“We’ll look this over more later,” Zeke says in a low growl. All the alphas turn off their phones. I shoot him a grateful glance. He probably felt my embarrassment through the bond. He nods once, acknowledging it.
As I read through the restaurant menu, I fiddle with the silver chain around my neck. At the end a bird with small gems for wings hangs.
“Pretty necklace. You like hummingbirds, Dulzura?” Rafe asks. I smile and look to Corbin. He smirks and reaches out, lightly brushing the pendant resting between my breasts.
“Yeah. They’re kind of my favorite. Their colors are just… amazing.”
Rafe nods, but Gage’s expression darkens.
“So that’s what you’ve been doing instead of leading your pack? Playing cop and buying necklaces for our mate?” he asks, voice coated in venom. Corbin’s face drops into a neutral blankness I hate. It’s the mask he uses with hostile tourists, but never with me. I don’t think my heart could take it if he did.
“Gage, when I left—” Corbin starts, but Gage cuts him off.
“I don’t want to hear it,” he growls.
I look between them. Gage's, arms are crossed and he's glaring. Corbin's, shoulders slumped and expression blank.
“I do,” I say.
Corbin’s gaze snaps to me, something like sad desperation flickering in his eyes. Gage glances my way, jaw working, but I’m supposed to be their omega. Their scent-sensitive mate. Which means I’m the de facto emotional anchor in this pack.
So he backs down.
Corbin looks at me for one more long beat, his eyes pleading for understanding of something I haven’t yet been told.
“We used to be a pack of six,” he says.
My heart drops.
Corbin
The look on Winnie’s face is utterly devastated. Her tear-rimmed eyes are too much to bear. A glance at Gage, and he’s softened too. He leans forward, placing his clasped hands in front of him on the table, watching Winnie as she clearly struggles to deal with this new information.
Scent matches can be paired to only one or two alphas. But Winnie is our scent-sensitive mate. If she’s matched to one pack member, she’s matched to us all. She’s our fated mate. She would have been mated to Nick too.
“What happened?” she asks, and the little wobble in her voice breaks me.
I look to Rafe, who already has stray tears tracking down his face. Rafe, who never left Nick’s side. They were inseparable. Totally in love.
I hang my head, unable to look at any of them. “We were at a pop-up. The guys were doing tattoos. I played a kind of security.” I trail off, and Zeke picks up the thread.
“At the time, we didn’t travel as much. We stayed close to Detroit, where Corbin worked.” As a city police officer. I’d found my pack after my career, and they seemed like they should clash, but they actually complemented each other. I enjoyed doing art at the time and did a few tattoos on the side. I mostly helped with security and they… well, they became my family.
“One night we were doing this 70s disco in town. Lots of bachelorette parties,” I go on. This is my failing. I need to get it out. “One of the bridesmaids in a party was related to a man I’d put in jail. She recognized me…” I take a deep breath. “I didn’t recognize her.”
Winnie slides her chair closer to mine, and I manage to drag my eyes back up to her. Her beautiful hand slides up my arm, grounding me enough to continue.
“She came at me with a switchblade. She slashed at my face first,” I say, gesturing to the scar running along the side of my face. My Sweetheart bites her bottom lip, a crease forming between her brows.
“Nick pushed Corbin. Grabbed the woman,” Gage says. His eyes are still full of fire and anger, but directed at a woman long behind bars.
“We thought he’d be okay at first, but… he wasn’t,” I finish, scrubbing my hands over my face. Rafe has buried his face in his hands. Eli is staring out into the dark night.
“Then you left,” Gage spits.
Winnie looks from him to me, putting something together I’m not willing to face.
“You left Gage in charge? Even though he’s not a dominant alpha?” she asks. There’s no accusation in her voice, but it still cuts to the center.
