“You do not need to explain anything. Of everyone, you see me the most. It’s just a lot and overwhelming. I’ll get over it and go back to work, I just need a minute.” I wave him off and turn my back to them. “We have to handle this pentagram soon and it sounds like a process that will take time.”
“Skylar, stop. Just stop, please.” Cam says my name like it might scare me off. “Elena won’t stop training you because of your dad.”
“You can’t know that.” I whisper.
“Based on the look on her face, I think she was ready to blast him into next week. Kota slides closer.
“You aren’t being selfish, Bitty. But this is probably the first time you are telling any of us how you really feel.”
“We don’t have time for my feelings, they seem to be running in squirrel mode anyway and don’t make sense half the time. We need to handle this or we’re all gonna die and it won’t matter anyway.” “Skylar, stop deflecting. We need to talk about that night and get it out once and for all. You are holding that over us, but you have never heard our side.”
“Fine, what is your side of the story?” I stop pacing and stand there staring at the three of them. And it hits me, I am so f*cked right now. The three of them standing side by side, Oliver in the center only an inch or so shorter than the twins. The three of them are built so similar, tall and thick, muscles rippling under every piece of exposed skin. Cameron with his full lower lip and piercing green eyes that challenge me without words. Oliver and his kissable full lips and chocolate brown eyes that look into my soul. Dakota’s mouth matches his brother’s but it’s always turned up on one side like he’s hiding a secret, ocean blue eyes that are playful. They all have inky black hair in varying levels of disarray. With the low fire in front of them highlighting all their dips and curves, it’s a picture right out of any red-blooded girl’s fantasies. I love all three of them. It’s not a lust thing, I don’t think. I don’t feel any of the body stuff Sierra mentioned when we would talk, but I know it anyway. I am in love with all three of them.
What the hell do I do with that information?
“Bitty? You short circuited there. You okay?” I blink a few times and look right at Oliver for what seems like the first time, and just nod. I have no words right now and I think he knows what is on my mind or has a suspicion based on the cocky way his mouth turns up, like he’s fighting that full blinding smile.
I blink again and finally find my voice. “What is your side of the story?”
“Why don’t you put up your little bubble, we never know who’s listening anymore.” Oliver points at the surrounding area. I just nod and like so many times with him before I say the simple incantation. Things like this feel natural and easy.
The twins look between the two of us. Dakota rolls his eyes and Cam takes a deep breath.
“You know that we have talked to Nathaniel and Wyatt. I wish we could have talked to you too, but that wasn’t possible until recently. We also talked to mom and dad about that night.” Cam starts. We are all still standing, them on one side of the fire and I’m on the other. I can’t be near them right now.
“What’s on the videos that Nathaniel has is not what we remember, but if there was magic at play… What am I saying, since there was magic at play, our reactions wouldn’t make any sense to you.” Kota finishes.
“Let’s just start at the beginning and we can figure out where things got messed up.” Oliver suggests.
“I’m pretty sure I have the answer to that already.” They all look at me. “Nathaniel, Wyatt, and Lil have been going over the video from that night, but we have also been looking into the situation on the second floor with the bundle and we found a similarity, and we have a theory. Nathaniel is working on that right now. Start at the part where you gave me the camera you found.”
They all look at me. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You were a panicky mess needing protection and reassurance ten minutes ago and now you have totally switched to boss mode. How do you bounce like that?” Kota asks.
“I try not to be a mess in the first place. Some things I don’t have control over. That’s usually when Oliver has to jump in to get me out of my head. Being all business is easier, it’s tangible, I can deal with it and work with it. Emotions are not simple or easy or make any sense to me whatsoever. I try to avoid them as much as possible.” I shrug.
“F*cking superhero.” Cam mumbles and Oliver huffs a laugh.
“You guys came for me today too.” Why am I trying to placate them? I internally give myself an eye roll. “Anyway, we found this shimmer in the corner of the camera view when we were going over feeds on the second floor and Nathaniel found the same shimmer in the feeds from the Alpha’s office from that night. We can’t record magic, yet, but we think that might be him catching magic that is in place or maybe showing signs of magic in the space. He’s checked out other camera views from other days and found similar shimmers when he knew magic was being used. So something was going on that night.” “How do you know it happened when we showed you the camera?”
It was actually right after that when I got angry and submitted you all.”
“Wait, you guys didn’t tell me she did that?” Oliver’s accusatory tone at least lets me know he’s been playing go between for us.
“Would you tell anybody that your hundred and twenty pound, five foot nothing Beta slash Alpha warrior submitted the entire Alpha family? Because no one outside this group gets to hear that.” Kotas snarks at him.
Before anything else can distract us I go on. “Anyway, when I let out my aura, the Luna stepped behind the desk. It was the first time all four of you were separated from me by the desk. The theory is that something was activated then. So I basically did this to myself after losing my temper. I was having Nathaniel show you the different feeds, but what were you seeing?”
“We are going to jump back to the ‘you were giving Nathaniel orders from the Alpha’s sealed office’ thing first.”
I rolled my eyes for real this time. “Have you not figured out yet that my abilities supersede anything you have set up in this pack for protection? I can always contact my team, so yes that night I did to prove ou innocence. Now, what did you see?”
“We saw you placing cameras, but the image was blurry, you also confessed to spying because you thought we were weak and none of us deserved to run this pack.” Cameron seems to be trying to hold his anger in.
