“They haveneverbeen my family. Callum and Archer are my family. And Juniper. If she wants to be. Even if she doesn’t want to be, I need to make sure she’s safe.”
He studies me for so long that I start to think I wasted my time.
I turn to walk away.
“Tell me about the people who would hurt Juniper,” he orders, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.
I don’t like orders. Most alphas don't. But this is about Juniper. About making sure she’s safe. So I lean against the side of his house, and I tell him about my poisonous family's hold over us all and about the best friend my mom turned into my enemy.
Chapter 29
June
“What. The.Hell!” I clamp my pillow against my ears to muffle the banging in the hallway. It doesn’t muffle shit.
I’ve spent the last two days barely sleeping, so on edge that Oscar/Wilkes will hurt me, that the one time I actually get a decent night’s sleep, someone drilling into a damn wall wakes me early on my day off.
Dragging myself out of bed, I blink blearily around me and head into the bathroom to wash up. I’m mid-shower when someone bangs on my door. I consider ignoring it.
The banging persists.
“Why on my day off?” I mutter, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around myself. After slipping on my bathrobe, I hurry to the front door.
I peer through the peephole and frown. “Huh?”
Still frowning, I unlatch my door, swing it open, and stare down at the grocery bags at my feet.
“I got two more for ya.”
I jump, whirling toward the unfamiliar male voice.
A grocery delivery guy is carrying two large paper bags toward me. He must have set those down near the top of thestairs and brought the first load to my door, banged on it, and gone back to get the rest.
I hold the front of my robe closed, shuddering when water from my wet hair drips down the back of my neck. “I didn’t order this.”
He sets the bags down and turns to leave. “Well, someone did. See you in two weeks.”
My gaze, having drifted to the bags at my feet, snaps back to him. “Wait,two weeks?”
“It’s a paid-for recurring order, lady. I just deliver. Don’t want it, toss it.”
He walks away, and I study the bags at my feet.
Who would order groceries for me?
More drilling starts up a few doors down. I don’t know everyone who lives on my floor, but whoever is drilling has barely let up since they wokemeup.
I carry the groceries inside and search through the bags in case they came with a note.
No note. No answers in the bag. Just a whole load of groceries I did not order.
My mind is declaring that there are only three people who could and would do something like this. Time to confirm it. After hunting down my cell phone, I hit redial. It rings twice as I stand there, my stomach grumbling when I spot a packet of chocolate chip cookies.
I turn my back on it.
“Is something wrong?” Callum asks, sounding distracted.
“You ordered me groceries,” I accuse.
