to her comment in the office, about there being places other than the neck to put a bonding bite. We can’t scent her. She’s obviously using scent blockers and cancelers, so there’s no way for us to know if she is in fact bonded. If we could smell her, we could tell.
Having an alpha who isn’t her bonded mate scent mark her would be upsetting. Is that what’s happening here?
She pushes on his chest again and this time he moves back a step, letting her have the space she so clearly needs. Davis, Jackson and Asher haven’t moved from their positions on the far side of the room. They’re just watching her, gazes predatory. We’ve got her in our sights now and we’re never fucking letting her go. It’s only a matter of time before we pounce.
I can’t tell if they just aren’t sure what to do with themselves or if they respect her need for boundaries. Either way, I’m grateful for their restraint. I’m not sure how long that’s going to last.
Jackson clears his throat, his gray eyes running over Vee, drinking her in. No doubt his Alpha is urging him to gather her close and make sure she’s okay, but he motions to the couch on the far side of my office in front of the fireplace.
“Why don’t you have a seat?”
Vee edges toward the couch but doesn’t sit. I suspect it had more to do with putting space between her and Ford than anything. She folds her arms over her chest and tips her chin up. “I’m fine standing. I won’t be here long.”
I have to bite back a smile. She’s just so… her. The girl I remember is still in there, even if she looks different older. Still beautiful as hell, but there’s a wall between us. One that was never there before. I don’t blame her for having one now. I just hate the way it keeps me from being able to read her.
“We need to talk, baby girl,” Jackson says. “Actually talk. Without you pretending like you don’t know us.”
She scowls, and it’s fucking adorable. “Don’t call me that.”
Jackson’s brows arch. “What? Baby girl? Not a fan of endearments anymore?” She doesn’t answer, and our prime alpha stalks toward her, looking fine as hell as he does. “You used to love it when I’d growl that at you. It would make you so w-”
“Well, things change,” Vee practically shouts, cutting off what we all knew he was going to say. “I don’t like it anymore.” Her hazel eyes shift to take in all of us. “Not from any of you. No more baby girl or beautiful or pipsqueak or baby or angel. If you want me to stay and talk to you, respect my boundaries. Otherwise I’m out.”
We all glance at each other. We know she can’t actually go anywhere with me standing in front of the door. She’ll have to hear us out one way or another. We can all agree to her request… temporarily.
She won’t mind us using endearments when she’s a part of our pack like she’s always supposed to be.
“Fine,” Asher nods. “Whatever you want, Vee.” He hesitates. “Is it okay if we still call you Vee?”
Our girl lets out a weary sound, a cross between a sigh and a humorless laugh, as she drops her arms by her sides. “Yeah, that’s fine. Most people call me that.”
We all move closer to her. Well, all of us but Ford, who’s looking at her with a kind of hurt hazy expression, his hands fisted at his sides. I can’t tell if he wants to punch someone or grab her and never let her go, probably a combination of both.
We all took Vee’s disappearance hard. But I think Ford took it the hardest.
The five of us look at each other, trying to figure out what to say. It’s ridiculous. I’ve thought of almost nothing but this moment when we’d finally be able to talk. I planned a million things to say to her—and I know everyone else did too—but now faced with her glaring at us, her hurt and pain and… hatred so fucking clear, everything, all those careful words, have abandoned me.
When none of us say anything, Vee lets out a ragged sigh and tips her head back to glare at the ceiling. “This is a fucking great use of my time. Really.” Her chin drops, and she turns that glare on us. “Since none of you are apparently going to start, I will. I am not here for you. I am not some lovesick girl who came back to see the pack that rejected her.” Rejected. Is that what she thinks happened? Of course it fucking is. I glance at Jackson to see how he feels about that, but his face is almost impassive as Vee keeps talking. “Understand, I am only in town to deal with Gladys’s estate. I don’t see why we even need to see each other after this. You can go about your pack business and I’ll go about mine. When my grandmother’s house sells, I’ll leave the city again.”
A rumble sounds from Ford’s chest, low and menacing, and Sylvie’s head snaps toward him. I don’t miss the way her lids go slightly heavy lidded, or how she shifts on her feet, thighs squeezing just slightly.
Those small movements, little tells of her arousal, make my chest swell with hope. She still likes when we get possessive of her. If that’s the case, then there’s a chance for us to fix this, no matter what she’s saying.
Jackson tilts his head. “Do you really think that’s what happened, Sylvie? That we rejected you?”
Her arms fold over her chest and I can see her building up her defenses, walls and spikes and a moat filled with oil she’s ready to light on fire to keep us out. “What would you call it, Jacks?” Another tell, a slip of the tongue, using his nickname. “Say the roles were reversed, and instead of you announcing to the entire world you picked an omega who wasn’t me, I got on that stage and announced I’d joined another pack. Would you call it a rejection, then?”
Jackson’s brows lower and I can tell he wants to refute her claim, but he really can’t, so instead he says, “if you did that we would have stuck around to fight for you.”
