“Just checking,” she said. “You know I’d end them if they did anything to hurt you.”
My leg was bouncing as I considered sharing this next part with her. “I called them my pack,” I blurted out before I could second-guess myself.
“What?” Josie shrieked. “Finally! Are you all going to bond?”
“Oh my god, way to go from zero to a hundred,” I choked out.
“I think that’s a reasonable question,” she protested. “You’re finally admitting that they’re your pack. Why shouldn’t you be thinking about bonding?”
Because I can’t bond them until I’m cured.
The thought came instantly, ringing true in the deepest parts of my soul. I closed my eyes at the realization. My infertility might not make me useless to a pack, but I couldn’t escape the reality that right now, I was a burden to everyone around me. Even if my guys wanted to be with me now, they would grow to regret it.
“There’s too much going on right now for me to even think about it.” I wasn’t sure why I was lying to Josie, except that voicing my real thoughts out loud was too vulnerable.
“I get that,” Josie said, her voice soft. It only made me feel worse for lying. “It took me a while to bond my guys, too. I was scared to trust them, and I think I was also afraid they’d regret it.”
My breath hitched. “You don’t worry about that anymore?”
“No,” Josie said. “Being bonded with them has made me so much more confident in the relationship. It’s an amazing connection.”
“It’s easier when you’re mates.” Of course her alphas didn’t regret being with her—they were made for each other.
“I didn’t know we were mates when I bonded them. That came later.” She paused, and I braced myself for the question I knew she would ask. “Are you sure they’re not your mates?”
“Yes,” I said. “I can’t have mates.”
“What do you mean?” Josie asked.
“I don’t have a scent.”
“I don’t know that it matters,” she said.
I didn’t want to hear this,couldn’thear something that would give me false hope. “I should probably go tell them about the news thing.”
“Right,” she said. “Will you let me know how things go tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I will.”
We said goodbye and I ended the call. I rested my head in my hands for a few moments before getting up and heading inside. The air was thick with tense and angry alpha scents as I walked into the living room.
I caught Gray’s furious gaze. “You saw the news, then?”
He held out his arms to me and I walked over to him, almost collapsing into his lap. Why couldn’t my uncles leave me alone? Hadn’t they done enough?
“It explains the text messages,” he said, his voice a low growl. “They have copies of the texts in the article, painting them as concerned uncles. They also said you were already courting a pack at home—Pack Cross? And we stole you away from them.”
“Are you kidding? That’s the two old alphas they tried to set me up with.” Gray ran his hand down my back, and I took a few deep breaths. “I hate them.”
“I’ll get them back for this. I promise.” There was darkness in his voice, and I shivered. As horrible as my uncles’ actions were, they had failed. I had gotten away, and that filled me with satisfaction.
I drummedmy fingers on my leg, seething after reading yet another article about my supposed kidnapping.
“We’ve devoted our lives to raising our niece after the tragic death of her parents,” I read in a mocking tone.
Bear tugged my phone out of my hand and set it to the side. “You don’t need to read any more of that shit.”
Gray and Henry were hunkered down in one of the guest rooms to see what they could dig up on my uncles, and Liam had run out to the store, convinced I needed more snacks.
