Page 59 of Pack’s Pledge

“Next time,” I said again. “You’ll know. Next time, there’ll be no question. Because next time,” I said, reaching for Adrian. His hand slipped into mine, squeezing it tight. “Next time, you’ll be able to feel it yourself.”

CHAPTERFORTY

Conall

“No, Adrian,”I warned, as I followed the path of her arm to her hand, interlaced with his. “You wouldn’t.”

“I will,” he said. “It’s what she wants.” He looked at her, more serious than I’d ever seen him. “And it’s what this pack needs. You know that as well as I do.”

“What’s going on? Britt?” came Beau’s voice from the hallway.Everyone is here, I thought, and my shoulders loosened some.What the hell was wrong with me?“You’re back.” I watched as he, too, took in the scene in front of him, Britt and Adrian’s hands tightly grasping each other.

“Beau,” Britt said, and smiled at him. “I’m so, so sorry. I haven’t been there for you like I should have—”

“Don’t apologize,” Beau said. “I understand.”

“No,” she said. “You don’t yet, but you will. I’ll be a better packmate to you in the future.”

“What?” asked, his brows drawing together. “Conall, what’s going on?”

“A coup,” I said, flatly.

Adrian laughed out loud. “Is that what you think this is? A coup?”

I shrugged. It certainly looked like a coup to me. Adrian was overthrowing my pack and stealing my girlfriend, all in one. Except that she wasn’t mine.

“This isn’t a coup. It’s an intervention,” he said, still smiling at me. “You want Britt. I know you do.I can fucking feel it, even now, how much you want her.”

He was right, becauseof courseI wanted her. I always had. It changed nothing.

“So if you don’t trust Britt to tell you herself, I can be that… translator for you. The bond—”

“What are you talking about, Adrian?” Beau asked, but it was Britt that answered.

“I love you, Beau,” she said, and my chest filled with a fierce protective pride in both of them. “I want to be yours. I would let you do it, but—”

“I’m second best,” Adrian chimed in, winking at me. I scowled. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”

“You’re not—” Beau said, but she nodded. His eyes went wide, flicking from the two of them to me and back.

“You’re invited, baby,” Adrian said. “Britt would love to have you join us, wouldn’t you?”

“I want everyone there,” she said, and she looked to Conall. “Please. Alpha. I want you to see it. I want you to see how much I want this. This pack. Beau. Adrian,” she said with a small, secret smile.What had happened at the cabin?I was intensely, acutely, shamefully aroused. “And you.”

I had told Britt, before, that I wouldalwayshave to choose the pack over her.

I had told her that I wouldalwaysside with my pack. I couldn’t do anything else. It was in my very bones. Wired into my guts and my sinews and my synapses.

His face was perfectly still.

But now...

It didn’t matter what Adrian wanted. What Beau wanted.

What I wanted washer. I always had. I always would.

And seeing her there, hand in hand with Adrian, smiling at Beau?

Something heavy and warm and right fell into place at the base of my spine. In the hollow at the back of my skull. Behind my ribcage.

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