“Drugs,” he says plainly, neither proud nor apologetic. “Is that a problem?”
I shake my head. “No. But I thought you were in tourism.”
“We are. Now. But it’s not how we got our start.”
“Everyone has skeletons in their past,” I say.
Archer falls quiet. He stays that way for so long, I question whether he’s drifted off. When I raise my eyes, I find him wide awake and studying me intently.
“What kind of skeletons are you hiding?” he asks pointedly.
My breath hitches. This is my chance. Should I tell him? I feel like I’ve done nothing these past several days but debate my options, puzzle over what all I will reveal, which words I’ll use, when I’ll make my confession—whether fully or in part. I’ve thought long and hard, and yet I’ve reached no conclusion, no decision as to what I’ll do.
“No skeletons,” I say with a small laugh. I hope Archer doesn’t notice that it’s forced.
“Are you sure?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “Not even one little secret?”
I shake my head, unable to lie to him again. At least not verbally.
“Because it seemed to me that maybe what we did down there, right up against that door… Maybe you’ve done that before.”
I hold my breath, willing myself to pass out rather than have to deal with this confrontation right now. He knows. Archer knows, but how? How did I give myself away?
He knows, and yet he doesn’t look angry. He seems more curious than anything else. This is it. I have to tell him everything that happened. Maybe he’ll understand. Maybe it will somehow, inexplicably be okay.
I let out my breath and lick my lips. “Archer, I—”
The door to the cabin slams open downstairs. Fast feet stomp up the open staircase, and then the others are here too.
“Oh, I don’t fucking think so!” Noah shouts, tossing his hydroflask to the ground and then hurling himself at Archer while I scramble off the bed.
Ben takes off his flannel shirt and wraps it around me so that I don’t need to stand there naked while the other two alphas fight.
Miles and I exchange an awkward glance. I guess this sort of thing happens sometimes with all that big alpha energy flowing among them. Still, I hate watching the guys fight—especially over me.
Miles clears his throat. “I brought your purse,” he says, handing it over to me. My birth control treatments—well, at least one of the two. Thank Miles and thank God! The pills are still tucked safely between my mattress and box spring, but now I have the gel. If I’m going to go through with my original plan, I need to use it right away.
But that also means deciding…
Will I try to salvage my original plan, given that Archer clearly suspects something’s up? Or should I just come clean?
I hate not knowing what will happen next. Especially since I’m the one who needs to choose.
eleven
VIOLET
Ben holds me to his chest, comforting me with his homey blend of cinnamon and tangerine, as Noah and Archer throw punches at each other across the room. Miles now hovers somewhere between us and them trying to put an end to this in-pack fighting.
“She’s all of ours. Not just yours,” Noah rages before shoving Archer hard against the glass wall. My muscles clench in fear, but thankfully the window holds firm against the impact.
Archer scrabbles away from the glass and flips his hair back so it’s out of his eyes. This is the second time I’ve watched him fight with one of the other alphas while naked after sex, and that is not lost on me.
“Nobody else was coming clean about Bokerah, so I manned up, asshole,” Archer spits at Noah and winds up for another punch.
The larger alpha catches his fist and pushes him away. “You’re using that as an excuse to justify what you did. You think we wouldn’t notice she was gone, or that this place reeks of sex?”
I hate watching the guys treat each other so cruelly, but at the same time, a part of me is relieved for the interruption. It hasn’t bought me a lot of time. Maybe just a few minutes more to figure out how I’ll share the news of my premarital infidelity and all that followed in its wake, but at this point, I’ll take anything I can get.