Scarlett: (GxG)

Chapter 53

Scarlett

"So.. I guess it's safe to say you don't own a suit jacket or anything."

Jordan greeted me with a once over with his eyes and a smile. He looked just like every other man here, tucked into dress pants and an expensive shirt which almost made him invisible among the crowd. I didn't want to even admit it but it was only thanks to his scent that I was able to catch sight of him.

I straightened my vest, feeling the leather molding around my broad shoulders and the weight of the studs and spikes. It was comforting, which was good because right at that moment I was so anxious I wanted to crawl out of my fucking skin. Hiding it with a straight face took more energy than it should have.

"You know, I was just beginning to like you, right?"

His smile widened and he stepped closer to me so I could greet him with a kiss against his cheek. The man was clean shaven and smelled of aftershave that his wife probably picked out for him, given how perfectly ordinary his life appeared to be from someone like me looking in.

"So, since we're all not charging into the neutral territory as we speak, it must mean that you kept your word and didn't tell anyone about what you saw," he whispered to me.

What to tell and what not to had become a strange balancing act over the past month. Six months ago if someone told me I'd be picking and choosing what to tell the people in my life who were the only family I had, I'd tell them to kick rocks. Ain't no way. But here I was, trying so damn hard to keep everyone I cared about safe, which somehow ultimately lead me down a path of half truths.

My eyes looked out across the sea of heads and found Zoey, fighting her way through a crowd that, for the most part, didn't see her petite form. Still, she pushed and apologized her way through.

"I told Zoey."

His eyes almost fell out of his head when I told him, and I would have laughed hadn't I also been trying to hide my anxiety.

"You can keep looking at me like that, but it doesn't change the fact that we all want the same thing." Another chance to tell the truth rolled around on my tongue. "He tried to hurt her that night, when we found him with them. I felt like she had a right to know."

"My job is to keep you safe. You, Cam, Jake... all of you. That's my priority. The pack. I can't put more under my wing."

I couldn't fight the frown that found me. Of course I understood where his loyalties were. But I wouldn't allow myself to fall in line with that way of thinking. He looked over at me again and his expression softened just a hair.

"Oh, yeah... I forgot you two are... whatever you young kids call it these days."

Taking a gamble, I decided to take something out of Zoey's playbook for a change. Humor to fight the doom and gloom.

"Fucking."

The man's face went red which then bled down to his neck.

"Righ," he chuckled, awkwardly glancing away from me. "Well, this will all turn out in our favor as soon as Marcus makes it back to us."

Just as the humor helped alleviate some of the gloom, my Beta brought it right back to me. I didn't want to think about our Alpha having been out there, fighting to get back to his pack the whole time. It was so depressing to think about that I was almost crippling. A breath steadied me.

"We'll confront Deacon, make him be civil and settle our disagreements at the Sacrificial Rock, like wolves here have always done," he muttered, looking on ahead at the sea of people. "We aren't savages."