Page 134 of Puck My Life

Deacon lifts his eyes to study Indy.

My heart thumps hard. They haven’t had a girlfriend since the pregnancy scare.

Say no, Deacon. Say no.

“Why not?”

He turns back to watching the game, putting his shoes on the coffee table I just cleaned.

I wonder if he realises that he stomps as easily on our furniture as he does my heart.

PRESENT

I watch the live over and over. My heart, which was crushed and broken, is fluttering back into a heart-shaped piece with what they are doing and saying.

Indy blackmailed them; I shouldhave known.

The live ends, and I sit back with a cup of coffee and an uneaten piece of cake. I hear the front door and look up to find Jansen huffing his way inside. He blows on his fingers and whines.

“I’m not built for this cold.”

I get up and make him a hot chocolate and grab him a piece of his favourite carrot cake.

We sit down at one of the cute little tables he helped me shop for. There are armchairs and tables, comfortable places to sit, encouraging people to linger here. To savour the taste.

The tables are square, and there is artwork of cakes on the walls, with their ingredients and recipes on the wallpaper behind them.

It’s a beautiful shop, and we’re slowly making a really good name for ourselves.

“It’s been a month,” Jansen says easily. He snatches the cake and picks it up, biting into it with a groan. “So good.”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

A month since I’ve seen them, since I’ve talked to them, since I’ve–stop, Vae. I miss them more than I did, and each day gets harder, but seeing that live has made it worse.

Everything in me wants to bounce up and run to them. To hold them close and tell them I forgive them.

Except…I don’t trust them.

“You know, I thought you would have gotten better, improved, but I got to say, Vae, finding out they were your scent matches changes things.”

“It changes nothing,” I grumble.

“It changes everything; you’re never going to be happy with anyone else. Now I watched those lives, and I can tell you that those alphas hated that omega with a passion. I did not want to be her.”

I make a sound of agreement.

“Your boys are savage.”

“They aren’t mine,” I protest.

“They are clearly yours, Vae. She blackmailed them; are you going to hold it against them? They were protecting you.”

I stand up, shoving away from the table. “Now they were, what about all the other times?”

Jansen stares at me. “I can’t bear to see you so sad.”

“I’m not sad.”