The Loneliest Alpha (The MacKellen Alphas) (29 page)

“If
you don’t see it, then you’re an idiot.”

“He
loves me,” she repeated. She was astounded, confused, elated. Could he really
love her? She thought back through their time together. To how he bought her
pretty sheets and other niceties for her room without her asking him for it, to
how he had her work shipped up here as soon as she asked for it, to how he
watched her with those warm eyes of his, and how he touched her and talked to
her as if they were equals. Almost as if he’d do anything for her. Even chase
after her in the middle of the night after she’d been in a terrible wreck and
save her.

“God
damn. You fuckin’ love him too.”

Head
shaking in denial, she stood on frozen legs as he crossed to her, getting low
in her face. His eyes raked over her, assessing.

He
snorted. “Hell’s bells, you do. I didn’t see that comin’. Only problem is look
how scared you are right now. Shit, this might even be worse. You’re gonna love
him and he’s either gonna see it or hear it from you and then you’ll take off, his
bleeding heart leaving a wet trail behind you.”

“Stop
it.”
I don’t love him. I can’t.
Then why does it hurt so bad to think of
leaving him?

Face
screwed up in disgust, he backed away from her like she was some vile thing.
And, for some reason, she actually felt like one right then. Because she hadn’t
thought about it until he brought it up, but the truth was, she didn’t know if
she’d stay or go.

The
last man she’d thought she loved had broken her heart into a million little
pieces. If she cared about Gavin as much as she had Robert, or god forbid, more
so, then what would she do when he hurt her? There’d be too many pieces to try
to pick up. It would be impossible to fix.

“Think
about what I said. If you’re smart, then you’ll listen to your heart and do the
right thing, sis.”

Alicia
went inside the house and locked the door behind her. Only then did she let a few
tears come.

* * * * *

When
a knock sounded at the front door later that afternoon, Alicia didn’t want to
answer it. In fact, she cringed just thinking about who could be there. Maybe
it was another visit from Marcus. Honestly, with how gloomy she’d been feeling
since her talk with Jo, she’d rather see Marcus. Anyone but Jo, please. She
still wasn’t ready to analyze her feelings, decipher what those feelings meant,
or make any big decisions about Gavin MacKellen.

Luckily
she’d been able to lose herself in work for several hours to keep her nerves
calm. Her piece was finally finished. The two-piece feathered construction fit
gloriously on her. All the seams were secured, the straps sewn in on the bra
and each feather had been laid perfectly.

And
yet when she stood there staring at the finished work that feeling of elation
did not explode inside her as it usually did when she finished a piece. All she
saw was a pair of panties and a bra. Nothing special. In fact, it might not
even be that good.

What
if ladies put it on and thought they looked like a bird? What if no one would
want to buy it?

These
were the thoughts filling her mind when the knock sounded upstairs.

All
she wanted to do when she heard that banging sound was hide down here in the
basement and ignore the door. Such a coward she was. But then the strangest
thing happened. A thought spurned up in her mind. What would Gavin’s mate do?
If she were the queen of this pack standing next to her alpha, she wouldn’t do
it slinking away in the basement. She would keep her head tall and proud.

Doing
just that, she went upstairs and answered the door. When she saw who stood on
the other side, a big sigh escaped her. “Thank goodness it’s you two. Please
tell me we’re going out to get drunk again. Minus the car accident.” She
fingered the butterfly bandages on her face at the thought.

Hanna
and Kaity gave that telltale MacKellen smirk as they strolled into the house. “Hadn’t
planned on doing any drinking, but we did come to gab. I am so sorry about that
accident. I tried to come out as soon as possible, but Gavin said not to bother
you,” Kaity said, pulling her into a bear hug.

“That’s
odd. Why wouldn’t he want you to come over?”

A
blush colored her pretty face. “I think it might’ve had something to do with
the fact that he had you in his bed and got to take care of you himself.” She
shrugged.

Now
Kaity wasn’t the only one blushing.

“Well,
anyway,” drawled Hanna. “We decided to come over and see how you were doing.
Also, we brought get-well gifts.” She lifted up a white bag and jiggled it.

That’s
when Alicia noticed just how happy Hanna looked. The last time she’d seen her,
Hanna had looked like she wanted to crawl into a deep grave and be buried. Of
course by the end of the night after their boozing, she’d let loose like a
regular wild child. This was a significant improvement.

Alicia
grabbed the bag and couldn’t hide her goofy smile. She would’ve never thought
that being sent here would make her two friends. If she decided to leave in the
end, it’d be a huge loss not to see Hanna and Kaity anymore.

“Hey,
are you all right?” Kaity asked.

Sniffling
a little, she nodded and led them to the kitchen and poured them some iced tea.
“I can’t believe you guys bought me a present. This wasn’t necessary at all.”
She winked at them. “It doesn’t hurt either.”

As
the chatter started up, they all got reacquainted with the happenings of late
since they’d last seen each other. Kaity didn’t have much of anything to share
though her strange blush hinted at something going on in her life. When Hanna
and Alicia pushed her to dish, all she’d admit was, “It’s about a guy.”

Alicia
got to go next. After going into the story about the car accident, and
half-crying through it remember the loud noises, her terrible nightmare that
followed, and the fight with Gavin, the tears just came. She skimmed over the
parts about her and Gavin doing anything else. After all, these were his
sisters and didn’t need to hear about how great a body he had…or how talented
he was with his tongue. The girls got the gist of her meaning with her
fidgeting and nervous laugh.

Hanna
had the juiciest story to tell.

“So,
after the bar, I went home and did something stupid. The house was empty from
him cleaning his stuff out that day and it just really hit me how lonely I was.”
As Alicia and Kaity cooed at her, Hanna waved them off with a laugh. “But that
wasn’t the worst part. It’s like I’m a glutton for punishment. You know the
whole thing that had finally set me off was a voicemail. The night before, I’d
gotten home to a message on the answering machine. I listened to it and…it was
her. The one he’s been sleeping with teasingly letting him know she couldn’t
wait to see him again. That was it, I said. I’m done with this. I’m better than
that and I deserve better. I told him to get his things and get out of the
house the next morning. Anything he left, I’d be sending to a thrift store.”

“Holy
hell,” Alicia whispered. “I’m so sorry, Hanna.” That was rough.

But
Hanna didn’t tear up as Alicia might have done; instead, she gave a wobbly
smile. “That’s how it started, but it didn’t end there. When I got home from
the bar, it was the first time I’d been there since he cleared out his stuff.
Even the alcohol couldn’t numb me from it, you know. All of his stuff was gone.
That’s when I did something bad. I was in the kitchen feeling shitty when I saw
another message on the answering machine. It’s like I just knew. It wasn’t
Kaity or one of my friends or Gavin. No, it was someone calling for him. It was
her. Sure enough, I played the message and she stated which hotel name and room
number to be at.”

Alicia
and Kaity sat back with equally ‘oh shit’ expressions.

“That
son of a bitch. Let me tell Gavin and we’ll get his shit straightened out real
fast,” Kaity said.

Hanna
shook her head. “No, I have to do this on my own. I can’t explain why, but I
just need to.”

Alicia
understood why, because she’d been through something similar once. Hanna needed
to grow from this and she couldn’t do it if her family jumped in and did
everything for her. Some things you had to do yourself.

“What
did you do after you heard the message?” Kaity asked, her eyes narrowed.

Alicia
glanced back and forth between the sisters reading the signals. “Oh crap, you
actually did do something, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you went to the hotel.”

Hanna
didn’t blush, just cocked her chin up arrogantly.

“Holy
hell, you have more guts than I do,” Alicia said.

Kaity
wasn’t so nice. “You drove to a hotel in the middle of the night…drunk. Please
tell me my sister isn’t as stupid as she’s pretending to be.”

Now,
Hanna did color. “Well, I started to go there but I got stopped.”

“Did
one of the lieutenants in the back see you or something?”

“Not
quite.” Even more color to her face.

Kaity
squealed in delight. “Oh this is just too good. She never blushes until it’s
juicy.
Now spill.”

Hanna
cleared her throat, then fidgeted in her seat. “It was Alex Thompson. He was
riding his motorcycle. You should have seen him. I was so scared.” She
collapsed forward banging her forehead against the table.

“Wait
a minute. Alex, the guy with the shaggy hair and goatee that works construction
with Gavin?” Alicia asked.

“That’d
be him,” Hanna said.

“I
just met him today. So you think he’s hot?” Alicia whispered conspiratorially.

Kaity
leaned forward in excitement. “Oh. My. God. Alex. Really? You, Hanna? You
always go after the straight-laced guys; Alex is so far off your radar I’m
surprised you even noticed him.”

“Noticed
him? How could I not notice him when he pulled me over on his motorcycle!”

“How
did he pull you over? It’s not like he’s a cop,” Kaity said.

“Well,
he was driving behind me and honking at me. What else was I supposed to do,
ignore him? Yeah, right. Have you ever tried ignoring a man like that? It’s
impossible. He can’t be ignored. It’s like he just draws your attention.”

“It’s
the bad-ass aura that clings to him. We all know you don’t mess with Alex
because Alex will mess with you,” Kaity said. “But that doesn’t explain why he
stopped
you
.”

“I
think he’d heard I’d been at the bar drinking so he wanted to take me home.
Instead, I got him to take me to the hotel.”

“Oh
no,” Alicia mumbled.

“Not
good,” Kaity agreed.

“No,
you guys, it went fine, actually. I was really glad he was there because I
might not have been able to go through with it otherwise. When Tom answered the
door, I dropped the wedding ring and mating tether right at his feet. It felt
so good, like a weight being lifted off my shoulders, but it didn’t feel nearly
as good as seeing Alex punch Tom in the face.”

“No,
he didn’t!” Kaity bounced in her chair at the news.

“He
did! I wish I had that on video because I want to see it again and again. I’ve
never had a man stand up for me like that.” Now Hanna flushed from her forehead
down to her neck.

“I’m
so happy for you. It sounds like this Alex guy is something good,” Alicia said.
“He must like you to do something like that, don’t you think?”

Hanna
shook her head. “Yeah, right. He goes out with
women
women, you know?”

Kaity
and Alicia shared a confused look. “No, I don’t think we know. What are
women
women?”

Exasperated,
Hanna sighed. “It’s a real woman. The kind who goes to bars---”

“I
will point out we just went to one,” Kaity said.

“Please,
that doesn’t count. Anyway, as I was saying. The kind of woman who goes to
bars, makes smoking look sexy, listens to loud music and wears sexy clothes all
the time as if walking in high heels over gravel isn’t hard.”

“You’ve
seen him with women like this?” Alicia asked.

“Of
course.”

They
grew silent for a minute, lost in thought.

“Well,
I still think he’s into you. If he hadn’t cared, he wouldn’t have stopped going
wherever he was heading to help you, and why else would he have punched Tom in
the face.” Kaity grinned like she just solved a big case.

It
also gave Alicia a great idea. “Follow me, ladies; I have something to show
you.”

“Wait;
first, open your get-well present,” Kaity said.

Grinning
from ear to ear, Alicia opened the bag and looked inside. Immediately a chuckle
escaped her and then another one. Inside was a teddy bear with a thermometer
sticking out of its mouth and a bandage wrapped around its head. In its fuzzy
paws was a sign that said ‘Get well soon!’

“You
guys, this is too silly.” And touching. Laughing to hide the sniffle in her
nose, she hugged the bear and planted a kiss on its furry face. “Now come
downstairs to my work room.”