I flinch, despite myself. “Believe me. You wouldn’t be my first choice either.”
Theo reaches out, and I waver. But he grips my arm, in exactly the same place where Oscar did. I bite down on my tongue to stop myself from crying out as he shakes me. “What the fuck did you do?”
Mating bonds are rare. Rare enough that I almost don’t blame him for his disbelief. But anger still seeps in, filling in the cracks of my heart they’re creating with every moment that they justfuckingstandthere. “I didn’t do anything. Get your damn hands off me.”
Anger is easier. I have more than enough of it to spare. And I’d rather show them my anger than my pain.
I don’t know what hurts more – Theo’s grip, or the distance when he pulls back. I have to stop myself from moving with him, and I bite the inside of my cheek hard, tasting copper and iron on my tongue as I take a step away from them.
My thoughts churn.
This doesn’t change anything, Kennedy.
Realization is a shock of cold water.
It only makes it more important.
They can’t know. They can never know.
“Impossible.” Theo’s eyes glint again as he runs a hand through his hair. The newly acquired tattoo on his neck flexes, the hand wrapped around his throat a mockery of the feeling that closes up my own as I watch him warily. “What thefuck?”
“Theo,” Oscar murmurs. He looks shell shocked. “This is not the place.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he spits out the words. “Do any of you want her?”
As if I’m a thing, to be passed around. My cheeks heat. And one by one, they all shake their heads. Jake hesitates, but he looks away as he agrees with them.
They don’t want me.
They’re certainly not going to be saving me.
And it shouldn’t matter. Because I’m going somewhere they can’t follow. Somewhere I’d never want to trap them, and fuck Abrams and his suggestion for giving me that tiny piece of hope in the first place.
But somehow, it does matter. It matters a lot, I realize.
Of all the people in the world, I would have at least liked my mates to want me.
Dull, heavy numbness steals over my body as I turn away.
“Where the hell are you going?” Theo snaps behind me. “We have things to discuss.”
I stop. At my side, my hands curl into fists. “You seem to have decided everything. I have a job to do. Enjoy your food.”
I breathe in and out as I stride away, cutting through the watching crowd and pushing the kitchen door open.
A moment later, Mick follows me. His face is almost purple. “I saidno trouble.”
“There’ll be no trouble from me.” I reach for my apron, but he stops me, blocking my path.
“You broke glasses.” He thrusts the pan into my hands. “Clean them up.”
For fucks’ sake. “I’ll swap half my wages not to go back out there tonight.”
“Then you don’t come back at all.”
I resist the urge to punch him in his wide-set nose. “Fine.”
I don’t look. Not as I stride back into the still quiet room, pushing through until I reach the area where broken glass sprinkles the floor. The hushed conversation cuts off as I kneel, sweeping up the pieces.
