CHAPTER 20 #2
The moment I’m inside, the bass slams into me. It’s thick, heavy, pulsing through the floors. Lights strobe across the room in frantic bursts of color, but I barely register any of it as I make my way through the throng of people. My focus narrows to a single point: Wolf’s office.
I keep my head down and move quickly, but it doesn’t stop the looks I get. One by one, the workers notice me. A bartender’s hand stills on a bottle and a shot glass. A bouncer inside hesitates just long enough to make eye contact before snapping his gaze away like he’s afraid my gaze will burn him.
Humiliation crawls up my throat. It’s hot and suffocating. It makes me feel less than. I force myself to keep walking, each step heavier than the last. I won’t break here. Not in front of them. Not when I’m this close.
Right turn.
Down the hall.
Last door on the right.
Wolf’s door.
I stop in front of the door and shiver. I can sense them on the other side. Their presence feels like a warm touch, like a heavy blanket in the middle of winter. I can smell them, even with all the other scents from the dance floor.
I raise my hand and knock twice, then wait. My pulse pounds in my ears. After a few long seconds, Wolf’s voice comes through the door, smooth and commanding.
“Come in.”
I swallow hard and push the door open.
The moment I see them, everything else falls away. Wolf is leaning against the front of his desk with his arms crossed over his chest. Amos is on the couch, leaning back with one ankle resting on his knee. Finian is leaning against the far wall, eyes eating me alive. My breath stutters in my chest.
They’re all impossibly handsome in their own ways, but that’s not what freezes me. It’s the aura rolling off them, sharp and predatory, like sharks circling the faintest trace of blood in the water.
I step inside and close the door behind me, the soft click sounding far too final. Wolf’s eyes drag over me from head to toe. His gaze is slow and assessing. His expression stays bored, almost lazy, but I can feel the tension coiled beneath it.
“Talk,” he says.
My throat dries instantly. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. I try again, but I get the same result. I look like a fish out of water. I try to swallow, but it’s like my body has forgotten how. Wolf’s irritation flickers across his face. It’s subtle but unmistakable.
He leans forward. “I said speak.”
The haughty edge to his tone scrapes across my nerves entirely the wrong way, sparking irritation of my own. My mouth thins as I force myself to breathe through it.
“I came to tell you all something,” I manage. My voice is steadier than I feel. “I don’t want to keep this from you all, and I know it’ll change things drastically.”
One beat ... two beats ...
It’s quiet between us all.
Amos leans forward on the couch, elbows on his knees, eyes locked on me with unsettling intensity. “What is it?”
I lick my lips, trying to gather the courage that keeps slipping through my fingers. “I know this isn’t how we planned, but—”
Wolf cuts me off with a sharp, disbelieving laugh. “Oh, you … are … good.”
The sound cuts through the room and through me, and suddenly every nerve in my body feels like it’s on fire. No matter what I’ve done in the past, Wolf has never sounded like this.
“Excuse me?” I ask, confused.
Wolf’s laugh fades, and the silence between us feels tense. Then he moves. He pushes off his desk with a slow, almost predatory grace that makes the hair on my neck stand up. His shoes thud softly as he steps closer, and suddenly the air feels thinner.
“Did you really think we’d fall for your lie?” he asks, voice low, almost amused.
My pulse jumps. “What lie?”
His mouth curves, but not into a smile—something much colder. It’s almost frigid, like something from a horror story. He lets out another short, disbelieving laugh, and the sound echoes off the walls like a slap.
“Let me guess …” He tilts his head, eyes dragging over my face with surgical precision. His eyes are glacial, so cold that it gives me frostbite. “You’re going to say you’re pregnant, and now we’re supposed to do right by you. That it?”
The world tilts. My eyes widen before I can stop them, breath catching in my throat. “How did you know?”
Wolf shakes his head slowly, like he’s disappointed but not surprised. The overhead light catches his eyes, turning them into shards of something sharp. A wave of foreboding envelopes me the longer I stand here in front of them.
“Because it’s the move people make when they’re desperate,” he says. “When they think it’ll force someone to do what they want.”
His words hit me like quiet, controlled blows.
My fingers twitch at my sides, nails digging into my palms. He doesn’t stop.
He steps closer, close enough that I can feel his heat, close enough that I have to fight the urge to step back.
I’ve never felt this kind of coldness from him, not even during our worst arguments.
“It’s the card someone plays when they finally realize they’re not wanted.” His gaze pins me in place, unblinking. “Someone out of options. Someone so fucking pathetic, they’ll do anything to latch onto someone like a leech.”
Behind him, Amos shifts forward on the couch, eyes locked on me with something unreadable. Finian straightens from the wall, arms uncrossing, his jaw tight.
Neither interrupts.
Neither rescues me.
They just watch as their bond brother obliterates me.
My throat tightens, humiliation burning hot beneath my skin, but I force myself to lift my chin.
I won’t fold.
Not here.
Not in front of them.
Not even now.
I breathe in, slow and steady, even as my heart tries to claw its way out of my chest.
I’m still standing.
And I’m not done.
“That is your prerogative to believe that.” My voice strains against the tears threatening to fall. “I came here to tell you the news, and it’s up to you all what to do with it.”
He jerks forward, snapping his teeth at me. The action catches me off guard, and I trip up and fall back against the door. My entire body shakes as adrenaline courses through me. A lump grows in my throat as I try to rein in my emotions.
He cages me in, pressing his hands flat against the door on either side of my head.
My eyes widen as his face grows closer to mine.
I swallow hard and put my hands on his chest to push him away.
But it’s as if my hands aren’t listening to me.
Instead, my fingers bunch his shirt up in my fists, as if I’m holding onto him, so I don’t fall.
He puts his lips near my ear. I can’t stop myself from inhaling his cinnamon candy scent. The omega inside me purrs with approval at his proximity.
But his next words completely rip me apart.
“You are pathetic, Windy.” His voice is low, controlled, and almost clinical.
“Everything about you is pathetic.”
The floor seems to tilt under my feet.
“You want to know why we don’t want you?” He steps closer, and I can feel the heat of him, the weight of his stare. “Do you? Because you’re worthless. You bring nothing. Absolutely nothing to the table. Now get the fuck out of here and never come back.”
The words slam into me harder than any push could.
I try—God, I try—to hold myself together, but the tears come anyway.
Hot, burning, and unstoppable. They spill down my cheeks in scalding tracks, and I squeeze my eyes shut, a broken sound clawing at the back of my throat. A whimper that I refuse to let escape.
They can kick me.
They can humiliate me.
They can strip me down to nothing in front of each other.
I can take all of that.
I’ve taken worse.
But worthless—that word hits a place I’ve spent years trying to outrun.
It brings up memories I wish I could forget: my family’s sharp, disappointed voices telling me I’d never measure up, that I wasn’t enough, no matter how hard I tried. Even when they loved me, those words stayed with me.
They always stuck.
My entire body shakes, trembling so hard I can barely stay upright. I force my eyes open, even though the room blurs through my tears.
“Strike three,” I manage, my voice shredded and thin.
I’m done.
The silence that follows feels like a cliff edge.
And I’m already falling.
Wolf pushes away from me, and an indescribable look flashes in his eyes. Without waiting for him to say anything, I hurriedly turn away from him and jerk the door open. I slam it behind me, catching my purse in it. Crying, I open it again and slam the door once more when I’m free.
Then I run far, far away from the three of them.
I’ll never get over this. They completely ripped me apart.