“No. Shut the fuck up. This is important.” Bella scoots closer. “His scent is the best thing you’ve ever smelled. It scrambles your brain, but it makes you feel safe and at home, like you’re deep in your nest. And the second you catch it, it drenches your panties with slick.”
I open and close my mouth and put my hands to my cheeks to cover my blush at the mention of slick.
“I’m right, right? At the barest whiff, slick is dripping down your legs like you’re in the middle of heat and you’ve just been triple knotted?”
Bella takes one look at my face and knows the truth.
“I am right. Girl, he’s your scent match!”
The blood drains from my face. “He’s not my fucking scent match!”
“Ash…”
“Bella!” My throat closes up in sheer panic.
“Okay.Let’s get this straight.” Tia holds up a finger and starts counting things off. “Your dad is trafficking you and probably worse. You manipulate your way into dating a celebrity hockey player, who you might be in love with. And his packmates are your dead brother’s best friends, who you had a childhood crush on, and they may have murdered him, and now,” she’s holding up way too many fingers for me to register, “he’s your scent match?”
The room is dead silent as that all lands. I snort out a laugh; I can’t help it. If I don’t laugh, I’m going to scream.
“I am so fucked.”
“No, no.” Estelle motions Tia to put her hands down. “We can work with this. We’ve handled worse.”
“What do you mean you’ve handled worse?”
“Babe, that’s a story for later. So, first,” Estelle commands the room like a general addressing her troops. “Ash can’t go home. Who knows what that fucknut is going to do now.”
“She can have my room!” Bella offers brightly.
“Absolutely, but staying with me in your old room is not a permanent solution,” Tia notes.
“And it’s not like she can move in with Beckett and his pack tomorrow…”
“You don’t know the first thing about scent matched alphas and their packs,” Bella mutters. “They are probably already decorating a room for her.”
“Are you fucking insane? Move in with Beckett? He’s not going to want me after he finds out,” I lower my voice to a harsh whisper, “the things my father made me do. Not to mention the revenge thing.”
“Do you still want revenge? Cause we can make that happen.” Bella is equal parts bubbly and murderous and it’s unsettling.
“I don’t know. I love… Pierce killed my brother.”
“Did he?” Bella asks with a tilt of her head. “I mean, all I heard was Reed died and Pierce was there. Sure, he kind of sounds like analpha asshole, but that’s a long way off from murdering your best friend.”
“What do you mean?”
“You said they were thick as thieves, right? That doesn’t turn on a dime.” Tia taps her nails on the coffee table.
“We can add solving an eight-year-old murder mystery to the to-do list later. We have to get Ash safe first and then figure out what’s next. So, big girl pants time, Ash. What do you want?”
“They are not going to want me after…”
“I didn’t ask about them, I asked about you!” The tone of Estelle’s voice is down-right scary. “Let’s forget about all the other nonsense. In a perfect world, what exactly do you want, Ash?”
“Them,” I blurt out and cover my mouth like my deepest, darkest secret didn’t just slip out.
“Totally doable!” Bella says around a yawn.
“Oh, fuck!” I blurt, my head snapping up.
