26
My eyes had to be playing tricks on me. There was no way that Link Vendrick was standing in front of me in the flesh. It was almost as if my thoughts about him earlier had conjured him up in order for him to be standing in front of me. In my shocked state, I idly told myself that maybe I needed to look a little more into the whole ‘manifestation’ thing Tibby had been going on about yesterday because this was a ridiculous coincidence.
Link seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
“What are you doing here?” He blurted and took a step away from me, releasing my shoulders. I wanted to grab him again and hand on, afraid he would disappear if I blinked.
I vaguely realized that he didn’t seem excited to see me, in fact he looked a bit scared. “I’m here with…” Well with my pack. But I felt like I couldn’t really bring that up just yet. As my mind seemed to catch up from the shock I realized a few things very quickly.
Number one: Link was here. In San Francisco and I assumed by how comfortable he seemed in the venue that he’d been here before. Which meant that he was probably living in San Francisco. Number two: If he was here that meant that he’d been in San Francisco all along.
“Six years.” The thought bubbled out of me. I could see over Link’s shoulder that Gage was slowly making his way through the crowd towards us. “Why didn’t you keep your promise?”
Link reached out for me and, damn, he was as handsome as ever. He’d grown up so much from the boy who’d kissed a dustier version of me. He’d grown into his long limbs and had broadened in the shoulders. His light blond hair was neatly trimmed and styled and he was dressed in a sleek black suit with a dark blue undershirt. He looked good. Healthy. I stepped away from his touch, my heart began to thud uncontrollably in my chest. I began to turn to get away from him but he reached out for me again, taking my hand into his.
“Eloise… listen to me… I couldn’t come back to you not as I was. You need a pack to keep you safe, I couldn’t do that on my own.” Link’s eyes were pleading for me to understand and I nearly stopped to listen.
“Lincoln?” A feathery voice broke into our conversation and the literal embodiment of an angel stepped up to us—she was a bit taller than me with golden blond curls that had been left to tumble down her back. She was wearing an evening gown that shifted between silver and white under the dim lights of the restaurant. A pair of blue eyes, full lips and a slender button nose complete her look as she laid a hand on Link’s arm. I immediately stiffened when her scent fluttered towards me. She was an omega.
“Celeste.” Link turned to the omega, “This is Eloise Taylor, Eloise this is Celeste Resendiz.”
The omega held a hand out to me and I couldn’t help but reach out and take it despite the panic that was bubbling up inside of my chest. Link had never intended to come back for me. He had no intention of keeping our promise. I had been hanging onto it for over ten years like an idiot.
“Celeste, why don’t you head back to Ellen and I’ll come find you when I’m done here.” Celeste nodded and gave me one last curious look before weaving her way through the crowd, back to a tall alpha woman with dark skin and curly hair.
“Eloise, I need you to listen to me…” Link turned back to me but I could barely hear anything he said over the sudden roaring in my ears.
“I put my life on hold for you. Because you promised to come back for me.” I spit the words at him, the anger I was feeling filled my voice.
Link looked miserable as he held my hands in his, “Believe me I was going to come back for you… when I got into the real world I realized how there was no way that I would be able to take care of you without a pack. Not in the way you deserve.”
“That is utter bullshit, Link. We take care ofeach otherthat's how it always was. But it looks like you found the pack you were looking for but there's an issue: it already has an omega who you seem attached to.” I refused to share anyone with another omega. I could feel my territorial nature roaring inside of me.
Link shook his head, “It’s not like that, Ellie please.”
I yanked my hands out his with a force that nearly sent me flying backwards, “No. I’m done waiting for you Lincoln Vendrick. I’ve moved on.” I wanted to say the thing that I knew would hurt him the most and I could see it clearly in his green eyes that I’d succeeded.
With a huff I turned, reaching for whoever had come to stand behind me and knowing inherently that one of my pack members was there. I inhaled Leon’s campfire scent and immediately relaxed.
“Is he bothering you Eloise?” Leon growled over my head.
I shook my head, “No. I don’t know who he is. Please get me out of here.”
Leon put an arm around my back and began to usher me out of the restaurant.
“Eloise!” I could hear Link shouting my name and one last glance showed Gage and Ric blocking his way.
I met Eloise Taylor when I was eight years old. We’d pulled up to the rundown trailer in the death trap that was my mother’s SUV. It belonged to her new husband, Carl, who I already knew that I wasn’t going to get along with.
“It’ll be better here Link, you’ll see.” My mother said from the front seat as she checked her makeup. Lucille Vendrick was once a very beautiful beta, with her blond hair and green eyes. But years of smoking and drug use had sapped that beauty out of her and turned her into a paler, more muted version of herself. She still dressed in short-shorts and tank tops even though she was nearly thirty and her long hair needed a good wash. But still I loved her with the ferocity that only the son of a single mother could have. I had been her protector for as long as I could remember, fighting her idiot boyfriends and making sure she ate and that the bills were paid whenever we had any extra cash. Even though I had only been eight years old I felt eons older.
As my mother greeted my new step-father with an overly affectionate kiss I pulled our bags out of the back of the car and dropped them in the dirt road. This wasn’t the worst place we’d ever lived. We’d lived in Stockton before this and our apartment had been broken into three times. At least this place was quiet.
“Who are you?” the voice of a little girl asked from the other side of the car. I had looked up and there stood a little girl with her hair in pigtails with ribbons. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt with matching pink sneakers that had seen better days.
That had been the beginning of our friendship. From then on it was us against the world. I took care of her when her parents got drunk off of their asses and forgot to make food and she held ice to my black eyes and put neosporin on my busted lips. When they’d taken her away to live at the academy I had thrown myself into my school work—getting top of my class and a full ride to Stanford. I was determined to take care of her once she turned eighteen. I sent letters to her but I was pretty sure she never got those.
On her eighteenth birthday I had driven up from Santa Clara to see her but had been brought into the office of the chairwoman.
