you're content and satisfied in your new life in Shadowfen. And, although I don't want to speak for him, I know Grayson feels the same.
We've both grown to care about you, and I just wanted to let you know that you're not sharing a bed with two men who are only interested in you on a bedroom level. We're now both very, very invested in becoming the one to get you pregnant and become your mate for life, and all I've been able to think about lately is that I hope it's me. Maybe the longest text I've ever sent, but I just wanted you to know all this and seemed easier to say in text. See you later tonight.
I finished the text sniffling. I knew it was over. I knew fate had stepped in to end my charade, my shameful deception. I knew I couldn't continue on deceiving Chase and Grayson one more day. Not now that I knew they'd both developed strong feelings for me, which I'd begun to suspect. And not now that I had strong feelings for both of them, too, as I'd realized while reading Chase's text.
It was over. It was done. I'd had my fun, and now it was time to come clean, come what may. It had been horribly unfair of me to continue my deception for as long as I had. I knew that.
I didn't respond to Chase's text. I got into bed and cried. I clutched part of the blanket that still held traces of his and Grayson's woodsy, masculine scents. I did some thinking, and I decided that no matter what their reactions were to my coming clean, I'd voluntarily go back to Greenleaf.
Even if they allowed me to stay in Shadowfen, mated to one of the pack members, I wouldn't be able to stand it, that I knew for sure. I wouldn't be able to stand having another man touch me when it was really Grayson and Chase that I wanted. I wouldn't be able to stand seeing them in the village, knowing that I could never have them again, knowing that I'd disappointed and betrayed them.
No, I decided. I'd just volunteer to go home. And if Mayor Jackson wouldn't refund the money the alphas had paid for me, I'd find a way to repay them myself. Even if I had to work three jobs for decades to do it. I'd prove that I was sorry and I regretted my actions.
Eventually, when Chase and Grayson still hadn't returned by ten or eleven o' clock that night, I fell asleep without even having had any dinner. After Chase's text and the realizations that had come along with it, what little appetite I'd had simply vaporized.
After sniffling on and off in a fitful, light sleep, I had no idea how long I'd been out when the sound of the front door being opened alerted me that Chase and Grayson were home. Still in a haze of drowsiness, I flew out of bed and met them in the living room.
All I could think about was revealing the truth and telling them how truly sorry I was for my deception. I knew they both deserved better than to go on another minute caring for me deeply when I was nothing but a fraud and a phony. I was also just a tiny bit afraid that if I didn't tell them both right away, I'd lose my nerve. I also kind of feared what would happen if they made me put on a Tickler right away. If they did that , I knew all thoughts of confession would soon be driven completely out of my mind.
And so, feeling as if time were very much of the essence, I took one of Chase's hands, then one of Grayson's, not even bothering to turn on the living room lights first. "I have to tell you both something, right away. And I'm sorry, but it can't wait."
Chase squeezed my hand and spoke in a voice that somehow seemed tight with tension. It was a voice that made me certain he was frowning, even though I couldn't clearly see his features in the darkened cabin.
"I'm sorry, Rowan, but whatever you have to tell us is going to have to wait. There's been...there's been an attack in Greenleaf. Several of the wolves we tried to take out this evening managed to slip by us."
I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut. I'd known that the wolf pack that Chase,