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I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged myself to him until there was no space separating us. “I know you do. That’s why this plan makes sense.”
“It also greatly increases the likelihood that something will happen to you.” His thumbs stroked over the arches of my cheeks. “Do you really expect us to live with ourselves if something goes wrong and you end up hurt?”
“Orworse,” Hades grunted.
“You know I don’t want Demi in danger any more than the rest of you,” Eli reasoned. “But we’ll be right there with her the whole time. Statistically speaking, this really is our best choice.”
“I don’t know.” Uncertainty wavered in Thane’s cerulean gaze. He looked… disheveled. Like he’d continuously run his hands through his hair since we started this conversation. “On one hand, I agree with our Omega. Sitting around, waiting for the other shoe to drop is no way to live our lives. On the other, we can protect you within these four walls. Maybe with enough time, Pack Silver will move on and all this will become water under the bridge?”
“I think we all know Demi isn’t a woman you can easily forget.” Hades’ lips twisted when he realized his point gave me an edge, and it wasn’t in the direction he wanted me to go.
I turned in Leo’s arms, resting my back against his chest, and eyed the one man in the room who’d been eerily silent. “Jamison?”
My tall, dark, handsome Alpha heaved a heavy sigh that spoke of his reluctance before he’d uttered a single word.
“I don’t relish the idea of Pack Silver so much as laying eyes on you again,” Jamison said in a voice so low, so deadly, goosebumps rose along my skin. After a long, weighted beat, he relented, “But this isn’t my choice.”
I blanched. “You’re our leader.”
“And you’re our center.”
I blinked. Surely I couldn’t be understanding him correctly. Was he really… putting this decision inmyhands?
He strode closer, each thud of his shoes echoing the beats of my heart. Towering above me, he traced his fingers over my forehead, down my cheek, and along my throat, brushing back my hair and wrapping his hand around the nape of my neck. It was a move that was both possessive and tender.
My chin tipped upward, and the breath stalled in my lungs at the emotion swirling in the sapphiric depths of his gaze.
Gods, this man was beautiful. Powerful and strong. I leaned into that strength, hoping to siphon some to shore up my reserves.
“You’re also my whole heart, Demi Leigh. I love you. Enough to realize when I’m being an overbearing, greedy Alphahole. Do I want to yield to my caveman instincts and lock you away where I can keep you safe and protected? Yes. But I know I’d lose your respect if I dared to try that tactic.”
I softened, though I should probably have been arching an eyebrow at him.
“I love you too,” I promised, “but you’d be right.”
“I heard you when you said you wanted to be an active participant in your own life. No matter what you choose, the pack and I will stand beside you.” His gaze flicked to the other men in the room, who, somewhat begrudgingly, nodded their assent.
Attention settling back on me with stomach-fluttering intensity, he leaned down and slanted a slow, luxurious, toe-curling kiss over my mouth. His tongue slid between my lips and glided against mine in an erotic dance, as though we had all the time in the world to enjoy each other. Finishing it with a nip of my bottom lip and one last graze across the corner of my mouth, he pulled back just enough to stare down at me as though he were memorizing the way I looked at that very moment.
“This decision is yours.”
thirty-one
DEMI
I steppedthrough the entrance into the grand ballroom and barely stopped my jaw from unhinging at the sight of the opulence before me. Crystals dripped from the chandeliers high above, casting pearlescent light down on the colorful crowd below.
The partygoers were dressed in a variety of colors and fine fabrics. Everywhere I looked, there were crisp tuxedos, dresses draping to the floor, and diamonds sparkling on elegant necks in clear displays of wealth.
They’re like peacocks strutting around, flashing their pretty feathers.
I smoothed my clammy hands down the sleek lines of my emerald dress, knowing I needed to blend in and yet feeling like the lone beige crayon in a box full of atomic tangerine, jazzberry jam, and tickle me pink.
An ill sense of detachment flooded my senses.
I’d been raised in these same circles, and yet I’d never felt like more of an outsider.
This wasn’t my life anymore—if it ever had been.
