Gage’s jaw tightened and I could almost see the internal struggle within him. A large sigh whooshed out of me, “You’re going to have to fix this brother. Go talk with the beta and get the full story. Until then Owen, Dominic and I are taking Eloise to the Sausalito house.” We owned a second property in Sausalito that bordered the Marin Headlands. It was quiet and would give Eloise time to sort out her feelings.
“What?” Ric stood up, “You can’t just take her away to punish us. That isn’t fair.”
“No, Ric, you know what isn’t fair? That omega, hiding up there in her nest? She’s heartbroken. The fact that I, of all people, have to be the one to point that out to you is ridiculous. You two made this mess and you will fix it. Once you finish, and only then, you can join us.” I put all of the alpha I could into my voice to back up my order.
“Fine.” Gage stood and left the room and a few minutes later we heard the garage door open and the rumble of his motorcycle as he drove away.
“Well that went well.” Dominic said from where he was leaning against the wall. He’d kept pretty quiet throughout the whole argument.
“Should I go ahead and get everything ready at the Sausalito house?” I nodded and the alpha left with one last wave. Owen was sitting on the couch next to Ric, talking to him quietly. The alpha nodded and got up to leave, stopping as he passed me.
“For what it’s worth I really am sorry, I feel like we’ve set back all of the work we’ve put into the pack just when things were starting to go well.” With that he patted my shoulder and left the room.
Owen rubbed a hand over his face, looking thoroughly exhausted from the night’s events, “So, what are we going to do?”
I sat down on the couch next to him and pulled him into my arms.
“You and I are going to fix things. Starting with Eloise and working our way out to the rest of the pack and everything else that needs fixing.”
Owen chuckled drily, “Don’t you find it a little bit ironic that you were the one who originally wanted Eloise out and now you’re going to be the one to try and keep her?”
“Oh, you’ve got no idea how ironic it is.”
28
The sound of knocking woke me and I groaned with discomfort. I’d ended up falling asleep with my dress on and it had started to chafe just under my armpits.
“Ric, go away.” I mumbled as loud as I could muster and rolled back over.
The knocking continued. I groaned and rolled onto my knees, cursing at myself for falling asleep in this literal death trap of a dress, and flipped the door to the nest open.
“What?” I grumped, glaring down at the person who was interrupting my sleep at what I was pretty sure was an obscenely early time in the morning.
But it wasn’t Ric standing at the door, just Owen, dressed simply in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
“Good morning sleepyhead.” Owen’s sweet smile was firmly in place but I could see that he was hesitant. Did I look that bad? My eyes were sore and undoubtedly swollen and I hadn’t wiped off my makeup from the night before. Combine that which I was sure with a miserable expression and, yeah, I’d probably be hesitant too.
But my anger wasn’t at Owen. It was at Gage and Ric and most importantly Link. Owen hadn’t broken a promise, yet.
“I’m not really in the mood, Owen, I’m sorry.” I apologized and leaned back on my knees, gathering them to my chest as best as I could but the tight dress was making it hard.
Owen folded his arms over the lip of the floor and rested his head on it, a sympathetic expression clear on his face.
“I know you aren’t really in the mood El, I get it. But you’ve gotta get yourself together. Hop in the shower and be downstairs in a half hour—okay?” He didn’t wait for me to answer and turned and clomped back down the stairs before disappearing from view down the hallway.
I wanted to flop back down into my nest and ignore Owen’s request but despite my miserable mood, I was still curious. I grumbled to myself the whole way down the stairs and into my bedroom, pausing to give Lucifer who was asleep on the bed a quick scratch.
As soon as I stepped into the bathroom and looked in the mirror I realized that I looked worse than I felt. Smeared makeup had formed raccoon-esque circles under my eyes which were bloodshot and red. My skin was red and raw in places where the sequins of the red dress I’d been wearing the night before had rubbed and my hair was a tangled bird's nest.
Uhg. My mouth also tasted like I'd licked a sandbox. That would teach me to go to bed without brushing my teeth. I quickly hopped into the shower, washing away all of the physical evidence of my rough night. Unfortunately soap and hot water could only do so much. I left my hair wet as I dressed in a pair of jeans and one of my baggiest sweatshirts, grimacing as Gage’s pine needle scent wafted off of it. Why hadn’t he tried to come and comfort me last night? Did he not care enough?
Just the thought of that made me want to crawl back into my nest and never come back out. I hadn’t even thought about Link too much yet—that was still too tender of a thought to think about at the moment. I’d save it for later when it wasn’t so raw.
I trudged through my room, grabbing my little backpack that functioned as a purse and put my wallet and phone inside of it, ignoring the twenty text messages from Tibby and Madeline. I’d also save those for later because giving an explanation sounded completely exhausting at the moment.
I gave Lucifer one last kiss on the head before I headed downstairs where Dominic, Leon and Owen were waiting with packed bags.
“Where are we going?” I asked, curious. I looked for Gage and Ric but they were conspicuously absent.
