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With that, his bravado seemed to have fled, and he looked down at his clasped hands.
DidI want to think about it? Did I want to talk to the therapist he and I shared about entering a mating bond with someone who’d been hurt as badly as I had?
“I will,” I said, my voice a bare rasp in the sharp winter air. “Think about it, I mean.”
Somehow, on top of having my world rocked on its axis by an alpha who had terrifying ideas, I’d also managed to forget that itwas a Monday. Or, more accurately, I’d forgotten why Mondays were significant.
The Elderflower Inn was closed on Mondays, meaning Mia and Nat were both at the house when I left work. Which wasn’t a big deal, in and of itself.
What made it a big deal was the fact that when I got home, it was to find the pair of them holding Byron hostage in the TV room. Byron looked about as trapped as I’d felt in the alley earlier that day, when I’d realized that Emiel wanted tochange everything.
That didn’t bode well for my remaining shreds of emotional self-control... because apparently, the four of us were about to have The Talk.
I thought I’d been prepared to have The Talk, even with the added complication of Byron having slept with Nat. I’d mostly been upset about that part on Mia’s behalf.
And as far as I could tell, Miawasn’tupset about it. Like... not atall.
I couldn’t quite decide if the comfort I felt with Mia’s husband made the situation more tangled or less. But it was damned hard to stay mad at someone after they’d risked their own life to save yours. I wasn’t inclined to try, quite frankly.
And Byron and me... we understood each other. Or, at least, I’d always thought we did. Now, though, I was still reeling from the discussion with Emiel, and I could only imagine Byron’s reaction if he found out about the subject of our conversation.
“Luca,” Mia said, as I paused in the doorway. “Come in for a few minutes? We finally succeeded in ambushing this one.” She poked a finger into Byron’s shoulder.
The alpha’s guarded gray eyes met mine, but I couldn’t get a read on his expression.
“Yes,” Byron said waspishly. “Do come in, Luca. I’m sure this conversation is going to bedelightful.”
“Yeah,” I replied faintly. “I’m sure it will be.”
FIFTY
Byron
THERE WAS NO WAY THATa discussion between an omega, her beta husband, the alpha who’d fucked them both, and another omega he’dalsofucked was ever going to end well. And yet, I’d agreed to do it anyway, even if I’d gone out of my way to put it off as long as possible.
It was maybe alittlebit comforting that Luca also looked like he wanted to teleport through the floor rather than join us. In fact, Luca looked like he was about ten seconds away from fainting on the spot. I frowned, fighting the urge to ask if he was all right. Because that wasn’t the way our relationship worked.
Luca and I managed to eke out our moments of intimacy by respecting each other’s broken edges. Not by calling attention to them. It was why he hadn’t visited my hospital room... and why I hadn’t expected him to. Luca needed an alpha who let him be sexual without expecting actual sex in return. Not a broken asshole who’d stared blankly at a gun barrel while he was dragged away to be gang-raped.
Which was why I was honestly a bit surprised that he’d let himself be pulled into my come-to-Jesus moment with the married couple I’d screwed while they were in the middle of a domestic tiff.
“Sit down, Luca,” Mia said, suiting action to word as she lowered herself onto the floor and leaned up against the wall beneath the darkened TV screen, facing me on the couch. “We might as well be comfortable.”
Luca perched warily on the far end of the sofa, setting his work bag down at his feet. Nat, whose fucking idea this had been in the first place, hovered by the wall opposite the door.