Page 5

She sat up straight, blinked and turned her head away.

“So, do your thing, chat amongst yourselves, until Justice…” and we came full circle back to the topic at hand.

I cracked my neck and looked up through the canopy above us. The leaves were limp in the heat. There was barely a breeze. Like that night on the yacht when we’d stared up at the stars and Justice chose to suffer rather than seek comfort with his omegas.

“This is why we need a conspiracy.”

“Yeah, I still don’t get that part,” Theo said, popping the lid on a glass container and offering the brownies he made last night.

“Justice is stuck. We have to, like, crank him up. Wind him up and push him forward. But I think we have to do it in such a way that he thinks it’s all his idea.”

“But what’s wrong?” Mackenzie asked. She adjusted her leg that was hooked around Theo’s.

“Now you both know there’s some unresolved childhood trauma. Should he go to therapy? Probably, but we are miles from that right now. You both know he is…” I drop the next word carefully, watching Theo, “controlling.” He looked away. “It’s more than a coping mechanism. And it’s heightened by being an alpha and a pack lead. It’s who he is. That does not mix wellwith panic attacks, which, for Justice, are a fundamental loss of control.”

I groaned as I sat up and reached for one of Theo’s brownies. It was gooey and rich and took a moment before I could speak again.

“To sum up, before the cruise, he was spinning out of control. He was supposed to relax and get his head on straight again. He comes home with a pack. And he’s currently denying the thing that could make this all better for him.”

“What’s that?” Mackenzie asked.

“You.” I looked between our two omegas.

“I’m still not following.”

“This isn’t aura damage, but omega auras are very healing, especially in pack bonds.”

“Okay, so what’s wrong with us it’s not working?” She bit her bottom lip, probably to keep it from trembling.

“Have you noticed that Justice doesn’t touch you?”

“That’s not true. He touches us all the time.”

“No. You touch him.”

She opened her mouth and closed it, and stared down at her sticky brownie, contemplating that.

“We were all sitting on the couch last night, right? What happened?”

“We just watched a movie,” Mackenzie said to Theo. He frowned, trying to see what I saw.

“Mackenzie was in your lap. She’s always in your lap, Theo. You’re always curled around each other. I dug Mackenzie out of your cuddle puddle and then you both were in my lap. You two are always touching each other.”

They looked down at where their legs were intertwined as proof of what I was saying, and they immediately disengaged. I grabbed their ankles and twisted them back together.

“Thisis not the problem,” I caressed their legs, “we love it. And before you two get all twisted about it, he doesn’t touch me either. The problem is twofold.”

“Shit.” Theo exhaled loudly and shook his head. “Justice said Mackenzie always comes first and that he’d never come between us.”

“Literally.” I nodded. “It’s almost as if he feels it’s not his place to physically insert himself.”

“But he’s our alpha,” Mackenzie said.

“On top of that,” I blew out my own exasperated breath, “he feels so good when he is touching you, when your aura is affecting him, that he feels it’s selfish. You two can’t fully comprehend how good you feel.”

“Selfish?” She sounded incredulous.

I nodded. “He feels good touching you. That makes him feel like he’s using you for his benefit.”