I shook off his gaze and settled on my desk. I wanted to call Caddy, wanted to tell him all about Bodhi and Theo, and how he should do his best to ignore her, but he was already on his way to us. I tried to read my books and found that my eyes trailed over the words, but I wasn’t actually reading. My mind was elsewhere.
I tried to remember a time my mind wasn’t consumed with thoughts about Theo, where he was, what he was doing, if he was thinking about me, and if he wanted my touch as much as I wanted his. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment I had begun to love him, but the fire in my lungs when his image danced across my mind confirmed it.
Theo shouted my name loudly from downstairs. I looked out the window and saw him with his hands cupped around his mouth, hollering my name. He motioned for me to come down, and I hobbled to the window in confusion. A car was pulling up, one from my old pack, and my heart leapt into my lungs.
Caddy was here.
I climbed down the stairs as fast as I could with crutches in my hands and flung the door open.
“Caddy!” I screamed happily as I walked quickly to the edge of the porch. I began down the steps, excitement filling me, but Caddy wasn’t looking at me.
He was staring at Bodhi with the same twinkling look in his eyes that once filled Theo’s.
I froze. Theo was looking back and forth between the two of them with realization and comfortable support.
“Are you kidding me?” I mumbled, forgetting I was in the presence of wolves with magnified hearing. Theo’s eyes shot to me, and his lips pursed in disapproval. Everyone looked my way apart from Bodhi, who was staring at Caddy, trying to decide if she should smile or not. I hobbled forward, my crutches sinking into the soil. “Caddy!”
“Margo,” Theo said in warning, ordering me back with his gaze.
“No,” I breathed out sadly. This time Bodhi looked at me. “This isn’t fair.”
“Get in the house, Margo,” Theo ordered, a mean look of disappointment glaring from his eyes.
Something broke within me; the last strand of willpower I had to stand on the sidelines while Bodhi took every comfort from me. She had taken the only home left for me. She had taken Theo’s attention and admiration. She had even managed to take my clothes and the apples in the fridge. And now she had taken my best friend-my only friend.
“You can’t take everything from me,” I told her softly, though I knew she could hear me. I had meant it to sound harsh, but a sob from my throat coated it with anguish. “It’s not fair.”
Theo was immediately in front of me, holding me around the waist like a toddler. “That’s enough,” he hissed in my ear, walking us towards the house. Caddy reached a hand out to touch Bodhi’s cheek, and she shivered at their first touch.
“Just go home,” I wailed. My words echoed through the wolves’ ears, and they watched me with disgust. I had insulted their Alpha; they were controlling their urge to attack me.
Caddy didn’t even pay attention to me; Bodhi’s eyes held him hostage.
A guard opened the door for us and closed it firmly behind as Theo stomped through the hallway. He threw me on the couch like a sack of flour and glared. He looked at me angrily, more angrily than I had ever seen.
“What were you thinking, Margo?”
I stared forward blankly. I wanted to soak in all the self-pity that had perfumed around me. I wanted to feel the hurt.
“That was a beautiful moment, Caddy just met his mate, and you’re acting like a jealous, bratty, crazy-”
“Yeah, I get it,” I nodded, cutting him short.
“I just don’t understand.” Theo shook his head. His eyes were clouded as he tried to piece together my actions.
“You’re right, you don’t understand.”
“Stop shutting me out, just tell me what’s going on.”
“What’s going on is that even since Bodhi arrived, you’ve been ignoring me and spending every moment with her. Don’t give me that look, it’s true. You didn’t even come to bed ‘til three in the morning because you were talking battle strategies with her, and then you were gone before I woke up.”
Theo groaned and shook his head in disbelief, a small, sarcastic smile came onto his face.
“We’ve been talking about battle strategies to keep you safe, Margo. I have no interest in Bodhi other than her contacts and her expertise.”
“You don’t get it, Theo.” I sat on the edge of the couch, reaching out to him with a dejected look. “You are the only one I have here. There is no one else for me. You and Caddy are it for me, and she shows up and takes you both away within minutes.”
Theo slumped into the cushion next to me, rubbing his face with his right hand.
“I’m not leaving you, little one.”
“But you did,” I tried to clarify. “You left me all week. Hugging her and playing around with her, she’s like this perfect, fun, Alpha she-wolf, and you eat it up.”
Theo stiffened and dropped his head, looking at me through the corners of his eyes.
“It’s not like that.”
“Then why did you ignore me all week for her?” There was more hurt in my voice than I anticipated. I was trying to keep my stone exterior, but I was quickly breaking down those walls.
“I didn’t mean to ignore you,” he admitted, boyishly. “It’s just...I haven’t seen Bodhi in years. She was young when she became Alpha, maybe twenty? She was there for me when my dad died, nothing romantic, but she picked me off the ground.” My heart reached for him, although my hands remained at my sides. “But you’re right, that was no reason for me to ignore you.”
“I just don’t think you realize it sometimes,” I breathed, brushing below my eyes.
“Then tell me.” He rubbed
