Page 204 of All Packed Up

What type of person would run away on the edge of her heat, throwing themselves recklessly into danger?

A person who was running from something much worse.

Wendy believed that, even if no one else did.

“Wendy,” Nic called to her, and she shifted her attention to him slowly, achingly.

Wendy couldn’t handle it if Nic said—

“Get behind me,” he told her.

She blinked the threat of tears away and stared at him. His gaze was hard, but he was focused on the alphas.

The very foundation of reality felt shaky to Wendy. Only, she didn’t realize it until Nic pushed her behind him with a gentle hand on her arm. Her lip quivered.

“You felt real pain and fear when you told me what they did to you,” he whispered, each word a balm to her panic. “They’re lying.”

He sounded so absolute. So sure. His faith in Wendy made her heart crash against her chest even harder, and it felt like she took a breath for the first time since she’d heard Derek’s voice.

When Nic’s touch left her, she missed him instantly, aching to take his hand, but not wanting to distract him from the alphas.

Wendy froze.

She missed him even though he was inches away from her.

Not once had Wendy ever felt that way about the Sterling Pack.

Wendy felt scared when she looked at the shitty alphas. And she didn’t feel this devastating whirlwind of confusing, terrifying emotions when she was with Nic, or Tate and Arlo or Griffith.

Wendy felt real when she was with them.

She felt safe. Grounded.

Whereas when she looked at the alphas across from her, she only felt uneasy. Nervous. On edge.

Wendy just had to make these alphas break this act they were putting on. She needed to. Or else she might actually be crazy, and she just could not accept that. Refused to believe that everything she’d experienced hadn’t been real. Had just been some made-up scenario in her head.

“Wait,” Wendy whispered.

Nic turned to meet her gaze and saw the confusion rise to the surface in his amber eyes.

No words came to mind, so she didn’t say anything. She slid back between them and walked forward, shrugging Nic’s touch off gently. Her steps were silent on the concrete as she approached Derek.

He was the one who made her skin crawl. Even now, goosebumps rose on her flesh and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. Even though the expression on his face was all open and friendly and loving and confused. And hopeful.

How did he project such genuine emotions on his face if they were a lie?

The same way he’d done in college. The same way they’d all done it. The perfect golden boys, most popular, most generous, most wanted. Every beta and omega on campus had wanted them.

But now Wendy knew they were fake. It had just been a mask they wore to fool everyone around them.

To make her feel like she was wrong. Like she was crazy.

She just had to find a way to crack the mask, to reveal the real alpha underneath.

And Derek hated nothing more than something not going to plan. Especially if Wendy had anything to do with it.

Inches away, she stared up at Derek, who, now that she was so close, didn’t seem so tall. Was it because she’d been looking up at Nic’s curved lips for weeks?