What conversation were they having without me? Was itaboutme?
“Why not?” Marcus asked, exasperation in his deep voice. “He's made it clear he's not interested.”
“He hasnot,” Indi snarled, and I could almost picture the alpha's hands on their narrow hips. “He isn't ready, okay? Being a pack is a big decision, and he deserves the time to consider what he wants. Why would we want to push him into a bond he isn't ready for? Because Cameo is?—”
“It's been almost ayear,” Marcus stressed. “And he won't even discuss why he doesn't want to. At this point, it just seems like he's just hanging out until he gets bored.”
“He's not,” Indi said, a little less sure than they'd been a moment ago. “We've talked about it, okay? He just needs… time.”
I chewed my lip. It was something that we’d discussed, of course it was. A year with an alpha and no bond? It wasn't usually how these things went. But nothing about our relationship was typical, down to the omega in the middle of it.
Indigo knew I wanted to be with them; otherwise, there was no reason for me to accept their offer to move in.
But… I wasn't ready for a bond. It didn't matter how deeply I felt for the alpha, or how fond I'd started to become of the pack that they held so close to their heart… it was too soon.
I rubbed the butterfly tattooed onto my forearm anxiously, a bad habit I'd picked up shortly after it'd been inked into place.
It wasn't my fault that Marcus never pushed me to tell him why, and really, even if he did, I wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to. Ultimately,my alphaknew how I felt about them, even if I wasn't ready to get mated.
“He could be lying,” Marcus said. “Not crazy to think so, he's getting a pretty sick deal?—”
The sound of something slamming the table made me jump, the top stair squeaking like a frightened mouse under my foot.
Fuck.
Luckily, Indigo's shouting seemed to cover the noise, since neither of the alphas called out to me.
“Joon isn't a liar, and I won't have you talking about my partner like that, Marcus. So watch your fucking mouth—” There was a pause. Hardly a pause, really, more like a breath, before Indi scoffed. “I'm going, I'm already late. Shut this the fuck down, you're way out of line. Both of you.”
Until now, I didn't realize that Cameo was even part of the conversation, but it wasn't much of a surprise.
Always watching, always waiting, the alpha had a secret skill when it came to being the center of this pack's universe.
In another life, he would've made agreatomega.
Indigo's heavy combat boots were loud as they stomped through the house, the chains dangling from his clothes shifting noisily until the back door banged shut hard enough to rattle the window panes.
The low whistle that followed in the stillness was undoubtedly Cameo, his voice edged with a subtle Italian accent that never failed to make my insides squirm. “You just had to get under their skin, didn't you?”
“It's not my fault,” Marcus growled. “They're the one trusting another omega who doesn't want to commit. I would've thought they learned their fucking lesson last time.”
Last time?What wasthatsupposed to mean?
“They like Joon,” Cameo said with a sigh. “And you probably would too if you didn't keep pushing him away at every opportunity.”
“I'm not doing shit,” Marcus said, voice rising a bit for the first time. “Forgive me for choosing not to court some fuckin' omega that's just going to dump us when something better comes along.”
“Based on his behavior, I think that's unlikely,” Cameo said thoughtfully. “But I'm sure if we talk to him about having a baby, he's not going to stick around if he doesn't want to. Bond or not.”
A what?!
Of all the things the pack could’ve been arguing about, a baby was nowhere near the top of my guesses, not even in the top one thousand, probably.
In my surprise, I bit my tongue so hard that I tasted blood, a stifled whimper escaping me as I opened my mouth in a silent scream.
Is that what they were talking about?Having a baby?
It wasn't something I'd really put much thought into, given that most packs wanted a bond before a kid. And anything that tied me to someone like that was a big no in my book.
