Arlo shakes his head. “There are optics to consider. The show can’t just fire me. And I’m going to bat for you. You’re not going back to prison.” He steps toward me with his hand outstretched. “I promise. I’ll make sure—”
I pull away from him. “Even if you could help, you fucking shouldn’t.”
“And why is that?” Arlo asks, those deep, honest, green eyes gazing at me with steady devotion that makes my whole body ache.
I take a deep breath, relieved when a trickle of cold calm runs down my spine. There it is—my emotions are turning off. My feral nature is taking over, reminding me that the only one I have to watch out for is me. Everyone else just needs to stay away. It’s a survival tactic I picked up in prison; made it a lot easier to hurt Haven. At least that’s what I’m telling myself, even though it feels like my heart has shattered into a thousand pieces in my chest. The way she looked at me… her whispered, hopeful ask that I take back the horrible things I said.
Christ, I’ll never get over it.
“Reese?” Arlo asks.
“You’re better off if I go back,” I tell him. “You and Haven both.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit. I’m feral, Arlo. The only reason I haven’t fucked my way across this city is because I was stuck here with you and Haven, and I fucked both of you, in case you forgot.”
Arlo grins. “I could never forget. Still sore from it.”
I swallow hard, remembering how fucking good it felt to bury myself inside of him. How good it felt to give in. How good it felt to be aggressive, dominating, in control. The sounds he made. The way he smelled. What would it be like if I had them both together? Those two scents, worked into a lather beneath me as I touched and tasted and fucked…
“Back off, Arlo,” I warn him. I can scent him again. His wild rainstorm scent is overwhelming.
Arlo shakes his head, still moving closer. “Not backing off. Not leaving you alone. Not after everything that’s happened between us.”
My eyes narrow. “What is this, penance for everything you put me through when we were kids? You’re forgiven, ok? I’m over it. And you’re in trouble at your fucking job because of me. I think that makes us even.”
Arlo stares at me for a moment, and then starts to laugh. He laughs until tears roll down his face. When he glances back at me and sees that I’m frowning, he gets control of himself. “Reese, you think slightly disrupting my job makes us even?”
“Well—”
“Baby, I took this job for you. Because it paid well, and there was a chance I could sponsor you, get you out.” He reaches up and runs a hand down my cheek. “That’s all it was ever about. I can find work somewhere else.”
“But…”
“Hush now,” he says in a gentle voice, his fingers running across my lips.
I let my eyes slide shut for a moment. Let myself feel him, close beside me. It feels right. Comfortable. Honest. But not complete. Not without Haven.
The ridiculousness of the situation is almost overwhelming. I’m a feral alpha. There’s no fucking chance in hell anyone is going to let me keep not one but two omegas for myself. Packs of stand-up alphas with jobs and money and fucking manners are competing to win the chance to be around one of these creatures, and I’m dreaming of two of them?
Someone bangs on the door, and it bursts open. Three security guards with network logos on their vests stride into the room, all of them alphas, all of them cut like they’re Marines.
“Let’s go,” one of them says. “You packed yet?”
“Not yet,” Arlo says casually. He glances over at me. “Grab your stuff, ok? We’ll go back to my place and make a plan.”
I nod because I don’t know what else to do, even as shame overtakes me. Alphas are supposed to be the ones making fucking plans. I can’t even do that right.
Chapter Twenty
~Haven~
As Kim and Stephanie finish up, Derek strolls back into the room, holding a garment bag. “Change into this,” he says, throwing it on the couch. Then he turns and walks out of the room again without a backward glance.
“You’ll be ok,” Kim says softly as she packs up her brushes. “When you’ve been through stuff in real life, this reality show shit can’t really hurt you.”
“Thanks,” I say.