“Unless you ordered something from Amazon and are having it delivered to someone else’s home, you had better get moving.” I didn’t hit him or kick him or kill him, although my wolf thought it was a great idea. But my going to jail for years would mean I wouldn’t be able to protect my mate from the rest of their pack. “Go now.”
“Why should I? The omega is taken. We have the paperwork.”
Maybe nobody would find the body if I tossed it in my truck and threw it off a cliff somewhere?
“She’s not a thing you can own. She is, however, with us, by choice.” I might have been speaking too soon, but at least she was not rejecting us. “Anathea is our omega. Our scent match. Our fated. Now, go before I make you regret staying.”
“Fine, but you’ll be seeing me again.”
I called my pack and we went to the store to talk to Anathea. She agreed to have us over for dinner. We would bring tacos. We could even give her a lift home. But for some reason I couldn’t fathom, our independent mate would not let us stay over. She promised to keep everything locked up, but she said she couldn’t intrude in our lives and make one of us sleep on her couch forever. Telling her about the alpha coming around only made her dig in her heels. It made zero sense. And there was no way we could go home and sleep in our beds, all safe and warm while she was in danger.
It wouldn’t be forever, not sleeping at her house, anyway. Not if we could convince her that she was ours. But she held her ground.
Stubborn female.
Nothing we said could change her mind.
Chapter Fifteen
Anathea
I was caught between wanting some alone time to regroup and filter through my feelings and wanting Carter, Jayden, and Elias with me.
It scared me how attentive they were. Since I was little, I’d learned to focus on myself. Attend to my own needs. Rely on myself. I considered it a virtue.
But with them around, doting on me, providing for needs that emerged only in their presence, all my thinking about self-reliance was turned upside down.
They relied on each other. It came so easily to them. They flourished with one another’s support and were each other’s home.
I wanted them to be my home.
The place where I sheltered when the world tilted.
More than anything, I was exhausted. Only having myself to rely on was a relentless, never-ending job.
It would be nice to lean on someone else and to be their leaning post as well.
The root of my fear? I wanted to be their omega. To be the pivot of their pack. To belong to each of them individually and collectively.
All these feelings and needs drummed up everything about my past and, with Teri’s texts, my present and future.
Only one thing that would help me figure it out.
“Damn, I need some ice cream.” I checked the freezer and groaned at the lack of frozen treats.
The convenience store was only two blocks away, and the city was well lit at night. I checked outside, looking up and down the street about a hundred times before deciding ice cream wasmore important than my safety. With Carter chasing away the danger, no way would one of the Vex come back so soon.
Sure, I could’ve called one of the guys and asked them to either pick some up for me or come with me, but they had fussed over me all day. I didn’t want to be a burden or a time suck.
Or too much for them.
Only one block away, the hairs on the back of my neck rose. Goose bumps spread down my arms as a shiver vibrated my body.
My wolf snarled inside me.
Fuck. I’d made a mistake.
I forced my legs to walk faster, practically sprinting across the street. Ahead, I could see the bright, lit sign of the store, but to my right was a dark alley.
