“Treating me like glass won’t solve anything, and you know that. We’re not at Scents right now—there’s no need to protect me. But if you want to skip out on movie night, be my guest.”
“Yeah,Trav,” Rowan says from the doorway. “Skip out. More time for us.”
I can’t help but smile at Travis’s scowl.
Ash makes his way from my lap to Travis’s and collapses dramatically, letting out a pleased chirp.
Travis’s frown deepens, and I laugh.
11
RYLAND
She’s here.
Blair ishere, in my home, and somehow, she’s about to be watching a movie with me.
Travis has been stupidly protective of her, trying to order us around and telling us to stay away from her—and I get it, I do.
He’s known her longer than us. He’s spent every day crushing on her before I even met her at the rescue, so it makes sense he would be careful with how we navigate this.
Rowan, however, could give a fuck less.
“She’s our match, too,” he huffs, angrily shoving a bag of popcorn into the microwave. “He’s hoarding her to himself.”
“You heard her talking to him,” I say, retrieving a bowl from the cabinet. “Tonight is a fucked-up night for her.”
My jaw dropped when I overheard her admission to Travis.
She truly believes that she’s the reason for her ex pack’s accident.
Which isn’t true, of course, but we barely know each other, and we haven’t really talked much since I handed her my clothes to wear.
My inner Alpha is pleased to see them on her, knowing my scent is what covers her body.
But it doesn’t cover up the scent of her shame, or the way her sweet, floral violet sours when she brings up her past.
“I can sense how upset she is,” Rowan mutters. “I can sense it, and I’ve hardly talked to her. It…hurts.”
Rowan’s always been the sensitive one. He’s able to pick up on moods before others, so I can’t begin to imagine how torturous this is for him.
His hands shake when he pulls open the microwave door, and the popcorn bag quivers in his grip as he pours it into a bowl.
“It just takes time,” I murmur. “It’ll be fine.”
“You don’t believe that,” he counters. “I know you don’t. This could all turn to shit before it even starts. She could still reject us.”
I nod.
I don’t know how any of us could survive a rejected scent match, and tonight feels like an audition I haven’t prepared for.
If she rejects this connection, I won’t know how to pull my brother out of his spiral.
“Thanks again for the clothes,” a light voice says, and I turn to see Blair smiling softly at me, Ash in her arms. The smile is tight and doesn’t quite meet her eyes, but it’s better than the salty scent of her tears.
“Of course,” I murmur. “Anytime.”
Rowan has done a fantastic job of keeping his poker face on, confidence and playfulness lacing his tone. “Movie night at three in the morning. My kind of girl.”
