Page 44 of Pack Apollo

“Save it” Roz barks, holding up a palm. “We’ve heard enough. You need to gather any things you have here and leave.”

“So, that’s it then?” I ask. “You make an assumption without bothering to find the truthafteryou pay my boss off to fire me. Make me dependent on you then kick me to the curb. Was that the plan?”

At this Brent finally raises his head to look at Roz questioningly.

“I figured since we were already paying you that you wouldn’t need another job,” Roz fires back.

When I can pick my jaw up off the floor, I snap at him, “Oh, you mean thenicethings your pack has gotten me? The things that were supposed to be gifts. That was youpayingme?”

“No!” he barks loudly. “I’m talking about you being on the payroll of Jake’s bar. Specifically, the social media manager.”

Jake lifts his head to look at me, and I look at him first then the rest of them like this is some kind of joke. “I didn’t know that,” I half stutter out.

“It’s true,” Cordell says quietly like he can’t believe he’s defending me. “She had no idea it was our place.”

“I’m not even surprised that you knew at this point,” Roz snaps at him. “You’ve all but ruined this pack, so keep quiet.”

He may be as mad at me as the rest of them, but I’m not going to have Cordell taking the brunt of any of Roz’s anger meant for me. I toss him the key fob that I’d been clinching in myfist this whole time, not caring if he catches it or not. Spinning on my heel, I stalk out.

The sunshine isn’t as inviting as it was earlier. Maybe it never has been. Grabbing the few things that I’d left sitting in the passenger seat of the car, I shut the door and start walking down the driveway.

“Wait,” Palmer calls out behind me.

My response is to keep walking. Hopefully I’ll be strong enough to not look back.

He cuts me off by jumping in front of me as I make it to the curb. “It’s not true, is it?”

The words are there, but the truth is in his tone. He knows I’m not lying. If I can’t even convince him when he knows, then what’s even the point.

Stepping around him, I keep walking down the sidewalk away from their pack house. Away from the future I could’ve had.

Roz

It’s been weeks since I accused Billie and Cordell of ruining our pack. The latter hasn’t spoken to me since that day. The former probably won’t ever speak to us again, which may not be a bad thing. Even as I think it, my gut wrenches like it knows the entire situation is wrong. Just like what I did to get her out of the bar. Palmer brought it to me that she’d been so upset leaving that place every time that he picked her up, so I did what I would do for any of my other pack. I took care of it. No hassle or harm to them. I wasn’t trying to hide it from her, but she wasn’t supposed to find out in whatever way that she did.

I want to keep being angry with her, but as one day rolls into the next, I can’t help but wonder if she was telling the truth. I tried putting my private investigators on it, but they weren’t able to find anything concrete. They followed her for a week or two, and the only movement she made was going to class and back to her dorm. Just not Brent’s. He said she requested remote learning for the rest of the semester due to omega reasons. The PI’s have stayed on Daryl’s firm, even though I pulled them off of her.

After a long day at work, I walk into our quiet house, as it’s been lately. Not just quiet, but empty. I have to rub the spot on my chest when I think about it too much. Voices in the den pull me that way. The conversation stops as I step into the room.

My four pack mates are sitting on the couch all in their own version of misery.

Palmer, who’s been the angriest with me, states, “You were wrong, Roz. Having her followed. Having her fired. Not listening when she tried to tell you the truth. Not listening when we tried to tell you. All of it. You let your arrogance get in the way.”

Being lectured by the youngest member of our pack, fills me with shame as much as I am proud of him.

I stuff my hands in my pockets as I let the guilt and shame wash over me. Two emotions I'm not ever used to feeling. Glancing over at Jake, I ask, "Were you angry finding out she was the one behind the bar's social media?"

"Not at all," he says. "If her or Cordell would've told me, we could've been paying her more and gone about her quitting the other bar the right way."

"That's why I didn't say anything," Cordell admits. "I wanted to make sure she was settled before we approached the subject so that she didn't think it was charity. Because, I don't know if you noticed this or not, but our girl is independent as hell and would've shot the idea down instantly. There were a lot of better ways to handle all of the situations. For my part in that, I'm sorry."

"Me too," I tell them. "Shelly fucked me up so bad that it consumed me when I saw the photos."

Silence stretches between us.

"Fuck it," I command after a few minutes. "Let's go grovel and hope like hell our omega will take us back."

Chapter Thirteen

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