Beau came out on the front porch and stood next to Julius. He'd been filled in on this latest incident as well. “Get da fuck out of here, Gage. You aren't welcome right now. Maybe not ever again. Dat'll be up to Mia, if she forgives you, yet again, for hurtin' her. If I had my way, she'd cut you off for good, but Mia's stubborn. Even if you aren't good for her, she'll keep lettin' you walk all over her because of how she feels.”
Gage wanted to scream at them but he knew he didn't have any right to. They were protecting their sister. “Will you at least tell her I was here?”
They looked at each other. “Yeah, we'll tell her. She'll wanna ring our necks if we don't and she finds out.”
Gage nodded and walked away. He wasn't paying attention and bumped into his Alpha on the way back to where he'd left the boat.
“You look like you just lost your best friend.”
“I tink maybe I did.”
Caine cocked a brow. “What happened?”
Gage couldn't look him in the eye. “Mia surprised me wit' a visit on campus. Da only problem was, I wasn't alone. I've been seein' someone and she was dere...uh...givin' me head, and Mia saw us. I've really done it dis time. I've been tellin' myself I need to let her finish growin' up. She's still got another whole year of school after dis one, and after what happened to her, I don't want to overwhelm her wit' how I feel. But I tink...I tink I really messed up and I don't know how to fix it. I hurt her and dat's da last ting I ever wanted to do.”
Caine listened to him and took time to think on what Gage said before he responded. “Gage, you need to decide what you really want. Do you want to keep foolin' around wit' random girls? If so, you need to let Mia go so she can try to heal and move on. You can't keep playin' dis game wit' her, chasin' after her only when you do someting stupid like gettin' caught wit' some girl's mouth wrapped around your dick.”
Gage hung his head in shame. “My mama tinks Mia and I are mates, because of how protective I am of her and how crazy I got when Cole drugged her. But how can dat be? We're too young for dat, aren't we?”
Caine shook his head. “Age has no'ting to do wit' da mate bond. It's a connection between your beasts. Tell me someting. When you're wit' dis girl, are youreallywit' her? In your head, is it her or is it Mia?”
“Mia.” Gage didn't hesitate.
“Dere's your answer. If she wasn't your mate, you'd be able to separate your mind from her when wit' someone else. You'd really be wit' dem. Now, I don't know exactly how you're gonna fix dis mess you made wit' Mia, but I'm sure you'll figure it out.”
“If she'll ever talk to me again. She didn't even come home, she's at a friend's house, and I'm not welcome at da Lafluer's anymore.”
“She's kin, dey're gonna protect her as much as she'll let dem. If you really care about her, you'll find a way.” With that, Caine walked away.
Gage thought about what Caine said all the way back to campus. He needed to end things with Carrie...and he needed to figure out how in the fuck he was going to fix the damage he'd done to his relationship with Mia.
Chapter Eleven
Mia
Mia awoke to sunlight piercing her eyes. Her head ached, which told her she drank way too much considering she was a shifter and she should have already metabolized all the alcohol from her system. It took her several minutes to realize two things. The first, that she was naked beneath the sheet that covered her. The second, she wasn't alone. She turned her head and squinted until the person next to her came into focus.
She suddenly felt sick. Oh god. She'd gotten totally wasted at the party. She wished she could forget everything that happened, it would make this so much easier, but she couldn't. She'd started making out with Seth Conners, a senior who was on the football team and knew Gage from the year before. He also knew Cole. She started to shake at the realization that she'd slept with him. She didn't even know if they used protection. Her memory was too fuzzy on the details.
She crawled out of the bed and scrambled to find her clothes. She needed to get out of there before he woke up. She needed to go home and crawl into a hole and never come out again. How could she have let herself get so drunk she ended up sleeping with someone she had zero interest in?
“Where ya going?”
The question was mumbled sleepily but she heard it anyway. “Home. Dis was a mistake.”
“You didn't seem to think so last night when you were all over me.”
Mia tugged her clothes on and turned to him. “Yeah, well, I was wasted. Dat won't happen again. Neither will dis.”
“Suit yourself, babe. I'm cool with it just being a random hookup. I gotta admit, I was a little surprised you were a virgin. I figured Gage was hitting that, with the way he was always in people's faces any time they even looked like they were going to hit on you.”
Mia snorted. “He's too busy getting his dick sucked by other girls.” She could hear the bitterness in her voice. She opened the door, glanced back, then left.
The sunlight made her eyes tear up as she reached the car. She dug around in the glove box until she found the sunglasses she knew were in there then she headed for the docks, and home.
Beau and Julius were sitting on the porch when Mia finally came home. They'd been discussing trying to track her down because it was late morning and she wasn't answering her phone. When they saw her disheveled look they both cocked a brow at her. “What happened to you?”
“I don't wanna talk about it.” She pushed past her twin and cringed a little because she knew they could smell another person's scent on her. And the stale odor of sex.
