by Lola Glass
Maisy got a subscription to some food service, and Arla got a crockpot she rolled her eyes at.
I just held my present, staring at it in shock.
Two plane tickets to Georgia, leaving toward the end of January. One with my name on it, one blank.
The card read,
You deserve to know what happened to your family. I hope you put my name on the second ticket.
-Romeo
I dropped the card and ticket on the couch, grabbed Roman’s shirt, and yanked him toward me. His lips met mine in a soft kiss that spoke my feelings better than words could.
Maisy was reading my card when I ended the kiss, and I snatched it from her hand.
“That’s private.”
“It’s not even romantic.” She scowled.
“You and I clearly have different standards for just about everything in life.” I leaned against Roman’s chest and he wrapped his arm around my waist, tugging me closer.
“My presents are kind of lame, so don’t get your hopes up.” I handed Roman and Arla their gifts.
They opened them, and Arla laughed. Hers was a bright yellow leather jacket we’d seen in a boutique that all of us girls had joked would identify a chick as a “sunny bitch”.
“That’s not lame. I’ll be the sunniest bitch in the ‘scraper.”
Roman pressed a kiss to the top of my head. His present was a framed picture of us I’d taken one morning, his nose buried against my neck while I laughed and he grinned against my skin. I’d been sneaky about taking it so he wouldn’t know what I was doing.
“Not lame at all.” He murmured. “Text me the picture.”
Arla pulled out a pile of board games, and Roman cooked for everyone while the three of us ladies played an intense and surprisingly un-awkward game of Monopoly. I lost by a landslide and handed Maisy all my properties before going to join Roman in the kitchen.
The rest of the day progressed similarly, and Roman walked me back to my apartment with my presents in a bundle under his arm—he had something against letting me carry my own shit. I’d stopped fighting it because it was a fight I never won and I liked to win.
We stopped at my door, and I leaned against the doorframe as Roman took a chunk of my hair and lifted it to his nose, inhaling my scent.
“I wanted to get you another present, but I wasn’t sure how you’d respond.” He admitted, wrapping the strand around his fingers.
“What was it?”
“An all-access pass to my gym and the classes offered there. We do MMA and a few other types of fighting. You need to know how to protect yourself, especially if we’re going to mate. Alpha Females don’t get challenged a lot, but I’m not willing to lose you to some girl who thinks she can run the pack better than you.”
“Wait, what?” My eyebrows shot into my forehead. “I told you, I’m not going to be the Alpha Female.”
“I thought you’d adjusted to the idea.” He frowned.
“Adjusted to the idea? I flat-out said no. Not even maybe.”
“You’ll change your mind.” Roman lifted my hair back to his nose, and I tugged the strands away from him.
“You don’t get to make decisions for me. If I’d known you’ve been holding on to this idea, we never would’ve gotten this close.” I gestured between us. The stony expression he wore struck me hard. “That’s why you haven’t brought it up.”
My lips parted, fury and hurt warring within me.
“I’m not trying to make the decision for you, Hen. I just think—“
“This isn’t about what you think, Roman. This is about you keeping secrets from me because you know they’ll affect whether or not I decide to mate with you.”
“You’ve got plenty of your own secrets.” He countered.
“Not secrets like that.” I flung my hand out toward him. “My secrets are just painful tidbits from my past I haven’t told you about. You’re expecting me to change into what you want me to be while I’m still trying to figure out what I want me to be. I told you I wasn’t interested in becoming an Alpha, and you ignored me.”
Frustration lined his forehead.
“Is it so bad that I want you to lead the pack with me?”
“No, but you expect me to. You’ve been willing to mate with me for weeks; would Arla have just stepped down and thrown her title at me if I had agreed to it?”
“No.”
I could spot a lie almost as easily as I could tell one.
“You’re lying.” Disbelief weighed down the words. “You want to trap me, to use me, the same way every other Alpha I’ve had has. We’re done. I’m not mating with you; stay the hell away from me.”
“Henley—“ Roman tried to grab the door, but I slammed it too quickly. Spinning around so my back pressed the wood, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to process what I’d just learned. “I still have your presents.” He’d still be able to hear me breathing and smell that I was against the door.
“Leave them outside.
There was a soft noise I imagined was Roman putting his hand on the door near my head.
“I wasn’t trying to trap you, Hen. I’d never do that. I just wanted to find a way to have both you and the pack.” His voice was softer, less frustrated. I fought my emotions to remain neutral so he wouldn’t catch a whiff of my hurt.
“I never asked you to give it up.”
“The Alpha’s mate is treated like shit by the pack if she’s not the other half of the Alpha Pair. I’d never put you through that.” This time, the words were raw and honest. “And the messed up power dynamic of an Alpha mated with a pack member could easily lead to abuse. I sure as hell wouldn’t risk that.”
“I don’t care what people think of me.” I said fiercely. The abuse thing, I wasn’t going to touch.
“If that was true, you wouldn’t cover your tattoo.”
The words hurt more than I expected.
It was my own fault for letting him in.
Why did I always do this to myself?
“Leave.”
The sound of his slow footsteps as he walked away was one I wouldn’t soon forget.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Rise and shine, Hennie-poo.” Arla ripped the curtains in my spare room open. She didn’t ask why I was sleeping there instead of my room; we could both smell her brother on my sheets.
I was a sucker who couldn’t resist sleeping in a bed that smelled like him, even after learning he’d betrayed me.
“Did you just call me ‘poo’?” I couldn’t get my eyes to open, but I had caught that.
“Sure did. Wasn’t as cutesy as I expected.” She looked cheerful. I felt like the walking dead. “Don’t glare at me. The pack gathering is this weekend, and we’re celebrating the start of mating season.” She shimmied her shoulders. “Prepare to be boned.”
“Arla.” I groaned, turning over in bed and pulling my pillow over my head. It was just cruel to wake someone up before noon. “I’m not going.” My voice was muffled by the pillow but she heard loud and clear.
“You’re going to leave my brother alone with all the pack bitches at the start of mating season?” She grabbed the pillow off me and tossed it to the side of the room.
“Yup. I’m going to celebrate mating season with pizza and beer.” I said, and then made a face. “Vodka. Pizza and vodka.”
When I rolled back to my stomach and pulled the duvet over my head, she threw that too. I groaned again.
“What are you talking about?”
“We got in a fight last night.” I sat up just to stop her from tearing apart the spare room I’d been sleeping in and threw my hair up in a bun on top of my head because it smelled too much like Roman.
Should’ve showered off his scent.
Really shouldn’t have slept in a bed that smelled like him.
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious.”
“Get over it. This is mating season, sis.”
Padding to the kitchen in just my new pizza shirt
and panties, I threw the fridge open. The only thing still inside was some snot-textured concoction Roman left sometime earlier. I’d been too afraid to open the Tupperware containing it until then, but my hunger was finally bad enough.
“What is this?” I shook the thing at Arla, figuring she’d know what her brother liked to make.
“Looks like overnight oats. How long has it been in your fridge?”
“I don’t know. Three days? Nine? Seventeen?”
I sniffed it. The smell wasn’t rancid, just fruity and milk-ish, so I grabbed a spoon.
“Roman’s never left it longer than a night.” She eyed the Tupperware suspiciously.
“My cereal supply is gone as of last night so I have no other choice.” I lifted a spoonful of the stuff to my mouth. The texture was gaggy, but the taste wasn’t awful. I swallowed a Roman-sized serving in a matter of seconds, cleaning the container with my finger.
“Go get dressed so we can hit the road.” She gestured to my bedroom and plopped down in a chair.
“I told you, I’m not going.” I tossed the Tupperware in the sink and strode into my room. “Like I said, vodka and pizza will be my companions this mating season. Men suck.” I called over my shoulder.
I went back to bed and collapsed on the blankets. Arla sat down on the edge of the mattress.
“You can follow me around the apartment all you want, I’m not going.”
“You do know that if I leave you here, my brother is going to come in and throw you over his shoulder cave-man style. Whether you go peacefully with me or fighting with Roman is up to you.”
She studied her nails. I sighed heavily.
“He manipulated me.” I told her. “He’s not getting a pass for that. I told him from the start that I wasn’t interested in games, and he played me like a freaking fiddle.”
“This is a lecture you should be giving him, not me.” Arla said.
“Fine. Send him in.”
Arla grinned. I flipped her off, and she laughed.
“Deal. I’ll let him know you’re not coming to expedite the process. Try not to kick him in the balls; you might need those suckers one day.”
After an exaggerated wink, she headed for the door.
“Wear the green top London talked you into buying. It makes your eyes pop.” She called as she left.
With a curse under my breath, I went to my closet and changed. Not because I had to, but because she was right. And I wanted to make Roman regret what he did.
I tugged the tight, long-sleeved top over my head. It wrapped around my body, butter-soft fabric that fit like a forest-colored second skin. The deep v-neck cut low to my chest and exposed the tattoo I hated along with a strip of my stomach.
I’d show Roman. I wasn’t afraid to let people see my tattoo.
Pulling on the dark skinny jeans that looked best with the top, my mind rehearsed last night’s revelation and my anger rose again.
Loud pounding on the door was followed by the sound of the thing swinging open.
“I know you’re in here, Henley.” Roman was as pissed as I’d been hoping. “What the hell are you doing?” Roman stalked into the room, eyes drinking me in slowly. I didn’t miss the appreciative gaze, not that I showed I’d noticed it.
“It’s simple. I’m not going.”
“You’re so pissed with me that you’ll risk your safety?” He asked like it was ridiculous.
“Not everything is about you.” I snarled.
“No, but this is.” His eyes shifted and his Alpha power hit me sharply. “You’re going to the gathering. Ignore me if you want, but you can’t stay here alone. Mating season is starting and it’s not safe.”
He stormed out of my apartment, door slamming behind him.
No wonder life had been so shitty to me. It was trying to teach me not to be a complete moron and I’d never freaking learned.
Arla called me as I stepped into my mostly-empty pantry.
“Hey.” I answered.
“What’s taking so long?” she complained. I heard laughter in the background and the tail-end of a sex joke.
“Just grabbing snacks.” I hung up and grabbed the stale half-bag of marshmallows and the bottle of vodka hiding behind it. Drunk Henley hadn’t been great at hiding the emergency alcohol supply, which was a good thing.
I lifted the bottle and took a long drink, swallowing as much of the shit as I could manage, threw some clothes in a duffel bag, and headed down to the building’s underground garage. Arla stood beside her luxury SUV with Jamie, London, and Lilac. Lilac didn’t look happy to be there but Arla had what looked like a death-grip on her arm.
“Where’s Roman?” She looked behind me, forehead wrinkled.
“Don’t know.” I popped a marshmallow in my mouth and struggled to chew the hard son of a bitch. Everyone’s eyes fell to the bottle of vodka I’d tucked under my elbow. “Asshole ordered me to come and then stomped out.” I lifted the bottle back to my mouth and chugged some more. It burned as it went down, and I relished the familiar feeling.
“I don’t want to go with you guys if you’re drinking…” Lilac tried to make an excuse to duck away. Arla’s grip was like iron.
“Don’t worry, I won’t be sharing.” I waved my bottle. “No cups.”
“What happened?” Jamie looked concerned.
“He’s an Alpha. They’re all selfish douche-holes. End of story.” I lifted the bottle again and threw back another few ounces of vodka.
Some guys I recognized walked past and I turned.
Fantastic excuse to avoid a conversation I never wanted to have.
“Zack.”
He stopped, along with all of his friends. I recognized most of them from the last gathering. He grinned when he saw me.
“Henley.”
“Yep.” I crossed the garage. “Can I catch a ride upstate with you guys?”
Zack’s eyes flicked to the group of girls I’d been standing with.
“I thought you were with the Alpha.”
“I thought so too.” I gave him a lazy smile. “But who needs a date when you have vodka and marshmallows?” I lifted the bottle and bag.
“You’re riding with us.” Arla crossed the garage and slung her arm over my shoulder.
“Lilac doesn’t want to drink.”
She snagged my bottle and turned it upside down. My liquid peace pooled on the floor under our shoes and I glared at the Alpha female.
“Now neither will you.” She maintained a cheerful façade.
“Bitch.” I said, ducking out from under Arla’s arm to grab Zack’s bicep, daring Arla to disagree with my eyes.
“I don’t want to get between you and the Alphas.” Zack apologized, extricating his arm from my grip and taking a few steps away from me.
“Did you really just turn down the chance to spend two hours alone in a car with this beauty?” Kyler strolled up and slung an arm over my shoulder. “Did he?” he looked to me for confirmation. The glare Arla shot at him was so hot I thought he’d catch fire.
“He did.”
“Well, Zack, your loss is my gain.” He declared. “Henley’s riding with me.”
Kyler offered me his arm and I took it.
“Arla, pleasure as always.” He bowed his head toward her. She narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t protest as we left her with Jamie and her other enforcers, walking over to Kyler’s sports car.
Roman stepped out of the elevator, into the parking garage, and the alcohol went to work.
I would hurt him the way he hurt me.
Turning to Kyler, my fingers fisted in his t-shirt and I went up on my tiptoes, pressing my lips to his. His body was rigid and unresponsive, so I grabbed his face and shoved my tongue in his mouth.
The roar that echoed through the garage only encouraged me.
“What the hell are you doing?” Arla snarled, ripping me away from Kyler.
“Hurting him.” I snarled back.
Roman charged at Kyler, already in wolf form. K
yler shifted, his wolf form nearly equal in size to the Alpha’s.
He was the head male enforcer, after all.
Arla ran between the guys, throwing herself in the middle of the fight. Roman barely veered to the side in time to avoid ripping her face off. Arla shouted at him, “You’re just feeling the effects of the start of mating season.”
Roman shifted back, storming toward her and Kyler, who she stood in front of like a guard.
“I’m feeling the effects of my head enforcer kissing my girl.” He snarled.
“Drop it. We all saw Henley kiss him, not the other way around.”
I strolled across the parking garage as Roman’s gaze snapped to mine. He glowered at me, and I glowered back.
“You might be my Alpha, but I can still kiss whoever the hell I want.”
Roman stalked closer, his nostrils flaring.
“You’re drunk.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I taunted him, crossing to Kyler’s side. The enforcer dodged when I tried to grab his arm like I had earlier.
“Where the hell did she get vodka in the past half an hour?” Roman snapped at the girls.
“She has a secret stash.” Jamie’s voice was heavy with apology.
“If you don’t want her to be a bitch to you, you shouldn’t be a douche to her.” London shot back. “Give me your keys.” She held her hand out to Kyler, who reluctantly handed them over. “Come on, Hennie. Assholes don’t deserve your time.”
I was on my way toward London when Roman covered the distance between us. He threw me over his shoulder like a freaking rag doll, and I screamed obscenities at him. He hauled me across the garage to his truck, pushing the middle console up and tossing me onto the seat.
I clutched my marshmallows to my chest, glaring at him with every ounce of hatred I could muster. London was cursing and yelling threats outside the truck, but Roman ignored them.
“You’re a real bastard.” I snarled.
“And you just kissed one of my best friends to piss me off.” Roman glowered back.
“Hurt people usually hurt other people.” I snapped, shoving a marshmallow in my mouth.
Roman started the truck, ripping it into reverse and backing out before he hit the gas and flew out of there.