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And now in a manner of minutes, it was all going to come crashing down around me. Fate could be cruel. I’d learned that once before, but the pain I felt now was so much more intense. In my heart, I knew that Nyla wasn’t just going to toss me aside like trash, but tell that to my broken heart and twisted mind.
“God, we both needed therapy in the worst way,” I muttered.
The sound of footsteps had me looking up. Nyla was approaching and she looked worried. Guilt panged in my chest at the sight of her crestfallen expression. I knew damn well what mates meant to her, how traumatic it could be, and I’d ditched her to run down here and have my own pity party.
Fuck.
“Hey, are you okay? You know this doesn’t change things for us, right? I don’t know what the fuck kind of joke this is but I’m not going to just jump into bed with our rivals. Not only is that likely frowned upon, but I also have no desire to give someone with no morals a chance with me.”
“You don’t even know them,” I said weakly. “What if it’s all just a huge misunderstanding and in reality you can’t resist each other? I’ve seen the pull mates can have.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “Yeah andweare mates, too, you dumbass.”
“Sure…we definitely are, Nyla. But they’re not my mates.”
“Again, that changes nothing,” she argued. “You’re mine and we’re a package deal. I’m not saying that I’m going to give them a chance, but even if I was, I would never do it at your expense. I’m not Sawyer.” She was in fight mode, ready to kick my ass to make me see this wasn’t the same situation. That alone had some of my pain slithering back to the hole it came from.
“No, you’re not,” I agreed. But apparently, trauma had a way of hitting you like a tidal wave, putting you right back where you started. Even if it was temporary, it felt just as fucking terrible as it did then.
Nyla wasn’t having it, though.
“Would you push me away for a mate?” Her words were fierce and I winced at the idea.
“Of course not,” I said without hesitation. She’d been thrown away once and I hated the man who left her at the empty altar to fix all of his mistakes. She deserved better.
Fuck. So did I.
“Dammit,” I groaned. “Why do you have to come in with all the logic?”
“That’s what I do,” she joked. We both fell silent for a moment as I mulled over the change that was without a doubt coming our way.
“You know they’re not going to just let this go, right?” I pointed out. She chewed on her bottom lip, something she did when she was nervous. I never considered Nyla as anything but the strong, independent woman she was. Most days. But as I stared up at her right now she was vulnerable. I hated that today brought that out of her, just like she’d feared. We’d only been here thirty minutes and already the world felt like it was imploding.
This was definitely going to be an interesting week.
ChapterSix
Nyla
My only mission the next day, beside kicking ass, was to avoid my two new mates. It was a chaotic mix of looking around corners and sneaking away anytime they came into view. To the rest of the hotel, I likely looked psychotic but desperate times called for desperate measures.
In their minds, I was probably the worst possible scenario to be paired with. They probably had enough frustration to fuel today’s competition. But I couldn’t find it in me to care. I was in way over my head here.
“It says we need to report to ballroom three. How many ballrooms does this hotel have? Do they actually throw balls in Madison?” Zath snarked as he flipped through the information we were given. This hotel was more of a maze than I expected.
I snorted at that. “I've never been to a ball and I grew up here…wait there's a sign.” A gaudy black-and-gold plaque was hanging on the corner. Zath pulled me down the hallway and we realized that we didn’t actually need directions. There was a line leading into one of the rooms. Thankfully, it was moving quickly as the staff got everyone to their designated areas.
When we got to the front, the girl took one look at our lanyard and gestured in the opposite direction of the audience.
They had everything set up like the set of a TV show, with the audience off to one side and our stations on the other. In the middle was the judge’s table.
The crowd was already huge and growing by the second. There were no less than a hundred people ready to watch us. This whole event was surreal. We were just a small bar from Willow Grove and I felt like such an imposter. The only real reassurance was that the other contestants looked just as freaked out as I did.
Our station was essentially just a narrow, tall table with a shelf behind it. Apparently, that was our full pantry since it was lined with rows of booze and ingredients. It took some of my worries away seeing how well stocked they were. Anything we could possibly need, we’d have.
Cameramen walked around with their equipment, getting shots of the audience and us as they panned the room. It took everything in my power to not look like a deer in headlights.
“This is so fucking cool!” Zath hissed. This level of enthusiasm was rare for him. I didn’t think I'd ever seen him this open and giddy.
