Chapter 12
Twelve
Bree
Well, that was the worst disaster in history.
How the hell did he find my house? That’s the most bizarre part, how Jack had simply stormed in here, all dark and broody, like he’d had a beacon on Bennett and Mangelli.
Hmm. Maybe he has them geo-tagged.
I’d hit the kill button on the stream the moment Jack appeared, but enough got through that once they’d all left, I came back to find the chat going berserk.
I flip on the cam.
“Sorry for the interruption, guys,” I say, waving apologetically. “Rick and Todd have both decided to go, and I’m calling it for the night.”
The chat fills with thumbs down and crying emojis. Only GingerWatchman says, good riddance.
keep it down, someone responds. I like watching Sienna get railed.
Ignoring all of them, I say, “Stay tuned, because interesting things will be coming to a cam near you in the coming months!”
On that mysterious note, I end the stream. I sit there tapping the computer, feeling like the scum of the earth.
I never should have done what I did with Bennett and Arthur, no matter what excuses they gave me. I knew it was wrong to go behind their husband’s back and still, I did it. So did they, I guess—but I had control over one thing in the situation and that was myself.
Jack. It was strange to see him in person for the first time, someone I had done a very intimate act with. He was brown all over with a stripe of lighter fur on his nose and throat, and two pairs of curly horns instead of just one.
I have never seen a face so livid before. Now I feel like I owe Jack an apology, but that’s the last thing anyone needs.
My computer lets out a ding! sound as someone drops me a tip. Immediately, a direct message from HornyBen opens.
Hey. He came home, so don’t worry about that.
That’s good. At least now they can all talk about it.
Are you all right? I ask.
No. Nobody here is okay. But Jack is insisting on a dinner, all four of us. Including you.
I stare at the screen. Why would he want me to come over for dinner?
Am I going to get murdered at this dinner? I ask.
I couldn’t tell you what you’ll be walking into. I don’t know what he’s thinking.
I swallow hard. I can’t turn it down. Right now, it could be his kid growing inside me, and that means we have to figure this out between us.
I won’t spend nine months or more with the specter of breaking apart a marriage looming over my head, wondering if there will even be a family waiting for this baby when it comes.
All right. Tell me when and I’ll be there.
Bennett
Jack doesn’t speak to us at all the next day. He gets up for work, eats his cereal at the counter and then strides past me out the door without looking even one of us in the eye. Then Arthur and I leave for our respective jobs, as much as we’d both rather stay home and mope.
Around lunchtime, I get a text message from Jack in the group chat.
Jack
We’re meeting at the house. 7pm. The surrogate coming?
I cringe when I send my reply.
Bennett
She’ll come.
Jack
Good.
Arthur says he’s passed the message along to Bree, and that’s all we get from Jack that day.
When I head home at five, I’m shivering from the cold air front that’s moved in, even though it’s springtime.
I have no idea what awaits us tonight, and I wish I could have had even a minute just to talk to Jack about what happened before we brought Bree into it.
She didn’t ask for this. It’s our fault, mine and Arthur’s. But I don’t think it will be that simple.
I wait for Arthur to get home, and then the two of us sit in silence until Jack’s car rolls up in the driveway. Now it’s 6:30 and neither of us thought to cook something for this dinner.
When he comes in, he’s carrying two big bags.
“Hey, Jack,” I say meekly, waving, but he ignores me. He empties the bags to reveal Thai takeout, which he sets out on the table.
Arthur sits up straight in his chair. “Before Bree gets here, can we—”
“No.” Jack’s voice is cutting.
So, instead, we sit in silence and wait.
Finally, Bree’s car pulls up out front. When she knocks on the front door, Jack gestures at Arthur to go and open it.
“Hey,” they both say awkwardly before Bree steps inside. She’s beautiful with her curly hair tucked under a beanie that has a pink pom-pom on top, and a reddish hue to her cheeks and the tip of her nose. Her smell is divine, unreal, filling up the house as soon as she steps in.
Even Jack sits up in his chair and inhales when she enters. She pauses in the doorway to the dining room where all of us are seated at the table already, untouched food out in front of us.
“Oh. It really is a dinner.” She removes her jacket, then hangs up her purse on the open chair before easing herself into it.
“Eat before it gets cold,” Jack says impassively, and her eyes jump up to his. She watches him for a moment and he stares back, until Bree nods and serves herself.
I’m all nerves, wondering what Jack has to say to us. But for now, he stays silent as we all dig in and eat. I can barely taste what I’m putting in my mouth, and Arthur keeps glancing at me with a worried look.
Finally, Jack sets his chopsticks aside.
“How did this happen?” he asks, gesturing at all three of us.
“We go to yoga together,” Arthur helpfully pipes up. “I’ve known Bree for a while.”
“This is just a coincidence?” Jack raises one eyebrow.
“No.” Bree puts down her utensils, too, and meets his eyes without flinching. “I applied to DreamTogether when Mangelli mentioned it. I wanted to get matched up with the three of you.”
This takes me by surprise. I didn’t realize Bree had set all this up on purpose—that she did it because of Arthur.
I cringe because this will be an even bigger tally against her.
“If you want to blame someone, blame me,” Bree goes on, steadfast. “I had a crush on him first.”
Arthur drops his head into his hands, while Jack simply stares at her.
“You had a crush on… Arthur?” He barks out a nasty laugh. “Is that a joke?”
“No.”
Bree does not look cowed or intimidated.
“I’m the one who came on to her,” Arthur cuts in. Ah, shit, this is the last thing we need. “I just smelled her, and I knew, and I just needed to fuck her so bad—”
“Arthur!” Jack snaps. “Stop defending each other.”
Arthur crosses his arms like a petulant teenager. “I just don’t want you to blame Bree for this.”
Jack shakes his head, then turns to me.
“But that doesn’t explain you, Bennett. How did you get tangled up in this?”
I swallow. Now is my part, the thing I’ve been hiding.
“I watch her cam,” I say at last. “I’ve been watching for… a while.”
Jack’s eyes never leave mine. “How long?”
“Almost a year. Every night, when I can.”
I see how this hurts Jack, the way his brows crease. His voice thins when he asks, “Why?”
Maybe I have to tell him the truth now, even if it hurts more.
“I’ve always wanted a woman in our herd,” I say, shoving each word out. “But I never pushed the issue because of… you know.”
Jack’s expression is flat and hard. “Do I know?”
“Marilee.”
He flinches.
“I know you didn’t want a woman,” I tell him.
“So this is how you go about it?” Jack asks, clenching his napkin. “Getting your rocks off without me? By lying to me about where you are?”
I lower my head because his accusations are founded.
“I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I’m so, so sorry. I just didn’t think you would understand how much… how much I wanted her.”
I cover my face, trying to hold in all the emotion about to burst free.
“It doesn’t mean I want you less,” I go on, “though I knew that’s all you would hear. And I know it doesn’t excuse what I did.”
No one at the table speaks. When I finally open my eyes, Jack is watching me, his expression unreadable.
“I was punished in advance,” he says in a low voice. “You both thought you knew what I would want, what I would think, and so you lied to me, believing I would disapprove.”
He leans back in his chair, and for a moment, I think this might not go the way we expected. Then he rights himself again and glares at Bree.
“And you’re the source of all this strife in my household,” he says coldly. She flinches, but doesn’t try to defend herself. “You’re also carrying our fawn.”
“I am.”
“But that’s what you wanted all along.”
She nods, no argument.
Jack studies her, and no one in the house moves.
“Do you know what you do to us?” He gets up out of his chair and walks around behind me, to the other side of the table. He stops just short of Bree, and she looks up at him with growing apprehension. “Now that we’ve bred you, all we want is you.”
For a split second, it sounds like he might be coming on to her. But then he leans down close to speak into her ear.
“And you used that against us,” he says with a sneer. “You saw the kind of power you had over Arthur and Bennett, and you used it.”
“That’s not true at all,” Bree says, scooting her chair back so she can frown up at him.
“It is true! You wanted them for yourself and saw the rut would help you get it.”
She opens her mouth to speak, and if I were in her shoes, I would say how we were the ones who cut a deal with her. But then she closes it again, turns her head away, and gets to her feet.
“I thought maybe we could work something out,” she says. “I don’t want there to be a rift between us while I’m carrying this baby.”
At this, Jack laughs.
“Oh, there is no rift. There is a split. After tonight, you will leave my house and never contact any of us again. You will not speak to Bennett, or Arthur, or me. Arthur will no longer be going to yoga at that studio.” Jack shoots him a look, and Arthur meekly lowers his head.
“What?” Bree asks, baffled. “But… we know each other now. I’m going to have your kid.”
“And when the time comes,” Jack says patiently, “DreamTogether will play their part, and we will never see each other again. We only need you for one thing, and once it’s done, we’re done.”
This is the gut punch.
Bree backs away from him, appalled. “You’re an asshole.”
“And you’re a home-wrecker,” Jack throws back.
With that, Bree picks up her purse, tosses on her jacket, and heads for the door. I spring out of my chair and run after her.
“Jack, come on,” I say, putting a hand on Bree’s shoulder to stop her. “We have a golden opportunity here to be a part of the fawn’s life before it’s born.”
“No.” Jack narrows his eyes, turning into someone I don’t recognize. “And if you have contact with her, Bennett, I am cutting you out.”
I balk at this pronouncement. I turn to Bree, who simply shakes her head and reaches for the doorknob. No one stops her as she steps outside into the night, and the door falls closed behind her.
Jack
I don’t like it, but this is what I have to do to protect my herd. Bree is wrong for us in every way. Her plot to trap Arthur with the help of DreamTogether was all I needed to know about her. She has intended from the beginning to destroy my marriage.
It was painful, though, to watch her go. To let her leave. I don’t understand that sensation, the one that could smell how she’s ripe with our fawn, but I will not let it control me the way Arthur and Bennett have given in to it.
Both of them watch Bree go silently, but once the door is closed, Arthur turns to me with a stony scowl.
“Did you have to be so mean to her? Bree’s a good person. She did this to help us with the rut.”
“That’s what you believe?” I get to my feet and scoop up what remains of the takeout containers, dumping them in the trash.
“Sorry that you’ve decided all women are evil,” Arthur snaps, “and I haven’t.”
I’m not used to this side of him. He’s actually mad now, and he’s willing to fight me.
That’s how deep Bree got her claws into my herd, that she would turn Arthur, of all satyrs, against me.
“You can go,” I tell him calmly. “Go after her if you want, and then never come back here.”
Arthur’s eyes widen. Reluctantly, his mouth closes. After cleaning off my hands, I leave the kitchen and stalk back to the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.
How dare Arthur treat me like I’m the bad guy in this situation? They are at fault, all three of them, but I’m not married to Bree. I will preserve what I have for as long as I can, and protect what’s mine from those who would try to tear it apart.
It’s my responsibility.
Still, as I sit on our bed in the darkness, I agonize over making her leave. That woman’s smell was intoxicating, the sight of her face arresting. She is the one I bred, who might be carrying my fawn, and I’m never going to see her again.
It takes ages to fall asleep as I ruminate, cycling between anger, hurt, and regret, until finally I drift off.