Page 89 of Pin My Alpha
“That hoodie was ugly.”
“It was a shirt. And I’m stronger than I’ve ever been.” Jude leans forward, his eyes bright, furious in that way they get when he loves somebody too much. “Being loved didn’t erase me. It gave me somebody who sees me when I’m being a disaster and doesn’t run.”
I freeze, the spoon halfway to my mouth.
“That’s great for you,” I say finally. “Congratulations on having a healthy, emotionally available grad student who worships the ground you walk on. Really. Put it on a mug.”
“Don’t be a dick.”
“I’m not being a dick. I’m being realistic.”
“No. You’re being scared.”
The word hits too close. I put the spoon down before I throw it at him.
“Scared of what, exactly?”
Jude opens his mouth.
“Actually, never mind. Let’s do this.” I sit up straighter on my bed, clutching the bowl in both hands. “Let’s audit everyone’schoices, since apparently we’re pretending fated mates are a flawless business model now.”
“Oh my god,” Milo murmurs.
“Jude fucked his TA.”
“Former TA,” Jude says.
“Still a terrible risk-management decision. Milo got involved with Callum, who has a job where he literally runs into burning buildings. Benji went back to the alpha who ghosted him and has a tattoo of a knife on his throat.”
“It’s a snake,” Benji says.
“Even worse. Soren gets anonymous gifts from a mystery person who may or may not be a serial killer with woodworking skills.”
Soren blinks. “He’s not a serial killer.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I have a feeling.”
“Feelings aren’t evidence.”
“Your whole relationship with Declan is feelings,” Jude says.
I glare at him.
He glares right back.
There was a time I could’ve won this. I could’ve kept talking, made it funny enough, brutal enough, that eventually somebody would laugh. The room would loosen. We’d move on.
But Milo just picks up the soup pot and ladles himself another bowl.
He doesn’t defend Callum.
Doesn’t explain that Callum makes him tea when he’s studying, or checks the windows twice before bed, or lets Milo organize the spice rack even though it was already organized.
He doesn’t have to.
Milo eats a spoonful of soup and says quietly, “Callum doesn’t do things for me because he thinks I can’t do them.”
