Chapter Eight
Nixon
One week. I had stayed in one place for a solid week, and my skin was crawling with a need to move on. No, I didn’t want to leave the two alphas—my alphas—but staying put was terrifying. As in, it was 3:00 a.m., and I was once again staring at the ceiling, nestled between the two men who fate had sent to me.
I had to leave. They deserved better than the danger I brought to their doorstep. It was nice living in the fantasy world while I healed. Who wouldn’t like to imagine what it would be like when the apartment across the hall was finished and we were moved in, experiencing a happily ever after reserved for fairy tales? Heck, I even imagined building a nursery in that damn place. Nope. I couldn’t go there. There was a bounty on my head. and even if there wasn’t, the reds didn’t like to leave loose ends, and I was a loose end.
I inched my way down the bed, staying underneath the covers so as to not wake Randy and Titus.
My heart was already tugging at me to stay as my feet touched the floor, and I squirmed to get free of the bed without pulling on the bedding. I wanted to stay. My bear wanted to stay. Leaving was going to be practically impossible—but it was the right thing to do.
I tiptoed out of the room and down the hallway to snag the bag I’d packed. Not really packed as much as filled with my clothing I would wear as I left, and a spare change of clothing. They’d bought me so many clothes and shoes. I couldn’t take them. I felt guilty enough taking the two sets I’d packed.
“Looking for this?” Randy’s brother, Harry, sat on the floor in front of the doorway crisscross applesauce with a huge bowl of what looked like cookie dough in front of him and two spoons and my bag beside him.
Fuck.
“Umm, hi.” I had no idea what else to say. It wasn’t like I was going to be all Yeah, thanks for holding it for me. I’m off to sneak away into the night and not say goodbye. Thanks.
“So, riddle me this.” He handed me a spoon and nodded to the spot in front of him. Sighing, I took a seat. “Was the bag a life has sucked a bug-out bag or was it an I’m slinking out on my two mates in the middle of the night like a chicken shit loser one?”
“Not a bear for mincing words.” I let my gaze fall to the floor.
“Eat the cookie dough,” he snapped, and I scooped out a spoonful, unsure how else to respond. “It’s good. Trying a new thing. Humans are all scared of raw eggs and shit, so I am tweaking the recipe to get better sales. It’s the best thing you will ever put in your belly.”
Not knowing what to make of his weirdness, I put the spoonful in my mouth. “I don’t,” I mumbled around a spoonful of culinary delight, “even know how to describe this bit of heaven in my mouth.”
“Best thing you ever put in your belly,” he reiterated.
“That,” I agreed, pointing my spoon at the bowl and scooping another mouthful at his nod.
“Then, as you can see, I don’t exaggerate.”
“Umm, okay?” Harry was weird. It was official. I’d not spent a lot of time talking with him and had thought him a little standoffish, but that wasn’t the case. He was just freaking weird.
“So then believe me when I tell you that if you leave here tonight or any other night, it will destroy my brother. Destroy. No exaggeration. Just truth.” He was dead serious, and there was no taste of a lie in the air.
“If I stay, I will bring danger here.”
“And you know what?” He filled his maw with cookie dough as I shook my head. “He knows that. They both know that, and you know how many shits they give?”
Again, I shook my head and succumbed to the call of the cookie dough even though I knew where Harry was leading the conversation. I just needed to slow it down a bit, the reality of the impact my decision would make in the next few minutes slamming into me.
There was no good choice.
None.
Not for me.
Not for them.
“None. They give zero shits,” he insisted. “Without you, they will never be complete. That’s just a fact.”
“And if they die because of my selfishness?” I stammered out my biggest fear.
“They do so without one single regret. Ask me how I know.” He refilled his mouth once again, the bowl between us nearly empty and my foot starting to tingle from sitting like a preschool kid at library story hour.
“How do you know?” It wasn’t like not asking was going to prevent him from sharing.
“Because I have known my brother since the day I was born. He is stubborn, bossy, and a pain in the ass.”
“Why are you—”
He stopped me with a hand in front of my face. “Let me finish. He is all those things, but he is also the bravest man I have ever met. He loves fiercely, protects his own, and never backs away from a challenge to go the easy route. You are his. He will protect you until the day he dies because that is who he is.”
I blinked back the tears trying to break free.
“So are you going to man up and face life head-on with the two men fate brought into creation just for you, or are you going to run away and destroy all three of your chances at any kind of happiness.” He held my bag out to me.
Snatching it, I stood up and started toward the bedroom. “Thanks, Harry,” I called over my shoulder quietly.
“I told you, best food ever.” He smirked.
“I meant for everything.”
“I know, omega. I know. Go nestle between your men.” He went back to eating his cookie dough.
I entered the bedroom, a feeling of home settling around me as their scents filled my nose. I dropped the bag in the closet before climbing over Titus to regain my spot.
“Glad you came back,” he whispered into my ear before pulling me in close. “I was afraid.”
He didn’t say of what, but I knew with that one word that he’d been aware of my plan and let me decide. He might’ve recruited Harry’s help, but, in the end, he let me decide. My heart swelled.
“Me, too.” Randy’s arm came around the other side of me. “Please don’t think about leaving again.”
And then I said the only truth I knew. “I don’t think I could.”