He looks devastated.
His eyes are watery, but his makeup isn’t running. He must have invested in the good waterproof stuff.
“I’m sorry.” His voice is barely above a whisper as he fights to maintain his composure. “I’m sorry. This isn’t about me and my feelings.”
That gives me pause. “What do you mean?”
“We lied to you. We’re the ones who deceived you. You’re the only one allowed to be upset.” He rubs his sternum over his billowy yellow shirt. “Ignore me.”
I wish I could, but he’s my scent match. I’m hard-wired to want to love and protect him.
The idea of a Beta scent match isn’t as daunting as the two Alphas that wait for me on the other side of the door. I could never see Grant again without having to worry about getting FOS.
Except that the idea of not seeing him again is already making my stomach cramp.
“Maybe if you tell me what’s bothering you, it’ll help me process this whole situation better?”
“I don’t deserve your kindness. You’re the victim, here. My feelings don’t matter right now. You’re too fucking sweet, Onion.”
“Ariana.” My name leaves my mouth in a rush. “I don’t want any of you to call methatanymore.”
He winces, my words a harsh reminder of the situation. “I understand.”
Hearing my nickname from his lips, lips I’ve never seen, in a voice I’ve never heard, felt wrong—wrong wrong wrong. I could almost have convinced myself that he was just a random Beta before then. Could nearly bury what is happening right now in the sand and hope I forget where I put it.
But when he calls me Onion, it reminds me of why he knows that name.
They deceived me.
I can’t believe I fell for the lies, and now all of America is going to see what a fool I am on television.
“I just realized how much it hurts that you don’t know who I am.” His voice is delicate, like he’s afraid that it mayshatter. “I know you, Ariana. I know you drink your coffee with one too many sugars and heavy cream instead of half-and-half. I know that what really scares you about the dark is that you think spiders are going to crawl into your mouth while you sleep, and how you, for some reason I’ll never understand, sleep with one sock on. I know your heat lasts around four days, and that you hate pineapple on pizza. Which Ivan will tell you is the wrong opinion, by the way.” He tilts his head back, staring at the ceiling, as if it is too hard to look at me right now.
“I know that you’re probably compartmentalizing everything right now, and that if I weren’t a Beta, you’d be hyperventilating. I know that, so that’s why I am the one who volunteered to bring you in here. To give you space from them. I knew that you’d be most likely to talk to me, since I’m not Derrick and I’m not an Alpha.”
“Which one is Derrick?”
“He’s Sax. The… first Sax. The one you video called with.”
“Ah.”
I don’t know how to respond to that. How to respond to anything he said.
Because he does know me. Everything he said is true. Sax knows all of that, which means they all had to be a part of talking to me, if he knows all those things about me.
He knows all of my secrets. Everything I told Sax, I was actually telling three men. All of my secrets, desires, and fears were not for two ears but six.
It finally catches up to me, the realization of what happened, and my heart stutters in my chest. I clutch at the front of my dress, pulling at it.
I can’t breathe.
My chest is tight, and my head is spinning, and I can’t breathe.
This isn’t my room.
It looks like my room, but it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
I’m not at my house.
