Page 36 of Meant for Them
“Morgan, I need you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have treated you like that. I can do better. Come home. It’s not the same without you.”
She has the audacity to yawn, grabbing the container of sanitizing wipes out of Jake’s hand when he kneels next to the twister mat.
“Nah, I’m good,” she says as she pointedly ignores Alex.
He kneels down, gently pulling the wipe from her hand before pulling her back up to her feet. It makes me so damned uncomfortable to see him touch her. “I shouldn't have said what I did. You're my mate. Come back home, we'll do everything I promised you.”
She looks around the room as if entertaining this idea. Once again, it feels like there are rocks sinking into my gut, pulling me down to earth. I don't want to be down there; I much prefer my head in the clouds.
Morgan spins back to him slowly, and all of us are waiting on pins and needles to hear what she has to say. “You know what? I think… that you should go eat a bag of dicks. No seriously, I would love to hear whyyouthink you shouldn't fuck all the way off. I don't have the energy to give you another chance, Alex. I actuallyjustused it all up fucking your three brothers.”
I don’t even try to smother the laugh now that I know she’s not evenpretendingto consider him. Look, I never doubted her, okay? No one will believe you if you tell her otherwise.
Alex isn’t as appreciative of her humor. “Do you have to be so crass? Come on, we're in the middle of nowhere. I have that big, beautiful home waiting for you to come back to, with access to so many amenities nearby. This shack doesn’t even compare to what I’m offering you.”
She takes a step back towards us, pulling her hands away from Alex and wiping them off on her legs. “You’re right, there is no comparison. These are my mates, and I choose here. You had your chance, and frankly I think that’s all you deserve. You showed me exactly what your character was like the morning I left. You didn't even come after me, Alex. You can't really believe that I’d trust you enough to relocateagainand risk all of the confidence these guys have been giving me back?”
She glares at him when he doesn’t respond, but he’s zeroed in on her neck. “What the fuck are those?”
Ah. Mating bites.
I never spent all that much time with Alex, I was barely out of high school when we got stuck up here; can’t say I have many fond memories of him, especially when he was partially to blame for stranding us here.
“We know a good thing when we see one,” Jake tells him before I can. The three of us are closing in around Morgan, ready to protect her.
“You can’t— she was supposed to bemymate! What the hell am I going to do now?” Oh. My. Fucking. Gods. He actually did that. He stomped his foot like a fucking toddler throwing a tantrum.
“Keep your teeth to yourself, is what,” Morgan retorts as she pulls us even closer, super unimpressed by his theatrics. “It won’t be super comfortable for you that you didn’t claim me—"
“It’s a fuckingdeath sentence!You know I just needed time to come to terms with what it meant to be with you; that’s why I didn’t come after you. I never expected you’d disappear completely and mate somebody entirely different like a psychopath! We belong together, Morgan. You’re mine.”
In a quieter voice, Morgan gets the last word. “You mean like you were going to keep me from them indefinitely? Because you knew from day one that if I was yours, I was also theirs. So, at what point were you going to tell me that the rest of my mates were out here, waiting for me? At what point were you going to mention that you helped your father imprison your godsdamned brothers in a cabin in the woods because you were worried about a little competition? Joke’s on you, I could have easily taken another dick if you would have come in here earnest and agreed to move in with us and try again. After severe reparations were made, anyway.
“From where I’m standing, not telling me I had more mates could have easily been a death sentence for me, too. Maybe not right away, but unrealized bonds, once exposure starts, always weakens the female wolf the most. And seeing as there’s three of them? Yeah, I would have become a fucking vegetable.
“Maybe that’s what you wanted though, huh? A pretty mate that would shut up and do what she’s told?”
“Unbelievable. Morgan, I gave you the fucking world—"
She starts laughing. “You offered me a job cleaning your house, topless.”
“Which I told you you didn’t have to do after only a few days,” he interjects, not getting the point at all.
“Which you never should have given me in the first place! You took my home and my job away from me, you knew I was desperate! You knew I’d have no choice but to take whatever scraps you were willing to give me because in that fuck-ass town, nobody wants anything to do with half-breeds. A trait you share. Because the morning after I gaveyoueverything, you were ready to run off into the sunset without me. So don’t you dare give me that bullshit that I should have beengrateful.
“The only thing I’m grateful to you for is forcing me to leave that town and find where I truly belong. I’ve had more happiness in the weeks I’ve been up here than I’ve had in probably my entire life. They treat me like…like a mate should, Alex. You didn’t. I gave you every opportunity, and you didn’t mark me or offer me any sort of future. And you thought I’d be waiting around for you to decide you wanted to play with me again? You have to know that I respect myself more than that.”
He takes a step back, rubbing the scruff on his jaw. “Then you should know Ellie wasn’t my sister. I fucked her three hours after I fucked you because she knows how to do more than just lie there like a fucking piece of stone. I was supposed to knock you up so I’d get the full share of the company I fucking give everything to. Now she wants nothing to do with me because I left her bed to come fucking chase you down. Guess you fuckin’ ruined that too.”
Oh,fuckno.
All three of us throw fists at once, luckily in different places. It’s so well coordinated though that he falls straight back, nothing to soften the blow of landing on the river rock we’ve laid in the entryway. Is there a good way to get blood out of that? Because he seems to be leaking.
Drats. He’s unconscious. That’s no fun.
fifteen
Jake
