Page 108 of In Doubt

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry, Aiden.”

Another hand lands on my back, rubbing along my tensed shoulders, Dylan’s scent in my nose.

“Shit, Aiden, I’m sorry too.” he leans his forehead against the back of my skull.

“In that moment, everything went to shit,” Jake whispers. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I know you’d never hurt her.”

He drags me in for a hug, Dylan hugging me from behind and then Levi wraps his long arms around us all, squeezing.

“We’re a bunch of tossers sometimes, mate. Can you forgive us?”

In their arms I feel sated, loved, but their words of apology don’t removed all my concerns. One lingers in my chest.

“If she does blame me? If you have to make a choice, Jake …” I hear my voice break, feel my heart splinter. So many times when it came to the choice, I wasn’t picked. By my parents, by the numerous foster families, by other alphas. I thought it would be different with my pack. Was I wrong?

“What choice?” Jake asks, frowning.

“Between me and her.” Deep down I’ve been waiting for this, for the point when they reject me too. It’s why I’ve been so reluctant to find an omega and unbalance our pack.

“Mate, that isn’t going to happen.” Jake rests his palm over my heart. “I’m not leaving the pack. I’m going to make Giorgie a part of it.” He squeezes me again and whispers in my ear so the others don’t hear, “Don’t pretend you don’t have feelings for her too.”

For once, I’m lost for words.

Because I can’t stop thinking of her curled up against the wall, looking more broken than anyone I’ve ever seen, and all I want is to burn down the whole world to destroy the man who did that.

I grip my best friend back, hoping he’s right, hoping we can win Giorgie over. We stand hugging each other as the buzzard whistles and the dust sweeps against our shins.

When we break apart, Levi shields his eyes, squinting at us.

“Are we going to make this woman ours then?”

“Yes,” I say. “We’re going to try.”

27

Giorgie

“What flavour ice cream do you want, Giorgie?” Sia asks, surveying the room service menu as she sits propped up against the cushions in the oversized bed we’re sharing.

The room is just as oversized and plush, the decor a mixture of garish red velvet and gold decor. There’s a giant TV pinned to the wall and the air conditioning unit pumps out cool air.

Sia twists her long dark braid around her fist absentmindedly while she waits for my answer.

“They’ve got cookie dough, salted caramel, chocolate brownie, peanut butter, and strawberry.”

“Seriously, Sia, if I eat any more ice cream, I’m going to turn into some.” She’s been feeding me the stuff non-stop since we checked into this five-star hotel yesterday.

“Mishti is the perfect medicine for a broken heart, but as they don’t serve that we’re going to have to make do with ice cream,” Sia tells me. She looks up from the menu. “Of course, finding the next dude is an even better cure. You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.”

“I’m not heartbroken,” I squeal, my glasses sliding down my nose..

“Hmmm,” Sia says, peering over the menu at me. “But you’re moping. You’ve been letting me feed you ice cream. You chose Titanic for us to watch last night–”

“It’s my favourite film!”

“And,” she gives me her best school teacher disapproving look, “You pretended to be asleep when I left for the dig site this morning.”

“I just don’t feel like going out right now.”