We’ve only been here three days.
It’s not time to leave the house. She’s not ready for that. I’m not ready for that. I need more time with her to show her how much I love her. How important she is to me.
We can’t turn back now, not when we finally made some headway yesterday.
“We’ll leave it up to you two to decide who stays and who goes. We’ll unlock the door, and when the decision is made, just head on outside, and we’ll take it from there.”
I don’t say anything. I can’t.My words get stuck in my throat as Bridgette stares at me with a blinding white smile plastered on her face.
I hate her.
After a long pause, I find my voice. “Does Ariana know?”
“She does not. Bradley is informing Derrick right now. Your pack can decide as a group how you’ll tell Ariana. Good luck!”
The screen switches to the logo before I can formulate a response.
“Fuck!”
I collapse onto the bed, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest.
One of us has to leave.
Ideally, both of us would leave to keep Ariana safest, but the show must go on.
How are we going to decide?
I don’t want to leave. I love her, and I need her to realize she loves me, too.
But I’m practically a stranger to her. She knows Derrick, even if she’s pissed at him. She’s heard his voice, seen his face, for years.
And, objectively, he’s more handsome than me. He’d look better on people’s TVs than I do. Better for ratings.
It’s going to have to be me. It makes the most sense.
The door to my room opens as I’m throwing my clothes into my suitcase. I look up from the sloppy pile of t-shirts, and Derrick and Grant are there, both with stricken looks on their faces.
Derrick’s voice is raspy and strained. “Are they fucking with us?”
“I don’t think so. They wouldn’t mess around with something like FOS.” I can’t look at my pack as I continue loading my things into my beaten-up suitcase. “I’m going to finish packing, then we can tell her together what’s going on.”
“You’re going to leave?” Grant’s voice is strangled.
I cross the room and wrap one arm around his waist and cradle the back of his head with my other hand. I push my forehead against his, breathing in his sweet, orchid scent. “It needs to be me. Derrick has the mostdistance to make up with Ariana. I can figure out my relationship with her once all of this is over.”
We may not be romantically involved, but Grant is my Beta. We’re best friends, and we’re platonic lovers. He’s my rock as much as I am his. He exhales sharply, hands shaking as he places them on my chest. “I don’t like this. I don’t want any of us to be separated from her. She needs all of us.”
“This is what’s best for her.”
Her safety comes first. Always.
Derrick is quiet, leaning against the doorframe. I didn’t expect him to volunteer to leave, and wouldn’t want him to. If he can repair his relationship with her, then I should have no problem developing one once they’re out of here.
I hop in the shower, trying to spend as much time as possible in here and drag the day out, but I know it’s a bad idea. It needs to be like ripping a bandage off.
Just one tough pull, and it’s over.
My stomach is twisting like I had bad seafood, but I need to do this now. I’ll lose my nerve if I put this off any longer. I don’t want to stick around for the whole day, knowing that, at the end, I’ll have to leave. It feels dishonest to keep something like this from her all day.
