I also managed not to cry.
At least, until I made it to Zoe’s house, with that stupid cake dome still sitting on my lap and my stupid body still basically on fire with need.
As soon as she opened her front door, I burst into tears.
“What happened?” she demanded. “And why is there makeup smeared all around one of your eyes?”
I held out the cake.
Her forehead creased, and she pulled me inside. “Did Jade turn you down or something?”
I spilled the story on the way to the couch.
We spent the night curled up next to each other on the cushions, buried in a blanket, with snacks all around us while the most unromantic medical TV drama played in the background.
Zoe slept.
I didn’t. I was too horny and in too much pain to do that.
But at least I wasn’t alone.
three
FINN
A pairof shorts hit me in the face and fell onto my lap. They were wet. Everything was. It had been raining since Emmy drove away the night before.
“How long have you been sitting there?” Nico asked.
“A couple hours.”
He sat down on the step next to me. “All night, then.”
My jaw flexed.
I didn’t try to stop him from sitting, despite the instincts that screamed at me to get him out of my territory so it wouldn’t smell like him when my mate came back.
She wasn’t fucking coming back.
I’d ensured that, hadn’t I?
“Her eyes were watering,” I gritted out.
“Abby said Emmy cries all the time. They joke about it.”
“It didn’t feel like a joke.”
“She’s your mate, Finn. It’s never going to feel like a joke.”
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe slowly through my nose. “She told Abby what happened?”
“Zoe called her and Stella this morning and caught them up.”
“Zoe’s her best friend?”
“Emmy’s best friend, yeah. She went to Zoe’s after she left here, and spent the night at Zoe’s place.”
I gritted my teeth as the wolf in me nearly shoved his way out. He didn’t want his mate spending the night with anyone else during the climax, even platonically.
