Free Out Of The Shadows by Julia Davies Page B

the arm as his face burned. Jai, the irritating bastard, just laughed and went to talk to Max. When the pair glanced his way, he glared, making Max chuckle as well. He went to join them but Elizabeth came forward and stopped him.
    “I want to apologise for my reaction last night,” she told him. “I was embarrassed that I’d made an idiot of myself. I shouldn’t have taken that out on all of you. Anyway, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
    Dane smiled at her. “You didn’t. I was flattered, really,” he said. “I shouldn’t have led you on, but I’m not exactly out yet. In fact, you and Max are the only people other than my sister that I’ve told.”
    “Damn.”
    He and Elizabeth followed the others into the house to collect the Alpha. Talking to Elizabeth had made him realise that he really could do this. He could tell his friends; the all-consuming fear that usually hit him when he thought about it hadn’t come when he had been talking to her. If he could just find a way to make his family understand that Jai made him happier than he had been in a long time. Maybe he could simply avoid the subject ever coming up, never telling them. No, he couldn’t do that to Jai. He had to make a choice, to decide how he was going to live the rest of his life—was he going to spend it hidden in the shadows or allow himself to actually live? 
    By the time he and Jai reached Michael’s home again, safely delivering the Alpha and his wife home, he had almost reached a decision. Funnily enough, it didn’t fill him with dread. In fact, he looked forward to it in some ways, to being free of the cloud of secrecy he had been living under for so long.
    When he reached the office, however, he found Sasha waiting for him. She was sitting by Joe’s desk, talking, and she jumped up when he and Jai walked through the door.
    “Sasha, what’s wrong? Has something happened?”
    Sasha bit her lower lip worriedly and shook her head. “Not exactly,” she said.
    He frowned. “How long have you been waiting?”
    “A while. I messed up, Dane,” she said, taking him to one side as the others made themselves scarce, giving them privacy. “I got a call from Mum this morning—I hadn’t told her about leaving Nick, not wanting the lecture she was going to give me. I guess she tried to call Nick’s house first and he told her I’d gone, so I had to tell her what happened. She kept talking about me coming home, about how she was worried about me. I told her I was fine, that I’d called you and that I was staying with a friend of yours. I am so sorry, but she kept going on and on, asking me how I could be sure I could trust this friend and I…”
    “Sasha, what did you tell her?”

 
     
Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    “I told her I could trust your friend, because the friend was also your mate,” she told him in a small voice. “I never said anything else, I promise, but they’re coming here—”
    Despite everything that he had decided earlier, Dane felt his heart pound, his breathing becoming harder.
    “Mum and Dad are coming here? Sasha, why the bloody hell did you tell her that?” he yelled. “Oh, fuck, this is not happening.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    Dane’s whole body shook as he slid down the wall, head in his hands. His mind was racing at top speed, wondering if he could get out of town before they arrived. He figured it would be about a four-hour drive; that would give him plenty of time to get some things from home and find somewhere to hole up until they had gone. Then again, that depended on how long ago they had set off. He probably wouldn’t get far.
    He was aware of low voices nearby and he glanced up to see Jai and Sasha talking. Sasha was almost in tears, with Jai reassuring her.
    “What’s going on?” Ret joined the conversation. “I admit that I overheard about half of that—what is the problem with your parents coming here?”
    Dane gave up on his idea of running away. Instead, he took a deep