it’s like someone poured baby oil all over the thing. Plastic should not be this slippery. I half-climb, half-fall over the side of it, until I land face-first onto the flooded grass.
Head planted into the muddy lawn, feet still kicking in the kiddie pool, and ass up on the inflatable side. That’s how my poor alpha father-figure finds me.
Spitting out mud from my mouth, I hear shoes squelching on the flooded lawn before Hugo’s boots appear in front of my face. “Hellhound’s balls, kid. What are you doing?”
I look up and give him a wave from this terrible position. “Hey, Alpha.”
I hear him sigh, and then he hooks his hands under my armpits and hauls me up. Once I’m on my feet again, I swipe the mud away from my face and try to give him an innocent smile. He cocks a bushy brow at me before turning his head to look at the others. “Do I even want to know?”
“She’s having a bit of a personal break down while in the process of severing all three of her mate bonds,” Zoey says, waving a hand at me. I glare at her, but she just shrugs, not sorry at all about spilling my secret. She tosses me a towel, and some clothes, so I quickly dry off before tugging on the oversized t-shirt and shorts.
Hugo’s eyes come back to me. “Severing? I thought you were discussing it.”
Okay, so I sort of led him to believe we were discussing it. And by sort of, I mean that I told him we were discussing it.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” I tell him.
“Kid, what did I tell you before? You’re my pack. I always worry about my pack,” he reprimands me. “Now, how bad is it?”
I hate the fact that my eyes start burning right then. I’m not a crier. I’m not one of those chicks who cries at commercials or sappy movies. But this week has been complete hell, and my emotions are going crazy, and every second that I’m awake, I feel like I’m being ripped into pieces. Trying to let the bond sever is painful physically, but the other side effects are just as distressing. Like how my animal won’t come out because she’s depressed, and how I keep feeling this tug in my gut, like my body is trying to get me to go to them.
“She isn’t eating, Alpha. She’s barely sleeping. All she does is sit around in the water, wherever she can find it,” Zoey tells him.
“She took a four hour shower yesterday,” Aspen pipes in, her singsong voice making it sound not so bad. “I finally had to pick the lock on the bathroom door. The shower was ice cold and her teeth were chattering when I dragged her out.” Okay, so that sounds a little bad, even with her princess-y voice.
“The water makes me feel better,” I mumble, feeling more and more embarrassed by the second.
Not only do all of my packmates know that I accidentally mated with three shifters, but they also know that those mates don’t want me, which is why I’m suffering with the separation pain. It was magnified since I was still in heat too, but luckily, that’s over. Severing a mate bond is a painful process, and can take weeks for it to snap. Which means I might have to suffer with this awful sensation in my chest for another month.
Hugo’s face softens as he takes me in. “What about your new job?”
“She starts tomorrow,” Zoey answers for me.
“And those three pricks? You heard from them?” Miserable, I shake my head no, and Hugo grunts with obvious disapproval. “Those little shits. I’m gonna wring their necks.”
“Please don’t,” I say. “I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to be my mate. That would be the worst.” I rub at the spot on my neck where the guys bit me. It’s hot to the touch, like they permanently altered my skin there, even though they didn’t leave a mark. “I’ll get through this, and then the bonds will sever and it’ll be over,” I say, trying to sound more confident than I am.
Hugo shakes his head, a deep crease between his brows. “I don’t like this. I’ve never heard of a shifter breaking multiple mate bonds at the same time. It’s hard enough to do it with just one connection. This could be dangerous, Addie. It could potentially kill you.”
I swallowed hard, my eyes widening. “Really?”
I didn’t want to freaking die!