No. Stop it. Something weird might be going on here, but not that weird. Not yet, anyway.
Cross sits up quickly, eyes sharp as he looks me over. “What?” he demands, immediately becoming the alpha I need him to be. “What's wrong? What happened?”
“We need to get out of here.”
“Why?” he asks. “Did something happen at the hunt? Did you do something?”
I roll my neck to relieve some of the pressure that's built up over the past few hours. “Yes, but no.” I look around the room until I see his bag shoved into a corner beside the small dresser. It's still mostly full when I pick it up and put it on the dresser.
“I need more than that, Parker. Explain.”
Sighing, I abandon the bag and drop down onto his bed next to him. Then I go into the events of the evening, moment by moment, until he has a grasp on what literally happened before I start in on my suspicions. “Something strange is happening here. They're forcing us together and apart. I can't put my finger on it, but I know something is going on. They put her in your classes. They put her in my group. But they keepusseparated. And she was being really strange, too. Did anyone come talk to you after we left? They didn't call your name when they were grouping everyone together. Has anyone said anything to you since we've been here, anything off?”
“Slow down. I know you tend to assume the worst about people, but you're tiptoeing into paranoia right now. What do you mean, Genie was being strange? What did she do?”
Of course that's what he focuses on first. “She followed my lead. No fight. No snark. No sass. Just fell in line behind me. She didn't feel right, not like herself.”
“But she had shifted,” he counters. “She was wolf. She didn't need to fight. You were the stronger choice to lead so she followed. It's natural.”
“No, Cross. It isn't. Wolf or not, Genie wouldn't just bow to me.Me. She hates me. You don't give someone you hate that much control. She didn't even hesitate when the others in our group fell back, all she cared about is staying one step behind me and following my cues.”
“How did that go?”
“It doesn't matter how it went,” I say, my voice rough with frustration. “The point is that she shouldn't have done it. Andthat's not even the point. Those wolves ambushed us. They came at us and tried to corral us. Like they just wanted to see what we'd do. Then they ran off. I want to go home, Cross. We need to go home.”
“We can't go home,” he says quietly. “I can't. I need to find a way to reconcile with my wolf. That's why I'm here. Maybe you're misunderstanding. You always think the absolute worst of people, you know that.”
“Don't gaslight me, Cross,” I bark. “This isn't that. We can fix your wolf another way.”
“No, we can't.”
I'm going to say it. It makes me sick, but I'm going to say it. “Claim her. That will fix it. Then let's get the fuck out of here and go home.”
He laughs, sharp and painful. “Claim her? How? Do you think I can convince her to let me mark her when I'm so broken? Do you think she'd find that appealing in this place where we're surrounded by broken things? And what about you? What happens with us if I claim her?”
“It doesn't matter, Cross. We can figure it out. I'm not the path to our future,our pack's future.I'll always be here, with you and for you, but I'm not what you need. I can't fix you.”
“And she can?”
I rip my hands through my hair, releasing a harsh breath that holds the edge of a growl. “I don't know. Maybe. Fuck, probably. You were ready to claim her before. You would have if I hadn't come back.”
He snarls, anger lining his face. “You were called.”
He did it on purpose. The whole ceremony. He did it on purpose to get me to come back. That explains it. I can't believe he... I'm going to hit him. We're going to fight, right here in this stupid, tiny room. “You are supposed to be our Alpha, Cross. You are supposed to make decisions for all of us, not just yourself.”
“How can I lead from a place of darkness? I can't lead anyone through this much misery. Everything I do is wrong. Everything feels wrong. I love you. I don't want to lose you. It has always been us.”
I'm going to rip my hair out. And throw it at him. “You are so stupid. And selfish. I left so you could set things right. That was the only way forward.”
“Even if I could, she won't accept me now. You know that.”
“No, I fucking don't,” I argue. “I have spent more actual time with her than you have. I don't like it, but she's not a bad person. I don't know her, but I can feel it. She isn't bad or evil or conniving or any of those things. She's been thrown into this situation like we have. Do I want to hand you over to her? Fuck no. But I will, Cross. I will. You're right, you are broken, and you're destroying everything else because of it. I can't fix you and I don't know if she can, but you have to try. I will step aside. I already did once.”
“You aren't going anywhere,” he seethes. He wraps his fingers around my wrist and pulls me down to sit next to him. “Regardless of what's happening here or what might happen with her, you aren't going anywhere. I don't care how selfish that makes me.”
I sit there silently. Anger and frustration vibrating my bones as I try to formulate a response to this utter bullshit. We need to be packing our shit right now, not sitting on this fucking bed.
“What's wrong with her?” he asks after a few minutes. “Why is she here?”
