Page 59 of Lonely Alpha

Dash was fixated on the idea of a scent match and how we couldn’t have ours. He was bringing the whole pack down. I’d never tell him that to his face, but he was smart enough to know it. After so long, I imagined the guilt of the last six years was weighing him down as much as the pain of rejection. Maybe more.

It all compounded to make it harder for him to pull himself up.

Especially when Mercury was enabling him.

“The pack isn’t going to fall apart under my watch,” Mercury said.

I growled. “Weneedto. This isn’t going to end up like your parents. We’ll pick ourselves up again and be better.”

I didn’t want to watch the way his expression shuttered. Turning to the freezer, I pulled out a flexible freezer pack and grabbed a tea towel to wrap around it. There was a bottle of anti-inflammatories on the counter, so I picked them up too and poured a glass of cold water.

My lover didn’t speak, but I hoped he was finally processing. I’d been saying this for years. Never so urgently—I’d assumed he would loosen the reins when it got to be too much for him. He never had, but it was time.

Dash could stand on his own.

He had something to pick himself up for. Kiara and Leighton. His obsession with them was clear, and while it wasn’t necessarily a healthy coping mechanism, it would work for him.

The alpha and omega pair wouldn’t be the tipping point that broke us. I believed they would be exactly what we all needed.

Including Mercury.

“Get away from her, Dash,” I chastised when I swung open the French doors again.

He was far too close, her arousal sweet in the air. My packmate smirked, the nonchalance almost hiding the way he glanced back at the kitchen worriedly.

“I was only showing her all the clothes that I bought for her,” he said.

His lean body flopped to the couch beside her, his thigh pressed against hers. Kiara blushed but didn’t move away. I settled on her other side, placing everything on the coffee table.

“You don’t have to wear anything he buys,” I said. “I imagine some of his choices weren’t exactly appropriate.”

“Excuse you,” Dash scoffed. “She’ll have a full wardrobe by the time my personal shopper gets here, and everything is appropriate.”

“I doubt it.”

Handing her a pill from the bottle and the glass of water, I watched her wince as she swallowed it down. Maybe I needed to order her a smoothie, so she had something suitable to eat?

“She’s got a smoothie and soup coming for lunch,” Dash said, reading my mind. “My shopper is bringing it.”

I nodded, then gently wrapped the covered ice pack around the front of her neck. She hissed at the abrasive cold, but then her eyelids fluttered shut and she leaned back. My fingers began to go numb as I held it in place for her, but it was the least I could do.

Giving her the bruises was probably the worst thing I’d done in my life.

It had been an accident driven by trauma, but it could have been avoided if I’d gone to more therapy like Mercury had always suggested. I hated to admit I was wrong, but I couldn’t continue to tell my packmate that he was doing the wrong thing unless I could swallow my own pride.

“That feels good,” she murmured, sighing.

“We can ice it whenever you like. I’ll put everything away when it’s been fifteen minutes, and we can do it again in a bit.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“He did give them to you,” Dash said, shooting me a smirk. “Ambrose is a big fan of fixing what he’s broken.”

I glared.

Mercury stepped back out into the living room, and I tried to ignore the way his scent soothed me. He wasn’t mine to take comfort in.

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