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“That’s fine. We can always puppy pile,” Pike says, sounding way more excited than he should be by the idea of sleeping on the floor.
“I don’t think the size of the room is the problem, Pike. It’s more likely the fact that she can’t slip down to the dungeon as easily if we’re all together,” Sol tells him before winking at me, and I spit my tongue out at him in annoyance.
He’s supposed to be on my side. Jerk.
“There won’t be any more slipping off anywhere. I think we’ve all had enough of that for one lifetime,” Lyle says, heading down the hall toward my room.
He didn’t say it like a dig at me, just a simple statement, but I can’t help but feel shitty about it.
“He’s just worried about you,” Blair tells me, squeezing me to his chest in a hug of sorts. “We all are.”
“I know.”
“There’s no way you’re all going to fit in her room, even on the floor,” Garrett says, and he’s not wrong. The room felt big when I was a kid, but I’ve come to realize nothing’s really big with these guys. We would probably end up having to literally pile up to fit.
“We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about us,” Lyle says, waving Garrett off. So much for friends.
“If everyone is going to stay in the same room, we can use mine. I have more than enough room.”
The second the words leave his mouth, Pike perks up, and the others don’t seem to hate the idea either.
All except Lyle, who freezes in his tracks.
It takes him a moment, but eventually, he turns to face the rest of us and gives a stiff nod. He hates the idea. I can see it in his eyes, but what can he do? He refuses to leave me alone, and it’s this or end up at the bottom of a puppy pile, which he probably hates the idea of just as much.
At least if I have to be babysat, he can suffer with me.
Being down here is strange.
Strange in the sense that it’s almost soothing and comfortable. Don’t get me wrong, I love my beast. He’s been a part of me my whole life, and for the first few hours, I thought I would lose my mind without him.
But he’s not gone, not really. If anything, it feels like he’s sleeping, still there, just no longer trying to claw his way out.
The strain of the bond was a lot before we got here, but ever since we found Serena in the woods, it’s as if it’s the only thing.
Just thinking about her is enough to leave me spiraling.
I guess it’s not so different now, considering I’m lying in my cell, staring at the ceiling, thinking about her. But something about it feels calmer now, not so pressing and all-consuming.
Instead of needing to be around her, I think about our time together. We have years and years of memories, most of which are my fondest.
Man, I’m such a fucking idiot.
How did I make it this far in life and not realize I was hopelessly in love with my best friend?
How had any of us?
I can’t bring myself to regret it, though. No matter how easy it might be to think of it as time wasted, I know it wasn’t.
Not even close.
We spent years building a friendship I would die for, a connection I can’t picture my life without.
There was a time when Sol and I were younger when our mother used to tell us what it was like to find a mate. She said we wouldn’t have to question it; our mate would fit not only into our pack but into our lives, even if we didn’t pick the same mate. I’d thought it sounded like a bunch of shit back then.
How would you know someone was right? How could anyone be right if they weren’t for both of us? As I got older, that feeling extended to the guys. I couldn’t picture a pack that wasn’t all of us. Most of the time, we couldn’t even agree on a show to watch, so how could we ever find one girl we could all love and share without her ruining us?
Serena was the answer.
