Page 59 of For All My Effort

Seb held me tight, and the tears I felt for sure would come didn’t. I was just being held, and then the doors dinged open, and I was being dragged along. The parking area was empty of people. All the news vans were parked where the guests had been before.

As soon as I was sitting in the seat, my door still open with Seb beside me, I burst into tears.

“Oh, princess,” Seb pulled me to the side, so I was leaning against his chest again. “You’re breaking my heart. But we have to go, okay? I don’t trust those assholes not to come back down and chase after you.”

I didn’t want to let my mate go. He pulled my hands off his shirt and then slammed the door shut behind him.

I hated that I was crying, that I had gotten spooked over something that I couldn’t even properly explain. What was scary about a bunch of people that wanted to interview me? Was it the way they’d all talked over each other, pushing at each other to get closer to me as if their cameras wouldn’t have been able to zoom in from several feet away? Was it the way their scents mixed together until my own senses were overwhelmed?

The driver’s door pulled open and I startled before realizing it was my mate.

A loud ringing sound came through the car like a song and my mate pushed a button on the center console screen.

I missed whatever the person said because Seb was leaving the parking area, and my attention was on the little mirror, watching as the elevators opened again and a bunch of people rushed out, their cameras immediately catching us as we drove away.

My heart broke, realizing my back-up plan, my last hope, was nonexistent. And I started crying again.

****

At some point on the drive home from my date with Seb, I’d stopped crying. My eyes were shut, but I wasn’t sleeping. I felt completely drained, my cheeks raw from crying, but it was my body that felt weird. Like it was too heavy.

When my door opened, it took all of my energy to turn my head and blink open my eyes.

“I’m so sorry, princess,” Seb said.

I shook my head, trying to tell him that it wasn’t his fault. None of it was, especially not my broken hope. He’d tried to warn me. Over and over again he told me that the media wasn’t my friend, and I nodded my head along, not believing him.

Now I did.

He pulled me out of the car, holding me as he walked into the house. I kept my face tucked against his neck, my arms and legs tight around him as I held on.

On top of all my crazy emotions, I felt guilt. Guilty for ruining this amazing date with Sebastian.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, whispering the words against his neck. “I’m sorry.”

I knew my other mates were close, but I didn’t want Sebastian to let me go. I was only vaguely aware of him taking the steps up to my nest. Even with my eyes closed, I knew the dimmed lights and scents of my nest once we arrived.

Seb carefully lowered us both down and then I felt Jackson at my back, two of my alphas squeezing me between them. I didn’t have any tears left, but I was freezing. When Jackson rolled away, a whimper came out. The sound quickly cut off when he came back, pressing himself tightly against me and throwing a blanket over all of us.

“What are you thinking, rebel?” Jackson asked. “Talk to us.”

“Where’s Han and Zeke?”

“They’re making you some dinner.”

I didn’t want to eat even as I felt how hungry my stomach was. I just wanted my mates close, but there was also no more of me to be shared, so I guessed it worked out.

“I don’t know why I’m crying so much,” I admitted. I wished I could somehow get closer to both alphas, wanting their bodies pressed tighter against me despite already feeling their warmth on my front and back.

“They were verbally attacking you, princess,” Seb said. Behind me, Jackson growled, but Seb continued like he hadn’t even heard the first alpha. “Not even press conferences are that bad because usually someone maintains some type of order. Celebrities are used to the flashing cameras and questions but they’re usually walking or, again, have some type of security.”

“Did you hear what they asked?”

I looked up, needing to see Seb’s face when he responded. He looked so sad, heartbroken just like me when he nodded.

“I feel like we lost. I kept thinking that no matter how bad things got, I could still tell everyone my side of the story and then they’d magically believe me. I’d do an interview or something and then I could clear everything up. But those people, they’d already decided who I was. Now what can I do?”

Hopeless.