Chapter 125

Beau storms over to where Wyatt is standing. The confident bastard doesn’t once look back at me to make sure I listened to him. That’s his fault. He should have known I wasn’t going to stay put.

“Something you want to say, Wyatt?” Beau asks.

I come to stand beside him, and he sighs, long-suffering, when he sees me. But he doesn’t call me out, thank the Gods. Maybe because we are in front of Wyatt.

“No,” Wyatt says. “Though I do find this whole thing rather comical.” He motions between Beau and me.

“There is no thing,” Beau says.

“Sure.”

“He means it, Wyatt,” I say.

“Stay out of this, whore,” Wyatt snaps.

Beau starts to growl. “Watch your words.”

Wyatt glares at Beau. “No thing, huh? Then why are you so pissed?”

“Because I hate that fucking word, and what you are trying to imply with it.”

“What difference does it make, when I’m talking about the Nanny?” Wyatt asks. “You think she doesn’t deserve worse? Look what she’s done to my family. The same thing that she’s trying to do to yours!”

“I’m not doing anything,” I say quickly, defend myself. “And I haven’t done shit to your family.”

“Your whore mother proves different,” Wyatt said with malice.

I stepped forward, ready to start punching. “Say that again.”

Beau held out his arm in front of me. “Down, Nanny. He’s only attempting to get a rise out of you. He’s doing the same thing to me, though I’m not sure why.” To Wyatt, he asked, “You do remember who is the Alpha and who is the Beta here? You haven’t gotten it into your head that this is a friendship or something, have you?”

Wyatt paled slightly. “Not like that exactly… but…”

“We aren’t friends, Wyatt,” Beau said. And though I hated Wyatt, the words were a bit cruel. They cut through Wyatt so roughly that he visibly flinched.

I had cared about Wyatt once, before I knew how much he resented and hated me, when I had thought we would be siblings, standing against the rest of the world. It’s that naïve version of me that feels for Wyatt now.

Or maybe it’s the part of me that has been hurt by the Hayes brothers myself. Wyatt had probably thought they were something like friends, or at least becoming that way. Just like I had thought Archer and I or Neil and I had been developing something more than employer-employee relations.

The Hayes brothers are good at pulling the rug out as soon as someone becomes comfortable.

Wyatt recovers quicker than I would have. His shock and pain disappears in a flash, and instead his mouth twists into a mimicry of a smile. It screams of malicious compliance.

I brace myself when he opens his mouth, ready for him to start dropping bombs.

“Don’t forget that we’ve sworn a pact with each other,” Wyatt says.

I’m confused. Like an Alpha-Beta contract?

Beau, meanwhile, straightens. “Don’t you fucking bring that up.”

“Why not? If you don’t actually care about the whore –”

“Stop calling me that,” I snap, full of righteous anger again. To hell with feeling bad for this asshole. I’d rather punch his super punchable face, thanks.

Wyatt shakes his head at me, but then continues to Beau as if I didn’t say anything.

“Then you won’t care if she knows you and Archer agreed to form a pact with me to take Chloe down.”

My mouth is open. I close it.

He’s joking. He has to be.

I force a laugh. “Nice try. Archer and Beau wouldn’t do that to me.”

Wyatt stares me down. His smile is real now. He’s enjoying this.

Oh no. That means it’s real.

I look at Beau but he’s not saying anything.

“Beau?”

“You are a right asshole, Beta,” Beau says.

“Takes one to know one,” Wyatt tells him.

I touch Beau’s arm. “It’s not true. Right?”

Beau and I aren’t friends. At best, we’ve had a few nice encounters and two motorcycle rides. That made us friendly acquaintances, maybe. I don’t know. I’m so confused.

He’s not denying Wyatt’s words and it hurts.

Beau looks at me and I see the truth of it in his eyes. He’s looking at me the same way he does the conquests he’s finished with. Like I’m nothing more than a bother.

It’s such a switch from the rest of our evening that it snatches the breath right out of my lungs.

“Beau?”

“What does it matter, Nanny?” he says.

It’s the indifference that cuts the worst. He already knows I’m hurt and he just keeps hacking away at me.

I don’t know what to say. I feel like I might cry, but I refuse. What a stupid thing to do, crying over a man who never even liked me. I’m just a plaything to him. To all of them.

I have to get away. I don’t want to be here anymore.

I’m still wearing Beau’s jacket, so I shuck it off and throw it down onto the ground. Then I race from the room. I head to the stairwell and up the hallway with the bedrooms.

I’m not looking where I’m going and nearly plow into Archer. He catches me and steadies me, his hands firm on my upper arms.

“Chloe?” he asks.

It hurts to look at him.

His brow furrows. “What’s wrong?”

He doesn’t actually care. He probably just wants to know my weaknesses so he can hurt me later.

They all just want to hurt me. Gods, everything makes so much more sense now.

Was that why he seduced me? So he could laugh at me later?

“Is it true?” I ask him.

He looks confused. He doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I need to gather my thoughts enough to so I can be clear when I accuse him of being the world’s biggest douche canoe.

“Did you join some pact with Wyatt and Beau to take me down?” I ask.

Archer stiffens, and I know it’s true. His grim expression only makes everything worse.

“Let me go,” I say, as firmly as I’m able.

“It happened before,” Archer says. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe that? You three wanted to destroy me! Are you still planning something?”

Archer presses his lips hard together.

It’s not a no. He must hate me so much. Maybe all the Hayes brothers do.

I want to hit him, but I know it would only hurt me worse than him. Instead, I shove him away. He lets me.

Then I take off again, not slowing until I am in the safety of my bedroom with the door locked closed behind me.

My wrap my arms around myself and collapse on my bed. I don’t cry from sheer willpower alone. Those assholes don’t deserve my tears. But it does hurt. I feel like my heart went through a shredder. It’s in a bunch of pieces and I’m having trouble matching them all back up.

I don’t know how long I’m there. Ten minutes. An hour.

I just stare at the ceiling and try to block out the hurt.

But then, someone knocks on my door.

“I’m not here!” I shout. The only person I would even consider talking to right now was Mia, but she wouldn’t be able to knock.

“Chloe?” It’s Neil. “I heard what happened.”

“Go away.”

“I just want to talk.”

“It won’t help,” I grumble, not expecting him to hear it.

“Then it won’t hurt to try,” he says. Fucking werewolf hearing.

Neil… He might be genuine. He could at least give me a straight answer. Wyatt hadn’t accused Neil or Steven of joining the pact.

Maybe it might be worth it to just hear him out.

So I crawl out of bed and head to the door. I unlock it and pull it open.

As soon as I see Neil, I gasp in shock.

He looks like absolute hell.