“Pick it up,” Liam said, “and tell him what happened.”
“He probably wants to speak with y-”
“Just take the call, Lucas. And tell him I’ll call him back when I’m done here.”
Meaning, when he was done hauling me over the coals.
Once Lucas had walked to the other end of the gym, busy recounting the Creeks’ trap, Liam said, “You didn’t tell me the Watts would be at your birthday dinner.”
“Why are we still talking about that, Liam? And how do you know?”
“After Lucas and Matt got jumped, you weren’t answering your phone, so I tracked you through the blood-link to tell you what happened. Led me straight to that fancy restaurant.”
“I didn’t see you,” I said.
“I didn’t go inside. I thought better of interrupting your cozy celebration.” After a beat, he added, “You’ve found another family, and there’s no place in it for me.”
And here I thought he was about to admonish me again. My throat squeezed tight.
“I hate how it ended, Ness. I hate that August came back. I hate that you and him have all this history. I hate that whatever fucking God up there decided to link the two of you! Why not us? Why the hell not us?” he whispered hoarsely.
After the heat of his anger, Liam’s anguished outburst softened my stance. “I didn’t choose him because of a magical link.”
“You chose him because I failed you.”
Like my throat, my heart tightened. “Your distrust broke me . . . broke us . . . but it didn’t drive me into someone else’s arms.”
“Then what did?”
“When you slept with Tamara-”
“It was a mistake.”
“Don’t say that,” I said gently but firmly. “She’s the mother of your baby, Liam. Besides, she’s not a random girl you picked up in a club. You guys have history, just like August and me.”
Pain crinkled Liam’s face. “If I could go back-”
“But you can’t.” A beat of silence filled the cavernous space, disrupted only by Lucas’s animated conversation. “We have to learn to live with our choices. And in the end, even if your intention was to test my affection, maybe what happened is a blessing in disguise. You’re an Alpha, Liam. An Alpha with a strong, strong personality.” I made my tone light to sweeten my assertion. “You need a woman who’s willing to bend without breaking. I’m not that woman. When someone bends me too hard, I splinter.”
He snorted. “You obviously haven’t spent much time with Tamara. She’s not submissive.”
I smiled. “Perhaps not, but from what I’ve seen, she worships you.”
He loosed a ragged sigh. “The night I found out, I lost it. I asked her if she’d done it on purpose. To trap me.”
“Liam!”
“I know. Not my finest hour, but I was scared, Ness. A baby? Do you see me with a baby? I can barely take care of a pack of grown men. And a woman.” He added that last part with a wry smile that dismantled some more of the tension between us. “Know what she said? She said that if I didn’t want the baby, then she would raise him on her own, that she wouldn’t even ask me for handouts, that she wouldn’t ask me for anything until our son reached puberty and would need to be brought into the pack. And even then, she would turn to Matt or someone else if I didn’t want to be involved.” He shook his head. “Can you imagine that she thought I’d want nothing to do with my own son?”
“I don’t think she thought you wanted nothing to do with your son. I think she was giving you a way out.” Cornering a man, who was part wild animal, was never a good idea, and Tamara knew this. “Which leads me to think she’ll make a good mother.”
“I know.””And you’ll make a good father.”
He let out a brusque exhale. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“Well, I’m sure for the both of us. You’re protective and generous, but you do have to work on your fuse. It’s a little short.”
A streak of sunlight cut across his face, illuminating his brown eyes, making them glow more amber than brown. “I can’t believe we just had a heart-to-heart.”
“That’s what friends do,” I said.
“Is that what we are?”
“I think we’re getting there.” My lips flexed into a smile that he returned. “You’re not going to phone up Cassandra and schedule the duel for tomorrow, are you?”
“I’m not.”
“Good. Now about that Sillin. They took their stock. But we still have ours, right?”
His features hardened again. “We stored it in the same place.”
“Shit.” The word popped out of my mouth.
“Yeah.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair. “Not my brightest decision.”
“Well, I still have some.” In truth, I hadn’t checked, but since I hadn’t spotted any breaking-and-entering, I assumed as much. “Thirty-two pills.”
Liam nodded. “Can you shift yet?”
I frowned but then realized he was talking about the injection. “Greg didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“I’m not the one he inoculated.”
Liam’s eyebrows tipped toward his nose.
“August volunteered. And no, he can’t shift yet.”
My news thinned Liam’s mouth. “You should’ve run this by me.”
“August didn’t give me a choice. Besides, I didn’t want to bother you. I knew you had other stuff to deal with.”
“The pack always comes first, Ness. No matter what.”
I felt a twinge of regret for Tamara, because she would always come second to the pack. Perhaps it would be enough for her, but for me, it would never have been enough. And this made me appreciate August more, because I knew with complete certainty that he’d always put me first.
As promised, August arrived with lunch. But he didn’t leave afterward. He rolled up his sleeves and stayed through the afternoon, lending the walls of our house his time and expertise and sneaking me kisses when my uncle wasn’t looking.