Chapter 38 Cooper
COOPER
Six days later…
A response from Eros.
The email from Eros sat in my inbox like an unexploded grenade.
I hadn’t opened it.
Couldn’t bring myself to open it.
A handheld bomb is harmless so long as you don’t touch it. It can’t destroy everything if you don’t pull its pin.
I'd been checking compulsively, ever since I sent the damn query. Each day that didn’t bring a response was a good day. I could pretend we’d never get an answer. Yet now potential doom had finally arrived. Should I read it? Fuck, I don’t want to read it.
I found myself hesitating, finger hovering over my phone screen.
The subject line gave nothing away. Just the automatic RE: added to my original subject line.
Whatever their answer though, it would change everything for me, for my pack brothers, and most importantly, for Nelly.
If we could break the contract of our own accord, no headache, then our Omega could leave.
She could fucking leave! But if we couldn’t break it, for whatever reason, then she’d be tethered to us against her will.
No matter what, there was a loser inside this email.
No matter what, there was heartbreak in the answer.
With a deep breath that did little to steady my racing heart, I tapped the message open.
The Eros Institute logo blinked at me. My eyes automatically skipped the formal greeting to get to the parts that really mattered:
"Regarding your inquiry about potential termination of Contract #GF78902: The Eros Institute confirms that mutual breaking of the contract is indeed possible if all parties—the Alpha clients and the Omega product—agree to dissolution.
Please note that terminating voluntarily does not cancel the Non-Disclosure Agreements previously signed by all parties.
Additionally, as per Section 7.3 of your contract, no refunds will be issued at termination.
Exceptions to these rules are as follows: cases of Eros negligence and product dissatisfaction.
Should you wish to proceed with elective termination, all parties must sign Form E-117, provided upon request."
I read it three times, just to be sure I understood. My phone felt heavier in my hand, weighted down by the grief I was already feeling.
“We needed more time,” I muttered to myself, slipping my phone into my pocket. “How the hell am I going to tell the guys?”
I needed some air; I was suddenly suffocating inside the house.
Morning sunlight spilled across the yard, when I pushed outside.
I gazed around Sagebrush, wondering why everything looked just a little different these days.
Nelly. Nelly was why the sky was bluer, the day was warmer, the sun was brighter.
She’d breathed new life into the ranch, and into me and my pack brothers.
Walking forward, I leaned against one of the roof’s support posts.
Things were coming together.
Our dream home was nearly done. The gleaming line of hothouses would soon be filled with seedlings.
We’d decided to use the original homestead land as planting fields, inspired by Nelly’s love of that old, ramshackle barn.
Ghost had assimilated with the other horses like she’d been part of the ranch from birth.
And things just felt right. So right, that I couldn’t imagine them ever being wrong again.
Nelly's presence had changed us all. And now I had the power to set her free.
I pulled the phone back out and read the email again.
"Mutual breaking of the contract," I read out loud.
The words sat heavy in my gut. We could let her go. She could leave. It was the least we could do, and less than she deserved. Freedom from a contract she never really asked for was only a few signatures away.
But Christ, I didn't want her to go.
Footsteps crunched on gravel. I blinked over in that direction, finding Levi’s face. he carried an empty bottle of leather polish. After I glanced down at it, he held it up fractionally and explained. “Couldn’t remember the brand.”
“Gotcha,” I answered, looking away from him to stare down the driveway.
A vision of Nelly limping over the gravel, Tripp and Tater by her side, bloomed in my head. She’d wanted so badly to leave that night, she’d risked physical danger.
“What’s wrong?” Levi, always so perceptive, came to stand directly in front of me. He blocked out the road, which quelled the memories.
I handed him my phone without a word. He read quickly, his expression darkening.
"So, we can break it," he said finally. "If everyone agrees."
"Yeah."
"Including Nelly?” he clarified.
“Yeah,” I nodded, staring out at the land we'd built together. "We’ve got to tell her. She has the right to know she can walk away. I just don’t think I can do it."
Levi handed the phone back. "You know what she'll choose, don't you?"
“We all know what she’ll choose, Levi. Maybe it would be different if the email came weeks from now, or months. It’s just too soon. We didn’t get the chance to really show her how amazing her life could be here. And now…” My voice died, the words no longer existed in my mouth.
“Now we’ll never get the chance,” he finished for me.
Fuck, I wish he hadn’t. Those words hurt like stabs from a rusty, dull knife.
"When do you plan to tell them?”
I didn’t know if the ‘them’ Levi referred to was just our pack brothers, or Nelly too. My answer would be different depending on the distinction.
I pushed off from the post, squaring my shoulders. "Better to get it over with. Where's everyone?" My ‘everyone’ didn’t include Nelly.
“Went into town,” Levi answered, shrugging.
“Wyatt never got that shipment from the leather guy, and Boone was grabbing the heritage seeds you guys ordered at the same time. I can’t believe you guys are planting more sugar beet varieties.
I feel like the fifteen your already cultivating is gross plenty.
Not sure why Wade went. Maybe just needed a break from the ranch. ”
A break from the ranch—we probably all needed that right now.
Every single one of us constantly wondered if Nelly would leave us and Sagebrush behind. Every single one of us kept waiting for the Eros email which would seal our fate. Now, I was the only one who knew that dreaded message had come.
I turned away from Levi, gazing at the ranch again.
Nelly had rooted herself everywhere you looked—in the stables, the paddocks, the fenced pastures, the old barn, and in our damn souls.
If she did leave, I wondered if we could love this place again.
Or if we’d hate it for being a bitter damn reminder of our loss.
One thing our Omega hadn’t really touched was the new house.
Impulsively, I decided to visit it. No one was working today.
It would be quiet. And, thankfully, everywhere I looked wouldn’t hold the vision of the woman who both existed here and didn’t.
A Schrodinger’s Omega. We could keep her, if Eros never responded.
We could keep her, if we ignored Eros’s response when it arrived.
But Eros had sent their answer and then I’d read the damn thing.
Now, for me and Levi, the ‘here, not here’ answer was clear.
I envied our other pack brothers. They didn’t know the truth yet.
For them, they could still hope Nelly would stay.
“Any idea when they’ll be back?” I asked, not looking at Levi.
“No idea. I’m going in the house, need to make sure I get this on the next order.”
I should have bid him farewell. Should have said, ‘Love you, Levi’ like I used to, before I started the Eros bullshit which had my pack emotionally zapped all the time. Should have. Would have. Didn’t.
When the front door whined open behind me, I assumed it was just Levi entering the house.
I was wrong.
"Morning," Nelly's voice still carried a hint of sleepiness.
“Morning,” Levi’s voice answered her.
In slow motion, I rotated to face her. Levi had disappeared into the house, she had taken his place as if by magic.
Dammit, why did she have to come outside right now?
I hadn’t had enough time to process the email.
I wasn’t sure I could hide the bombshell secret I now carefully carried, hoping it wouldn’t explode.
Nelly’s eyes were alert as she stepped onto the porch, her long hair pulled into a messy bun which was failing, releasing coppery strands that stuck out at odd angles.
She wore one of my oversized flannel shirts; it hung long enough to pass as a nightgown.
Her feet were shoved into her boots, fluffy socks peeking over the top edges.
Even like this—tired first thing in the morning, the sleep not yet driven from her eyes—she took my breath away.
I must have stared too intensely, because Nelly began fidgeting with the shirt hem, trying to tug it down further to conceal more skin.
“I couldn’t find any clean pants or shorts,” she said, giving the shirt a final pull before giving up, realizing the material wasn’t going to magically lengthen.
I frowned, realizing that we could have bought her different clothes.
She’d just been wearing things she borrowed, or the twins’ hand-me-downs for almost a week.
Why had none of us thought to order women’s clothing?
If I could get an espresso machine overnight, then we could have easily gotten her a wardrobe of her own.
“Something wrong?’ Nelly’s voice hesitant, suddenly unsure.
I shook my head quickly. “No, nothing. I was just thinking that we should order you some clothes.”
“I don’t need different clothes. I’ve managed.”
All I heard within her words was the fact she was leaving us someday.
She could manage with our shirts and pants and boots, because she didn’t plan to be here forever. A sharp pang hit my heart.
“Still, I’ll ask Levi to order some things.”
Nelly shrugged. “I mean, underwear would be great.”
Underwear. Our Omega had been here almost a week, and she didn’t even have panties. What kind of dickhead, thoughtless Alphas were we?