Page 14 of Truth or Pack

“Did you do the work?” I asked. This time I was pissed and it showed.

“Why exactly do you care?” she asked, avoiding answering which was an answer in itself. “This is a lot for just a random encounter.”

“She’s mates to one of our buddies,” Ash lied quickly. “We were just curious what was true from then and what we were remembering wrong. She wasnothappy to see us.”

“Oh,” she said, brightening up when she realized it wasn’t Ash mated to her. Though, it was a lie. She didn’t deserve to know the truth. “She’s definitely not going to like you being around. Remember that night she showed up at the frat party? All dressed up like she belonged.”

The fact she still held disgust in her tone after all this time was telling about her true character. How did we not see it before?

Ash frowned but answered anyway. “Kind of.”

“We had been chatting with her online for a few weeks as an alpha who was nervous to approach her. That night we had ‘him’ ask her out on a date. When she got there, Darcy told her it was you guys. She tried to leave but that was when Lacey and I were asking if you were seeing that girl behind our backs. It was perfect, she walked right by when you were denying anything to do with ‘that’ girl.”

Her laughter was cut off as Ash hung up the call. He looked two seconds from puking and I wasn’t far off.

“Fuck,” Holt managed.

“‘Fuck’ is right. We’re fucked. Our mate hates our damn guts, and, apparently, for good reason,” Ash groaned. “How could we be so oblivious?”

“There’s no way she’s going to forgive all of that,” I said, my head spinning as I absorbed everything we just learned. “We knew how bad they were… but this? It was diabolical.”

“She said we almost cost her the scholarship. I wonder just how much of that shit the girls blamed on us without us knowing,” Holt said, pissed off all over again.

“That or it was retaliation after they lost their grades in that class. Who wants to bet they didn’t do shit and expected her to pass them because she was smart,” I muttered.

“What do we do?” Ash asked, running a hand through his dark hair and starting to pace.

“Well, we’re trapped in town. I think it’s time to get to know our omega and put everything out in the open. Tell her the truth about back then. What else can we do?” I pointed out.

"First, we need to clean up our mess," Ash started. "I need to make my bed."

Holt sniffed his armpit, "I may need a shower."

"You two are ridiculous," I sighed. "Ash make the bed, Holt wait on the shower. We need to walk to town. There's no point in getting clean before we do that. It's muddy out and with the rain it's also humid. I'm going to make a list of what we should get for a nice lunch. It can be a thank you to Taryn for letting us stay."

"Mathias, you really are the best of us," Ash said, looking relieved to have a direction now.

"I don't know about that," I said, my cheeks flaming a little. It was nice to know they appreciated me. Especially when I worried what a beta could truly bring to a pack. I rarely was able to calm Holt when he was in a mood and half the time I was impulsive.

"You are the nicest and most considerate one for sure," Holt piped in, erasing the self-doubts piling up.

"I need to brush my hair and get a list going. Do we want to fill the fridge in case she lets us stay again?" I asked them.

"Even if she doesn’t, we can at least do that kindness for her," Ash told the two of us, his voice leaving no room for argument.

I’d give the omega everything if she gave me a chance. I just wasn’t sure she’d allow it.

"I have a feeling, no matter what we do, she'll still think we are assholes," Holt muttered.

"We will just have to change her mind," Ash said. There was that cocky smirk of his again. It might just get us in trouble with this omega.

In his defense, he was the smoothest of the three of us. If any of us could change her mind, my money was on Ash.

I stood up and stretched before asking where the bathroom was. Ash directed me and I headed there. When I turned on the lights and glanced in the mirror, dark circles greeted me. That damn storm didn't let up until about three a.m. Even being inside the thunder and lightning strikes were too close for me to go to sleep for very long. I don’t think I truly passed out until the early hours of the morning when the worst had passed.

The only good news was that my wild hair wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I ran my hands through my locks and returned to my brothers.

"You two ready?" I asked as I moved towards the front door.

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