Ethan scrubs his face. “Did you get Sloane’s letter?”
My face scrunches. What the hell is he talking about?
“The letter. She left it in your locker,” he reiterates.
“It doesn’t matter. Did you know?”
He tenses and sighs.
“This wasn’t how this was all supposed to happen. Where’s the fucking letter?” he asks.
I’m shoving his shoulder to get him to leave my house as he barrels past me and opens my bag, digging out a white envelope with my name scrawled on the front.
“This letter, read it, then we’ll talk.”
I snatch the letter out of his hand, a deep sense of regret still filling me. As much as I’d like to just figure out a way to work through my feelings, I can’t do that with him here. And as frustrated as I am, I can’t stomach the thought of manhandling him out of my home either.
I pry the letter open and unfold the paper written in Sloane’s neat handwriting.
Bram,
I’m writing you this letter so that I can get everything off my chest without stumbling, crying, or making a complete fool of myself.
I think it’s pretty obvious by now that my feelings for you are real and deep. You’re the first Alpha I truly saw a future with. You’re honestly the entire reason I wanted to work for the Foxes this year. I needed a reason to be around you, and things progressed so beautifully and quickly between us.
None of that has changed. I still see you as my Alpha and the man I want in my pack.
But there’s something I’ve been hiding, and I didn’t know how to tell you.
The night of the charity gala, I realized that Max Connery is my scent match. It’s why I acted the way I did in the bathroom and why I haven’t been myself lately.
Max doesn’t know, and I haven’t told him. I couldn’t in good conscience act on this until I told you what was going on.
I know you don’t like him, and you’ve warned me multiple times to stay away, and out of respect for you, I have.
But I can’t walk away from a scent match.
The idea of hurting you has caused me to be physically sick. I haven’t been eating or sleeping much out of fear of how you may react.
I know this isn’t ideal, and the thought of being in a pack was already hard for you, let alone with someone you aren’t fond of.
I’d never want to change you. I love you how you are. I hope that you feel just as strongly as I do so that we can work past this.
It’s a lot to take in, and I understand if you need time to process how you feel. That’s why I dropped this letter off so you could read it as soon as you got back from your games.
I want you as my Alpha in my pack. But I need my scent match just as much. Please tell me we can make this work.
Yours,
Sloane.
I read it two more times before glancing up at Ethan.
“But she didn’t wait.”
Ethan rubs the back of his neck. “I think that was out of their hands.”
“What do you mean? I walked in with him knotted inside of her. I didn’t even get a chance to read this letter.”
