Page 20 of Sweetheart: Part One

“That’s what she wants.” My eyes held Vex’s, though I could still feel the laser burn of Ebony’s furious gaze on me. “Right?”

She swallowed, unable to take her gaze from me either, and butterflies joined the thrill. She nodded. “Yes,” she whispered, the word as fragile as tissue paper.

“Right. Then there’s nothing wrong with giving it serious consideration,” I said. I didn’t even know if I was lying or not. Was I just trying to bait Ebony? Or would I actually do it?

The space between Drake and Vex became smaller, his arm tugging her close, it was an image that would be burned behind my eyelids.

Drake didn’t reach out to anyone. He didn’t let anyone in. It wasn’t just Ebony that sealed the deal on our fate: bondless when it came to any woman. None of us believed Drake would ever be ready.

Doors opened and possibilities suddenly came tumbling out as he got to his feet, standing between Vex and Ebony, and held his hand to her. “I can give you a tour.”

Vex stood quickly, clearly happy for an excuse to put distance between her and a furious Ebony.

My eyes flickered to Love.

Was he feeling the same thing?

I’d known him for as long as I could remember, and while he’d always been hard to read, he had tells. Right now, his jaw was clenched just a little too tight, his gaze too fixed on Drake and Vex.

Like a bunch of lost fucking puppies, we all stared in silence as Drake led her to the spiral staircase to start the tour downstairs.

Drake walked close by her side, rather than his usual rigid distance with hands tucked in pockets.

She turned back once, intense eyes meeting mine briefly with curiosity at what I’d just offered, and I felt a warm pride swell in my chest.

There were clearly more benefits to that offer than pissing off Ebony.

SEVEN

VEX

Drake was safe.

I felt it to my bones. It wasn’t just because we were mates, since there was nothing safe about Ebony, and I was unsure about Love and Rook—who’d literally offered to sign me in already.

But I don’t think I’d met a man—alpha or beta—who had ever made me feel as comfortable as Drake did.

I’d been on dozens of dates, and I liked boldness in my guys, but only when I could be sure it was paired with respect. But here, there was nothing I could be sure about, caught between a scent match and a dark bond. Unlike on dates, here I had no control.

I had to like them, and I hated that. I had to put up with Ebony, and I hated that even more.

But Drake, I really, actually liked. He’d been bold enough to stand between me and Ebony, and he kept a respectful distance as he showed me around. He wasn’t touchy or over-possessive. He was just… company. Company I’d been missing for so long, and I needed that so much right now.

The mansion they lived in was ridiculous. In another life, it might leave me star-struck. Especially now Rook was considering giving me a signature, which should make me excited, even if it had seemed a lot more about Ebony than me.

Instead, I was a nervous wreck, desperately trying to commit the hallways to memory. To know where each one led, and where the exits were. The first floor hosted offices and a kitchen three times the size of the kitchenette upstairs. Rob was their house manager, which in this case I gathered meant everything from live-in chef, to cleaner. His living quarters were downstairs.

“Love insisted,” Drake said, when I dared to point out that a live-in chef was kind of obscene. “Turns out if left to our own devices, we don’t feed ourselves to his standards. So chef it was, since most of the time we’re stupid busy anyways.”

“This is your time off, right?” I asked. I knew they were between movies, and focused on down time before they went to Germany for their big break.

“Yeh,” Drake said. “That’s right.”

That was a few months away.

By then, my fate would be sealed. I would be with my mates, or with the pack I hated.

If I was signed on with them, would they take me to Germany? My gold pack status made travel complicated, since much of Europe held similar stances regarding rogues and gold packs. But with their resources, they could make it happen. There would be restrictions, of course, but… Germany? I’d only ever left this country in my dreams.

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