Page 5 of Pretend Wife (Angels of the Secret Order #4)

“Okay.” I collapsed my bow and tucked it into the holster strapped to my right thigh. “I’ll get out of your way.” The sense of peace and calm I’d had while shooting earlier had completely abandoned me. All I was left with was the cutting feeling of not belonging.

I hadn’t fit into the seventh order, and joining the secret order wasn’t really any better. Even after years with them, I still felt like I was trying to claim something that didn’t quite belong to me.

It wasn’t my brothers’ fault. They were everything family was supposed to be—protective, supportive, and honest. They’d welcomed me into their fold and for the most part treated me like they did each other.

But all the love and acceptance in the world couldn’t change our differences.

They were warriors, and I… Well, I wasn’t.

And because of that, they’d never understand me the way they did each other.

“Danielle…”

“Hm?”

“You looked good. The bow suits you.”

A small smile curved my lips. “Thanks, Micah.” It didn’t entirely erase the sting of being kicked out so the grown-ups could have a meeting, but the praise helped my heart feel a little bit lighter .

Over half an hour later, I was climbing the steps of my apartment building.

It was a three-story brick walk-up that spanned the length of the street with six connected units.

I unlocked the front door and climbed the flight of stairs to the apartment I’d been renting since moving to Earth.

It was far from extravagant, but it was mine and I’d gotten it without help from my brothers.

I was greeted by the sound of music blaring from my living room. Considering I lived alone, it was a strangely common occurrence.

“Breaking and entering again, I see,” I said when I found Miles in my kitchen, helping himself to my food and dishes like he owned the place.

“Is it breaking and entering if you gave me a key?” He tossed a grin over his shoulder at me.

“I gave you the key for emergencies .”

Miles shrugged. “This is an emergency. I ran out of vegetable broth.”

“You do realize it would have taken you less time to go to the store than to come here, right?”

“But the grocery store isn’t as much fun.”

I rolled my eyes and dropped into the wheeled chair at my kitchen table. I’d furnished the entire apartment from thrift stores and yard sales and hadn’t bothered to update since then. I liked the eclectic vibe.

“What are you making?” I asked, spinning the chair to face Miles.

“Vegan mushroom stroganoff.”

I frowned. “I didn’t think I had any mushrooms.”

“You didn’t. I brought them.”

“Wait, did you just say you’re cooking vegan food?

” Miles respected my choice to not eat animal products—I didn’t actually have a problem with meat, but I refused to eat anything that hadn’t been raised well, so it was usually easier to just avoid it—but respect and cooking for me were two very different things.

“Sure.”

“Since when do you do that?”

“I felt like it.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I’m calling BS.”

“Fine. Jessica wants to try your crazy-ass diet, so I’m learning how to cook vegan and you get to be my guinea pig.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re cooking for me so I can tell you if it’s good before you give it to your girlfriend?”

“Pretty much.”

“I can’t figure out where that leaves you on the friendship scale.”

“Let’s say it makes me an awesome friend.”

“Sure. We’ll go with that.”

After dinner, which Miles utterly refused to let me help make, the two of us curled up on my couch in front of the television and browsed through Netflix.

Miles pretended to try to convince me to watch various action movies even though we both knew we’d end up rewatching Pride and Prejudice or Bridgerton .

We’d discovered our mutual love for historical romance movies at the beginning of our friendship, and it had become our thing.

“Why don’t we have balls like that anymore?” I asked, resting my head on Miles’s shoulder as couples danced on the screen.

“We do. We just call them galas. I’d be more than happy to take you to one.”

“It’s not the same.”

“You’d be surprised. Everyone spends hours dressing up so they can dance with people they don’t even like because politics. And don’t even get me started on the matchmaking.”

I laughed. “I thought your parents don’t care who you marry.”

“Believe it or not, that does nothing to stop women from trying to seduce me.”

“Oh, the horror. Having women throw themselves at you sounds like your worst nightmare,” I said with heavy sarcasm.

“They want a ring and babies.” Miles shuddered dramatically. “And the killer part is, they don’t even want the babies because they’re babies; they want them as a way to trap me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said more seriously. “And if it makes you feel any better, I promise I’ll never want your babies.”

“That’s a relief even if it did sound vaguely insulting.”

“What about Jessica?” I asked.

“What about her?”

“Does she want your babies?”

“Not like that. Or anytime soon, but I’m hoping I can convince her someday.”

I grinned up at him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m so happy for you. Are you sure she doesn’t mind that you spend time with me alone and watch romance movies?”

“I’m sure, and if she did, that would be a sign that we weren’t meant to be. I’m not ditching my best friend for a girl who’s too insecure to trust me.”

“I just don’t want to get in your way.”

“You’ll never get in my way, Dani.” Miles pressed a kiss to the top of my head. It was a habit he’d started while Hayden and I had been dating because he knew it pissed his brother off.

Now the action was bittersweet. On the one hand, I liked that our friendship had stayed the same even without Hayden in the mix. On the other, it felt like it was missing something now that Hayden wasn’t here to growl at his brother and shove him away from me.