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“I can,” she sighs. “I feel as if everyone else is looped into a conversation I just joined.”

“That’s because that’s exactly what this is,” he winces.

The alpha opens the door and slips out, and Nina jumps a little as it slams closed due to the wind.

“Nina,” Ethan says carefully. “Why don’t you take off your boots and come sit down.”

She doesn’t say anything as she leans down to unzip her shoes and drops them onto the floor. She’s moving slowly, and any other day if I was myself I’d take control by telling her she’s a brat, but it’s clear she’s processing things.

“So everything you told me was a lie, huh?” she asks, turning to face him. “You don’t have a boyfriend who’s a med student and you’re not really new in Savannah.”

“That’s all true,” Ethan says. “I spent a few of my childhood years in Savannah, but didn’t return until you came back.”

“That doesn’t answer anything,” she whines.

I want to take her in my arms and hug her. There are bags under her eyes, signs that she’s not sleeping well. I’m unsurprised that she’s pushing back about this.

“Also, I am the boyfriend,” Riley says, raising a hand. “I really enjoy the stories he has whenever he sees you. My schedule is insane, but he stockpiles every moment so he can tell me about it.”

“And what do you think about it?” she asks, moving to a corner of the couch to curl up into. “I told him I’m not a homewrecker.”

“You let me kiss you,” Ethan teases her.

My hand flies through the air so fast, he grunts in pain as he rubs the back of his head.

“Sorry, that was mean,” he mutters. “You could never be a homewrecker, Little Queen.”

“We talked about nicknames,” she says automatically. I have a feeling this is an argument they have often.

“That was before you found out you were ours,” he says.

“I don’t know that,” she argues. “Ugh, none of this makes sense. I was supposed to belong to one of the four packs that were courting me, but none of them wanted to choose. So my mother fucking beat me?—“

“Vivian did what?” I snarl. “No one told us that.”

“It’s fine,” Nina says, waving a hand in a motion reminiscent of her mother. Except this is her not wanting to talk about it.

Toeing off my shoes, I walk quickly, jumping onto my hands and knees on the couch next to her. I’m not a small man, and she gasps as she bounces too.

“It’s not fine,” I grumble, beginning to crawl closer to her. Iremember a time when I wondered what it would be like to have her crawl to me, but I’m no longer interested in power dynamics. The blue flecks of her eyes seem to swirl within the green and it’s mesmerizing, pulling me closer.

“There aren’t any marks anymore,” she breathes as she looks up at me as I hover over her.

“The marks you can’t see are sometimes the most painful,” I say, my palm gently rubbing over her heart.

I know this would be considered inappropriate since she doesn’t remember me anymore, but I’ve never been very good about social niceties. Her blonde strands pull my attention away, and I bite my lip. Fuck it. I’m going to shoot my shot.

“The pink in your hair was one of my favorite looks on you. It feels odd to not see it anymore,” I murmur. I can feel the tension behind me. I’m the wild card here. I know it, but I can’t stop the words coming out of my mouth. “You know why I loved it so much? It was authentically you. Just like whatever is under this wig is too.”

Her pupils are blowing out with a mixture of fear and arousal, and I can’t help but love both of those reactions. The brute inside of me wants to chase, claim, and fuck her. It’s very difficult for me to repress my instincts anymore. Nina can’t close her legs because my body is between them, her slick beginning to perfume the air around us.

“Will you show me?” I beg, my nose burying in her throat and inhaling deeply. My teeth fucking ache to mark her, bite my omega so she’ll always be mine. I can’t though, not yet, and I’m irrationally angry about that.

She smells so fucking good.My tongue wants to swipe up the column of her delicate neck to taste her, but I wrestle back the urge. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“It’s ugly,” Nina whimpers, her head dropping back to give me more access.

That’s all the permission I need to suck on her pulse point, loving the way she mewls for me.