Page 54 of Use Me Up

Ellis rounds on me, annoyed.

“Sorry,” I say to him. “I shouldn’t have shared that. You didn’t want me to know. I’m guessing you don’t want anyone to know.”

“You have an alpha?” says Andrew hoarsely to Ellis. “Does she know?”

Ellis shakes his head.

“Can you tell her?” says Andrew.

Ellis shoots me a look I can only term venomous.

I realize he’s never been angry with me before, and the fear that rushes through me is intense. I feel, immediately, that I need to soothe him somehow before he decides to retaliate against me.

But I don’t know what to do.

I get quiet as we finish our drinks and my mother shows us all into the dining room. I am still trying to think of how to placate Ellis, who is also quiet—probably thinking about how he’s going to get back at me—as we all sit down for dinner.

My parents both leave to bring out the dinner dishes. Sure enough, as they set things down, I can tell they’ve ordered from local restaurants, and that the dinner rolls are made by my dad—of course, he announces this to the table, but that’s my dad—and my mother says she did the salad.

We pass the salad bowl.

I put salad on my plate.

“You don’t want her to know,” says Andrew as he puts salad on his plate. “You don’t want her to know that you’re taken. Or, no, maybe you’ll tell her at just the right moment, when you’re trying to convince her to leave me. That way, it’ll be terribly romantic, right? You two both run off on your bonded mates and live together—”

“No,” says Ellis.

Andrew surveys him.

“I like your sister,” says Ellis to Andrew.

My stomach turns over. But I just told everyone in my family his secret. He can’t be pleased about that.

Maybe he’s just playing some angle right now?

“No,” says Andrew, “you don’t.”

“You don’t,” agrees my mother from the other side of the table. “That’s why we’re all so concerned.”

My father says, “Well, Joni, what if he did?”

“He doesn’t,” says my mother.

“If he did, though,” says my father, “what would that look like?” He turns to Ellis. “You’re here having dinner with us, and it’s either because you’re trying to wage some kind of psychological warfare, or it’s because you actually see a possibility of a future with Hannah. I know how wonderful Hannah is.” He touches his own chest. “And my wife does, too, when she’s not getting distracted by other things. So, I can absolutely understand why you might have thought you were going to use Hannah for one thing, and you realized what exactly she was.”

“Yes,” says Ellis. “That.”

“Well,” says my father, “I’m not saying I believe you.”

“You fed that to him, Thomas,” snaps my mother. “He is going to take Hannah apart and we are going to have to pick up the pieces.”

“But if you really did want Hannah, what would that look like?” says my father. “Your alpha? No longer in the picture?”

Ellis stabs a piece of lettuce with his fork. “I don’t know what it would look like,” he mutters.

“Leave him alone,” I decide.

“You brought him here, Hannah-banana,” says my father. “Do you see a future with him?”