Page 19 of Pack Plus One

I cover my face with my hands. “It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got twenty minutes to your apartment,” she says, pulling onto the main road. “Start talking.”

So I do. I tell her about bumping into Jude, about Eric’s smug face, about the split-second decision to go along with their mistaken identity. By the time I get to the part where I agreed to attend the wedding with them tomorrow, Zoe nearly drives off the road.

“You’re actually going to the wedding with them?!” she shrieks. “Tomorrow? It’s gonna be a disaster!”

“I knowwww,” I groan. “But what choice did I have? Eric wasright there, looking all superior with his ‘disappointed your pack isn’t coming’ bullshit.”

“Your fake pack,” Zoe clarifies, still looking shell-shocked. “Who think you’re someone else that they hired to pretend to be their omega for the weekend.”

“Yes.”

“And you gave them yourrealphone number.”

“Yes.”

“And now you’re going to show up at Eric’s wedding tomorrow with these four strangers and somehow convince everyone—including them—that you’re part of their pack.”

Put like that, it sounds completely insane. “Yes?”

Zoe is quiet for a long moment, then bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, Leah. This is either the worst idea you’ve ever had or the beginning of something great.”

“It’s definitely the worst idea I’ve ever had,” I mutter, though the memory of Caleb’s hand on my back, of Liam’s gentle questions about my bakery, of Jude’s playful flirtation, and Mason’s quiet perceptiveness makes something flutter in my chest. “They’re going to figure out I’m not who they think I am.”

“Probably,” Zoe agrees, unhelpfully.

“And then they’ll be angry.”

“Or intrigued,” she counters. “I mean, four extremely hot guys? Who seemed weirdly protective of you after knowing you for like, five minutes? That’s not nothing, Leah.”

“They were being polite,” I insist. “Playing along for their business contacts.”

Zoe snorts. “The way Green Eyes was looking at you wasn’t ‘polite.’ That was pure ‘I’d like you in my bed, baby. But I’m too much of a gentleman to say it outright’.”

I groan again.

I remember the intensity in Caleb’s gaze. The way he’d growled at Eric.

… The way I’dlikedit.

Oh man, I’m screwwwed.

“It doesn’t matter.” I let out a breath. “After tomorrow, I’ll never see them again.”

“If you say so,” Zoe says, clearly unconvinced. “But just so we’re clear—I’m coming over early tomorrow to help you get ready. If you’re going to crash and burn, you might as well look hot doing it.”

I groan, leaning my head against the window. “What have I done?”

“Something incredibly stupid,” Zoe says cheerfully. “Or incredibly brilliant. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.”

The thought of facing the Le Roux pack again—of continuing this elaborate charade through an entire wedding ceremony and reception—makes my stomach twist with anxiety. But underneath the panic, there’s a tiny spark of excitement that won’t go away.

One more day of pretending. One more day with four alphas who made me feel more protected and desired in two hours than Eric did in two years.

What could possibly go wrong?

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