Page 55 of Broken Dreams

He seems so confident that it’s not, yet…

It is,I scrawl out before sending the pen skittering away. I don’t trust myself with it.

Covering my face, I rub my temples, feeling wrung out. There’s no tears, it simply feels as if something is tearing at my insides, and the old wounds are oozing puss and shit.

“No,” Duncan grunts, the word causing me to flinch as if I’ve been shot. “Did you kidnap, sell, and hurt yourself? I don’t fucking think so. None of this is your fault. God, we shouldn’t have let you go to the mall without us.”

“The whole thing fucking stunk to high heaven,” Callum agrees. “Things have been strained with our father ever since. It never should have happened.”

“Quinn,” Linus breathes. Whimpering as he uses my real name, I shake my head as I hide my face. “No hiding, baby girl.It’s you and me, remember? We don’t do that shit, and we’re not going to do it with our alphas either.”

The room fills with two sets of purrs, and it slowly becomes easier to breathe. My shaking hands get steadier, awareness ofmyalphas filling me. Well, Linus and mine.

It’s mindblowing that they found us, and in some ways it makes sense. Callum, Duncan, and I have always been end game. There were just too many obstacles between us when I was a kid.

Duncan wraps his arms around me, despite my hands still over my face, his vibrating chest at my back. It’s soothing, and the stubble on his face both tingles and stings as he scent marks anywhere he can touch that’s not covered with his hands.

“Are you going to listen to our omega?” he growls.

Fuck me.I’m going to need more panties.

My spine straightens as my hands drop down. I’m pretty much panting with the myriad of emotions I’m feeling.

“There’s our Sweet Girl,” Callum purrs. “I need to know, so we can nip this in the bud. Why is any of this your fault? Leaving the house doesn’t count.”

Thoughts swirling, I take the offered pen I practically threw earlier. God, there’s so many little things I shouldn’t have done.

I listened to our parents. Dad wanted me to go to the mall for mafia family politics.

Lips pursed, Callum’s nod is more of a sharp jerk than anything else.

“I never would think this possible, but would he have sold you if he thought he’d make enough money from it?” he asks.

“Hudson has been very successful since you disappeared,” Duncan mutters. “Ayla has never been the same, though. Your mom is a shell of herself. They attend mafia affairs, but your mom is always very quiet.”

Dad… would he have done this? I want to deny it, but he was so cold the day I went to the mall. I just don’t know.

Maybe,I scrawl instead.It’s possible.

“Listening to our dads isn’t an admission of guilt,” Duncan says. “We grew up together. I remember a lot of conversations where Hudson was in attendance during a dressing down.”

“Your dad’s always been so serious,” Callum sighs. “I want to pursue that with your permission. I also don’t want to tell your parents you’re alive and back.”

His unspoken words that it may not be safe ring clear in my mind. I show I agree before waiting patiently to see if there’s anything else. Instead, the guys allow the silence to settle around us as Duncan kisses my hair before he goes back to his seat.

Callum sits across from me again, checking the list of things on the computer.

“Add a laptop,” he murmurs. “How else am I going to code with her?”

“Hmmm, yes. Linus, what were your interests before this?” Duncan asks.

They’re laser focused on Linus, and my best friend shifts under the weight of it. Meanwhile, I search my memory for something he said about his time in school.

Computer Engineer, I write proudly. My lips are tipped up in a whisper of a smile, knowing how damn smart he is.

“Holy shit,” Duncan says with a bob of his head. “Did you graduate?”

“No,” Linus says almost apologetically. “I had three months left to graduate.”

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