She lifts her gaze to mine, and for one brutal second, the past bares its teeth.
I remember everything. The anger, agony, all those nights I lay awake replaying every word she said before she left, searching for the moment I should have known she would leave us. I remember hating her. Missing her. Wanting her so badly it felt like punishment. Three years ago, I used to imagine this moment until it buried me, dreaming of what I’d say if I everfound her again, whether I’d drag her into my arms or make her hurt the way we suffered.
But standing here now, with her eyes on mine, none of it comes back the way I expected.
The longing is gone.
The fury too.
All that’s left is the echo of what she broke and the strange, empty realization that some wounds don’t bleed forever. Eventually, they just become scars you stop touching.
“Kristian took me back when I returned to him.” Her voice is raw, scraped clean of pride. “Then six months ago, he started isolating me. Friends gone. Family poisoned against me. No money. No phone. But he also pulled away as if he enjoyed flooding me with bond sickness.” She wipes her face with the back of a trembling hand. “And I couldn’t take it any longer, convinced that if I stayed or left, I’d suffer the same, but maybe away from him, I’ll find a way to finally let go of him.”
She breaks into full, ugly sobs that shake her entire body, and I stand there, because she’s broken and human and we’re not the kind of men who ignore that. But I can’t take her into my arms. Neither can Jakob nor Corey.
That part of us is gone. We can witness her falling apart and make sure she isn’t alone with it, but comfort is different from mercy, and none of us know how to offer the first without betraying everything she did to us. Or the fact that we have found our actual scent-matched Omega. I glance over at her house, at the lit window, and my heart squeezes. The ache on her face destroyed me.
Jakob shifts on the spot, eyeing me, and I shrug while Corey drags a hand over the back of his neck.
“How’d you find us?” Corey finally asks.
“ManBaker’s booking page lists Mistberry Cove. I asked some local businesses, and one of them knew where you lived.”She glances up at us. “Look, I’m not asking to come back, because I ruined that, and I’m so sorry for hurting you. But I just had nowhere to go and figured maybe you’d find it in your hearts to help me out a bit. At least until I figure out what’s next.”
Jakob catches my eye, then Corey’s. We’re most likely all thinking the same thing, but there’s a whole ugly history inside it. What she did to us, and if we owe her anything. Which should be nothing, except we can’t leave a crying woman soaked on the streets. So now we’re all heading indoors from under the porch cover.
We aren’t fucking monsters, and because once, before everything went rotten, we loved her.
“Take my room,” I state when she’s done, my voice rough enough to scrape. “I need to pack a few things. I’ll be staying next door.”
Jakob and Corey glare my way.
“I can’t thank you enough.” Trudy’s eyes are swollen, grateful, wrecked in a way I don’t want to recognize. “I promise I’m not here to cause problems.”
None of us answer that.
“Come, let me show you the shower so you can warm up and get changed out of those soaking clothes.” Corey guides her deeper into the house.
Jakob and I remain still in the hallway, shocked and staring at each other.
“Fuck!” I blurt out.
“You’re telling me,” Jakob groans, his shoulders curled forward.
“Claire saw Trudy, and I told her who she was.”
Jakob exhales loudly. “Guess that’s why she practically ran into her house without us.”
“She probably thinks she’s been replaced.” Every inch of me tenses.
Jakob’s jaw clenches.
“I’m going to speak with her, keep her company, and watch over her,” I explain.
His gaze cuts to mine, calm on the surface, steel underneath. “We sort Trudy, give her a few days, and then she needs to leave. Claire comes first.”
“One hundred percent.” I drag in a breath that does nothing to the noose tightening around my throat.
“Fuck, this couldn’t have come at a worse time, especially after Claire’s heat. We need to be with her, but we can’t force her into it now either.” Jakob’s expression darkens. “She can be scared and angry, but we’re going to show her she means the world to us.”
