Page 58

She’s right. I’ve never been this excited for anything before. Sure, I’m the usual go-to guy for fun shit, but I’ve spent so many years of my life chasing after the next hit of something, whether that’s drugs, sex, or adrenaline that it’s hard to feel all that much for anything anymore.

It’s almost like that whole persona is, well, a persona.

“You’re totally psychoanalyzing me right now, aren’t you,” I sigh, tapping my fingers against the wheel.

“Sure, if that’s what you want to call it,” Char shrugs. “I call it making sense of everything. Ever since mom first got diagnosed it was hard for all of us.”

“Stop blowing smoke up my ass,” I say, my tapping reaching a crescendo. “I made mom being sick all about me. I was a fucking little shithead when I was a teenager and you fucking know that. You took mom getting sick as your calling to medicine and I took it as my calling to disappear for days getting drunk and high at god knows where. You know where I ended up 'cause I was a fucking idiot?—”

“Shut up,” she says, her growl surprising considering she’s anomega. It’s surprising enough that it snaps me out of my weird fog. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

I don’t believe her. She knows I don’t believe her, by the way she rolls her eyes.

“Something like that isn’t that person’s fault, especially if they were a kid.”

“I was seventeen,” I grit out. “Old enough to fucking know better than get myself in a situation where someone thinks they can kidnap me and ransom me for fucking money.”

“Could you have made better choices?” she says, growing more irritated at me by the second. “For fucking sure. I’ve cleaned you up after your benders more than enough times to tell you that with a hundred percent certainty. Did you deserve the shit that happened to you because of your stupid decisions? Fuck no. And I’m sure Luna would think the same as me.”

I lean my head against the cool leather of the steering wheel, my heart twisting in my chest. “Are you sure?” My voice cracks in a way that would be embarrassing enough to kill me if I were with anyone else except my big sister.

“Of course. You were a kid and you were hurting. I get why you turned to stuff like the drugs and shit, Chase. It’s 'cause you felt helpless. You couldn’t help Mom, you couldn’t help Dad who was spiraling too since he couldn’t help Mom either. God knows neither of them were in a state to help you when you needed it.”

I turn my head, my cheek still resting against the steering wheel and meet her eyes. “You had it rough too.”

“Sure,” she snorts. “We all had our bad coping mechanisms. Mine was just working myself half to death to the point the hospital knew me before I even started my clinical rotations, since I ended up there so often.”

“Do you think I’m going to fuck up with her?”

“With Luna?”

“Who else would I be talking about.”

“I don’t think you will. If anything, I think you thinkingyou’re going to fuck with her is going to be the thing that makes you fuck up. You’re going to want things to be completely perfect and you’re going to forget that what she wants doesn’t need to be perfect. You just have to show her how much you care.”

I nod slowly, my tapping resuming its familiar rhythm. “I can do that.”

“Totally. Now let’s get inside, I have to use the bathroom.”

When we make our way inside the shopping mall, I make a mental checklist of all the stores I want to make sure we stop by. We made it through a nesting store where we ordered all the custom bedding and stuff for the nest at the packhouse, a store that specialized in winter clothes, and a lingerie store.

Well, technically, Char shoved me out and made me wait outside while she did the bulk of the shopping. I did manage to snag a couple pairs of lacy panties that I really liked the look of and add them to the very functional-looking pile of underwear and bras she had when she brought me back in to pay for everything.

We’re walking through a general clothing store, picking Luna up the basics with our third cart worth of stuff when things go south.

“Do you think this looks cute?” Char asks, holding up a flowy sundress with lavender flowers.

“Totally, throw it in.” Even though it won’t be warm enough for her to wear that out for a few months, every part of my brain likes the thought of Luna in a dress like that.

“I don’t know if that’s your size,” a sickly-sweet voice sneers.

I turn to see a brunette with narrowed eyes looking at the two of us, her hands on her hips. I recognize her, but it takes me a second to remember where from. She was the omega from the last party we went to that seriously would not let Archer breathe. She was following him like gum stuck to his shoe.

What was her name again?

Billy? Bella? Bailey?

“No shit, Brandy, last time I checked, I’m pregnant with thechild of mybonded mates, of course this isn’t going to fit me.” Char rolls her eyes before putting the sundress into the cart. “You should seriously stop talking about situations you’re obviously too stupid to understand, your jealousy is showing.”