“We’re a pack. You’re included in that, and you always have been. We can’t all be everything for each other. You got everything you needed from Sax, but that’s because he was all of us. We can still be here for you in the same ways we have been from the beginning. Only this time, you know who we are. I can hold you when you cry, or Ivan can make you laugh when you’ve locked yourself in the bathroom. Derrick can argue with you about an old TV show, but I will never tell you whether I think it’s real or fake.”
Her stomach growls before she reacts to what I’ve said, reminding me that she hasn’t eaten since breakfast yesterday. I push her shoulder, encouraging her to move toward the edge of the bed.
“Come on, you need to eat.” I slip out of bed and hold my hand out to her. “I’m sure Ivan has a whole spread waiting for you by now.”
She grasps my hand, stilling my movements. I’m taller than her, and from this position, me standing and her sitting, I feel like I’m leering over her. A soft, beautiful smile plays on her lips as she stares at me.
She looks at me as if she could love me one day.
“Thank you, Grant. For telling me everything and nothiding the truth. And for talking me off the ledge six years ago. That… that was you, right?”
I hate that memory.
There aren’t many moments in my relationship with Ariana that are bad, but that’s the worst of them all.
It was the anniversary of her brother’s death, and she was feeling particularly hopeless. I wanted to call her, but I couldn’t, and Derrick was at work, so he couldn’t talk to her, either. I had to do the best I could through text messages.
That day was the final straw. We decided to force her hand and get her to a psychiatrist and on medication, because she needed help that we couldn’t give, and her therapist couldn’t prescribe them.
“Yeah, that was me.”
She’s on her feet, throwing herself into my arms. If this is the only hug I ever get from her, I’ll die a happy man, because this is the type of hug that changes lives.
“Thank you.”
God,Ivan is a fantastic cook. While Ariana and I were having our heart-to-heart, he was pickling red onions and making blackened chicken tacos.
“I fucking love tacos,” Ariana says around a mouthful of food. “Seriously, these are so good.”
Ivan preens under her praise and pantomimes tossing his hair over his shoulder. “Why, thank you, sweetie. I thought you could use some comfort food.”
Ariana loves tacos of all kinds. She makes them at leastonce a week. Ivan is pulling out the big guns to cheer her up with this spread.
I’m tucking into my food, enjoying the litany of flavors that explode across my tongue, when Ivan grabs the seat of Ariana’s chair and pulls her closer to him.
“The producers delivered today’s challenge while you guys were resting. I didn’t open it. I thought we could read it together?”
She swallows thickly and wipes her mouth with a paper towel. “Yeah, sure.”
Ivan pulls an envelope from his pocket. He must have shoved it in there without care because it’s wrinkled and smushed.
“Do you want to do the honors?” He holds it out to our Omega.
She shakes her head and waves him on.
He rips open the envelope, almost tearing the paper that is inside, and clears his throat.
“‘Read this out loud.’” He looks up with a flush on the apples of his cheeks, sticking out from the top of his beard. “Right, carrying on. ‘Today’s challenge is simple. We’ve hidden something from your lives inside the house. Find it, and tell the others what it means to you. Having to choose which Alpha to leave the house was yesterday’s challenge. Since an award could not be given, your reward for this challenge will be doubled.’”
Huh. That sounds easy. I have nothing to hide from Ariana, and Ivan knows basically everything there is to know about me.
My packmate shoves the paper at me and raises his eyebrows. I skim through the words my Alpha read outloud, my eyes stopping on what he didn’t say.
Do NOT read this out loud:
Derrick chose to leave the property. He will not be here when you leave the house. We need America to be shocked about this, but we did not want to catch any of you off guard.
Derrick left?
