"We’ll have to talk to Jay, but I doubt he’ll say no," Ash said. "She should mark us before we mark her, too."
"Why?" Wyatt asked. "I’m not against it. I want to be bound to her in every way possible. But why should she go first?"
"It’ll build her confidence in us and our commitment to her. She’ll see how serious we are about keeping her. And it will make her feel powerful. Maybe even give her a sense of control."
"Yeah, she probably feels like she hasn’t had much of that in her life, and certainly not recently." Cole blew a heavy breath out of his nose. "It’s not like she chose to have five mates or move packs or leave her brothers right after being freed from years of abuse."
"Oh." Wyatt frowned. "I was so excited to find our mate, I didn’t even think about any of that. Do you—"
His voice broke, and he swallowed hard.
"Do you think she resents us?"
"Goddess, I hope not," Ash whispered.
"No. I don’t believe that." I shook my head. "I believe she’s very, very scared. We’re all excited to find our mate, but, like I said before, we need to be careful with her. More careful than we’ve been so far. We need to step up our game."
"Jay will have some idea about that, once we can talk with him," Ash said confidently. "He’s the best of us at those soft skills."
"Is Quartz still in charge?" Wyatt’s eyebrows flew up. "Did he take over or did Jay let him loose?"
We all shrugged.
"I think Jay let him out," Ash said. "Quartz hasn't been able to forcibly take control for years now, although our mate’s distress could have made Jay's control slip."
I appreciated that; however, if he gave Quartz the reins voluntarily in a human-filled store off of pack territory, we were going to have words.
"So, how do we make this right with Posy?" Wyatt scratched his head.
"After Jay gets her to calm down, we’ll apologize and explain and let her know it won’t happen again," Cole said.
"We should do something nice for her, too," Ash suggested, "but I don’t know what."
In unison, they swiveled their heads and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"Like I know!" I snarled.
There were two people who might have some ideas, but, man, I didnotwant to involve them!
For Posy, Garnet murmured, and that was all I had to hear.
Picking up my phone, I scrolled through my contacts, hit the one I wanted, and waited for him to answer.
"Hello, Alpha Price."
"Alpha Briggs," I returned the greeting and put my phone on speaker.
"Is Posy happy and well?"
Of course, he’d ask that first.
"I need to ask a favor." I scrubbed my hand through my hair. "What are some things she likes? We want to do something nice for her to make up for a misunderstanding."
The line was silent for a whole thirty seconds. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but when your heart’s on the line, it’s an eternity.
"What. Did. You. Do. To. My. Baby. Sister?"
"Me? Nothing."