“You don’t want me?” I asked.
She turned back to me, something in her eyes that mirrored me. I gripped the collar of her jacket and pulled her down to meet me in a kiss.
She was soft.
And warm.
Cole placed her hands over mine and broke the kiss, pulling herself away from me.
“Please,” I begged.
“Go upstairs, shower, get ready for bed,” she instructed.
“So that’s it? Just go to bed?” I asked.
“I can’t give you anything else,” she answered.
Chapter twenty
Escape Plans
“What are you doing?” I asked, shocked as Darren dragged me from the corridor and into the dark cleaning closet, shoving me behind him and looking both ways down the corridor before shutting the door.
“Shhh,” he said, putting his finger to his lips.
I pulled the cord light, and we were bathed in a floating orange glow.
“What are you doing?” I asked again in a hiss of a whisper.
“We’re travelling to Pack Hail tomorrow for the assembly,” he told me, like I didn’t already know. Like I had been able to sleep more than a couple of hours each night, knowing I’d be back in Pack Blizzard soon with Ashford and how undoubtedly angry he would be.
“I know, Darren,” I answered.
“You can’t go back there,” he said.
“It’s not like I have a choice,” I told him.
“No, I mean you can’t go back. Not just because you’ve become kind of my best—okay, more like my only—friend, but Harriet… I’ve seen you over the last couple of years. I’ve seen how he treats you; I’ve seen the bruises. And if that’s what I’ve seen, I can’t bring myself to imagine what else—” He shook his head.
I looked away from him, the familiar feeling of shame swelling within me, making me feel sick.
“As I said, it’s not like I have a choice. She doesn’t want me,” I said.
“I have a friend in Pack Frost,” he said and looked behind him as if someone might be standing between him and the closet door. “They’re neighbours, Frost and Hail. He owes me; it’s a big line. The National Assembly is so hectic that no one would notice you missing, not right away. You could lie low in Pack Frost until Ashford stopped looking. After that, you could go wherever you want. I’ve got money. It’s yours,” he told me.
“You want me to run away and hide?” I asked.
He nodded seriously.
“Darren,” I said, pausing to think of what I wanted to say, because he was so sweet, so kind, and I realised in that moment that he was my best friend too, and I loved him for being my friend, for concocting a plan that I was sure he had put a lot of thought into and was fully planning on following through with. “You’re my best friend, too. And I love you. But no. It’s too dangerous. I think you forget that I’m an omega.”
“That shouldn’t matter,” he said.
“It shouldn’t, but it does. Is this friend from Frost Ryu?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered sheepishly.
“I get why you’d say he was a friend. He’s kind. He’s also a loser. Gambling-wise, I mean. He owes a lot of money.” Probably more than Ashford did. “And I’m technically valuable—”
