“Forget it,” Westin said, her voice muffled.
“You said we’re mates,” I breathed, a sense of rightness settling in my chest at the words.
“I knew it,” Liam said, refusing to let her go even as she struggled against his hold.
“Of course we fucking are,” Bear growled. “How was that even a question?”
“You can’t know,” she said through her sobs. “You haven’t scented me.”
“As if I need some fucking biological bullshit to tell me you’re my omega,” he said.
Westin just shook her head, still hiding her face against her arms. “You might have suspected it, but you can’tknow, not until my scent comes in, if it ever does. I don’t know why it clicked for me with your scents last night, but it did. Now you need to save yourselves. Leave me before it’s too late.”
“And where do I belong in this equation?” Henry crossed his arms.
Westin lifted her tear-soaked face to look at the beta.
“I should just be happy to leave you, should I?” Henry asked. “Since I don’t have some biological imperative telling me we belong together? Because I think that’s pretty fucking low. I love you, Westin. The news yesterday fucking sucked, and we shouldn’t have made you feel like the only future together we could picture was one where you were cured. That was unfair on our part. But you’re not being fair to us. You think this changes how I feel about you? That I would want you any less? I think we deserve more credit than that.”
Westin’s sobs intensified, and I felt the urge to soothe her against Henry’s harsh words, even though I agreed with him.
“I’m sorry,” she choked out. “See, I mess everything up. There’s no good future for me, or with me.”
“Fuck,” Henry said, running his hand through his hair. He sat down on Westin’s other side and pulled her into his chest. He moved her hair and whispered something in her ear.
I rubbed my chest, trying to breathe through the tightness as the realization crashed over me—Westin had tied the future of our pack to her being cured. I’d been so focused on trying to paint a positive picture after the news yesterday, I hadn’t taken the time to realize how hard Westin was taking it. Now, it was obvious she thought having this tumor made her unwanted.
Westin’s face was pale, and her hands trembled when they pushed her hair out of her face, and I was hit with the reminder that she was still recovering from fuckingchemo. This was too much stress on her body.
“It’s time to go home,” I said. “We need time together to figure all this out, and it’s not going to happen here.”
Bear still looked like he wanted to fight someone, and Henry looked up at me with a lost expression. I met Liam’s gaze and he nodded. It was our job to keep our pack together tonight. He picked Westin up, holding her limp body to his chest as he headed towards the parking lot.
I waited for Henry to follow them and then clasped Bear on the shoulder.
“You know she doesn’t actually want to leave us. She’s scared.”
Bear’s jaw clenched. I stayed silent, knowing his words would come when he was ready. “She’ll replace me with someone else,” he finally said.
“Fuck that. She loves you. She’s yourmate. In her own twisted thoughts, she was doing this because she loves you.”
He took a deep, shuddering breath and quickly met my gaze, revealing the agony there. Before I could stop myself, I pulled him into a hug.
“We’re a pack,” I said. “We’ll get through this.”
He put his arms around me. “Pack Chaos indeed,” he said.
We pulled apart, but I kept my hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go home.”
109
WESTIN
Iwoke up feeling like I’d been hit by a bus. Every part of my body ached. That’s what I got for sneaking out.
I kept my eyes closed, too embarrassed to face the world… to face my pack.
Fuck, I’d been so stupid. In the light of day, I could see my panic-induced behavior for what it was: stupid and deeply hurtful to my guys.
