Ditched Cheating Alpha, I Led My Daughter to Life's Peak novel Chapter 77

"You'll just what?"

"Aiden," Axel warns.

Aiden looks at him. "No, what's she gonna do? Nothing? That's not an option. You know that."

"That's not what I said. Geez, let me think." I run my fingers through my hair. "... I only risk splitting up the pack if I just pick one of you romantically, right?"

Carson looks at me, suspiciously. "Where is this going?"

"Well the answer is simple. I just have to treat you all equally."

They stare at me like I've lost my mind.

I put my hands up in defense. "I'll just treat you all as friends is what I'm trying to say. Aiden said that an imprint bond can be anything."

Axel gives Aiden the most 'I told you so' look in the world. "Why did you go and tell her that again?"

He firmly states, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Well I told you it wasn't."

I shake my head. Are they serious? "Guys, it's not a bad thing. It's not a punishment to be my friend. If it saves the pack and-"

Carson cuts me off immediately. "I think I speak for all of us when I say fuck that noise. I'm not willingly going into the friend zone. None of us are."

I glare at him. "Well then what, Carson? I can't be with all of you, obviously. And you're saying I can't be with none of you, so what do you want?"

"I don't know," he grumbles.

"Aiden?" I ask.

Aiden says nothing.

"Axel?"

Axel shrugs. "This is just a really weird situation. I never imagined we'd all have the same imprint."

Silence.

"Mia, I'm not going to stop pursuing you romantically," he snatches my hands from across the table. "That's just the way I feel. I don't want to be your brother. I don't want to be your friend. And I'll be damned if I'm your dog, your dad, or your weird, sometimes red headed, step cousin. I want us to be together together, holding hands and picket fences and showing you off to the entire pack. I don't just want you in that way, I need it..."

He looks at his brothers with their tight expressions and sighs, slowly letting my hands go. "And it's because I realize how much I need you, how powerful this whole imprint thing is, that... I could never ask my brothers to not try to seek that for themselves too."

This is the second time in my life that I've seen Aiden look shocked. Axel looks just as surprised. They watch him in disbelief.

Carson nods. He seems like he's in disbelief too. He watches me, sitting back in his chair. "Mia, what you wanna do with them is what you wanna do with them, as long as it doesn't get in the way of you and me... I'll try not to be too upset."

He suddenly turns to his brothers with an expression that is no longer peaceful and sympathetic. "But if either one of you tries to start playing the claiming game with me, I won't see you as my brothers." He gives them a look more hostile than I've ever seen come from him before. "I'll kill you to protect what's mine-"

"Carson... I'm not yours," I say. He's been going off on a tangent for a while, but he seems to have forgotten that fact.

He looks shocked. He stares into my eyes a while before relief floods his features. He takes my hands again. "Babe, we're past this. We don't have to pretend anymore."

I slap his hands away, or at least I try to. "I'm not pretending anything. I never agreed to be with you. And last time I checked, you were engaged to Suzie. Not a cute look."

He groans. "Suzie and me are just friends, Mia. We went over this."

"Now you're friends?" I ask. I get up and walk into the halls. They just had a whole speech patting each other on the back for their ability to consider sharing me when I never even said I wanted them to begin with!