Page 134 of Ashley & the A-Listers

A tiny bit of lovesick disappointment leaked into the bond before it was hidden away, and Ashley smiled.See you then,he replied, and even sent a fucking heart emoji.

“Is that him?” Kenzie asked. “You’re smiling like a loon.”

Ashley, still grinning, put her phone down after responding with a matching emoji. “Maybe.”

“God, you’re cute and happy,” Jordan whined. “When will it be our turn?” she asked dramatically.

Ashley narrowed her eyes.

“They always say it’s when you least expect it,” Kenzie reminded her.

“Isn’t that the truth.” She paused for a beat, soaking in this time with her friends. “I missed you guys,” Ashley said, and laughed when they both awwed loud enough to fill the backyard.

“We missed you, too. I can’t believe we only left town for one minute and you ended up bonded.”

Ashley shrugged, and let Kenzie hang off her arm while they trailed back into the house, dishing out stir-fry and ending up on the floor around the coffee table while they played catch-up.

“So, anything interesting going on with you two?”

They shared a look, and Ashley triednotto glare in suspicion, but something wasup.

“No, nah?—”

“Nope.”

They both answered at the same time, and Ashley… let them keep their little lies. There was something going on, and maybe they weren’t ready to address it yet.

Ashley knew what that felt like.

Ashley tried not to let their questions linger in her mind, but they did anyway. A pack. Not even a month ago a pack had seemed like a foreign concept, something that happened to people around Ashley but never… her.

Now she was bonded and—god dammit—had feelings for an omega that were becoming harder and harder to ignore.

She and Dylan did have a few conversations on the back burner. Especially because their time at the gym together was dwindling with each passing day.

What are you so afraid of? You’ve been alone before.

Her stomach rolled at the thought.

Her life felt so full now, with Dylan and Cameron and River filling it. What did she even do with herself just five weeks ago?

What would she do with herself when they were gone?

And what would she do to keep them from leaving?

Forming a pack was a commitment to each other, a family.

As her friends left and she was alone in the house, she wondered if having a pack to fill it was the answer she should’ve been looking for all along.

28. NEXT

DYLAN

“We need to talk,” Ashley said.

Dylan’s heart dropped and he instinctively squeezed her hand. Outside, on Cam’s balcony, they were snuggled up on the furniture in a moment of privacy outside the bedroom they shared at Cam’s place.

“Oh no,” he teased lightly, feeling anything but.

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