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Poor fucker.
He finally unseals his jaw. “Are you all right?”
Meg crosses her arms over her faded Nirvana shirt. And I know if she was standing, she’d have that sexy little hip cocked at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
He inhales the scent from her throat. “You smell nervous.”
Huh.
I don’t catch the slight edge to her scent until he mentions it, mostly because it’s so crazy-subtle. Just a tiny pinch of sour? Not exactly. More like the peaches I love so much are just a bit unripe. Firm, with a bite, instead of her usual syrupy succulence.
I don’t like it, but I’m not riled by it. It’s just a small shift; a normal emotion, nothing painful or overwhelming. My gorgeous girl is entitled to her feelings, like the rest of us.
Well, Dec doesn’t agree. He looks ready to dismember someone.
She blinks at him, some of her sass dissipating. “I’m fine. This is just a lot. I helped Ronan with a whole new social media strategy, and now I’m out here. I’ve never been around so many unbonded alphas.”
Declan growls, “You shouldn’t be here. Ever. I don’t want you here.”
His voice rings over all three of us. I bristle as Meg rears back from his ugly words. Her scent turns, burning completely. My chest swells. I stuff the urge to deck him and step over to snatch her away.
He tries to lunge at me, but a snarl unlike any sound I’ve ever made snaps out of my mouth. “Fuck off, Dec,” I roar, cradling Meg in the crook of one arm and wrapping a protective hand over her head, shielding her ears between my hand and my chest. She shivers anyway, hearing the echo of my rage under my jersey.
I reach up and unfasten my shoulder pads, letting them fall as I step back from my dickheaded packmate. He stands with his fists balled up, breathing hard behind bared teeth. “Give her back to me, Theo.”
Meg clings to my body, cowering from the bark. I feel it arrow down my spine and impale my center. For a moment, I want to listen. But my own instincts seethe, rebelling.
I square up to him, covering Meg’s head again. “I said: fuck off, Dec.”
The bark knocks him back a step. He absorbs it, our dominance too evenly matched for either of us to overpower the other without our fists. Something I refuse to attempt while my gorgeous girl is so upset.
She whimpers and tucks her face closer to my neck, shaking. Declan watches the motion and freezes. His eyes flash while he swallows. And backs off another step.
“Get her out of here,” he grunts, dropping his eyes to his feet. “Just—get her away from me. Keep her away from me. Please.”
He says “please” instead of “now.” That’s the only reason I listen. Turning on my cleats, I hold Meg tighter and head for the closest exit—the tunnel behind us.
My purr springs to life while I mutter to her. “Ignore him, precious. He’s all bent out of shape about a bunch of shit that has nothing to do with you.”
“I wish I could ignore him,” she replies, the words watery. “I don’t want to want him, I just—do.”
It must hurt her so much every time he rejects her. I hug her closer. “I know, precious. I’m sorry he’s such an asshole. I’m going to talk to Archer and Ronan, and we’ll…”
Well, I don’t actually know. But we’ll get his ass in line. Somehow. Come to think of it, there’s a bunch of shit I should probably tell the others about Declan’s life before college football.
I don’t even think I’m supposed to know all of the details, though. If I went running my mouth about the shit his mother put him through and the way his father was, he might never forgive me.
The last thing this pack needs is another rift.
Meg fists my jersey and tugs until I meet her wet blue eyes. Maybe she can read my mind and the conflict there, because she seems to settle my internal debate for me.
“Don’t,” she begs softly. “We can’t force him to change. I want him to come to me on his own, when he’s ready. Not because he thinks he has to. Or because he thinks I’ll take his pack if he doesn’t.”
Take his pack?
What the fuck?
There’s no way Declan thinks that’s even a possibility. He’s pack. And, even before all this shit, he was my brother. As good as, at least.
