sloppy seconds."
"Still went there a few times," Pax reminded me.
I just groaned. "Yeah, when I was like twenty! You three kept going there!"
"You didn't care back then," Trent reminded me. "Said that so long as we weren't falling in love, it didn't matter. Trust me, none of us were feeling more than horny, and she was encouraging us."
"Why?" Lane asked. "What brought this up, Ian?"
"Because that gold-digging little bitch just made a point of talking to me," I told them. "She told me that if I need a little piece on the side, that she knows how to keep her mouth shut, and it sounds like she's going to start making problems."
Seth just sighed. "We need to tell Elena," he grumbled.
"All you," Pax said. "Man, I do not want to see her face when she realizes that we had a casual fuck relationship with someone in the pack."
"I'll tell her," Seth assured him. "I'll also make it clear that it was before any of us met her, but that our, uh..."
"Ex?" I suggested.
Pax grimaced and shook his head. "Nope, pretty sure we don't want to use that word. Makes it sound like it was something it wasn't."
"Hookup?" Seth offered.
This time, it was Trent shaking his head. "No, that sounds like we're ruled by our dicks."
"We were!" Pax told him. "Seriously, she took both of our virginities. I mean, that's some history, and um, I kinda mentioned it to Elena. I mean, not the who part, but that we, um... yeah."
"Yeah," Trent said, clearly remembering the incident. "So how are we going to unfuck this?"
Lane just huffed, the sound filled with disappointment. "I'll talk to her. I'll tell her you were stupid, Karen was easy, and now she's jealous. I'll make sure Elena knows that it's over, and it was over before we met her."
"Well..." Seth said, dragging out the word. "I kinda, um..."
All of us turned to look at him.
"What?" he asked. "That weekend was the full moon. Elena moved in on Saturday, we ran that night, and I may have stopped at Karen's place before coming home. I mean, I called her the next day to make it clear that it was over, just like Ian said. But it wasn't quite before Elena moved in."
"It was the day before the cookout," Lane told him. "I will explain. You will too, if she asks." Then his eyes raked all of us. "And no lying to her. No hiding things from her because it's convenient. She knows we've been with women before her. She's not stupid, and she deserves to be told the truth. But if any of you do so much as smile at another bitch wrong, it won't be Ian you have to run from."
"Heard loud and clear," Pax assured him. "Lane, we're not interested. None of us. I'd much rather cuddle with Elena than stick my dick in Karen, ok? We were just fucking her because she was willing, and we didn't have any emotional attachment. Just a friend, man. Just a fuck buddy, and Elena's so much more."
"I can't leave her," Lane reminded us. "That's not an option for me, so don't make her leave me."
"Promise," I told him. Then I looked at the guys. "Sorry I doubted you."
"It's what she does, man," Trent said. "Karen's a high-maintenance drama queen. She can't brag about fucking the betas anymore, so she's going to stir up shit."
"Which is just what we need," I mumbled. "Fuck!"
CHAPTER 2
I hated to even think it, but I was so glad that Gabby had gone back to school. Two weeks of having my teen daughter home all day while I had to be at work had started to fray my nerves a bit. After the stunt she'd pulled that had ended with her turned into a werewolf? Yeah, my trust level was low with my daughter, but I'd finally agreed to let Roman pick her up for school again.
Nearly two months of not being allowed anywhere without an adult was long enough, right? They'd made a huge mistake, but there was no taking it back now. Besides, the kid had been trying his heart out to prove how sorry he was, and in truth, the whole thing was Gabby's idea - even if he should've known better. I couldn't exactly blame one and not the other.
Thankfully, the guys had helped keep an eye on my daughter - and having her pack alpha make her limits clear worked better than I'd expected. Ian laid down