“Yeah.”
To hide my own pain, I wrap my arms around Mags and pull her into a deep hug, taking care not to spill coffee over either of us. A burn like that would surely wake Nik up, and then I’d have to face his alpha rage all over again. “I’m sorry, Mags.”
“I fucked up.”
“No, you didn’t. You let Nik in, and that’s okay. It’s okay to have feelings for people, and it’s okay if they know.”
She shakes her head, and tears drip onto my chest. “Not if they know I don’t want to feel.”
I don’t know how to handle this. If I understand her nonsense correctly, Mags has feelings for Nik, but she doesn’t want them. Now Nik knows, and she knows that he knows, and all I wanted was a late-night snack.
“I’m sure he’s not mad at you, Mags.”
“He’s not mad. He’s heartbroken.” Her head snaps up, smacking me in the chin. “Fuck! Kip, what if he leaves?”
I put my palms on her cheeks and hold her steady, fixing my gaze to hers. “Calm down, Mags.”
“What if he leaves?” Her chest rises and falls rapidly as she starts to hyperventilate.
“Nik won’t leave you. He can’t. Baby, you’re bonded now. He wouldn’t be able to leave you if he tried.”
“H-he can’t?”
“No.”
She stills, and for a second I think maybe I finally said something right.
“He can’t leave …” Her whispered words should be comforting, but I get the impression that they’re not. “Oh, Kip … I trapped him.”
Kaden stumbles in just as I’m about to lose my shit. I can’t handle an upset, irrational Mags.
“What’s going on?” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes. “I just woke up with the weirdest feeling.” He blinks, then freezes when he sees me and Mags on the couch.
I realize what it must look like. I’m holding a crying Mags, who has a fresh mark on her neck. Kaden doesn’t know that it wasn’t me who marked her, or at least in his groggy state he hasn’t caught on that it couldn’t have been me. If he was more alert, I’m sure he’d sense that Mags and I aren’t bonded.
“Jesus Christ, Kip, you couldn’t fucking cool it for one night?”
“It wasn’t me, Kaden.”
My twin scoffs. “Like Mags would just let Nik mark her.”
Mags sniffles and sits up straighter. She wipes her tears and laughs hysterically. “Fuck, this night can’t get any worse.”
Kaden joins us on the couch and steals my coffee. He downs the whole cup, then pauses for a while. I can sense the gears turning in his head as the caffeine wakes him up and helps him process information better.
“Okay … So, Mags and Nik are bonded. That’s a thing.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. If I have to go through the whole confusing explanation with Mags again, I’m going to scream. “Can we just maybe ignore the elephant in the room for a bit, please? I’m getting a headache.”
“I know.” Kaden winks when I glare at him. “Twins, bro.”
A fresh light flashes in Mags’s eyes, looking suspiciously like the light she gets when she’s figured out a con. “That’s it!”
“What’s it?” I ask, though I’m afraid I already know.
“Omegas can bond to whole packs, right? I mean, we all know that’s a thing. And you two are twin-bonded. Maybe if I bond to you two, it’ll confuse the mate bond enough that Nik will forget what he found out last night.”
That’s what I was afraid of. Mags is treating this bond like it’s a grift she can run on Nik.
