Page 15 of Same Difference
As he was staring at his phone screen, a text came through. For a split second, he was excited that maybe it was Delta, checking in. She’d done that throughout the day when he had long work shifts.
It wasn’t Delta though. It was Nory messaging him.Nate. Can I come get the key to your storage unit tomorrow? Delta is sleeping on the ground, and she says you have a sleeper sofa in storage. Can she have it? She doesn’t know I’m messaging you. I can grab it tomorrow. You don’t have to do anything.
He read the text three times. He was sleeping in a hotel bed, and Delta had chosen to stay in that dilapidated cabin with the destroyed roof. She was just sleeping on the ground? Was she cold? What did it look like inside?
She can have anything she wants. Give me a list and I’ll bring what I can to her. Send.
She doesn’t want to see you. I can take care of it. I just need the key and instructions on where the storage unit is.
Delta didn’t want to see him. Fuck. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and rested his hand against his stomach. Decker fought dirty. Nate supposed he had to. He wasn’t great at fighting. How he’d secured Alpha of the Heritage Place Pack, he hadn’t a clue. Nate had bested him easily. It had been tempting for a moment to kill him and take the Pack. Maybe he should’ve. He could’ve given Delta stability. She would’ve done what was best and stayed in that Pack if he’d taken it over. He could’ve convinced her. Nate frowned at his own psychotic thoughts. That wouldn’t help anything. Then they would still be just as they were now—stuck in the same Pack, so close and so far away from each other. Friends.
Torture either way.
“Get ahold of yourself,” he growled, slamming his fist on the table.
This wasn’t torture. This was fine. Everything was fine. He was just hurt from the fight.
He messaged Nory back.I’ll bring you the key in the morning. Send.
She really doesn’t want to see you. I just need to meet with you in town and grab it.
Irritated, he connected a call to Nory.
“Hello?” she answered.
“How is she?”
“Strong.”
He nodded, staring at his reflection in a mirror on the wall across from him. He looked like a monster. He was a monster.
“Is she cold?”
“Werewolves don’t get cold,” Nory answered coolly. “You know that.”
“Is that house safe for her to be in?”
“Listen, she’s not your concern anymore, remember? You tried to get a refund.”
“I didn’t know that was her ex—”
“That doesn’t matter, Nate. What you did was so messed up. You want to know how she’s doing? She’s hurt. I can’t even imagine the insecurities that would destroy me if Liam ever pulled that. She’s crying. Liam can hear her from our tent. Do you even know what you’ve done? Do you understand, Nate?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you do! Did you ever even see her? God, Nate. Delta is it. She’s kind and caring, and invested, and giving, and she gives a shit about this Pack, and from where I’m sitting, that’s rare. She has a past, and a history, and a life she left behind and she told me tonight you never even cared about digging into any of that.”
“She didn’t ask me anything either!”
“She didn’t? She didn’t ever?” Nory’s voice was snappy, like a rubber band against skin. “What about in the beginning?”
He dragged his fingertip through a water drop on the table. “I don’t know.”
“Think, Nate. Did she ask you questions and you shut her down until she pulled back and tried to give you space to offer answers? Did she ask questions in the beginning?”
It sounded familiar. She had asked him about his family, but it had felt too personal too fast. She’d asked him about past relationships with women, but it was none of her business. She’d asked him about work. He shrugged his shoulders up to his ears and wished the heat in his face would go away forever.
“Did she?” Nory asked softer.
