Page 40 of Unbonded
I stop beside the alpha to kiss his cheek, stealing another gulp of his comforting leather and ink scent. “We’ll miss you, but we’ll look after each other. Promise.”
“I know you will,” he rumbles, giving my shoulder a squeeze. “But I’ll have Hector and another couple of guys close by, just in case.”
I nod, because if having a visible security presence makes Bram feel better, I’m not going to complain.
Although, my heart squeezes as I step out onto the terrace to find Lachlan sitting on a pool lounger, his back to the stunning view. He’s hunched over his phone, and when I stop at his side, I can see that he’s neck-deep in scent match research.
“I didn’t know,” I tell him as I tuck myself beside him on the lounger. It’s cool out, and when I shiver, he immediately drops an arm around my shoulders. “I honestly don’t know if the bond between us is new, or something that’s always been there, buried under my stuff with Lee.”
He shakes his head, his sunshine scent as murky as I’ve ever smelled it. “I thinkheknew,” he says softly. “I think Lee suspected something, and that’s why he was always rubbing my nose in my feelings for you.”
I feel a fresh pang of disgust for my ex. “I’m sorry I didn’t do more to stop that, Lachlan. But why didn’t you say something to me? I really had no clue how you felt.”
He shrugs, his fingers skimming up and down my arm. “I did my best to hide it. You loved him, and I didn’t want to hurt you.” He sucks in a deep breath, like he’s been holding something backfor a while. “And I knew if it all came out, he’d go after more than just me. Do you remember Rick Jameson?”
I nod, because while I don’t often think about Lee’s teammates, Rick Jameson always stuck in my head. A good-looking sophomore when we were seniors, he seemed to dislike me on principle, a stormy cloud to Lachlan’s sunshine presence. “The running back from your team?”
“Yeah, well we had a thing for a while.” He pauses to smile at my surprised expression. “It was low-key, but Lee found out, and he said if I tried to break you guys up, he’d go to our coach about me and Rick. There was a rule against fraternization between teammates. I was safe, but Rick was an alpha and it specifically targeted them. He was also on a scholarship, and if it came out, he would’ve been kicked off the team and probably forced to leave school.”
My stomach churns with a fresh wave of nausea. This time it has nothing to do with my condition, and everything to do with Lee’s actions. “I can’t believe he blackmailed you like that.”
Lachlan shrugs, like it wasn’t the worst thing my ex did to him. “It wasn’t really serious on my part. Passing time, you know. But Rick was a lot more invested, and when I tried to break it off, he took it badly. I know it’s weak of me, but I just let it play out until we graduated.”
“That’s not weak. Lee put you in an impossible position.”
He sighs, dropping his phone beside him on the lounger so he can cup my cheek. “I should’ve been honest with you and screw the consequences. But I wasn’t about to blow up your world - or Rick’s - unless I was certain you wanted me to. And then you announced your bonding at graduation, and I figured you’d made your choice. Looking back, I should’ve gotten over my hurt feelings and told you everything.”
I take his hand, winding our fingers together. He has calluses on his palms that remind me of Lee, but that’s where thecomparisons end. In fact, the more I learn about both men, the more I realize how blind I was to what was right in front of my face. “That’s easy to say in hindsight, but I couldn’t see past Lee. I really thought he was my perfect match.”
Lachlan huffs and squeezes my hand. “I really want to hunt him down and kick his ass. If he knew about our bond…”
“Maybe…” I pause, because he’s probably tired of the theories, but he looks at me curiously and I shrug. “Maybe it needed time to develop. I was a different person back in college, going with the flow, and never really questioning things.” I don’t add that my mom was a firm believer in an omega’s place being on the arm of a powerful alpha, because I was never that narrow-minded, but the way I was raised definitely played into my feelings for Lee. “When Lee left, I was a mess, but it forced me to grow up a lot. I let him make so many decisions for me, but when that was gone, I realized it was about control, not support.”
“That was the hardest part to watch,” Lachlan murmurs. “Everything he did benefited him, not you.”
I could probably list a dozen examples off the top of my head, but I’m tired of thinking about my ex. Lee has taken up enough of my head space, and I have better things to think about now. “The other part of the equation,” I say carefully, “is Corbus.”
Lachlan stiffens at my side. “And that’s real? You knew he was your scent match right away?”
I try to hide my wince. “I suspected when we first met, but everything’s been so messed up since the unbonding. I couldn’t be sure.”
“But you are now.”
“Corbus is complicated.” I won’t talk about his condition - if that’s the word for it – until he wants to discuss it openly, but I don’t want Lachlan to resent him, either. “We’ve had to work through a couple of things, but we’ve both admitted the bond is there.”
He pauses to absorb this. Lee liked winning in college, but it always seemed to be a healthy competition. I don’t know how he feels about sharing with an alpha, but he looks more doubtful than disturbed. “Two bonds. Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but I also felt drawn to Dash and Bram when I met them. Who’s to say there aren’t a whole lot of different ways to connect with people?”
He glances down at his phone, as if the answer might be written there. But I think it’s also to avoid my gaze, because his voice is strained as he asks, “And so where do I fit? You’re with the dancer, and the alphas are waiting in the wings… How do I compete with that?”
“You don’t have to. Corbus said you’re a part of the equation. That the three of us are in a kind of bond triangle. That means you’re in this as much as any of us, if you want to be.”
He rubs his thumb over the back of my hand. “You mean… pack?”
“I don’t know. But I want you here. And not just to make up for lost time. I want to see what kind of future we might have, now there’s nothing standing in our way.”
Lachlan cups my cheek, and while I could melt into the intensity of his rich, brown eyes, there’s nothing better than watching a smile bloom on his lips. He radiates such happiness, I scoot closer to him, wanting to bask in his glow. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear that, Katie.”
