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“Why are you here?” she asked, deciding to be blunt.
Drina tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I need to talk to someone. Out of all the omegas, you seem like the best bet.”
She’d come here to … talk? Really? She’d come to the girlfriend of the guy whose bed she wanted to jump back into?
“I get why you might find this awkward,” said Drina. “But please don’t turn me away. The others will faff over me. I don’t want that.”
Ah, shit. “Come in.” Bree stepped aside to allow her to pass, closed the door, and then led her to the kitchen. Pulling out the tequila, she grabbed two small glasses from a cupboard and then took a seat at the island. “Drink?”
Drina snorted. “Yeah, sure.” She took the seat opposite Bree and quickly downed a shot.
Bree chugged back her own shot. Her cat paced, unhappy to have one of Alex’s ex bed-buddies in her home. Particularly since the feline wasn’t convinced that Drina had fully accepted the “ex” part. The moment wasn’t exactly fun for Bree either. But she’d be damned if she’d let Drina sense her discomfort. “What’s up?”
Drina looked down at the empty glass in her hand. “I keep messing up.”
“Don’t we all?”
Another snort. “I guess.” She set her glass on the island. “You know what happened with me and Giles, right?”
Bree nodded and refilled their glasses. “It sucked balls.”
“Yeah, it did. I cared about him a lot. Even from the early days of our relationship, I could totally see us bonding and moving in together. But I’m not truly heartbroken that the imprinting process reversed itself. Is that bad? Does that make me cold?”
Bree shook her head. “You get to feel how you feel.”
“I don’t know why I’m not as devastated as everyone assumes I am.” Drina knocked back her second shot. “Giles thinks … Giles thinks I have feelings for someone else, and that those feelings got in the way of the bond. Do you think that could have happened?”
The someone else was no doubt Alex. What Bree couldn’t understand was … Did Drina think Bree wouldn’t guess it, or was she building up to something? Curious enough to let this play out, Bree replied, “Possibly.” She chugged back the contents of her glass. “Do you have feelings for someone else?”
Drina bit her lower lip. “Yes. I care about him a lot. He says he doesn’t feel the same, but I don’t think that’s true. It’s not that I think he’s lying to me. I think he’s lying to himself.”
Okay, now Bree just wanted to smash her glass over the bitch’s head.
“I tried talking to him about it, but he shut down. Some people … they’re just not good at letting others into their lives. He’s like that. Honestly, I think even his true mate would have struggled to fully bond with him.”
Bree felt her gut twist. There might just be a lot of truth to those words.
“I can’t be sure if that’s why my bond with Giles didn’t form, though,” said Drina.
“I can give you the clarity of mind you’re looking for, if you want.”
Drina straightened a little. “All right.”
Bree laid her hand on hers. “I have your consent?”
“Yes.”
Bree lowered her shields. It was a little like taking a slam to her soul—there was just so much emotional turmoil. Anguish. Hurt. Despair. Loneliness. Longing. Hopelessness. They bled into Bree, striking her with such severe heartburn-like pain that she sucked in a breath.
… a dream …
… strawberries and cream …
… on and on and on …
Bree frowned. The girl was singing in her head, as if to guard her thoughts. Just when Bree was about to bring up her shields, she sensed an undercurrent of something else. A darker emotion—one Drina was striving so desperately to hide that the only way to “read” it would be for Bree to delve further into Drina’s “emotional heart.” Nah, she’d swerve that option.
Slamming up her shields, she took a moment to study Drina. The creases on her forehead and around her eyes had smoothed out. Her shoulders were no longer hunched, and her eyes were much clearer.
“Now, you’re sure you want me to be straight with you about what I think?” asked Bree, pouring them each another shot. “Because people say they want bluntness, but that’s often only until I say something they don’t like.”
“I want your honest opinion.”
“Okay.” Bree set down the bottle of tequila. “I don’t think that the reason you didn’t imprint on Giles is that you’re hung up on someone else. I think it didn’t happen because you want the bond more than you want Giles—that’s not enough to imprint. You need to ask yourself if it’s the same with this other person you say you care for. Do you really love him, or do you love the idea of being mated?”
