God, I don’t want to be in this town anymore.
I don’t want to be anywhere near it.
What am I even doing here?
CHAPTER 12
Hayes
Winterfest is over. Christmas is almost upon us. The festival decorations have been removed, and the Christmas lights, along with massive illuminated ornaments, are going up around town.
Soon, every shop will be decorated. Every lamppost will be strung up with a sea of twinkling lights. And once again, I find myself stuck with a clipboard in my hand and an aching back, picking up the pieces of the weekend that everyone’s too drunk or hungover to deal with.
My boots crunch over the pavement, sweeping up plastic cups, crumpled programs, and half-eaten pretzels that no one bothered to finish.
Welcome to Honeysuckle Grove.
I’m making my rounds when I hear it. You can tell when a rumor’s about to drop, it has that… edge to it, like someone’s trying to tell you something without really saying it.
The hushed voices, the sideways glances. Hell, I don’t even have to look up to know exactly what the rumor is about.
Lo.
I hear her mentioned in a couple of conversations. “Ford” mixed in with her name, and it’s a punch to the gut. The way they’re talking about it, the way they’re speaking her name…
Ford.
Another member of my pack.
Another one with a connection to the woman I have always been in love with, who hasn’t said a word. Not that I’ve seen him while I’ve been so caught up with the festival.
Awesome.
I stop, standing under a busted streetlamp, pretending to fiddle with the clipboard when I’m really just trying to get a grip on the sinking feeling in my stomach.
Yeah, Lo’s back in town. But it doesn’t matter, does it? She’s a hurricane, and I’ve always been the guy standing outside the storm, watching it tear through everything.
Everything is moving in slow motion, but my chest feels like it’s about to rip open. I’m not even angry. I’m just… I don’t know, maybe heartbroken.
Maybe it’s just seeing the way she’s always danced just out of reach. Because I’ve always known she wouldn’t pick me. Why would an Omega want some basic Beta? But damn if it doesn’t hurt to hear the whispers.
It’s worse than I thought it’d be. The little shitheads are probably eating it up.
Ford Maddox and Lo Marsh.
Hell, I can’t even be mad at Ford. He’s just doing what any guy would do, taking what he wants, and Lo… Lo’s the kind of woman you don’t just have, you survive.
But I guess I’ve never been the guy who survives. I’m just the guy who watches, wondering what it would be like to survive.
I take a breath, letting the cool air sting my lungs. I can’t shake this feeling. The feeling that Lo won’t be here for long. That she’s already getting ready to run again.
I know the signs. It’s what she does. What she’s always done. And I’m standing here, watching the clock tick down, knowing I can’t stop it.
She’s back in Honeysuckle Grove, but not for me. Not for any of us. She’s here because she has nowhere else to go, and she’ll leave again when it gets too real, when the past comes clawing at her heels.
And if there has been a connection with me, Ford, and Beck, where the hell will that leave our pack at the end of all of this? Will we all simply be… broken? Casualties of her trying to figure out what in the hell is going on with her life?
My phone buzzes in my pocket, pulling me out of my thoughts. My father.
