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The conversation was a lot lighter as we ate our food, both of them teasing me about dipping my sandwich in ketchup as I ate.
It felt as if the twins were just catching each other up on life and what they’d missed the last few months.
When the conversation lulled, I couldn’t help butting in.
“Can I ask you something that’s been bothering me?” It, honestly, felt like Morgan has been hanging over us, a shadow lurking in the corners and waiting to swoop in and break up this relationship. She’d broken their hearts but I wasn’t sure just how deeply they felt about her. Fate was an almost unbreakable bond, but a well-honed chosen bond could easily rival it.
“You can ask us anything,” Dean said. “We’re a pack, right?”
“Are we?” I questioned. “No one has really said it out loud. If they all come tonight, it’s the first time we’ll all be in the same room.”
“I think everybody was just afraid to dive in too soon. We’ve all had some setbacks. We had ours. Then Ezra…” Atlas trailed off.
It was nice and everybody was keeping his secret for him, letting him be the one to tell me when he was ready. But we’d already crossed that bridge.
“He told me about his mom and sister.”
“Exactly,” Atlas said. “We had our issues, too. Not just this separation, but our past with Morgan. I don’t know Collin’s story at all.”
“I do and he’s got reason to be just as jaded as the rest of us,” I said with a humorless laugh.
“What was your original question?” Dean asked as he sat his burger down.
“Did you love her? And I’m not asking that in a ‘I want to be jealous’ way, I’m asking because she has a way of swooping in and taking what she wants. What happens if we form a pack and she comes back and demands that you go back to her? What then? You have a history with her.”
I knew I was letting my insecurities talk and I was half terrified of what they would say. It wasn’t the first time I’d done something to prevent future heartbreak and I doubted it would be the last. I couldn’t find it in me to regret bringing it out into the open.
Dean frowned but looked like he was about to get nauseous.
“That bridge is burned,” he promised me. “Anything that I felt for Morgan is gone. All I have left for her is anger and hurt. I don’t wish her harm or anything but not only did she hurt us, she hurt our omega. She’s shown her true colors, I have no desire to be with a person who can lie so easily and wreck lives, yet hold her head high.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” He didn’t look up as he pushed his food on his plate. It had been an emotional night and this wasn’t helping. It had to be said, though.
“We’ve always lived in Lockwood. It’s not like we had a city full of prospects at our fingertips. Morgan was relentless. She seemed so genuine and I loved that she was straightforward and honest, but, obviously, I was way off on that. There’s no nice feelings left for her.”
“As far as the pack goes. I’m all in. I’m still sorry for how we started out but I don’t want anyone else,” Dean said, seeing right through my questioning to the root of the issue.
I couldn’t hide the smile that spread across my face at the conviction in his voice.
“Good, because I want this, too. I didn’t know how we’d all come together and I’m sure that it’s not going to be easy, but I’m all in, too.”
“I’ve never felt the way I do about you with anyone else before. It feels natural, easy, you bring out the best in me… the best in us,” he said, glancing at his brother. “I’m all in, too.”
A knock on the door put our conversation on hold. Dean got up and went to answer the door, revealing Collin.
He’d definitely tried to clean himself up tonight. His hair was styled and he was wearing dark jeans, clean shoes that weren’t marred from all the work he did during the day, and a navy-blue henley that complemented his hazel eyes.
“I heard there was a pack date tonight,” Collin said. He sounded more sure than he usually did.
He gravitated toward me immediately, leaning down and slanting his lips over mine in a claiming kiss. It didn’t feel like he was inciting jealousy, simply putting his one claim on me as well.
When he pulled away there was a wide grin on his face. “I was hoping I’d see you tonight.”
“We were just talking about the pack,” Atlas said bluntly. Apparently, he was the official pack organizer, forcing the other men to be on the same page. “We all three just said how we were ready to move forward with this pack and weren’t going to let anything hold us back. Where do you stand?”
“Damn,” Collin said with a laugh. “Starting off with the big guns.” He absently brought my wrist to his cheek, rubbing my soft skin against the stubble there as he scent-marked me right in front of the others, adding his scent to the mix. I breathed in Collin’s campfire-and-wood scent and sighed.
“She’s my omega. What she wants, I want.”
