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“I wonder who the dad is here,” I heard him grumble as I slid the door shut.
Once I was in the hallway, I answered the phone. “Hey, Leith, everything okay?”
He’d been giving me text message updates over the past three days, but he’d been unusually quiet today. I kept telling myself that it was probably because he was busy, but as soon as he spoke I knew shit had hit the fan.
“Enzo… I have good news and I have bad news… which do you want first?”
Hopping out of the taxi I thanked the driver, tossing more than the fare at him as I yanked my suitcase out of the trunk.
“Hey! Your change!” the man called but I ignored him, my eyes on the glass doors of our apartment building.
‘Artie went into heat and Ciara got caught up in it… and, well, she bit him.’
Leith’s words had rung in my head over and over again through the two hours it took to find a flight and give a lame excuse to my dad and sister.
He’d been quick to tell me it wasn’t her fault, but gave no explanation as to how that was possible.
I’d known that Artie was close to his heat, but I’d still decided to go to California anyway and now I was kicking myself.
Five minutes later and I was standing in front of our apartment door, my nerves making bile rise in my throat as I tried to figure out just how I was going to handle this.
There was no going back. The closer I’d gotten to my pack again, the more I realized it.
Before, there had been two other presences in the bond, one strong right next to mine, Artie’s, and the other hovering just on the other side that was Leith’s. I could always count on the steady thrum of their hearts to soothe me and remind me that I had a place with them.
But now I could feel a third presence—a third heartbeat—rattling right alongside theirs. On some level, I’d always known Ciara would join our pack. The inevitability of it was plain for me to see. I just didn’t think it would happen quite like this.
Feeling along the bonds, I realized with a jolt that all three were out of their minds with lust. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep my head as soon as I walked in.
Then the front door was yanked open and a slightly familiar face greeted me.
I’d seen him before during the Olympics when I commentated on Team USA’s hockey game in the semi-finals and again when I looked over all of the character profiles to do a voice over for the Complex’s marketing team.
He was also the alpha that Ciara was dating.
“Jae-Sun Park.” His name tumbled out of my mouth before I could catch it and we stood staring at each other for a moment.
He was the last person I expected to see standing inside of that apartment I shared with the pack. “What are you doing here?”
Jae-Sun glanced over his shoulder at the hallway that led to Artie’s room before looking back at me. “Ciara’s here, so I’m here.”
His words were simple but still held a weight to them and I could read between the lines.
They loosely translated to: even if she’s a part of your pack, she’s still mine.
During all of my restless nights where I thought of every possible outcome that could happen with Ciara I’d neglected to consider the other alpha.
Pushing past him inside, I put my bag by the door and gave both waiting dogs a pat on the head. “And you’re okay? With everything that is happening in there?”
The man’s lips just pulled up into an irritating smirk.
“What?” I asked, letting all of the panic and confusion I’d felt on the plane ride turn into anger that I directed at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Jae-Sun just shrugged. “You and that other alpha are just very similar people, that’s all.”
What the fuck did he mean by that?
Shrugging out of my jacket, I crossed the living room to head to my omega’s nest and see with my own eyes what I already could feel through the bond.
