"Hey, sleeping beauty. I thought you'd be out all day."
"The food hit hard," I said. A yawn stretched my face and I sat up. "What time is it?"
"Just after noon. Come on, the guys have a surprise for you."
"How do you know that?"
"We talked a bit while you were asleep." He didn't elaborate, so I just followed him out of the room.
Aiden poked his head out of the kitchen and then called out, "She's up!"
Finn and Mace came racing down the stairs, surprising me. I jerked a little and Geo tucked me under his arm.
"You're good," he murmured. "They're just eager to please."
"Ready to go shopping?" Finn asked, boucing a little on the balls of his feet.
"I guess." I frowned, not sure why everyone was acting like this.
We filed out the door to where the limo was waiting. Geo raised an eyebrow as Marco got out and opened the door for us.
"Good to see you again, ma'am," the driver said, giving me a smile.
"Thanks, you too, Marco." I slid into the limo and the smile fell off my face instantly.
"What's wrong?" Finn asked, from his seat across from me.
A cold shiver ran down my spine, but I tried not to let it affect me. I turned to look out the window, ignoring Finn's question as their scents filled the small space. Then Geo's crisp grapefruit scent hit and it mixed with the others, turning it into something different.
He immediately noticed that something was off, despite the fact we'd only spent a few days together. Geo's strong arms wrapped around me and he pulled me onto his lap so my back was to the others, except for Mace, who sat on Geo's other side.
"What's going on? Do you need me to call an Uber?"
"No. It's just . . . for a minute, all the memories came back," I said quietly, knowing the others were listening. "The last trip to the institute and then riding home alone after seeing them with Andrea . . . "
"Who is Andrea?" His voice was cold and hard as steel.
"Our PR partner. She no longer works with us," Mace said. "I guess she looked too cozy with us."
"She told me about your no omega policy." I buried my face in Geo's neck, sniffing him to calm myself.
"We never had a . . . " Finn's voice dropped off. "Oh, fuck."
"You better explain right now." Geo rubbed my back, waiting for their answer as he soothed me.
"We did talk to her that night about giving Liora up. Andrea pointed out how much time we spent with her and how much faster we could have built the business. We'd already been discussing it and we made the decision to . . . send her to the ORC." Mace's voice was heavy with guilt. "But Andrea didn't make the decision, we did."
"She acted like you'd chosen her," I said. "And you did. When you called her up on stage and never even glanced at me." I lifted my head from Geo's shoulder and looked at my former mates.
Venom filled my words as I spit them out. "I was there for you, supporting you, waiting up to make sure you ate and got sleep, for six years while you built that business. I was there every step of the way, doing what I could to make your life easier. But you decided that I was just a burden. That I was holding you back somehow."
"We were idiots." Aiden sighed. "I'm so, so sorry, Li. I know it's too late now, but we did see what you'd brought us after the fact. We went back to the ORC, but they said you were in mandatory training and wouldn't be available to a pack for another year."
"Well, it was almost a year when they gave me to Pack Parker." I fought back tears. "I guess they rushed it. The pack probably paid them off or something, just like the inspection."
The limo pulled up in front of Swan's Nest, the top nesting store in the city and I raised an eyebrow. "What's this?"
"You need bedding. They have bedding," Mace offered.
