But those hateful words kept flowing. “You can’t resign. This is not a job.”
Garrett shrugged. “We can and we will.”
“We are a Pack. I am your Lord. You can’t just walk away.” The floor was caving underneath my feet.
Simone removed the pin fastened inside her collar, the one denoting her as an Omega to our Pack, and took my hand, pressing the pin inside my palm. “I am an Omega and will be accepted into whatever Pack I choose.”
Garrett nodded. “And I am an Enforcer and powerful enough to become a Lord if I wished.”
“You’d become rogues?”
Simone looked to the space where Evie had disappeared. “No. I know someone who will have a space for us if we wish.”
Garrett’s eyebrows flicked up, but he nodded too.
Panic set in. “I could make you both stay,” I snarled. Not a lie, but if they thought I was a tyrant now, what would forcing them to stay in my Pack do—not only to them, but to the rest of my people?
“You could try,” Garrett said mildly. “But I’d suggest refraining from making a public scene. Your reputation is already in tatters with our people.”
I took a step forward, claws sliding from my fingernails. Rachel started walking across the street, but Simone and Garrett were done. They both took a step back.
“I hope this works out for you,” she said quietly, grief brimming in her eyes.
Garrett said nothing, only gave me a long, searching look before he took Simone’s hand and led her away.
Grief was a fire in my veins as I watched the two most important people in my life walk away, after the first one I’d screwed up with so profoundly.
I needed help.
But then Rachel was standing in front of me, her green eyes flashing in a hypnotic manner, and everything else faded away.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
He answered the phone on the first ring. “What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t help the grin forming on my face. “Do I only call you in an emergency?”
“Yes,” Ben growled. “These days at least.”
“There’s nothing wrong. With me, at least,” I clarified. “But I think there might be something wrong with Caelan.”
Silence over the line for a long moment. “Wrong how?”
I explained a few things, Ben not interrupting. “We broke up a couple of hours ago.”
Ben sighed, and I could hear the sound of something rough rubbing against the phone speaker. “I don’t know, Evie,” he said hesitantly. “Are you sure you haven’t grown apart?”
I took the phone away from my ear and stared down at it in disbelief. “A few weeks ago, he asked me to marry him!”
I could almost see his wince through the phone. “I know. I’m not saying you did anything to cause this?—”
“You sure as hell better not be!” I snapped.
Dad, sitting in the kitchen, eating the caramel popcorn I special ordered, laughed.
I covered the speaker and hissed, “Do not eat all my popcorn!”
