Jaguar:

I do not know why I started this conversation.

Or maybe the reason was that Verity had been on my mind.

Ever since I arrived at Gigi’s house, I had not been able to get Verity out of my thoughts.

I knew this was supposed to be a friendly movie night, but it became very difficult for me to focus on anything else, especially when I had upset Verity.

The way she told me in the car that everything was over made my heart stop.

Since then, my mind has been restless.

I just felt like I had failed.

Then I came here and saw how lovingly Gigi had prepared everything.

I do not know what it is, but Gigi did not really understand boundaries very well.

And that was simply because she was so close to us.

She always treated us like her best friends, people she could jump around and fool around with.

Little did she know that men got excited when they were touched or rubbed in certain places.

Her ass cheeks had been rubbing against my cock.

I had come here frustrated because the desires I had regarding Verity had been left unresolved.

So with Gigi accidentally brushing against me, my cock was responding in ways I hated.

And I hated myself for it.

I was trying my best not to get too close to her because it felt like we were taking advantage of Gigi’s innocence by not pushing her away and sternly telling her to behave.

But that would be wrong too.

It was our fault.

She was not the one getting hard.

We were.

So now we had to comfort her, and she had once again ended up back in my lap.

I shared a glance with Theodore, and he understood that neither of us wanted to do anything inappropriate.

"Okay, come here, then."

Theodore suddenly grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off me.

The way she moved, I could tell she was about to land in his lap.

That naive woman.

But thankfully, Theodore placed his hands on her shoulders and made her sit down on the couch instead.

Also, her choice of dress was really inappropriate.

But then again, that was a man’s way of thinking.

A woman could wear whatever the fuck she wanted.

We needed to control ourselves too.

It was her body.

What she did with her body should not affect ours.

But then why was it affecting us?

Well, at least I was getting hard and not acting on it.

"We’re not saying you’re responsible," Theodore started to explain to her. "We’re just saying that, as Alpha Kings, we have responsibilities, and Verity has already told us what she’s going through. So if we ignore it now, we’ll look like bad people."

There it was.

He was so clever with his words.

Or maybe it was because that was a genuine concern of his.

Maybe he really was doing this out of responsibility.

But for me, it was more than that.

I had tried my best to step away from Verity, but it had not ended well.

"So, your worry is about Verity getting attacked, right?" she asked, slowly wiping the tears from her eyes.

She looked genuinely worried too.

"Yes," I replied, nodding along with Theodore.

"Well then, we’ll find a way to help her," she uttered with a small smile. "I can hire guards for her. That will be fine, right?"

See, this was what I liked about her.

I knew she would never hear that a woman was in distress and simply overlook it.

Part of the reason was because she had been through something similar herself.

So she took women’s safety very seriously.

Honestly, my smile started to fade.

I don’t know why.

I should have been happy.

This was the right thing to do.

Hire guards for her.

Wasn’t that what I wanted?

Verity’s safety?

’Huh. You just don’t want to leave for the trip because you’re afraid Verity will get serious with that stranger she was with today.’

My wolf stirred inside me, giving me the reality check I needed.

Of course, I did not respond to him.

He could get on my nerves whenever I focused on Gigi.

"Yeah, that will do," I said, because now I had to agree.

The problem was that Gigi was incredibly loyal.

I mean, she was not a gossip lover at all.

She hated gossip.

She would never spread rumors or keep repeating the same thing over and over.

Overall, I had never met anyone like Gigi.

She was a different kind of woman.

A completely different breed.

But she was also very honest.

So if my brother asked her what we did tonight, she would tell him that we talked about Verity and that Theodore and I were concerned about her safety.

I mean, Theodore would not get into trouble because he was not involved with Verity the way I was.

For Theodore, he had simply spotted her being stalked and attacked, then stepped in to help her.

Things had just blown out of proportion after that.

My case was different.

I was afraid to even admit it.

Either I was falling for her, or I was becoming obsessed with her.

But Gigi had decided that hiring warriors would be the best solution for all of us.

After that, I really did not want to watch another movie.

Honestly, I was just tired.

Things had not gone well with Gigi, so I decided to call it a night.

I could tell Gigi was upset, but like I said, she always respected our decisions.

Before long, Theodore and I were heading back home.

And while he was okay with hiring warriors for Verity, I was not.

I wanted to stay behind and not let Verity get any closer to that handsome man.

When I got home, I decided to text Verity and maybe apologize to her, stir something, or at least give her the idea that we were not done yet.

But when I opened her profile, the first thing I saw was the story she had posted.

’Finally, in a relationship.’

Those words made my body tighten.

My muscles started to ache, and I knew I was having one of those transitions.