“Maybe,” I agreed. “But you’re still the one who needs to make that choice. Sure, Heath is part of it. Gage too, now. But it’s your body that’s on the line, not any of ours.”
The silence stretched longer this time.
“Whenever I think about having my mating gland removed, all I feel is sad,” she said eventually. “But I’ve been sad about a lot of things that still needed to be done. Wanting something hasn’t exactly been a big reason for doing things in my life... or fornotdoing them. Survival has.”
I could only imagine.
“You wanted the bond with Gage, though?” I probed. “He certainly seems to want it with you.”
“I did,” she whispered. Then she squared her shoulders. “I do.”
“And what about Heath?”
Her shoulders slumped again. “I don’t know. It seemed so right when I was in heat. So simple.”
“But you’re okay with him and Tony being together?” I asked.
She frowned. “Of course I am! I told Heath he was being an idiot if he turned down someone as sweet as Tony.”
I filed that little tidbit away as being extremely interesting.
“And he listened to you,” I mused. “So, it sounds like you and he might have found some common ground, at the very least.”
“Maybe,” she allowed, but her expression was unsure.
I took a centering breath. “Lorenzo Vozzina tried to have me killed, using you as his weapon,” I said, not sugar-coating it.
She looked down at her bare feet. “Yes.”
“As far as I’m concerned, your mating bonds with Heath and Gage are completely separate from that,” I went on. She looked up again, surprised.
“But—”
I cut her off, shaking my head. “It’s true that our shared past still hangs over us. I can’t forget that you’re my scent match, any more than you can forget I’m yours. But I don’t think trying to act on that would be fair to either of us. Not after everything that’s happened.”
I ignored the surge of alpha stubbornness that snarled in disagreement with the words. This situation was going to be difficult enough to navigate without letting animal instincts steer the boat.
“No,” she breathed. “I guess it wouldn’t be.”
It was time to change the subject, before the soft scent of sadness beneath her omega perfume further roused the beast inside me.
“Regardless of everything else, we still need to get your identity papers, and publicly establish you as part of the pack,” I said briskly, straightening away from my perch. “There’s a charity gala coming up... one that I need to be seen at, so everyone knows I’m back at work and fully recovered.”
Of course,fully recoveredwas a stretch. But the business world was full of sharks, and I had no intention of becoming chum in the water.
“You want me to come with you to this gala?” Jez asked.
“I’d like to make it a pack affair, yes. In fact, I’d like Tony to come as well, if he’s willing.”
She seemed to consider that.
“I’ve never been someone’s arm candy before,” she said, and I thought I could hear a touch of genuine amusement in her tone.
“I sincerely doubt Tony has, either,” I quipped back. “Although, to be clear, I object to the term in both cases. You’re both part of this pack, no matter how unusual the circumstances that brought us to this point.”
“All right,” she said. “I’ll come.”
“Good,” I replied. “Oh... there’s one more thing. I need to finalize the name we’ll be using for your paperwork. Jez is short for...”
