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So there.

Unfortunately, sometime between consciousness and sleep, her thoughts slipped back to Theo’s arms around her, and it was the memory of his whispered words that finally lulled her to sleep.

Chapter Ten

Theo woke up with his arm wrapped around Phoebe’s waist, her small form tucked perfectly against his, the little spoon to his big one. He should move. He should untangle his limbs from hers, but instead he nuzzled into the space where her neck met her shoulder and breathed her in.

Flowers. Honeysuckle to be exact. He’d figured it out years ago on a spring day when he’d walked outside and was hit with the scent of her. His favorite.

The soft, short hair on the back of her neck tickled his face and he smiled against her skin. He couldn’t fucking help it. He couldn’t help the feeling that this was exactly where he was meant to be every day of his life. He couldn’t help the fact that all he wanted to do today was count the freckles on her shoulders and then follow them beneath the little tank top she wore to bed.

He hadn’t intended for it to happen, but if he was being honest with himself, he’d known it would. It was inevitable that his body would find hers in the night. Hell, it probably would have happened even if he’d slept on the floor.

Phoebe sighed a little in her sleep and wriggled in closer to him. Jesus Christ. If she did that again, he would come harder than he had in a decade. But she didn’t do it again.

He knew the exact moment she woke up, when she realized just where she was and who was holding her. Her whole body went from soft and sleepy to tense in an instant.

“Theo,” she whispered. And there was a warning in her voice, but something else, too. A sadness he knew was his fault.

He should let go. He should get up and slide on that fake smile Phoebe hated and make some crude joke. But he couldn’t do it. Not yet.

“Stay, Fee. Please.” He hardly recognized his own voice, strained and thick and broken. “Just another minute.”

She blew out a long sigh, and he thought she would get up. But she stayed. She stayed in his arms even though he knew it hurt her to do it.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

He’d run for miles last night trying to rid himself of the memories of the last time he and Phoebe had shared a bed. Or more specifically, the look of dashed hopes he had seen on her face the next morning.

The morning after he’d left his pack for good. The morning that Phoebe had looked at him with such blatant love in her eyes that Theo had immediately panicked. And even after she’d patiently tended to his wounds and his broken heart, he couldn’t say it. He couldn’t tell her everything he’d dreamed about that fitful night. That he loved her.

But he had nothing to offer.

And he didn’t know how to live anymore.

And he was broken.

A loser. The runt. The Alpha’s useless son.

He might have made promises to Fee at one point. He might have told her that it was his father that stood in their way. But it was himself.

He had looked into her big hopeful eyes that morning and knew he couldn’t do it. And Phoebe knew it, too. She hadn’t even asked, hadn’t yelled, or begged, or argued with him. She hadn’t demanded to know why he was bailing on all their plans. She just quietly tended to his wounds. She pieced him back together even as he broke her apart.

And he was doing it again.

He slid his arm off her and rolled onto his back. He may have gotten his shit together since he’d left his pack. He may have built a small new life, but he’d broken his best friend’s heart, and she didn’t trust him anymore. He knew that. And he knew that was his fault.

He stared at the cracked ceiling, not wanting to see Phoebe rise and stumble into the bathroom. Sometimes he thought he could earn her back. Sometimes it seemed possible. But then other times he didn’t know how he ever would. It didn’t matter anyway; he and Fee had never made sense. Dreams of being more than friends had only ever been that. Dreams.

He should let her go. He knew that.

He’d tried to push her away, and sometimes she’d disappear for weeks at time, needing her space. But in the end, they always came back together. Unable to stay away. Like maybe they really were fated to be…

“I’m going to need you to keep your erections away from me for the rest of the trip,” she said, emerging from the bathroom, toothbrush in the corner of her mouth.

A surprised laugh escaped Theo’s lips. He rubbed a hand down his face. “I make no promises, Fee. You know you’re sexy as hell.”

She scoffed and padded back into the bathroom. He heard her spit and rinse before she spoke again. “I’m not saying you can’t have erections. Just don’t hump me like a dog in heat,” she said with a smirk, leaning against the bathroom door. The teasing spark was back in her eyes, and Theo breathed a sigh of relief that they were back on familiar ground. Shameless flirting he could do. It was honesty he struggled with.