Chapter 89

“Not you too.” I move to step around him, but Archer is bigger and stronger and refuses to step aside no matter how much I try to wedge my way through.

He grips me by the shoulder to keep my still. His fingers bite into my back.

“Listen, this is none of your business,” I say.

“Like hell it isn’t.” Archer’s voice a growl, like his vocal chords were half-way wolf already.

“It isn’t,” I say again firmly. “You bailed on me, if you remember. You have no right to get upset about anything that happens after. Besides, whatever happened today was a one-time thing.”

Neil’s more likely to hide from me the rest of his life.

It’s fine. I’m fine with that. Give me an orgasm, cum on my torso, and then bail? What’s there to be mad about?

Oh, wait. Oh, yeah. Everything.

Archer narrows his eyes at me. He isn’t going to let this go.

“Can I please go back to my room?”

“No.” Archer moves his grip to my arm and then yanks me toward the hallway. Yet instead of turning toward my room, which I suspect, he drags me toward the brothers’ rooms.

“Archer?”

He walks past his own room too. My stomach sinks when he pushes open the door to Neil’s without knocking and storms inside.

Neil is painting at an easel. It hasn’t taken shape yet. It’s either a still life or the start of a face. He turns at the intrusion, and his eyes go wide.

“Archer? What are you doing?”

“What am I doing? What the hell are you doing?”

Archer drags me to the center of the room, then releases my arm. He goes straight up to Neil instead, then sidesteps him to knock over his easel, the new painting falling to the floor.

“You think you can just walk in here –” Neil starts growling.

Archer straight up barks. “You don’t deserve privacy!”

Then, at once, they both shift into their wolves and start sniping at each other.

Archer pounces forward and talked Neil. Neil shoves him off, biting at his throat.

The sound of their growls echoed off the walls, loud and angry. Instinctively, I back toward the door.

“What the hell has gotten into you both?!” I shout. They are grown ass man, not children! But they are acting like rowdy little pups.

“Better back up more,” Beau says from the doorway. He’s smiling wide, like he’s highly amused by the sight of his brothers at each other’s throats. Knowing him, he probably is.

I glare at him. “Did you come over here just to laugh?”

“Yeah, mostly.”

Wyatt, unfortunately, appears beside him. “This is all your fault, Chloe. You couldn’t just leave them alone.”

“They didn’t leave me alone!” I am not about to be slut-shamed by my miserable step-sibling. I wish Beau would send him away. If anyone should be against slut-shaming, it should be the one who liked to screw around.

But Beau keeps his mouth shut. Wyatt being a bastard probably just adds to his fun.

“What’s going on in there?” comes Steven’s voice down the hall.

Great, the whole gang is here. I’m ready to hide in a corner now.

“Keep Mia back,” Beau calls. At least he has Mia’s best interest in mind, even if he is insufferable otherwise. “Archer and Neil are fighting.”

“Oh. Okay.” Steven does not sound particularly alarmed. “See if they can keep it down.”

“They don’t seem to be in the listening mood, but I’ll keep it in mind,” Beau says and waves.

The two alpha wolves continue to fight. They slam their massive wolf bodies into each other. Beau slams Archer’s body into his dresser. Archer throws Beau into his mirror. It crashes on the ground.

“Seven years bad luck!” Beau calls. “But against who? The one who physically hit the mirror, or the one who caused the hit?”

“It’s a silly superstition,” I say.

Beau shrugs like he couldn’t care either way.

Eventually, blessedly, Neil and Archer slow in their attacks. They are both breathing heavy. Soon after, the shift back into their human form.

Yelling replaces the growling sounds.

“You are a fucking hypocrite, Neil,” Archer snaps. His face is scrunched up in anger. “You said the nanny is off-limits and the first chance you get, you start humping her leg.”

“You are the one who started all this,” Neil counters. He’s just as mad. “If you had kept your hands to yourself, then my alpha response would have never triggered.”

“Oh, what the fuck. I didn’t coat her in my goddamn semen.”

“You wanted to!”

“No. Don’t you dare try to cop out of this,” Archer pokes his pointer finger straight into Neil’s chest. “Your alpha response only triggered because of your own goddamn feelings.”

“That’s not true. If anyone has feelings here, it’s you. Busting in here like an animal. Ruining my things. Look what you’ve done to my room!”

Neil waves his arms around. And yeah, his room is pretty trashed. Knowing Neil and how he likes things neat and tidy, he’s probably freaking out inside.

“I don’t give a shit about the nanny,” Archer says sharply.

It shoots straight through me. I should be used to Archer’s crude remarks by now, but it still hurts. It always hurts, the bastard.

“Bullshit,” Neil says.

“All of this was strictly on principal. Because you are a hypocrite.”

“And you dragged Chloe in here because of principal? We could have had this conversation in private.”

“She deserves to know the kind of man you are,” Archer says. His growl is back. Is he going to shift again? Are they going to fight?

“Why would you care? Unless you have feelings!” Neil’s growl returns too.

I dart forward, into the space between them. “Stop it! This is absolutely ridiculous.”

“Stay out of this, Chloe,” Neil says.

“Don’t ruin the fun, Nanny!” Beau calls from the door. “Plus, you might get mangled.”

“They won’t hurt me,” I say, though after I say it, I have no idea how I’m so sure about it. Haven’t they been keen to assert their dominance before? I’ve suffered torment by their hands.

Yet somehow, the words still struck true. They berate me. They put me down.

But they don’t want to hurt me.

Well, at least without my consent.

Which they don’t have right now.

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” I say to Archer. Then to Neil, I add, “You are both acting like children fighting over a toy!”

As soon as I say it, I want the words back. The toy in this scenario, of course, is me.

I realize far too late that this isn’t my only mistake.

“I tried to warn you!” Beau calls.

Both Archer and Neil turn their angry gazes on me. Their bodies are wrought with tension. Their eyes are gleaming alpha red. They’re barely in control of their alpha rage, likely near shifting, and here I am sauntering between them like I belong there.

“You won’t hurt me,” I say, but I’m not near as confident as I was just a minute ago. “Right?”

“We’re fighting with each other,” Neil says, voice low and dangerous, “when the true problem is right here.”

I swallow thickly. “Neil? Archer?”

But it’s like they can’t hear me anymore.

All they see, all they hear, and all they know is their rage.

And I’m caught dead center in it.