"You're safe here," he says firmly. "Nobody knows what you are, and nobody is going to find out."
I nod, not sure what to say to that.
I mean, what can I say? Sorry I turned your life upside down? Sorry I forced you to fuck my brains out? Sorry I practically begged you to mate me?
Fuck, I need to get out of here.
“Morning.” Perrin steps into the kitchen with a sheepish smile on his face.
Cliff quickly reaches for the beta, kissing the pillow creases on his cheek.
Odette chats with him as he pours himself a cup of coffee, asking how he slept, but all I can focus on is the back door.
It's right there. Ten steps, maybe twelve. Through the door, across the yard, past whatever kind of neighborhood is out there, and I’m gone. Back to my apartment with the deadbolt and the blackout curtains and the neat rows of stolen suppressants in my bathroom cabinet.
Back to the version of my life where nobody knows what I am and nobody asks questions I can't answer.
But that life doesn't exist anymore.
My heat saw to that.
And, now, the bite on my neck isn't something I can spray away.
"Slept great," Perrin says, settling into the chair at the far end of the table. "Nothing like listening to Raff chainsaw through drywall from two rooms away to really lull you off." He gives me a small smile before taking a sip.
"That's funny." Raff's voice carries from the hallway before he appears. "Because I don't snore."
"You absolutely snore," Perrin says into his mug.
Raff rolls his eyes as he moves past the kitchen table. He’s already dressed in a tight white T-shirt that clings to his chest and shoulders like it was painted on, and a pair of snug jeans that sit low on his hips. My eyes drop before I can stop them, tracing the line of denim across the front of his jeans, and I look away so fast I nearly give myself whiplash.
Did I just check him out?
“Got any juice, Ma?” he asks as he opens the fridge.
“Check the door,” Odette says, and my gaze pulls back to the alpha.
I watch his tattooed forearms flex as he twists the cap off the carton and pours himself a drink. The ink stretches from his knuckles past his wrists, disappearing under the pushed-up sleeves of his shirt. Dark lines and shading, intricate and dense, covering every inch of visible skin. I find myself tracing the patterns with my eyes, trying to make out individual shapes in the patchwork.
A chair scrapes softly behind me.
I turn and see Adam is already sitting down next to Perrin, his coffee in his hands, so quiet I didn't even hear him come in.
He whispers something to Perrin, then shifts, angling his body slightly away from the table.
Away from me.
I don’t think he’s angry. He's not giving me sharp looks or clenching his jaw, or radiating hostility. He's just quiet, his dark eyes fixed on his coffee, his thumb tracing the handle over and over.
I understand why he’s upset, and it makes me feel like the worst person alive.
"So." Odette pours herself a fresh mug, then settles back into her chair. "Whenever you're ready, sweetheart."
Everyone is looking at me.
Four men and a she-alpha, gathered around a small kitchen table, waiting for me to explain how I ended up in heat in the middle of the black market, with their pack alpha's teeth in my neck.
I take a breath, trying to decide if I should lie then sneak out, but there’s no sense hiding the truth anymore…at least most of it.
