Page 13 of Can't Be Love

“Yesterday? But you were here yesterday. There’s no one new around that you didn’t already know. How? Who?”

I wasn’t ready to share details with her. I just needed her to know.

“It doesn’t matter. It just happened and I’m trying to deal with it.”

“Deal with it? Thomas, she’s your true mate, what’s to deal with? That trumps everything else in life. The world stops and your sole focus is now her. Why are we even having this conversation?”

I laughed in spite of the situation. “You deserved to hear it from me first. I do love you, Sydney. Always have. This is just, bigger than me. Bigger than us. I don’t really know how to explain it.”

She nodded like she could understand, but I knew that without having gone through it, there was no way she truly understood.

“So, wow. That’s a lot to take in”

“I know.”

“Have you talked to her about it? Are you happy?”

“Not really, and I don’t know. I think I’m still in shock,” I admitted. I’d never lied to Sydney before and I didn’t see the point in starting now.

“So.” She grinned over at me. “Who is she? Am I going to have to take her down in the challenges, or will she actually make you happy?”

I laughed. I shouldn’t have been surprised by her quick acceptance—it was just who she was—but it never ceased to amaze me how big her heart was.

“I dunno how to answer that yet.”

“You don’t know who she is?”

“Oh, no, I know exactly who she is. Will she make me happy? I don’t know. I fear she has a great potential to hurt me. She’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of being stuck with me as a mate.”

“Then she’s an idiot. Don’t ever think anything else. You’re an amazing man, Thomas, and you’re going to be a great Alpha someday. Any girl, who doesn’t understand that, isn’t worth your time. I’ll take her in the challenges.”

I grinned. “You’re jumping ahead of yourself there. I’m not exactly confident it’ll go that far. I’m not her favorite person. When I say she isn’t thrilled about being stuck with me, that is putting it nicely. She hates me, Syd. She thinks I’m the biggest douche on the planet.”

Her hands flew to her mouth as she covered a high-pitched squeal. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Lily Westin is your true mate?!!!”

“What?” I asked, shocked that she guessed correctly on the first try. “Why would you think that?”

“You said douche. You said she thinks you’re a douche. That’s a very specific word and one that Lily used regarding you on more than one occasion last night.”

“Shit,” I said. “I can’t believe you hung out with her all night. And why the hell did you let her get so drunk?”

Sydney shrugged. “She said she had a rough day and really needed to get wasted. I’m guessing now that rough day started with you. Don’t worry, I watched out for her.”

“Syd, I’m so sorry,” I started, but she cut me off.

“No, you aren’t going to do that, Thomas. I like Lily. She certainly won’t put up with your shit the way I have, but I can see it. She’ll be good for you, and wow, your true mate. I won’t say it doesn’t hurt, but I can’t stay mad about that.”

“Shit. I never even said she was . . .”

“You didn’t have to.”

Lily

Chapter 7

I wandered around town some more before heading back to the Alpha house to drop off my purchases. The thought of Thomas and Sydney together was too much for me to handle. I kept picturing all sorts of compromising things they were up to, and my wolf was more agitated than ever. I needed to shift and go for a run, but everywhere I went still smelled like Thomas. What I really needed was to just get away. Leave it all behind. Sydney was a good person. If she wanted that douchebag then who was I to get in her way? She deserved to be happy.

With my mind made up, I made arrangements for a car to take me to the airport and I waited until the last second to let Liam, Patrick, and Maddie know. They knew something was wrong, but none of them dared to ask.

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