Page 18 of Cost of Courting

Bailey Raines is a dream. But he’s going to have to be someone else’s dream.

Chapter five

Selene

I arrive home tofind Pack Dread sitting on my porch, speaking to my sister and a couple of her friends. Everyone’s eyes fall on me, and I’m honest enough to admit that I hate the fact there are girls almost falling over themselves to talk to Pack Dread. With my gaze fixed on the front door, I ignore Edric’s greeting and step over them without a word. I stalk through the inside of my house, ignoring the stomp of heavy boots behind me.

“You have to forgive us,” Mael snaps.

I collapse on my bed and kick off my boots. “I don’t have to do anything of the sort. Go away, Mael. I’m tired.”

I set my alarm and close my eyes. I’m almost asleep and convinced he’s gone when I feel someone sit on the edge of my mattress. My body rolls in that direction, and I have to dig my palms into the mattress before I collide with him.

“What’s it going to take to get you to forgive us?”

I sit up and glare. “First off, boundaries. Secondly, a time machine. Now get the fuck out.”

Mael just watches me in the dark. All those fantasies I had growing up were had in this room. All the budding emotions and love for these alphas came from sleepless nights lying on this mattress. How many times did they sleep in here with me? How many pathetic nights did I lie here wondering if tonight was the night? Wondering what they tasted like. How it would feel to have them inside me. Staring at them sleeping, thinking how beautiful they were.

It’s not right. It’s confusing and just wrong.

“Forgiveus.”

I shake my head, furious at him. “Absolutely not. I am not some person you can just discard whenever it suits you.”

Mael moves so fast I don’t see it. I’m tucked under him as he leans over me, our noses just inches apart. I hold myself perfectly still, too scared to even breathe too deeply.

With Bailey, everything is new and exciting, but, with Mael, it’s a familiar pining that I’ve had forever.Kiss me. Tell me you love me, tell me I’m the only one.

“We never discarded you.”

His words take a second to penetrate. In the dark, the light from the moon paints the side of his face, all lines and angles and beautiful, beautiful alpha.

“When you leave someone and you don’t call or write or, hell, come back and visit, it’s called abandonment, Mael.”

“We were always coming back.”

“I wasn’t waiting for you,” I lie.

He knows it, too. In the low light, I see his expression intensify. “Let’s play a game.”

“No games.”

“Two truths and a lie. You weren’t waiting for us?”

“I wasn’t.”

“Lie,” he whispers and brushes his lips over my temple.

“I really wasn’t,” I say and swat at him.

“Lie.”

“I hate you.”

He chuckles and threads our fingers of my left hand together above my head.

“Lie.”

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