Shock held Matt motionless for a moment. “And?” he prompted at last, when Bryce volunteered nothing further.
“And what? I told him I’m not doing the whole mate thing. He’s leaving. That’s it.”
Matt reached out a hand, then let it drop. Just as well. Bryce felt like a wire stretched too taut. One touch, and he’d snap.
“You don’t look too happy with that decision.”
Bryce let out a harsh breath. “It’s not what I want, Matt. I never wanted this. Being tied to someone for life because of something in our DNA? That’s not love.”
A laugh welled up in him, one that had nothing to do with humor and which felt bitter as it came out. “He looked at me like I was everything, but none of it was because he chose me. Just because some pre-programmed part of us lit up. I don’t want to be someone’sinevitability. I want to be someone’schoice.”
The word seemed to echo with the emphasis he’d given it. But the thing was, he wasn’t even sure it was true. He’d just about realized that he was over Matt, but he hadn’t given an instant’s thought to what that might mean for him. He’d spent so long avoiding entanglement, he still thought he didn’t want it.
But what he’d just said, about wanting to be chosen, sounded as if part of himdidknow. And that part of him was the part that wanted Tom. Who, now, he could never have. Not like this.
“You think this is just your biology screaming,” Matt said gently. “But you’re lying to yourself if you think it’s only your wolves that want one another.”
Matt believed what he was saying. Every part of their shared history was laid out there in clear green eyes—a friendship like no other, together with trust and respect.
“You’re wrong, Matt. Sorry, but you are. And there’s nothing left to talk about.” He turned away, blinking against the sun.
“You didn’t let me hide from it when I wanted to,” Matt said. “So I’m not about to let you pretend it doesn’t matter. When you’re ready to talk, find me.”
Matt would sooner gouge out his eyes with a rusty fork than talk about feelings, so Bryce knew just what that offer meant. Didn’t mean he had any intention of taking him up on it.
Matt clapped a hand to his shoulder, squeezed once, and turned back toward the house. Leaving Bryce alone.
TOM
“Are you sick?”
Tom stared at Councilor Steadman standing in the doorway to his hotel room, then looked down at the shirt he was holding crumpled in his hands. He was pretty sure he’d folded and packed it thirty minutes ago. He had no recollection of anything after that.
“No,” he said, uncertain why she was asking.
“Good.” She came in and closed the door behind her. “You look like crap, so we’ll say you’re coming down with something and that I don’t want you on that flight in case you throw up on me. You’re going to stay here a few days till you’ve recovered. And in that time, you’re going to get to know Turner and his pack well enough to tell me exactly what it’s going to take to get them to see sense.”
He opened his mouth to object.
“And donottell me that you’ve been fooling around with one of them and that it’s ended badly and that by thinking with your dick you’ve managed to screw up the biggest thing that’s happened in shifter politics since we got equal rights,” she said, the snarl in her voice reminding him of the one time he’d seen her in wolf form. A feral nature lay beneath the polished civilityshe used so devastatingly as a weapon. “Not unless you want to be walking home and out of a job when you get there.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, wondering how obvious it was to everyone what had happened between him and Bryce. And then the rest of her words hit him, and his stomach turned over. He couldn’t stay here. Hecouldn’t.
“Bennett won’t buy it,” he protested.
“Barrington, I don’t think you have the least idea how you look right now. I’ve seen plague victims looking healthier.”
“But he’s going to pitch a fit if he finds—”
“That won’t matter once we’ve won.” She moved forward and sat down in the armchair, crossing her elegantly long legs.
“Look, Tom, this is important. Probably the most important thing you’ll ever do. If Bennett and his flunkies get their way and make a big production out of Turner, it’ll whip up every non-shifter who still harbors doubts. They’ll think we’re trying to form a super-pack and take over, not live beside them. Bennett’s too much of a fool to see it, but Urban’s sharp. Turner too, I think. You need to reason with them—get them to walk back what they promised him. And if they won’t, I need you to find out what will change their minds.”
“I think someone else would be—”
“You’re on the ground and they know your face. Get it done.” She rose to her feet and picked up her bag. “Let Maria know when it’s handled. Get her to rebook your flight.”
She left without another word.
