Page 34 of Mark & Don't Tell

I nod. Of course. That makes more sense. “Then we could bend her over our conference table.”

“As much as I want to bury my cock inside of her, I want to make sure she needs us too. Wants us...” He trails off and pauses. “She has to meet Vic. I won’t make him suffer through another omega who despises him, and if she won’t accept him?—”

“Then, we won’t accept her,” I say simply.

As much as I love her scent, Vic is pack, and while he thinks he isn’t, that will never change. We can’t do this without him. It’ll be all of us or none of us. My pack is the only family I’ve ever had. The people who birthed me and gave me a place to live don’t count. They were never around, leaving me to grow up with only the clouds or our dog, Otis, to talk to.

Kai pulls out his phone and dials our distant pack mate. It takes five rings before Vic’s gruff hello comes through the line.

“Well, hello, darling. Have you been a naughty boy?” I ask before I can remind myself to be serious.

Kai nudges me with his elbow, and I snap my mouth closed.

“Vic. We found our scent match.”

A heavy silence follows the verbal bomb Kai just dropped.

“We’re going to ask her to dinner, and we want you there. If we do this, we do it together or not at all,” I say quickly. “We’re pack, Vic.”

It’s been weird without him. Almost like we’ve been grieving a man who’s still alive. I guess that’s what a breakup is supposed to feel like. When Felicia left us after we refused to give up Vic, I felt relieved. Nothing like the gut-churning anxiety I feel now as I wait for Vic to give us an answer.

If he says no, that might be the true end of our pack. But if he says yes, then it’s not over yet.

“I’m not moving back in,” he warns.

“But you’ll come to dinner?” I ask, trading a tentative nod with Kai.

“I’ll meet her.” He sighs. “But don’t get your hopes up, guys. Even if she is the pack’s scent match, she might hate me as much as Felicia did.”

“She won’t,” Kai promises.

I scowl at him. He shouldn’t say those things.

“Making promises you can’t keep again, Malakai?” Vic says harshly.

Kai rears back, like he’s been slapped, but the last grandiose promise he made Vic left us all broken. It’s his nature to put everyone at ease. To try and take care of people or fix something that’s broken. There was no fixing that last relationship, and as much as I hate Vic not living with us, I’m fucking relieved that Felicia is gone.

“Come meet her. If there’s even the slightest hint that she isn’t interested in having a beta in her pack, we’ll walk away.”

“You say that now,” Vic mumbles.

“Need I remind you that we’ve done it before?”

He scoffs. “Technically, Felicia left, and this is different. If she’s really our fated mate...” He trails off, but I’ve known him long enough to finish the sentence. Are you going to be able to resist?

Truth is, I don’t know. The only thing I do know is, I refuse to lose Vic completely. He’s my brother, blood be damned.

“We’re not picking her over you,” Kai says this time. “And that’s a real fucking promise. We can survive without a scent match, but we can’t keep living without you. It’s fucking miserable.”

“Text me the location and time.” With that, he hangs up.

I blow out a hard breath. “Okay?”

Kai nods. “Okay. Let me go get Mandy.”

Thirteen

KAI

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