The angry aura hanging around Marcus was… really, really fucking scary. But worse was the nearly silent, clipped nature of his voice.
"You know when the last time was."
I'd expect an alpha of his size and general personality to yell when he was upset, and maybe my assessment was correct, because Indigo stopped fussing with the machine to turn to him, their eyes hard.
"So what?" they asked, hands falling to their hips in a way that reminded me a little too much of a chicken to be particularly scary. "We're all a bit fucked up from that. It's not a free pass to be a dickhead forever, Marcus. You can't punish Joon for Mindy forever; he wasn't even here. Cut the guy some slack."
Mindy? I tucked that little tidbit away for later.
"I've cut him plenty!"
"When?"
I took Joon’s discarded spoon to continue to eat my dessert, watching them volley this argument back and forth. It was obvious there were issues in the pack. I wasn't completely blind to that, but the tension between Marcus and Indi seemed like it'd been going on for a while.
"Maybe if you acted like you gave a shit about him, it wouldn't be like this."
"I do give a shit," Marcus snapped. "He's the one that doesn't want to be a part of this pack."
"What are you talking about? Of course he fucking does! He wants to have a baby with us."
"He's bluffing. He doesn't even want a bond."
"He doesn't?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
Both of their gazes flipped to me. Whoops. I hadn't meant to insert myself into their fight, but… I mean, they did decide to have it right in front of me, so..
"He's just not ready," Indi clarified.
"He's never going to be," Marcus interjected roughly.
"Probably not, if you keep fucking pressuring him about it all of the time," Indigo growled. Their expression softened as they looked to me, making an effort to keep the anger out of their voice. "Joon has some, uh, trauma about bonding that he's not fully worked through."
"Is he okay?" I asked, my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach.
"I think so," they said. "To be honest, I haven't asked him about it. He'll share when he's ready, but I think we're helping him. Sometimes—" they said pointedly at Marcus, who hardly acknowledged them. “Either way, it’s not my business to share.”
"I can see why he wouldn't like me sniffing around then," I said, feeling a bit dejected. "Even though it's all for the contract, he's probably worried that I’m going to take his alphas away."
Saying out loud that the only thing between us was a contract felt wrong, but it was the truth.
We'd agreed to fuck until I was pregnant, and then they would provide me care until I had the baby. And then… Nothing, I suppose.
They would go on with their lives, and I would go on with mine. Except even thinking about it going down like that had me on the verge of tears.
It’d only been a few days, but that didn’t matter. I wanted this pack. I wanted Joon.
But what I wanted didn't matter. A deal was a deal, and I had to stick by it.
The alphas looked at me with confusion pulling their brows together.
"It’s not that he doesn’t like you," Indi said, breaking the silence. "In fact, I think that’s part of the problem. Joon likes youa lot."
He emphasized in a way that meant more than friends to me, though I kind of wished the alpha had said that Joon like-liked me. The childish phrasing would’ve been so cute coming out of their mouth.
"But I always piss him off?”
"So does this dickhead," Indi said, pointing to Marcus. "But he still tries."
