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“You can scent her. What did you say it was like?”
His eyes closed, and he let out a soft groan. “Strawberry shortcake.”
Had I scented her all those years ago? I’d thought she used a strawberry shampoo. Sometimes I even looked for it at the store, thinking I could bring home a reminder of that night. Seven fucking years I’d been thinking about her.
“We have to get the place looking good. I want to show her the nest.” Jonah and Toby were nodding, but Luke was looking at his feet. “Luke, speak up.”
His head lifted, and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “What happened between the two of you?” he asked.
He was deflecting, but I was going to have to tell them eventually.
“I met her seven years ago. It was right after college graduation. I went to visit my buddy Joseph at Western. They still had a couple weeks left of school. She was at the same party, and we talked for hours. I went home with her.”
I shook my head, images of that night still vivid. The guys were hanging on my words and I debated not revealing everything, but we were pack. They needed to know.
“I thought she was a beta, but when we were in bed…she took my knot.”
Jonah and Toby both shifted in place, chests heaving, eyes wide. Luke stared with that blank expression that was starting to worry me. He pushed for more. “Then what happened?”
“I…I left. Before she woke up. Went back to Joseph’s place and came home that afternoon.” Jonah started to growl, and I raised my hands. “I felt like a piece of shit for leaving, but it took me a couple of weeks to go back and look for her. By then, she was gone. I didn’t know her name, and neither did Joseph, and the campus had basically cleared out.”
Toby pushed up his glasses on his nose and frowned. “Let me get this right. That girl took your knot, and you left without even getting her name? And you never told us about her? What the fuck, Will.”
“I thought she was a beta and there wasn’t a future there. Edward had been talking about us all getting a house together and finding our omega after we got settled, and I didn’t want to make things complicated. I never stopped thinking about her. It was the only time a woman’s taken my knot, but it was more than that. When I walked away from her room, I felt physical pain in my chest.” I looked at each of them, meeting their eyes. “This is fate, Jonah finding her and scenting her. I think she’s ours.”
Toby crossed his arms and looked down. He’d have to process all that, I knew.
Jonah raked his hands through his hair and glared at me. “I’m trying hard not to beat the shit out of you right now. If you fucked this up for us…”
“She’s coming to our place. I can fix this.Wecan fix this. She likes you guys.” I offered a dumb smile and got nothing but angry looks back. God, I did have to fix it. This could rip the pack apart, and it would be on me.
Luke kicked at a loose rock on the pavement. “I’m not as sure about her as you all are. She doesn’t seem like my type.”
What the fuck did that mean? Oh…
“Is it because you can’t scent her?”
Color rose in his cheeks. “Maybe. It is kind of important.”
“Stay home on Wednesday, give her a chance. Sit next to her on the couch. Hell, take her climbing with you. If you still don’t feel anything after that, we can talk about it.” I was using my alpha voice, telling him what to do, but I couldn’t force him to feel something for her.
What if he tried, but just didn’t feel the same way we did? It was then that I realized my loyalties were already shifting. If it was a question of losing her or losing Luke, would I be willing to let him go? Our pack was still fragile after losing Edward, so I pushed that thought away. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.
Luke crossed his arms, looking like a mirror image of Toby. It didn’t happen often. Then he nodded.
“I’ll stay home. I’ll try.”
“Thanks.” I gripped his shoulder. This wasn’t easy for him, and I wasn’t sure why he was struggling.
There was a purpose driving me now that hadn’t been there before. We all split up to go to our cars, and I couldn’t wait to get home and get things ready. She was my purpose. Now I just had to convince her of that.
7
SYLVIE
“You’re looking fancy today,” Allison said when she came into the gallery. “Do we have a donor visiting?”
I wanted to be annoyed at her, but she was right. I didn’t ever dress up for work unless we expected someone important.
