Page 96 of Broken Dreams

This takes dick measuring to a whole new level. Fucking Irish men.

Lifting the glass to my lips, I tip it back, my throat working to swallow every damn drop. My head spins a bit as I put down the glass, closing my eyes briefly. I don’t care if it’s viewed as weak, that drink was strong.

“You good?” Ambrose asks, amused as I nod, opening my eyes again.

“Completely,” I murmur. “Thanks for the chat.”

“Yeah, what happens next is all on you. Don’t thank me yet. You could still end up as fertilizer,” he says, picking up my glass carefully, away from my fingerprints. I doubt he’ll get anything off it. I burned them off when I was twenty one when I left a crew due to another bad decision.

Apparently, I’m full of them. That needs to change.

Ambrose walks away, nodding to people as he moves through the club, and I stand up, glad my vision is evening out. I’m taking a nap in my car. Then I’ll take a trip to see Cerenity.

QUINN

“Pack Dresmond is here, they said they’re taking you home?” Augustine asks, appearing confused as he finds Linus and I once our shift is over. We just changed into street clothes, and my face is bare of makeup.

“Really?” Linus asks, confused. “It’s not that we don’t trust them, I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I had a feeling you weren’t expecting it, so I walked them to my office to cool their heels. I’ll lead you back there and wait because I refuse to have anyone disappear on my watch,” he grumbles.

So he didn’t know this was happening either. Duncan and Callum were supposed to come before the end of our shift to watch us dance, but something obviously came up. Following Augustine, we walk to his office. The first thing I see is Adira and Jed practically hissing at each other, and a ball of lead begins to grow in the pit of my stomach.

I don’t have permanent bonds to either brother, so I wouldn’t even know if something awful had happened to them. We’ve been going really slow recently, but it’s been almost three weeks since my escape from Slick Dreams, and a part of me wants permanence.

Everything still feels transitional. My nest and dance room is amazing, and I love it, but I could leave tomorrow with Linus, and there’s no real stamp of who I am anywhere in the house.

Most importantly, there’s nothing on my body that marks me as claimed. I want to be fucking useless to Bret to use anymore because I have marks on my body that warn other alphas that I belong to someone else. Maybe that’s why I’ve been feeling unsettled over the last few days.

I want to be someone’s omega who adores me, has wanted me for years, because they love me. It’s crazy, slow should be what I want, but then as I’m in this situation where I’m at sea about what’s happening, I crave the mate bond with every cell in my body.

Fuck, I’m a damn mess. I can’t even say it’s my heat that’s making me this emotional because I just had it.

“Hey,” Adira breathes, standing quickly. “So we’re a surprise, and I get that. I’m going to preface this with Callum and Duncan are totally fine.”

The black spots behind my eyes warn me that I haven’t been breathing properly, and my body lists to the side, causing Linus to catch me.

“Breathe,” he says, his green eyes murky with worry as he holds me up.

“I promise, Callum called me and he’s fine,” Jed insists, moving until I can see him. “Your mom called him and he went to pick her up.”

Gasping in a breath, I begin to feel silly, but I didn’t know what else to think. Why would my mom call Callum?

Tucking me into his side, Linus raises the question in my mind.

“I don’t understand why her mom would do that. I thought her dad was really controlling?” he asks.

“Here,” Adira says, pulling out her phone to call him. “I should have started with this. We still don’t know each other well, and I wouldn’t trust me either.”

The words are said so simply, without ire at our suspicions. It’s not that I don’t trust her, I’m confused completely by what’s going on.

The call rings twice before it’s answered. “Is everything okay?”Callum asks. “Are they with you?”

His tone is gruff and worried, not really putting me at ease at all. Looking up at Linus, he nods, picking up on the vibes.

“We’re here, but Quinn and I don’t understand why you aren’t,” he says. “I’m fine with a change in plans, but?—”

“I know, I’m sorry,”Callum says, sighing. “I literally just told you earlier today I’d give you a heads up when things would change, but this all moved too quickly. Ayla is stable, Morris is here making sure she stays that way. Quinn, baby, there’s a lot she needs to tell you. She had a moment of weakness and tried to leave us all.”

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