Page 13 of Knot Your Business

Being with her is so easy. She lifts my spirits when she doesn’t even realize I’m down for the count. It helps that she’s met my mother and seen firsthand exactly the type of person she is.

I purse my lips and nod before grabbing my list again. My gaze catches on Los Angeles again.

What are the odds that it’s Rylan? There must be at least a dozen registered packs that were at that gala that are registered with an address here. LA is absolutely gigantic. I drum my fingers on my knee.

Absolutely no way am I moving back to Seattle. It doesn’t matter if it’s the literal Prince of England in that pack. I’ll ask for reassignment faster than my mother scoffs at the fashion choices of her peers.

“What’s wrong, Vi?” Faedra’s soft question snaps me out of my thoughts. “You’ve been a nervous mess since we left the party. Did something happen you didn’t mention?”

She hadn’t asked any questions when she’d found me in the bathroom and I told her I wanted to leave. She’d simply looped her arm in mine and found a side entrance so we could avoid whatever media presence was still at the front of the hotel. She even paid for the ride share even though I know her budget is tighter than mine.

I breathe out an almost laugh. “Yeah, I met an Alpha. Just like you.”

She shoves me. “Why didn’t you tell me? Did he make you cry?” Her mouth thins and her gaze hardens. “If he did, I’ll make him regret it.”

I shrug, and she snarls. It’s pretty damn impressive given how freaking fragile she looks half the time. Not that I’d ever say that. I pin her with a look, running my hands over the list again, pressing it into the mattress like I can make the whole mess disappear completely.

“He didn’t make me cry.” Not right then, at least. “Jasper did.”

She laces her fingers with mine and holds on tight. “I’m sorry.”

I’ve told her about Jasper. Mostly. At least part of it. She knows I dated a Beta in high school and we broke it off. That his name was Jasper. She also knows that I had a nasty break up my senior year right before I committed to UCLA. That he broke up using a letter through my mother of all people, and that it had absolutely wrecked me. What she doesn’t know is that both of those were Jasper.

“Did you like his pack?” she asks after a while.

Liked? I loved him at one point. A sharp stab in my heart accompanies the thought. Probably still do, if I’m being entirely honest. But that doesn’t change what happened between us, how he left me when I was most vulnerable to start a new life somewhere else without me. How he abandoned me to my mother’s insidious ways just because I’d designated.

“He didn’t introduce them,” I say at last. “I really liked him.” And didn’t that feel good to admit, at least to the two of us? “But I’m worried about why he didn’t want me to meet the others.”

Which is true. He probably doesn’t even realize I saw the interaction between him and Jasper. Why didn’t he want me to meet Jasper? And why was Jasper convinced matching with me would be so horrible?

Probably the same reason why he left you in the dust in Seattle.

Goddamn, that awful voice in my head is loud today. Faedra hums under her breath as she presses her lips to my temple, her hold tightening on my hand. The tension and worry slowly bleed from me.

“He told me where he lives.” Not technically, but I do know that he lives here. He didn’t mention moving when he explained why he wasn’t working at the Haven anymore. “And it’s on here.”

“Do you want advice or support?”

To get advice, I’d have to come clean with the whole fucked up mess, and that’s not something I want to uncover right now. My smile this time is more genuine.

“Just support.” Time to turn this back on her. “Did your guys tell you where they live?”

She shakes her head, her gaze dropping to the list again. She messes with her orbital piercing.

“I suppose it’ll be fate that pairs us together. I’m going to take the day to think about it and then rank them on where I’d like to live.”

Shit. That’s a really good plan. Maybe I should do that, too.

“Good plan, Fae,” I admit.

Forget that Rylan lives here. That Jasper must live here, too, then. Forget that my mom is in Seattle. Rank them based on where seems most appealing to me right now. I glance down at the cities again.

I’m not entirely sure I have it in me to live out in the wilds of Montana. I love the conveniences of the big cities. The East Coast wouldn’t be terrible. Though winters would be an absolute drag. And isn’t Albany pretty small? It’s upstate, I’m nearly positive. Nothing at all like New York City. Is it similar to Bozeman, then?

“Let’s go get coffee,” Faedra says, lacing her fingers with mine. “You need to get out of here before you drive yourself mad.”

Seven

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