Page 51 of Pack’s Pledge

CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN

Adrian

I didn’t knowwhat I was doing, asking Britt up to our cabin.

But I had to dosomething.

Conall had been glowering. Britt had texted him, wanting to talk, apparently, but he’d been feeling too sorry for himself to text her back. His sour self-loathing permeated the apartment and kept all three of us snappy and short-tempered.

Beau had been moping. Britthadn’ttexted him, and he’d been feeling sorry for himself, which meant that I’d been stomping around, frustrated that I couldn’t do more for him.

Iwas feeling sorry for myself, too, if my packmates had cared to notice.I’dsent a text to Beau, as he was sitting on the couch next to me, staring despondently at his phone.

Hey baby,it had read, and he’d looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Not in the mood,” he’d said, and got up and left.

This was all easier when we were just roommates,I thought, chewing on my lip.

And I had always been happy to go along with whatever was easiest, hadn’t I? I’d signed up at the Heat Center on a whim, I’d fallen in with Beau and Conall as naturally as breathing, we’d formed a pack out of convenience more than anything. Beau was the ambitious one, all pride and a chip on his shoulder, and Conall was the smart one, the leader, and I was… Adrian.

I was the one who was going to fix this.

“What,” Conall asked, and I realized I’d been staring at him.

“I’m gonna go,” I said, and he looked back at me, blankly.

“Fine.”

“You don’t want to know where?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“Not really.”

I nodded. “Good talk.” I, too, got up and left the living room, following in Beau’s direction to the hall of our separate bedrooms, ducking into my own, pulling a suit coat out of the closet, shoving my feet into dress shoes.

I’d always been content to go along with what Beau wanted. What Conall wanted. But Britt…

Weneededher.

Not in the way that I had thought I’d needed her–the instant, sizzling attraction that had been so,sohard to resist acting on during the days we’d spent in the back room–but in a different, deeper way. We needed her–Ineeded her–to make us complete. Whole.

What was it that people said?Better to have loved and lost than to have spent a heat with your best friend’s girlfriend who’s sleeping with your omega and realize she’s what your pack is missing just as everything is falling apart around you?

Something like that.

So.

What Ishouldhave done was call a pack meeting. Have everyone lay everything out on the table, get everything off our chests, make a plan as a team. Call Britt, bring her over, tell her how we felt. It was obvious.

That wasn’t my style.

What I’d done instead was go to Ardor.

* * *

I kissedher on the cheek when she slid into the passenger seat of the SUV, dumping her duffle bag into the back seat.

When had this route from her place to ours gotten so familiar? I wondered. Sometime during the months we’d been with Britt, she’d started to feel so natural. An easy addition to our trio. I knew what it meant.

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