“Oh, right. I forgot they only live a few houses apart. I could see how that would be uncomfortable. Have you thought about a pack house? She could come visit there.”
I had too many things to update her on. While we scarfed down our food, I showed her pictures of the house we had a pending offer on. It unfortunately got her crying again, but she replenished herself with long drinks of water from the bottle on her snack table.
We would get to move in soon, and then I could decorate to my heart’s content. Alve had already organized and paid for the pack apartments to be packed up and tucked into storage in the meantime. Movers would have a busy day, but I was so fucking jazzed we would get to have a home so beautiful together.
All my years of quiet hopes had become reality. Some mornings I woke heartbroken thinking it had all been a dream, until I registered the warmth of my pack surrounding me. I wasn’t sure how they managed to be even better than the fantasies, but I knew for certain that they were who I’d always been waiting for.
“What’s your plan for the rest of the day after this?” Charlotte adjusted Emilia, kissing her forehead.
“I got an email from Tyler’s mistress,” I confessed. “I’m going to see her before I go home.”
Charlotte gaped like a fish. “You think that’s a good idea?”
“Not really, but I’m curious what she has to say.”
“Fair. I would be, too, in your shoes. I had Ava around to answer all my questions, so I won’t tell you not to go, but be careful with your heart, okay?”
“I will. I don’t think there’s anything she could say that would hurt me at this point.”
Charlotte pursed her lips, cradling her baby. “I guess you’ll find out.”
“Hey,” Jenna said shyly, rising from her seat at a small café table tucked into the corner. “Thanks for meeting me.”
My pack had cautioned against it, but when she had emailed my OHI account, my curiosity had won out. “What did you want to talk about?”
“I’m sorry.” The words tumbled out of her, her shoulders tightening, her gaze stuck on the floor. “I was a huge cunt and you didn’t deserve that.”
“You’re right, I didn’t.” I sat carefully and Jenna sank into her chair opposite me.
“Everything made so much sense before I ran into you, and after that, it was like a different thing unravelled every day.”
“I’m confused about what part of sleeping with my partner at the time made sense.” I didn’t say it particularly sharply, but she wilted nonetheless.
“That part was dumb. He was going into business with my pack, and I didn’t realize how good of a liar he was until it was too late. He’s charming when he wants to be, you know?”
I unfortunately did know. “He is.”
“He sucked us all in. The sob story was pretty intense, honestly. He told us he couldn’t leave you because he felt too guilty, that you were completely dependent on him and refused to do anything to change that. He said he wanted a pack, but you only wanted him and he didn’t know how to cope being the only one to help you.”
I sat, slack-jawed. “That’s not true. He didn’t even want me to have my own bank account. Anytime I brought up getting a job or a pack, he kicked up a huge fuss until I dropped it.”
Jenna’s eyes shone. “I fell for it for too long. After I saw you at the restaurant, I realized how much better you looked. I’m not saying that as a dig. I think I’d just never seen you look happy before. Notreallyhappy, anyway. Once I started to think about things, Tyler’s stories fell apart. It didn’t make sense to me that he would be so full of rage over you stepping out on him when from the beginning he’s been claiming he wanted you to leave. Finding a pack would’ve been the perfect solution for both of you, so of course that only made me more confused, because he said you didn’t want one.”
Fury bubbled up at all the lies Tyler had spun. “I always wanted a pack. Tyler was too insecure to let me have one.”
Jenna nodded slowly. “That day we ran into you at the arena was awful. I’d never seen him so mad, and he took a swing at one of my alphas. I asked him why he was so bent out of shape over you leaving, and I think the only reason the truth came out was because he was so stirred up already.”
“What did he say?” I dreaded the answer as much as I was desperate to know.
“He said”—Jenna clutched her coffee cup, staring at the liquid inside—“that you couldn’t leave him before he left you. That you weren’tallowedto leave until he was done with you.”
Tears slipped over her cheeks and I found myself reaching to comfort her despite everything.
“That’s when I knew,” Jenna continued. “He was playing all of us, having his cake and eating it, too. I’m so sorry. We all felt so bad for him when he told us you kept denying him community over and over, draining him with your needs. Obviously, looking back, I know that was a pile of shit. My alphas have said I have a bit of a superiority complex, and I can’t fault them for thinking that. I really liked feeling like I was better than you. Tyler probably knew that. I was the perfect mark for him to manipulate and get my pack on board. I don’t know if we were just a business deal to him, or what was going on, but it’s over now.”
I absorbed every word, her explanation spiraling in my brain. I managed to force one word out. “Over?”
“We’re not registering him as a pack member, he’s not moving in, and my alphas have pulled out of the business deal.”
