Page 164 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

Hudson said, “Damien, no.”

But the pause had already found me.

“If you choose her, I’m done.” Damien’s voice changed, colder now.

My hand went to my mouth as Hudson said his name.

“No. I mean it. If you choose Mary and those babies over me, then I’m done. Don’t call me. Don’t come to Boston. Don’t pretend you’re my family when you’ve made it very clear what I am.”

His words opened something in me. Damien was turning himself into a weapon because he didn’t know what else to do with being hurt.

The seconds of silence afterward kept opening inside me.

I swung my legs out of bed as my stomach rolled, not with sickness but with certainty I didn’t want.

“Please don’t be boys who grow up dramatic,” I whispered to the babies. “Or if you do, please be dramatic about theater or football or whether chocolate counts as a good group. Not love. Please don’t make people prove love by making them bleed for it.”

The argument continued in the hall, but Hudson and Lincoln were quieter now, Damien was louder because he thought volume was truth if it was applied long enough.

I found my phone on the bedside table, and my fingers shook when I unlocked it.

“Mary?” Maeve answered on the second ring.

I closed my eyes. “Can you come and get me?”

The silence lasted half a second before Maeve’s voice changed. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Are the babies okay?”

“Yes. I think.”

“What happened?”

I looked toward the door as Damien’s voice rose again. “I can’t be here right now,” I whispered.

Maeve didn’t ask a useless question. She covered the phone, but I heard her.

“Gregor.”

There was a low male answer in the background.

Maeve came back on. “Gregor is on his way.”

My breath shuddered. “Don’t tell Hudson and Lincoln yet.”

“Mary.”

“Please.”

Maeve went quiet. That was worse than if she had argued.

“I’m not running,” I said, though I wasn’t sure who I needed to convince. “I’m just stepping out before I become the reason they lose each other.”

“You’re not the reason,” Maeve said.

My eyes filled. “I know that in my head.”