Just for shits and giggles, I nab his other wrist and make it match the other damaged one, before I go, feeling a lot fucking better about life.
Before I venture home, happy as fucking Larry, I have one important pitstop I need to make.
The security team are good, a fuck tonne better than the last crew she used, but still they’re proven no match for me. Or it seems my brothers. I follow a trail of their scent notes to find her sleeping on the floor with her face pressed to the glass.
Part of me wants to break the window to climb in behind her. And I will. But not tonight. Tonight, I watch her sleeping until the buzz of scenting and seeing her again, and also knowing what I did to protect her, comes together in a super quick, potentially borderline psycho jerk off outside her window.
Again, I consider breaking the glass to leave her a little taste of me on her lips. Instead, I dip my finger and paint the petals of the ‘calling card’ we use. We usually use a bunch of the flowers we grow, but it seems more poignant that it’s a single red bud of the phoenix flower. The bud looks super pretty jammed into the fly screen; my note curled tight around it.
Makes me feel on top of the world, knowing little moon’s going to be breathing in the scent of our flower and my jizz for the rest of her night.
ChapterThirty-One
HEIDI
Disappointingly, morning comes too soon. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the first thing I see is the bud of a wilting red flower jammed into the screen, a note curled around it. And it’s pretty clear it’s from Darius. My room reeks of him. Not just because he’s held the flower close as he’s carried it, he’s also come all over it.
That should not make me happy at all. And I’m half disappointed in myself that it does until I focus again on what he did, drug me and leave me. But… in the complexity of my brain that fact does not stop me getting a pair of scissors out the desk and cutting a hole in the screen.
Sitting up, I reach over and grab a glass from my desk, dropping the stem in the water. For the flower’s sake, not mine.
And then I read the note.
Darius’s writing style matches the person he is—block letters, dark ink, straight to the point—SOMETIMES IT TAKES LOSING WHAT YOU’RE SETTLING FOR TO REMIND YOU OF WHAT YOU TRULY DESERVE.
Typically ambiguous and without being an actual apology. The note goes straight into the bin. Checking the time on my phone, I take off the do not disturb and let my notifications catch up while I grab my laptop.
Sharing a room with my Scorned Girls means we’ve crossed a million weird lines in our friendship, talking to each other in the bathroom, on the loo, or changing isn’t out of the ordinary for us at all.
Within minutes, I’m washing my hair, filling the girls in via our video chat. Sim’s lounging in her bed, Tristan’s travelling by the looks. Raney is missing because of her own pack drama.
“Kai called again, he sounds pretty heart broken,” Simona says. “Are you going to tell us what really happened, Ho?”
I rinse my hair out and take my time in answering. As pissed as I am with Kai, Darius, and Ramses, I’m not going to go spilling secrets about how Pack Alastor is a front for illegal triplet brothers to hide behind. Triplet brothers who I thought were mine until I discovered they were paid to be mine.
“We fought, and now we’re done,” I offer, shrugging as I try for ambivalence.
“You can’t be done, Ho,” Simona whines, her eyes shimmering. “You guys looked good together.”
“Well, we all know looks can be deceiving, Sim,” I snap, getting prickly. “Anyway what happened between me, and his pack is not up for discussion. We’re done, finished. I’ve got more important things to focus on.”
“Yep, you do,” Tristan smarts back. Her tone is extra saucy too. “Raney’s getting packed. Koz called. If you check your phone, you’d know that. But back to you…”
I flick the water off my face to lean closer to the camera, trying to see her properly, trying to fight past her anger to see what level of fucked off she is.
Her lips are pulled flat as she stares expectantly at me. I scoff. “You can’t seriously be annoyed with me because I did not ask you to be there last night at Roda’s with Pack Lowly, Tristan,” I snap back.
“My bad,” she hisses, anger flaring in her eyes. “I thought being besties meant we do everything in life together, ahh, but this is probably one of your infamous ‘I can do this by myself’ moments?”
I show her my wet middle finger before disappearing back under the shower. “I don’t have time…”
“Well, make fucking time, Ho. And get this, while we do want to know the details, it’s not the most important thing. You know what is?” she barks and doesn’t wait for me to answer. “You are! You know what else? It’s not great being iced by your fucking best friend when she obviously needs people around her that love her stubborn ass. Now, tell your people on the gate to let me through because you’re telling me what the shit is going on while Siderno sends his cheap ass private jet to get us.”
“You’re here?” I splutter, blinking furiously to get the water out of my eyes, hoping to see she’s just bitching.
“Of course I am. We decided at least one of us had to accompany you in person or you’d spin some BS about being too busy.”
“You know I’d never miss any of you being packed. You don’t need to do this, Tristan, I’m fine. Honestly, I’ll see you there,” I blabber while dunking my head under the shower again to rinse out the conditioner.
