Page 17

Lily

We agreed on a date at their home. I was just too nervous to be out in public, surrounded by all kinds of people, so we were going to have dinner at their home. It would give me a chance to get to know the three of them a little bit and see if I wanted to go forward with the whole thing.

I’d changed outfits at least six times before leaving the house, which was very tricky considering I didn’t have that many actual sets of clothes appropriate for a date and had borrowed pieces from Rumor and done mixes and matches to come up with them.

In the end, I’d gone back to the first thing I’d put on, a simple dark-blue sundress sprinkled with tiny pink flowers.

In case the evening got cool, I had a white hoodie.

Then I’d had to make hair decisions. I’d moved past being nervous—at least for a while—and into stress over whether I looked good enough for the evening.

Without Rumor, I’d never have had the guts to even go, but she pushed me out the door, loaning me her mates as bodyguards for the evening. They were going to hang out in the car while I had my date, just to make sure I felt comfortable. If I wanted out, to go home, they were there for me.

As I left the car and started up the walk, I glanced over my shoulder, feeling guilty about Rumor’s mates giving up their evening like this, but not quite guilty enough to tell them to leave.

It had taken just about everything in me to go on this date, and only their presence outside was making me feel safe enough not to turn and run.

Before I got to the door, it opened, and the three males stepped out onto the porch.

They were even more intimidating than before, all tall, all broad shouldered, and good-looking in their own way.

I’d never drawn the attention of males like them.

What were they looking for in me? I understood fated matings, and I was drawn to them in a way I’d never dreamed possible.

But once we got to know one another a little better, would they even want me?

Or, worse, if I did mate with them, would they exert their rights to treat me as most alphas treated their omegas?

I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the car with Rumor’s mates in it and was tempted to run back to it before everything went to hell.

“Lily?” Harlan, the one who’d dropped off the sun hat for me, stepped aside. “We’re very glad you came.”

“Thank you.” I stepped past them and inside the house, so afraid my knees were knocking but determined to see it through. In three hours, maybe even two, I could go back outside and leave. Would an hour be rude?

Unsure what I expected to see, I took in the cozy scene before me.

Bachelor wolves, in my past experience, generally lived a spartan life at best, a slovenly, disgusting one at worst. Rumor’s mates being the exception.

The entry area’s row of hooks supported light jackets and hoodies, a few canvas bags for shopping, and below, a mat that would serve as a parking space for muddy boots as needed.

For now, it was immaculate. Even generally tidy people would not have such a clean mud mat, unless they were expecting company.

Like me. The living room was equally clean, the coffee table glowing, and a hint of ammonia and lemon hanging in the air to tell me how much effort they’d put into my arrival.

Not that anything indicated they lived anything but decently.

The walls were a soft cream, free of smudges, and the curtains, while plain beige, hung neatly over the windows.

An afghan hung over the back of the sofa, perfect for cuddling in front of the fire on a cold night.

My throat swelled with longing for a home of my own.

Rumor and the guys had given me my own space and shared theirs with me in great kindness, but watching them together had awakened something I thought I’d fully tamped down.

Being alone was safe, and I thought I’d been prepared to accept that before my current living situation.

And then I’d decided that living on the fringe of someone else’s happiness was more than I’d ever expected anyway.

But when I walked farther into the house and got a glimpse of the dining table in the next room with a vase of multicolored lilies in the center of it?

My throat swelled nearly closed and my eyes moistened with tears I’d promised myself never to shed again.

“Lily? Are you all right?” Benji came up next to me. “Oh no, you’ve seen the empty table. I told you we should have cooked.”

“We didn’t know what she liked,” Harlan said from behind me.

“It’s okay, we don’t have to have dinner.” Although, I thought that was what they’d invited me for. It wouldn’t be the first meal I’d missed. “Just water is fine.”

“We would never—” Roan began, but the chime of the doorbell interrupted him. “I’ll get it.”

I turned to see a line of at least half a dozen delivery people holding bags and boxes. Roan and Harlan took them and, once the door was closed, carried them into the dining room. “What is all this?”

Benji shrugged. “We told you we didn’t know what you liked, so we tried to order some of everything. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Thai… More than that, and we just hope you like something.”

“I like everything. The flower and a glass of tap water would have been enough. I didn’t have—omegas weren’t… You didn’t have to do all this.”

“Yes, we did. Come and eat.”

The table was laden with foam containers, bags, cardboard boxes, and the biggest pizza I’d ever seen. Enough food for twenty people, and I hoped they wouldn’t be hurt if I didn’t do justice to it.

“We know we overdid,” Roan said, passing me a plate. “But we don’t mind leftovers.”

I ate far more than usual because everything was so good—so much of it entirely new to me, and while we ate, they told me their backstory, how they got here and formed their own pack, touching my heart and allowing me to share mine as well.

We carried laden plates out to my bodyguards, who were enthusiastically pleased by that, and then settled on the couch to talk some more.