“It doesn’t matter, because you’re not signing it.”
“Hunter, be reasonable.”
As Parker tried to reach for the paper, I held it aloft. “Yoube reasonable. She’s bonded into the pack.”
Avery leapt up and grabbed the contract, hustling over to hide behind Logan while he read. “Parker, what the fuck, man?”
“Will someonepleaselet me see what it is?” Clover crawled over Logan’s bed toward them, holding out her hand, but Avery hastily shook his head.
“Hunter’s right, you’re not signing this.”
“Not signingwhat?” Clover growled. “Why are you all being so weird?”
Avery whispered in Logan’s ear, wisely holding on to our pack mate, because once Logan knew what it was, he looked like he was about to throw Parker straight through a window.
I advanced on Parker, doing my damn best to keep myself calm. “Howdareyou do this without discussing any of it with us? We’re a pack. You can’t pull shit like this.”
“I’m the only one thinking clearly about all of this. Now that she’s bonded and pregnant, we have assets to protect.”
“Pregnant? What the fuck are you talking about?” I spun to Clover, her expression falling and her scent charring.
“Youknew? How did you find out?Ijust found out.” She leapt toward Avery and got her hands on the contract, wrestling it away from him and sprinting down the hall, and from the sounds of it, down the stairs too.
We were a stampede following her.
Clover locked herself in the guest bathroom on the main floor. Even without a bond, the acrid burn of her scent filtered beneath the door. When she finally opened it, her cheeks were streaked with tears and she was staring directly at Parker.
For the first time in this whole interaction, Parker looked like he understood he’d made a mistake, but he was stubborn as hell.
“Is this really what you think of me?” Clover asked softly. “You found out my whole world was turned upside down, and you decided to put me on a fucking leash? I can’t believe I slept with you.” She crumpled up the contract and hurled it at his chest. “Fuck you.”
I tried to reach for her as she marched past and almost got my fingertips taken off.
“Don’t touch me. None of you touch me. You’re in a pack with an asshole, and I can’t be here right now.”
“Clover, please…” I began, not even sure where the sentence was going.
She was pregnant with our pack baby, and Parker might’ve made her hate us all. “Please don’t. I’ve been through enough today, and if you’re going to make excuses for him, I don’t want to hear it.”
I couldn’t breathe as she went straight out our front door.
“Maybe this is for the best,” Parker suggested, as if he didn’t like his nose unbroken.
My growl had him stepping away. “She’s the mother of our fucking child. She’s Logan’s bond mate. You’d better get your fucking shit together about it, because if you cost us a life with her and our kid, we’re done.”
Chapter 30
Clover
Ihad no idea what I expected from Parker, but it certainly hadn’t been that.
He was grumpy and protective and surly, but everything I’d seen made me think that, deep down, he was at leastsomewhatreasonable. My entire world was tilting on its axis, and here he was throwing a contract at me with stipulations so intense I wanted to scream.
Meadow had driven my car home, so I didn’t have a vehicle to leave, but I did have my phone. I sprinted down the road, and when I was out of sight, with none of the guys visible, I tucked down behind some shrubs and called a rideshare.
I didn’t want to go to Meadow’s and deal with her pitying looks when she realized how badly this pack had treated me, and I didn’t want to be there if the pack came looking for me.
The poor driver probably thought I was insane, given how hard I was blubbering and crying when he arrived.
