“Actually, she’s probably gonna scream at alfa over here,” Rico said.
“What did I do?” I said with a groan.
“Jefe, what didn’t you do.”
“Son of a bitch,” I muttered, setting the fan down. Then, in the same low voice, “Robbie, just let her back here.”
Robbie cut off midretort at the front of the office. I heard the door that led from the front reception to the shop slam open.
“Ox!” Jessie bellowed.
“This is going to be loud,” Chris said.
“Should we leave?” Tanner asked.
“Nah,” Rico said. “I want to watch what happens.”
“As your Alpha, I command you to save me,” I told them.
They just stared at me. Useless fucking pack.
Jessie was on a warpath, hair pulled back in a severe ponytail, face flushed, eyes bright. Robbie trailed warily after her, tense like he didn’t know if he should attack her if she got too close. I shook my head once at him, and he scowled over her shoulder at me before he went to stand with the others.
Jessie stopped right in front of me, mouth in a thin line. She still had that little freckle that I used to kiss. I don’t know why I focused on that.
She said, “You’re a fucking sack of shit.”
I sighed.
She said, “You knew about this? This whole time?”
“Jessie,” I said evenly. “Hi, welcome to Gordo’s.”
She stared at me. She was pissed. I didn’t blame her. Not really.
I was an Alpha. But she could be scary, so I said, “Chris has known about this for a while now too.”
“Hey!” Chris yelped. “Why are you throwing me under the bus?”
Jessie narrowed her eyes. “Oh, don’t you worry,” she said. “He’s going to get his. I can promise you that.”
“You suck, Ox,” Chris muttered. “Worst Alpha ever.”
Robbie growled at him.
“But you,” she said, poking me hard in the chest. “This is all your fault.”
“How is this my fault?” I asked, somewhat offended.
“Werewolves!” she shouted at me.
“Yes,” I said. “It’s also been six months since you found out about them. Why are you doing this now?”
She blinked at me. “I needed time to process.”
“Okay,” I said. “And now you’ve processed.”
“Werewolves,” she repeated.
“Werewolves,” I agreed.
“You knew. This whole time.”
“Not the whole time.”
“Yeah,” Rico said. “It was only almost the whole time.”
Jessie poked me in the chest again as I glared at Rico. He just winked at me.
“Are you one of them?” she demanded.
“No,” I said slowly.
“So you’re human.”
“No,” I said, even slower.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that I’m not quite—”
“Are you going to bite me?” she asked.
“You didn’t mind it when we used to—”
“Not the time, Ox!”
“Right,” I said hastily. “I’m still not very good at jokes. Or figuring out when is the best time to tell them.”
“You can’t bite me!”
“I’m not going to! I’m not a were—”
“You’re something.”
I was getting a headache. “Not something that can change you.”
“You changed my brother. He told me. He told me he can feel you. That he’s part of you and your… pack.” She spat that last word like it was curse.
And yeah, she had me there.
Shit.
She poked me a third time. “You will tell me everything.”
“Right now?” I asked, trying not to whine. I was the goddamn Alpha. Why was she telling me what to do?
“Right. Now.”
Goddammit.
So I did.
It took a few hours. And I may have stumbled on a few parts (and glossed over others, because even though it had been two years, the deaths of Thomas and my mother were still sharp enough to cut), but I tried to leave as little out as possible. I felt I owed it to her, for all the shit I’d put her through since I’d known her. To give her credit, she rarely interrupted, and only when she didn’t understand something and needed it explained further. The longer I talked (more than I’d ever talked before), the quieter she got.
At the end, she stared at me for a long while. My throat was sore, so I didn’t say anything back, waiting for her to decide whatever she was going to do.
Finally, she said, “And all of that truly happened.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t say much about him.”
I played dumb. “Who?”
She knew, but she said “Joe” anyway.
I tried to swallow down the bitterness that rose like bile. “There isn’t much to say.”
She rolled her eyes. “Aside from the fact that he’s your mate and imprinted on you like you’re some creepy-ass Twilight fan fiction?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what most of that means.”
“I do,” Rico said. “And I’ll admit that’s not something I’m very proud of right now.”
“You have a mystical moon destiny with Joe,” Jessie said, sounding exasperated.
I squinted at her. “A what?”
“Your thing. With Joe.”
“It’s not—”
She sighed. “God, I am so glad I got out of that when I did.”
“It wasn’t destiny,” I said, ignoring the little jab. “It was a choice. He chose me.”
“And you chose him back. After you found out what it meant.”
I had, but a lot of good that was doing me. So I said nothing.
“Explains a lot,” she said.
“Does it?”
She looked at me as if I was an idiot.
“What?”
She said, “Ox, Joe hated me.”
“He didn’t hate you.” Disliked strongly, maybe. But hate? I didn’t think Joe was capable of hate. Not even Richard Collins. Not back then. Now, though. I didn’t know about now. I didn’t know him anymore to say what he was now.
“You’re stupid,” she said seriously. “This whole thing is stupid.”
“Kind of,” I agreed.
“Agreeing with me isn’t going to get you off the hook,” she warned me.
“I know.” Well, I hadn’t known, but I did now. So maybe I wouldn’t have to agree with her as much.
“That explains why you’ve been moping for the last couple of years.”
“I haven’t been moping—”
“Kind of moping,” Rico said. “Maybe not all of the time.”
“But most of the time,” Tanner said.
“He stares off into the distance sometimes,” Chris added helpfully. “With his quiet strength. And his angst.”
“I hate all of you,” I said very seriously.
“I didn’t say anything,” Robbie said.
“He was never at college,” Jessie said. “So that’s another lie you told me. Told everyone.”