Page 24 of Truth or Pack

"I didn't, but I don't stalk you, either," she retorted as she took a seat in the middle of the couch. “We weren’t exactly friends.”

I took the seat on the left and Holt took the right, not leaving much distance between us and Taryn.

"Is this too close?" I asked as I settled in my spot, hoping she didn’t want me to move. Not when her scent was so strong right here. My body craved to lean in, to run my nose over the column of her throat, but I barely managed to hold back.

"Huh? What?" she countered a little breathlessly.

"Are Holt and I too close?" I repeated, keeping any teasing from my voice. She was like a rabbit, ready to run. I wasn’t about to provoke her.

She made this cute little squeak but no real sound.

"Did we break her already?" Holt asked, sitting forward to look at me.

"We haven't even gotten to the fun stuff yet," I answered under my breath. She didn’t even seem to register it. The omega seemed to be focused on trying to breathe.

Holt ignored my words and spoke to Taryn, "I'm a rancher. Horses, cattle, hunting, fishing, that whole life. It's a working ranch. My workers are veterans and at-risk youth. Sometimes the job is a second chance or fresh start that they need to get their life in order. You can’t get up to too much trouble when you’re exhausted from hard work."

"That's very noble of you," Taryn told him. He should probably be offended by how shocked she sounded. Then again, our mate didn’t have the best opinion of us.

"I own and run a mechanic shop, not far from the ranch. We specialize in motorcycles but we can work on anything," I added in.

"Let me guess, at risk youth and veterans, too?" she asked, a playful smile on her lips.

"No to the youth, but veterans, yes. The local base is where we get most of our employees from," I explained.

We didn’t give her more as she soaked in that information, chewing on that plump bottom lip of hers as if she had no idea how sexy she was, how much we both wanted to devour her.

Finally, she let out a huff of air and crossed her arms.

"Okay, what happened to you guys? You were fuck boys in college and now you’re what? Model bosses? Did I fall down the stairs and dream this all up?" Taryn demanded. There was almost a pout to her voice now.

Fuck, we really screwed up back then.

"Har. Har,” I shot back, making her chuckle. Then I turned serious. This conversation was heavy but she deserved to hear it. “Actually, the three of us almost were in a car accident a few years back. It was a stormy night and we almost died. That's one reason that Mathias has a hard time with thunder. He was thrown from the car and almost drowned in the ditch. Holt and I were pinned in the car, broken and bloody, unsure if we’d make it. Situations like that change you. We realized if we died then, we’d be leaving nothing real behind. I couldn’t stomach that.”

“None of us could,” Holt added.

"So, almost dying changed you?” she summarized, frowning now. “I hate that happened to you all. It sounds terrifying.”

It looked like she wanted to say more but a clap of thunder hit and Mathias ran back into the room. He tried to straighten up as if he wasn't scared to save face in front of Taryn but you couldn’t simply wipe away genuine fear.

"I found it," he announced as he held up the streaming box. His voice broke and he cleared his throat, cheeks flaming.

"Is it storming bad again?" I asked as he fiddled to get the box connected to the TV on the mantle.

"The rain hasn't hit yet but it's headed this way," he said, with his face still behind the TV.

"Holt, let's see if we can rescue anything else from the SUV. If Mathias still has electronics in there, we may have forgotten something," I told him.

Neither of us wanted to get up, but Mathias needed that one-on-one time with her. He was more himself without an audience.

Holt didn't say anything until we were out on the porch.

"Dude, we were in prime spots next to her," he complained with a groan. “I could smell her.”

I just shook my head, "I know brother, but Mathias needs some of that attention. Especially with the storm coming in. I'm not cuddling with his ass tonight."

"Fine, but when we go back in and there’s only one spot next to her, it's mine," he huffed before we both headed towards the car.

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