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“I didn’t think much of it then. Della had everything taken away from her. All her games. All her books. Mom took my…”Pencils and sketchpad.“She took things Della had given me. The next morning, she called the school to tell them that Della was sick and wouldn’t be going in for two months. She wouldn’t even let us go into the garden. Not for months.”
Rune blinks. “That seems a touch excessive.”
My shoulders relax. They believe me. And they are seeing things the way I am. “I thought she was afraid someone would hurt us. Now I wonder if her fear was because of what someone might do to her if they learned we’d snuck out.”
Kylian slowly nods, his expression thoughtful.
I study him—studythem—aware I’m sharing things about myself I had no intention of sharing with anyone. I thought I’d hide out at their mansion for a couple of days. When Lawrence scaled back his search for me, I’d find a quiet studio to rent, pick up a night job where no one would see my face, and live a quiet, ordinary life.
A quiet life broken up by searching for Della.
In less than a day, these three alphas have discovered more about me and Della than it would have taken me a month or more to learn. If I ever learned it at all. How easy is it to find out if someone owns their house outright?
I don’t want to keep relying on them more than I have already, but if I want to know the truth about Della and about me, I feel like I must.
Even if it’s starting to feel like I’m using them.
Guilt curls in my belly at what I’m doing. Using them. Shaking my head, I put my hands on the table and rise. “I can’t involve you in this. Lawrence could and would destroy you if he learned I was here. And these questions… they’re for me to find answers to. Not you.”
They slowly push themselves to their feet, mirroring me.
“We want to help, Everleigh. Let us,” Rune says.
I peer across the table at him, frowning. “I’m a potentially life-destroying problem to you. Why would you help me?”
For several seconds, no one speaks, and then Rune says quietly, “Because we can.”
I eye him steadily. “And you want nothing in return?”
“Well…” Cian says slowly. “If you wanted to keep giving me dance lessons, I wouldn’t say no.”
I don’t smile, even as I wonder at the intensity in his khaki-green gaze. “You’ve been kind in letting me stay and buying me clothes, but you’ve done enough.Morethan enough. I can’t ask you to do more.”
Turning, I prepare to walk away.
“You’re not asking us to do anything we aren’t offering to do for free.” Kylian’s voice stops me. “Let us help you.”
What happened to the playboy alpha with a wicked smile that makes a girl think of spending a night under the cover with her vibrator? Because this guy?Thisalpha sounds protective as hell.
And sweet.
Too sweet to be the playboy alpha.
I rake a hand through my hair, wishing I’d known all this before. “I could go to the police, but the first thing they would do is take me to a waiting room, sit me down, and call Lawrence to collect me. They won’t want to listen to anything I said about Anna Jackson selling me to him. And the Omega Institute… the leader is friends with Lawrence’s dad. They will accuse me of lying.”
“Sowewill do what they won’t,” the determination in Rune’s voice makes me turn.
Don’t get attached, Everleigh. You’re letting yourself get attached to alphas who already smell far too good to you than any alpha ever has.
“That would involve me staying here. With you,” I say. “It isn’t a good idea.”
Especially when my heat can’t be far away.
“You’re safe,” Cian says quietly. “We would never do anything you don’t want.”
I almost believe him. I’m not safe from the one thing none of us can escape for long: biology.
When my heat comes, I’ll be begging them for their knots, and even if they swore not to touch me, their instincts will make saying no impossible.
