I shriek and jump half off the couch. I was so preoccupied with whether or not Kaden still hates me, that I didn’t even sense Nik approach. “Jerk.”
Nik sits next to me, staring me down. I squirm under his scrutinous gaze.
“Oh, I’m the jerk? You’ve done something so fucked up to Kaden that you’re drowning in self-loathing when he walks by, but I’m the jerk?”
Pulling my knees up to my chest, I bite back tears. I don’t want to tell Nik what I did. I’d rather just rewind the morning and undo that weird conversation with the twins, but I know that’s impossible. Sooner or later, I’ll have to face the music.
“I might have suggested a full pack bond.”
Rage. Confusion. Exasperation. Pain. Heartache. My short sentence sets off a cascade of emotions in Nik, one so dizzying I find it hard to think straight. The heartache is the worst part. I get a strong sense that I’m not good enough, but once I separate his feelings from my own, I realize that Nik’s the one who’s insecure. He reaches out, and I instinctively flinch, bracing myself for the smack across the face that I so obviously deserve.
The smack never comes. Instead, Nik pulls me close and holds me while rocking me back and forth. Kaden walks back in and stops, half a sandwich hanging from his mouth, looking slightly panicked.
“What happened?” he asks around his mouthful of food.
“We all need to have a talk, I think.” Nik strokes my hair and kisses the top of my head, which is even better than ear scritches. “Do you know where Kip is right now?”
Kaden’s eyes lose focus for a second as he swallows his bite, then zones back in. “Roughly three miles north of here and about six pints under.”
Nik gestures to the car keys on the coffee table. “Go get him, please.”
“Nik, did she tell you everything yet? Because you might not be so chivalrous and understanding if—”
“Just get him. We all need to talk, and we need level heads for it. I’ll calm Mags down, so if you could maybe find a way to sober up your brother, that would be appreciated.”
I watch Kaden’s feet walk out the door, unable to bring myself to look any closer.
“You’re going to hate me, too, you know.”
“No, I won’t, Mags. You’ve got to stop catastrophising everything. The melodramatics are killing me.” He kisses my lips, and a flood of love and affection flows through me. My muscles instantly relax, but I don’t feel as lost in the emotions this time. Either he’s getting better at filtering what he sends through the mate bond, or I’m getting better at sorting who’s who in all this.
“I might get mad, though. It sounds like you were just being classic Mags, and sometimes, yeah, classic Mags pisses me off.”
Fair point. I guess we just have to wait for the twins to get back before we find out if we have a pack of four here, a pack of two, or …
… A pack of one.
Chapter 16
Kip
“Get off me, Kaden!” I twist my arm, but he’s got me in an iron grip.
That, or I’m a little too drunk to break free.
“Come on, Kip. We’ve gotta go back to the stupid house and have a stupid conversation.”
“Who says?”
Kaden yanks me off my stool. “Nik says.”
That’s not fair. Pulling the alpha card is cheating. Kaden and I can deny a request from Mags when she’s not actively in distress or in heat, but Nik? We’re betas! We can’t go against his will. It’s just not done.
I pout the whole drive home, if we can even call it that anymore. “Home” was where Mags respected us, where we were valued members of the pack and not just potential bondmates for her next scam. I don’t know why Kaden didn’t leave when I did. That kind of betrayal … I can’t just overlook it.
After he parks, Kaden drags my limp body out of the car and douses me with the garden hose. I sputter and spit, but the cold shock has its intended effect: I’m no longer pleasantly drunk.
I’m now bitterly buzzed, which will not make this meeting or whatever any better.
