The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 271

Chapter 36

+25 Points

Book 2~ Chapter 36

** Poppy’s POV **

Jake’s office door is half open when we reach it.

I don’t knock or slow down. I just push it wider and step inside because if I hesitate for even a second, I might lose whatever fragile grip I have on myself.

Jake looks up from his desk, where he’d been resting his head in his hands.

“Poppy?” His gaze flicks between me and Leo behind me. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” Leo says at the same time I say, “Fine.”

Jake exhales slowly. “Right. That answers that, then.”

I shoot Leo a look, but he doesn’t even glance at me.

“Shut the door,” Jake says with a sigh.

Leo turns and pushes it closed behind us. The click feels too loud in the quiet room.

Jake leans back in his chair, studying me now, properly. Even like this, with a deep crease between his brows and darkening circles around his eyes, he’s still one of the most gorgeous men I’ve ever laid eyes on.

“What happened?” he asks.

“Nothing,” I say automatically.

Leo moves in front of me, leaning against Jake’s desk, and suddenly I feel like a teenager back in

the headmaster’s office.

“Try again,” he says, voice low.

I resist the urge to cross my arms over my chest and scowl.

“I said I’m fine.”

“You’ve said that six times in the last five minutes,” he replies. “It wasn’t true the first time either.”

I let out a breath, giving in and folding my arms across my chest.

“I just got overwhelmed. That’s it. New bond, heightened senses, whatever. It’s done now,” I shrug.

Jake doesn’t look convinced, and neither does Leo. In fact, Leo looks… done.

“Don’t do that,” he says.

I blink. “Do what?”

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Book 2 – Chapter 36

“Shut me out.”

The words land harder than I expect.

“I’m not…”

+25 Points

“You are.” His voice doesn’t rise, but there’s an edge to it now. “You’re brushing it off like it didn’t just knock you flat.”

“I didn’t get knocked flat,” I snap.

His brow lifts. “You were five seconds away from dropping to your knees in the middle of a corridor.”

“That’s a bit dramatic.”

“No, that’s accurate.”

Something in me snaps. “I said I’m fine.”

“And I said you’re not.”

Jake raises a hand slightly. “Okay, maybe we all take a breath…”

“No,” Leo cuts in, not looking at him. His focus is locked on me. “Not this time. We’ve given her long enough to open up, Jake, it’s clearly not working.”

My stomach twists, and it’s suddenly too hot in here. This is it, his limit.

“Leo…”

“No.” His tone sharpens, controlled but unyielding. You don’t get to brush this off. Not when there’s clearly something going on with you.”

I laugh, but there’s no humour in it.

“Oh, clearly? You’ve known me five minutes, but sure, go ahead and tell me what’s going on in my head.”

His eyes flash.

“I don’t need to be in your head to see when something’s wrong. You’ve been keeping things from us since the day before you left.”

“Maybe you’re just seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Then tell me that,” he shoots back. “Actually tell me, instead of hiding behind ‘I’m fine’ like it means anything.”

The room goes very still. Jake is quiet now, watching us both carefully. My pulse starts to climb again, not from the bond this time, but from the pressure building in my chest.

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< Book 2 – Chapter 36

+25 Points

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” I say. “Just because we sealed the mate bond, it doesn’t mean I have to share everything with you.”

Leo takes a step closer.

“Maybe not,” he says quietly. “But you don’t get to pretend it’s nothing either. Not when it affects you like that. Not when it affects me. How can we be a team when you don’t let us in Poppy?”

That hits. Hard. I falter, just for a second, but Leo sees it. Of course he does.

“Talk to me,” he says, softer now, but no less firm.

I shake my head. “I don’t even know what I’d say.”

“Start there.”

I let out a breath, dragging a hand through my hair.

“It was just… too much,” I say finally. “Everything at once. The noise, the smells, the… everything. It just hit me all at once.”

Jake nods slightly. “That can happen when a bond settles. Your senses…”

“It wasn’t just that,” Leo says quietly.

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