Page 30 of Tying the Knot
Been there and done that and look where it landed me.
I shift uncomfortably in my wet underwear. I wonder if they also have a drier, I could use. But then horror strikes, and my cheeks warm up as the kind blonde alpha reaches up to stick my hat back on my head.
I can’t put my filthy three-day-old knickers and my top that smells slightly of BO in their washing machine!
It’s mortifying!
“No,” I say, definitely struggling now regardless of the consequences. “You can put me down and be on your way.”
“Our way was to see you,” Elijah says.
My blood freezes at that ominous statement. I breathe in sharply and get that gorgeous scent, mingled with Mai Tai hitting my nasal passages. The other one hasn’t come close enough to me yet to catch his scent, but I bet it’s equally as alluring. I loved the smell of my pack. It was a heady mix of masculinity, but it never reallyhitme in the gut like these two have. They complement each other, and my mouth waters slightly as I think about kissing them both.
Fuck. What is wrong with me?
“Morgan?” Dylan asks, falling into step beside us. “Don’t you want to know why?”
“Not really,” I croak.
It obviously has to do with the pack and their arrest. Or maybe they were coming to arrest me for aiding and abetting or whatever that thingy is that sweeps up bystanders to crimes, innocent or not.
“I didn’t do anything!” I blurt out. “Don’t arrest me, please. I had no idea what was going on. Call me stupid and naïve, whatever you want, but I swear…”
“Hush,” Elijah murmurs as we stop outside a nice-looking house a very short distance from the hotel I randomly chose to move into.
Hmm.
“We aren’t going to arrest you,” Dylan says as the one with my bag of dirty laundry opens the front door and rushes inside as if to get away from me. I catch the scent of a damp forest and groan inwardly. These alphas are killing me with their scents. They’re too enticing. Too alluring. Too tempting. “But we do need to talk to you. Let’s see to your ankle and washing first, and then we’ll make a nice cup of tea.”
“Coffee,” I murmur, suddenly overwhelmed with relief that I’m not in trouble. Well, trouble that will get me thrown in the clink. I amdefinitelyin trouble that has nothing to do with my ex-pack.
Ex-pack.
I gulp as I think about them that way for the first time. But they are. I can’t go back, not knowing what I know now. Not now that my blinkers have been removed and the rose-coloured glasses smashed to smithereens along with my heart and my trust.
“Fuck,” I mutter and blink back the onslaught of tears that pour out of my eyes anyway.
“Hey,” Elijah says, lowering me carefully to a comfy, squishy, faded sofa which makes me cry even harder.
The one in Kensington was white leather and rock-hard. You couldn’t curl up on it and becomfortable. I thought I loved it only a few days ago, but now I realise it was Adam who wanted it, so that time on it was limited.
I’m such a fool.
I cry harder and accept the tissue that Dylan pulls out of a box from a side table. I gulp back a breath, choking on the air. Coughing and crying and spluttering, I made a complete idiot out of myself in front of this pack, which makes doing my disgusting laundry in their washer pale in comparison.
“I’m sorry,” I croak.
“No,” Elijah says, kneeling before me and gently cupping my face. He wipes my tears away with his thumbs in such a delicate, sweet gesture, I cry even more. “You are safe here, sweetheart. Let it all out.”
I want to yell at him for being so lovely. Who isthisnice to complete strangers who sob all over their sofa and blow their nose practically clean through the tissue?
But when Dylan sits next to me and wraps his arm around me, I fall against him and feel safe and cared for in a real way for the first time I can remember.
I was so blind and so dumb. I hate myself for buying their lies.
I know I have to forgive myself and get over it, but right now, I want to cry one last time before I put it to bed and find out what this pack wants with me. Hopefully, it’s not something where I’ll have to run because those pavements are a hazard, and I’ve risked enough already.
ChapterTwenty-Two
