He smirks, and true irritation begins to pull at me.
“It's really none of your business what happens to her, is it?” the male says cooly. “We all know what happened. Your boyfriend made sure of that. Fuck off, Merrit. Nobody wants you here, and nobody wants Cross here. If he does manage to find a female who will lower her standards enough to take him, we will all still know what he did. He didn't deserve Genie in the first place. She needs a real man, a real alpha.”
I roll my eyes. “Like you?”
“Like any of us,” he says with a sloppy grin. “Or all of us. Now there's an idea.” He winks down at Eugenia. She blushes, then realization hits her and the color drains from her face. I watch her scent the air around her, searching for danger.
There it is.
The first sign of anxiety widens her eyes and she blinks quickly.
There are six of them. Six other males. At least one is an alpha. I am one singular Second to a pack on the outs.
My shoulders rise and fall with a sigh, and I reach a hand toward her again. Palm up. “Come on, Eugenia. I'll take you home.”
Her eyes flick around to the suddenly quiet males surrounding her.
I wave my fingers, beckoning her. “I'll get you back. I promise.”
She bites into her bottom lip and starts pulling away from the other male.
“You're not going anywhere,” he growls, nodding at a couple of the others. “We're going to have a nice night by the fire.”
“I need you to think very hard about this, you dumb shit. There are lots of other people here. Every one of them knows what happened four years ago. They all know who she is, and they all know who I am. But they are all watching you keep her from coming with me to safety. Think about that very hard.”
He glares at me, snarling, for a full minute before he reluctantly pulls his arm away from her. “Right. She can go whenever she wants. I don't know if her place will still be waiting for her when she decides to come running back, but she's free to make her own choice.”
I beckon her again. “Eugenia.”
She's going to gnaw her lip off.
Eugenia steps lightly through the males who refuse to move even an inch to give her space. She slips her hand in mine and I pull her away from the group of glowering males. I walk straight through the most crowded part of the bonfire circle, making sure everyone sees me leading her in the direction of her family's cabin.
She doesn't say anything until we're half way there, and I wish she'd kept her mouth shut.
“Why did he do it?”
Purposefully misunderstanding, I give a response in regard to the dick head alpha from the bonfire. “Because he's a territorial, horny asshole and you're fresh and free meat.”
“Not him,” she corrects. “Drew.”
I fucking hate the sound of his name in her mouth.
“Come on,” I say, tugging her down the path.
She plants her feet and jerks her hand away from me. “Why did he do it?”
I turn to face her. “You know why.”
Her lips tighten. “We could have – “
“We could have what?” I counter belligerently. “We could have what,Genie? Cross didn't want the life that he’d live with you.”
Not that he particularly likes the one he's currently living.
“And he wants the one he's got?” she spits, basically reading my mind. “I saw him today. He's not happy. Why isn't he happy?”
“Did he see you?”
