Chapter Eighteen
Tawny
The three males, the pack, walked me to the thrift shop and left me at the door. They were so easy to talk to that I had told them some of my backstory along the way. I was reeling and so confused when I stepped inside.
“Tawny, what on earth has been going on today? I heard there was a big crowd outside your store and then you called and I was so worried.”
“You sent the cavalry,” I said, hugging her around the neck.
“Karissa swooped in to set me straight about Rork and the others. Her mates are good friends with them, and she really believes that they might be a match for me. But I’m not looking for a pack.
I don’t need one. I am building a life with my own business and friends and ideas, and if I were to find a pack, they would want me to stay at home and do only omega things. ”
“Breathe.” Janis patted my back. “Nobody is trying to sell you to anyone or make you live a life you don’t like.
Rork and the others may be interested in you, but it’s up to you to be or not be in a relationship.
If you would like to be single your whole life, you can do that.
” She asked the staffer working that afternoon to hold down the fort and led me up to the apartment where we could talk privately.
“Now, sit. I’ll make tea and we’ll figure out what you want to do for the moment at least. Okay? ”
I nodded, momentarily beyond words. But when the warm tea slid down my throat, I found my voice again.
“Janis, even if I wanted to be with them, why would they want me? I’m so damaged and don’t trust anyone anymore.
I take it back. I trust you and other females.
I trust Karissa believes the things she said to me.
She said Rork and Craven and Flint are good friends with her pack and that just being her friend will make me someone her males will protect.
This is not a world I’m used to, and even though I want it all to be true, how can I ever believe that? ”
Janis sipped her tea and let me spill my guts until I was done before attempting to reply. “Finished?” she asked.
I lay slumped on the couch, completely spent and not knowing where to go from here. “Yes, I think so.”
“Good, then let me tell you about another young lady who did not have the ability to trust anyone. I left my family home at sixteen, before I could be matched. My family was a lot like yours. Different animal, same concept. If she’d stuck around, she’d have been coerced to accept whoever they chose, and ended up living a half-life. ”
Active, funny, kind Janice with her gorgeous thrift shop that drew in everyone in town at one time or another. I couldn’t picture her living under the thumbs of controlling alphas.
“Did you have mates?”
She glanced down at her hands, twisting a silver ring on one finger.
“I had one mate. He was older than me, with grown young who thought I was a gold digger. And we were only together about ten years before he passed, but it was worth it. He was worth it. I am afraid that your family’s mistake will cost you the happiness you deserve. ”
“Oh no—”
“Don’t tell me no. It is very easy to hold back and make excuses. The harm others have done to us is on them. Those who attempted to do you ill have no right to live rent-free in your head. You escaped, so don’t live partially imprisoned.”
“It’s only been a short time. Even if I did want a pack, it’s too soon.” Heat crept through my veins, and my legs and arms felt swollen. Why did I feel so off?
“I almost turned my back on my mate. Everyone said he was too old for me and that his kids were going to be a real pain. Both things were true, but I would have missed out on the best relationship with the best man. Your timing may not be the best, but I know these males, and they are good men.”
I didn’t know what to do. “They want to help me get the cleaning and stuff done at Pages.”
“That’s good news.”
“And Karissa said they are going to organize a whole bunch of others to come. Can I say how uncomfortable that makes me? I’m a charity project when I want to be a respectable businesswoman.”
“Don’t you say that. There are plenty of good charitable causes in this town, but this is just neighbors helping neighbors. If the shop next door asked for help, would you do it?”
“Of course.”
“Then accept what this lovely town has to offer, pass it along when the opportunity arises, and just be happy? Deal?”
“Put that way, you make it hard to say no to.”
“Then don’t.”
I just wished all the stress wasn’t making me feel feverish.