95 Excuses

Lennox’s POV

We walked into Levi’s room, each of us taking different positions. I headed straight for the mini-bar, pouring myself a glass of dry gin. Levi stood at the window, staring outside, while Louis rested his back against the wall.

We all went silent, each of us waiting for the other to speak – but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be me.

I knew we had to talk. We had to address what happened back in my room. The problem was: who the hell was going to say it first?

We all kissed Olivia. We touched her. We pleasured her. And it sure seemed like we all enjoyed it, so…?

“I wasn’t in my right senses,” Louis suddenly said, breaking the silence.

I looked his way with a furrowed brow, silently daring him to continue.

“It was my wolf,” he added stiffly, crossing his arms over his chest. “He pushed me. I didn’t want to… not really.”

Levi scoffed quietly from the window but didn’t turn around.

“You’re full of shit,” he muttered.

Louis straightened up, bristling. “The fuck did you just say?”

“I said,” Levi growled, finally spinning around to face us, his eyes flashing, “you’re lying to yourself. We all are.”

A tense silence fell again. I stared into my glass of dry gin, swirling it slowly, trying to gather my thoughts – trying to find a fucking excuse.

Finally, I shrugged, forcing out a cold laugh.

“I don’t know what came over me,” I said. “Maybe… maybe it’s been too long since I fucked anyone. She was just—” I paused, gritting my teeth. “She was naked and I got turned on.”

Louis made a low, disbelieving noise. “Yeah, sure. Like that’s all it was.”

I slammed the glass down on the counter, the sharp crack echoing in the room.

“What do you want me to say?” I snapped. “That I liked it? That I liked touching her, tasting her?”

My hands curled into fists at the memory of the way she tasted, the way she clung to me like I was the only thing anchoring her to this world.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath, raking a hand through my hair. “It was just… a moment of weakness. Nothing more.”

Levi gave a humorless laugh. “Weakness? You call that weakness?”

He paced the room like a caged animal, running a hand down his face.

We all fell silent again, our words settling heavily in the room.

“I mean, it’s not like we’re in love with her or anything,” I said quickly, needing to fill the silence, needing to convince myself as much as them. “It was just… physical.”

“Right,” Louis agreed, but his voice lacked any real conviction. “Just a release.”

“So she’s just a body,” Levi asked. “A way to get it out of our system?”

I nodded, clenching my jaw so hard it hurt.

“Exactly,” I said. “It doesn’t mean shit. She doesn’t mean shit.”

But the words tasted like ash in my mouth.

Because we all knew it wasn’t true.

Because right now, if any one of us walked back into that room, saw her lying there wrecked, trembling for us – we’d be powerless to resist.

Because she wasn’t just a body.

She was ours.

We’ve loved that girl all our lives.

And no amount of excuses, no amount of hatred, was going to change that.

For a moment, a tense silence hung in the air until Louis cleared his throat.

“Look, we need to get this straight,” Louis finally said, breaking the silence once more. His voice was rough, like he was trying to convince himself just as much as us. “What happened in that room… it can’t happen again.”

I turned to face him, my jaw clenched tight. “What do you mean?” I growled. “You think I want to be back in that fucking position?”

Levi crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the window. But he said nothing.

“That should never happen again,” Louis muttered, the words coming out like he was trying to force them through his teeth. “We… we hate her. We hate what she did to us. We hate how she drives us insane. We can’t… let ourselves be driven by that.”

I couldn’t hold back the sarcastic laugh that escaped my lips. “Yeah, sure. So we just gonna pretend it never happened. That’ll work.”

Louis glared at me, but there was no real anger behind it. “I don’t know about you two, but Olivia deeply hurt me,” he said, and I could see the real pain in his eyes, which made me curious.

“What did she do to you, Louis?” I asked, genuinely curious.

Louis looked away and frowned. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said with a tone of finality.

I stared at both of them, questions rolling inside me. What did Olivia really do to my brothers? And why the hell wouldn’t they talk about it?

Before I could press on, Levi finally pushed away from the window, walking toward us with a curious look in his eyes. “So we make a pact. We make sure this doesn’t go any further. We don’t touch her again. We don’t let our fucking wolves control us.”

I turned toward him, the tension thick in the air. The silence hung heavy as we all processed his words.

“I don’t want her,” I growled through clenched teeth, my fists shaking. “I don’t. I don’t want to have anything to do with her. This was the first time, and it was a mistake,” I lied smoothly. Levi looked at me with an almost disbelieving look in his eyes. “So we all agree this is never happening again?”

I met their eyes, both of them staring back at me, waiting for me to agree, to make the same fucking promise.

The tension in the room was thick as Levi’s eyes stayed locked on me, waiting for me to agree. “So, we all agree this isn’t happening again?” he repeated, his voice a little more serious, almost like he already knew I would go behind their backs.

I wanted to say no. I wanted to tell them the truth that I cannot stay away from Olivia, that despite how much she hurt me I never stopped loving her.

But I couldn’t.

I had to pretend. I had to make the promise.

“Yeah,” I said quietly, forcing myself to say the words. “It’s not happening again.”

Levi nodded, but there was still doubt in his eyes. Louis, still stiff and uncomfortable, didn’t say much but agreed too.

“Good,” Levi said.

I just nodded, not saying anything else, and left the room. The moment I stepped into the hallway, the weight of the situation hit me. I had just lied to them… and to myself.

I stumbled back into the room, closing the door behind me. The bed was untouched, except for the faint outline of where she’d been. I ran a hand over the sheets, dragging them to my face, inhaling deeply.

Her scent wrapped around me, intoxicating, like the most dangerous kind of drug.

I fell back onto the bed, eyes closed, my body trembling with the memories of her – her touch, her taste, the way she gave herself to us, to me.

Fuck, I thought, clenching the sheets in my fists. I couldn’t stop myself. The pull, the desire for her, was too strong.

I breathed in again, harder this time, desperate. It felt like she was right there, as if all I had to do was reach out, and she’d be in my arms again. My head swam with the heat of her presence. My body pained for her, and every inch of me screamed in protest at the agreement we had just made.

Because I knew it was a lie.

The pact. The promises. The words.

It didn’t matter. None of it did.

Because the moment I touched her again, I would crumble.

A moment in a closed room with her, and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself.

For a few minutes, I remained lying there, inhaling her scent – until suddenly, the door to my room burst open, jolting me out of my daze.

Levi and Louis stormed in, looking furious. In Louis’s hand was a box.

“Take a look!” Louis growled, throwing it at me.

It seems the brothers are trying to convince themselves more than each other about their feelings for Olivia.