Page 80 of The Florist and Her Alphas

“Nowhere.”

“Liana,” he says again. “Where are you going?”

I straighten up. Face them. Force a smile that feels brittle on my face. I can’t keep delaying this.

“Thank you,” I say, trying to make my voice sound light. “For letting me stay and taking care of me through my heat. It was amazing. But my flower shop has been closed for days. I need to get back to my real life.”

Ezra’s face changes. Something shutters behind his eyes. Julian takes one step forward. Cole’s jaw tightens. August’s eyes go wide behind his glasses.

“Your real life,” Ezra says slowly. Like he’s asking a question.

I do not meet his eyes. “My flowers are dying. I have a wedding bouquet that’s two days overdue. I’ve been gone too long.”

“You know what we mean. You’re still our omega, right?” asks Julian slowly.

The question hangs in the room.

They never officially asked me, and I never gave a commitment.

The four brothers are all looking at me. Their bodies have gone very still. They look like men who have just realized they may have read the same situation completely differently than I have.

“I need time,” I say. Quietly. My eyes are on the floor. “This has been a lot. The last five days have been the most intense days of my life, and I don’t want to make a decision about the rest of my life right now.”

“What?” says August in shock.

I take a breath. “I need to sleep in my own bed tonight. I need to be alone with my own thoughts.”

Please do not push me. Please let me go.

Ezra is looking at me with a steady, controlled grief I have never seen on his face before. His hands are fisted at his sides. Julian has gone very pale. August has tears in his eyes, tracking silently down his cheeks. Cole is the only one who moves.

He crosses the great room slowly and stops a careful arm’s length from me.

“At least let me walk you home,” he says quietly.

“Alright,” I say, biting my lip. Seeing the heartbreak of a lack of commitment in their eyes makes me want to cry. I don’t want to leave. I love them. But I stop myself from saying the words because I don’t want to make the biggest mistake of my life. I already miss them.

Cole quickly throws on a jacket and jeans as the rest of the alphas stand there to watch me go. After being with them so intimately for days, it feels like I’m ripping a piece of my heart out.

Pepper, on his perch by the windows, has fluffed all his feathers up to twice his normal size. He is watching us in unusual silence, his yellow head cocked, his pupils pinned to tiny black points.

Cole opens the front door of the penthouse for me. As I step through, I glance back over my shoulder. Ezra is looking at me. His gray eyes are wet. Julian has not moved with shock, and August’s glasses are misty.

The elevator closes behind us in silence.

Cole does not speak. He stands beside me in the descending car, his body warm and solid and steady, and he does not ask me why I’m leaving.

I am grateful for that.

Twenty

LIANA

The short drive to my shop is silent.

Cole keeps both hands on the wheel, his eyes on the road, and I keep my forehead against the cool window glass and watch the city of New York slide by. Neither of us says anything the whole way.

I don’t know what I would say if I tried. There’s really no explanation on my part, except that I need to think. He silently parks the car, and we both walk towards the front door of my shop. It’s still dark out since it’s 5 am.