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“You get five minutes.”

Connor’s face lights up with hope and trepidation. “I’ll take it.”

“You don’t have to go, Daph.” Nate winds his arms around me until there’s nothing in the world but him. His lips dance over my forehead, my cheeks. Scent marking me in front of his pack lead. In spite of him.

My fingers trace his jaw gently, something I’ve taken to doing as we lay in bed talking. There’s been no sex, no touching beyondthe cuddles we both need, but I’ve never felt closer to another person than I do right now. “I want to try. For all of us.”

His arms tighten around me, head dropping to my shoulder and shuddering when my scent hits. When he finally pulls away, Nate’s face hardens toward his brother. “If you hurt her again...”

“I won’t,” Connor promises.

Squeezing one more time, I step out of the safety of Nate’s arms, motioning down the street. “After you.”

Connor takes the steps first, reaching up to ensure I have a hand if I need and completely unfazed when I don’t take it. When we hit the sidewalk, he gently herds me aside, taking the edge closest to the street without pause.

A glance back shows a frowning Nate watching us walk away and I wonder if he’ll be standing there when we return. Probably. He’s a little bit of a clinger, this alpha. I think I like it.

We’re silent for two blocks before I finally break. “Your time is running out.”

“I’m scared.”

My head whips around so fast, I stumble over a crack in the sidewalk. Connor reaches out to stabilize me but pulls away the second I’m upright. “That’s not what I expected you to say.”

He laughs mirthlessly, so fucking handsome it’s hard to breathe. “We’ll get to the rest of it, but I’d like to start here if that’s okay.”

I shrug, shoving my hood up against the fall drizzle. “It’s your time.”

“I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I was married before. Shelby. We were scent-sympathetic, both presenting early in high school and we justfit. I fell in love instantly. Hard not to when she seemed like the perfect omega.”

There’s long-faded pain in his voice, the sign of an old scar that’s healed but will never fully disappear. But the jealous bitch in me latches onto the name.

Shelby.

I hate her. Don’t feel bad about it, either.

“We got married right out of high school, but she never quite warmed up to the others. Nate hadn’t presented so it wasn’t an issue, but Dez was right there with us.” Water droplets fall as Connor shakes his head. “Looking back, I’m not sure I could even say they were friends. Roommates, at best. I thought it would just take time for their bond to grow. I won’t go into the details because some of it isn’t my story to tell, but eventually we found out Shelby didn’t want Dez as her alpha. Only me.”

Being an omega means an overload of empathy, but I’d have to be dead inside not to feel the regret pouring off Connor. The guilt that his wife hurt his brother so badly. It’s instinct to reach for him, to hold his hand and hope it brings him comfort. I wish Dez was here so I could do the same.

Connor softens, tugging me closer to his body. “I filed for divorce immediately, but it got messy fast. Morgan Restorations had just taken off and…” he swallows.

“She went after the business,” I guess.

“Yeah. Our friend is an absolute shark of a lawyer. He won by proving she defrauded the pack since there were texts from Shelby to her friends, telling them she’d get me to leave my brothers, eventually. That the bond would come, and they would go.”

My own bare neck aches and I reach for the phantom throb on instinct. “You didn’t bite her?”

His eyes catch on my hand and understanding sweeps over them. “At her insistence. She said she wasn’t ready, but I think it’s because she knew I planned to bond the same omega as my brothers.”

The words are pointed, but I refuse to get my hopes up. I step over for more space but let him keep my hand. “As awful as that was, what does it have to do with me?”

“I wanted you to have some context for why I reacted the way I did at dinner. I’m not saying it was right at all,” he rushes before I can get a word out. “I didn’t realize I had issues with omissions.”

“You called me a liar.”

Connor’s face falls, hand spasming. “I did. I’m sorry. There’s no excuse.”

There isn’t, but given what he’s been through, I can understand it. Besides, aren’t I doing the same to him? Lashing out at his rejection because of Pack Parker?