Page 26 of Star-crossed Betas

“Till death do us part is going to come around sooner than planned if you keep calling me that. But yes, there’s a pie in the oven; it should be ready in around twenty minutes.” In spite of the fact Niamh and Will are in a platonic marriage, thanks to yours truly, they’re a bit of a power couple. Will is halfway through his second training year as a junior doctor, and Niamh is a solicitor in employment law.

“Thanks, hubby.” Niamh plasters a big kiss on his rosy cheek. “Can I get anyone a drink, tea? Coffee? Beer? Jägerbomb?” In unison, we all make a disgusted sound at the mention of the latter. Sam leaves then to go see Da, presumably to report back that Phoenix and I were retrieved from Campbell land unscathed.

Phoenix Campbell

After we finished lunch, Will excused himself to bed since he’s currently on night shifts. Niamh left shortly after, heading to a meeting in the office that afternoon.

As Cee and I make our way into the living room, we’re alone for the first time since we woke up. I feel an odd sense of relief and dread.

Cee sticks on someParks & Rec, presumably to give us some privacy from wolf shifter hearing. We sit side by side on the small, grey two-seater sofa. Our thighs are touching, and I daren’t move a muscle in case he notices and retreats away from me.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, breaking the heavy silence between us since we sat down.

“Nothing,” I reply, unable to find the words I really want to ask but probably don’t want the answer to.

“Mm. Seems like nothin’. Everythin’ from the tense shoulders to the grimace on your face really screams 'nothing' iswrong.” I sigh and then twist on the sofa to face him.

“There’s nothing romantic between Will and Niamh, is there?” I ask. He looks surprised at the question but shakes his head. “Have you and he…? I mean, you’ve been living with him for the past year.” The pie we had for lunch threatens to re-appear at the thought, but I need to know.

When he looks away from me, my heart is in my throat.

“We weren’t together anymore, Phoenix,” he whispers. Even though I suspected as much deep down, the confirmation hurts even more than I anticipated.

My mind is assaulted with visions of him and Will in bed together. Him and Will kissing and cuddling.

I think I might be sick.

“Have you been together this past year? Am I… am I in the way of something?” I can’t stop the tremble in my voice. I didn’t realise how much hope I was holding onto that this could be our second chance until right this moment.

“No. It wasn’t like that. It was one night, we were both drunk, and it was a mistake for both of us. But you don’t get to be mad, okay? We broke up because you agreed to marry my sister. I didn’t owe you anything after that,” he replies, his voice firm. I nod and bite down on my lip hard, trying to fight the tears threatening to spill. A part of me is relieved that he and Will aren’t a thing, but I can’t move past the images of Will having a piece of Cee that only I ever had. When I try to blink away the tears, one drops down onto my cheek. I quickly look the other way and wipe it off with my hand but I know he saw.

“When?” I ask, praying my voice will hold steady enough.

“A couple months after.”

“June?” I ask, already suspecting the worst.

“Yeah.”

“When in June?” He doesn’t reply, and my stomach drops out again. I know it’s not totally rational because it’s my fault he doesn’t know the entire story, but I suddenly feel furious. Of all the days he chose to move on, our anniversary? Really? Did he do it to spite me and hurt me? “So when I texted you that day, begging you to talk to me, you ignored me because you were with him?”

“I was hurtin’ that day, and no good would have come from answerin' your texts. We got drunk to take my mind off it, and I took comfort from a friend. Don’t turn it into somethin’ it wasn’t.” His words cause some of my anger to dissipate. Still, the part of me that always felt slightly insecure about his relationship with Will isn’t so easily appeased.

“You were practically engaged to him the entire time we were together. Did you have feelings for him all along?”

“You know that I didn’t.”

“Do I? Because you weren’t in a hurry to call off the engagement to him, were you?” Suddenly, the idea of him and Will together that way has me re-framing our entire relationship. Was I the idiot that thought we’d end up together? If the engagement to Niamh hadn’t occurred, would he have left me for Will eventually anyway?

“Fuck you, Phoenix. Don’t twist that now. From the day we met to the day you left me, I was loyal and faithful to you, and you know it. Don’t you dare turn this around on me. And don’t you dare take any of this out on Will, okay? He’s not in the wrong here.” He stands up and storms over to the window with his back to me.

'The day you left me,'the reminder that my decision to keep Cee in the dark about why I couldn’t call off the engagement to his sister, sits like lead in my stomach. He slept with Will because he didn’t know the truth, and the reason he didn’t know the truth was because I kept it from him. It’s all my fault, yet if I tell him the truth now, it will only make things worse.

Unable to fight them off any longer, the tears track down my cheeks. My breath hitches loudly as I try to stifle a sob. I’m surprised when Cee comes over and tugs me to stand up. He pulls my face onto his shoulder and wraps his arms around me. I don’t deserve for him to comfort me, but I don’t have it in me to walk away. As I silently cry into his black cotton t-shirt, he cards his fingers through my hair.

“You get to be upset, but you don’t get to be mad at me,” he says quietly. He’s completely right, I probably don’t even deserve to feel this devastated, but I can’t control that.

“I know, I’m sorry,” I whisper before an embarrassing hiccup escapes me.

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