Page 47

Della

The next morning, I’m pretending to be asleep when my bedroom door creaks open and Everleigh whispers, “Della?”

I lie still and wait for her to leave.

The door snicks closed. Any hope I had that my sister would be on the other side of it evaporates as her soft footsteps move toward my bed.

The sheet rises, letting in a waft of cool air. The bed dips slightly, and the sweet scent of vanilla warns she is super close.

“I know you’re faking,” she says.

I snore.

She pinches my nose, and I struggle to breathe, snapping my eyes open to knock her hand away. “ Hey ! Quit trying to kill me.”

She regards me steadily from the other pillow.

It’s the first time I’ve seen her since Cian drove me to the Pack Ashe mansion, and I pretended I was too tired to speak to her.

I spent last night in an elegant bedroom with plump feather pillows and soft sheets, but I’m no more rested than before I turned out the lights.

“ So …” she drawls.

“So?” I pretend I have no clue what she wants to talk to me about.

“Cian and Kylian said you had something going on with Pack Madden.”

“I might have.”

“ And ?” She looks like she’s getting ready to burst out of her skin with excitement.

“I don’t know.”

“Cian said they all kissed you before you got in his car.”

Blushing, I roll onto my back to hide my red face from my nosy sister. “For a serious alpha, he sure likes to gossip,” I grumble.

“Talk.” She pokes me in the side.

I squeal and slap her hand away. She’s always known my weak spots. “When did you get so pushy?”

“When you started avoiding me.” She moves to poke me again, but I scoot away, and she lowers her hand to the bed. “Tell me.”

Sunlight streams through the window, brightening the strands of her long, blond hair.

I absolutely love her to death, but she is beautiful and an omega, and right now, I’m second-guessing everything.

I’ve fallen for Pack Madden, but I’m not beautiful or an omega.

What if they want more? Like to knot a delicious smelling omega in heat.

“Vincent said he had something he had to do, which is why I should stay here with you for a bit. But what if it was a way to ditch me?” I voice the fear I’ve been harboring since Cian drove me back to the Pack Ashe mansion.

“No one is going to ditch you, Della.” Her eyes soften with affection. “They’ll love you if they don't already, because you’re the most generous, fiercely loyal, and loving person in the world. And you’re not too bad to look at, either.”

I snort a laugh. “Shut up. But also, thanks. Feel free to keep the compliments coming.”

We grin at each other, and her smile slowly fades.

“You need to talk to someone, Della.”

“No, I don’t.”

“I know you’re stronger than me, stronger than anyone, but wanting to talk about the things that hurt you doesn’t make you weak.”

I blink at her, surprised. “You think I’m stronger than anyone?”

She sighs heavily. “At the risk of giving you a big head, yes, I do.”

I chew my lip as I think it over, then shake my head. “I’m reckless. You think longer before doing things that are liable to get yourself killed. I worry about that stuff after the fact.”

“Hearing you say that is giving me an aneurysm. Come here.”

She lifts her arm, and I scoot closer to her.

We haven’t done this in years. Mom never wanted us to be close, and I never understood why she was always so pissed at the thought of me crawling into Everleigh’s bed or her crawling into mine so we could talk before we went to sleep.

Now I know it was because she saw me as her kid, but she didn’t view Everleigh the same way. But she’s my sister. It doesn’t matter that we have different moms. I love her more than anyone else in the world.

“You’ve lost weight,” she says.

I inhale her sweet vanilla omega pheromones. “I was going through some stuff for a bit.”

“Was or are?”

“Was.”

“You didn’t even think about your answer.”

“Didn’t need to.”

“ Della …”

“I’m okay now.”

She’s serious. “Which means you weren’t. Were you?”

She would lose her shit if I told her how bad I was. How little sleep I had, how much food I tossed instead of eating, and about the disturbing thought that scared me more than almost anything ever had.

“I forgot who I was,” I whisper. “It wasn’t the things those alphas did to me that hurt the most. It was the way they made me feel.”

She squeezes me. “You’re Della Jackson, the strongest woman I know, who wouldn’t think twice about taking on a pack of snarling hyenas with a spoon if it meant saving me. You’re brave, and beautiful, and everyone should have a sister just like you because you’re the best.”

Eyes burning, I squeeze her back. Then I laugh. “A spoon ? Against hyenas ? Are you for real?”

“It was the first thing I could think of.” She pulls back to look at me, her smile falling away.

“Talk to someone, Della. If it’s me, that’s fine.

I will always listen, but talking to a therapist doesn’t make you weak.

They will give you the tools to help you find yourself if you lose your way or forget who you are. ”

“You lost yourself, too?”

“After I ran away from Lawrence, it was hard to know who I was when he wasn’t there to control everything I did.

” She smiles at me. “Now I can do whatever I want. Eat whatever and not care about whether he’ll think I’m putting on weight.

Draw for hours and he’s not there to punish me for getting blisters on my fingers. ”

“Kylian killed that asshole too damn fast,” I mutter, hugging her. “I should have trampled him with one of his horses.”

She laughs. “You can’t trample someone with a horse, Della.”

“Yeah,” I agree with a sigh. “That wouldn’t have been fair on the horse.”

“My alphas love me,” she continues, “And their love is so healing, but it’s not enough. The therapy is a big part of why I’m doing so much better. Try it.”

I sigh again, knowing she’s right. “Vincent tried giving me a card for a therapist that day you picked me up.”

“I’m going to assume you didn’t take it.”

“I thought they were ditching me.”

“I’m sure they weren’t doing that.”

No. It sounds like they had worked out that Ms. Huffman was the killer, and they didn’t want me to be in danger.

I didn’t tell Everleigh about where I was going because I didn’t want to put her in danger.

They were doing the same thing I was trying to do, but I didn’t want to see it.

Instead, I just saw it as a betrayal. Abandonment.

“They were trying to protect me the way I’m always trying to protect you,” I admit.

She nods. “ Good . I like them already.”

I study her for a beat and figure that maybe, just maybe, I could try this therapy thing.

Talking with Levi at the motel had helped a teeny tiny bit.

“Talking won’t help as much as kicking a wall, but I promise to think about it.

And not kick more walls. Rune still hasn’t forgiven me for the dent in your entryway. ”

“Let’s go eat breakfast and soak in the pool. I want to hear all about your alphas.”

I blush. “They’re not my alphas.”

She gets up. “From what Cian and Kylian told me, only you would make a statement like that. Come on. Breakfast and spoiling.”