Chapter 98: "I Want Strawberries."

They both waited patiently for Bryce to answer, and he knew staying silent was not going to help. He needed to say something, and this time, he was going to speak honestly.

"I don’t know. I don’t know what I want right now. I’m in a complete mess right now, but the only thing I’m sure of is that I can’t just decide easily that I want you and don’t want him. I would only be lying to myself, because my feelings are more complicated than that.

And while I know that asking you to give me some time to figure my shit out without knowing the outcome isn’t the right thing I should be doing, I’m still going to ask.

If my decision matters to you enough to wait for me to figure it out, then perhaps you should wait. And if not..." His voice faltered, leaving the obvious unsaid.

"Okay," Dave said first, and Vincent followed a second later.

Bryce breathed out with a faint sense of relief. At least neither of them had rejected his request outright.

"Should we then just go back and rest? After everything, I feel like I’m going insane," he added.

Vincent moved first, and Bryce followed, but Dave stayed behind.

"I’ll stay. You two can just go ahead," he said quietly.

Bryce rubbed his temples. "Oh God..." he muttered plainly. "I thought we just agreed, and right now you sound like you’re already making a decision."

"I’m not making any decision," Dave said defensively, though his voice remained low and calm. "It’s just that I have my own house, and there’s no need for me to..."

"Why would you want to stay in a house like this one alone after everything that just occurred?" Bryce cut in. "Or are you planning for your mind to drive you crazy? Let’s go back to Vincent’s place."

He turned to Vincent. "Do you mind if he stays at your place?"

"No," Vincent said without hesitation. "It’ll be great anyway, especially now that he’s healed. He can finally pay me back for all the hard time he’s put me through. He can clean and make sure there’s food in the house."

The reply was so casual that it almost felt as though there had not been an intense confrontation between them only a minute earlier.

Dave rolled his still-swollen eyes at that, but he did not argue anymore.

"I’ll pick up some clothes. Do you want me to bring some for you?" he asked.

Bryce nodded and moved to sit on the couch as Dave headed toward the elevator. Vincent joined Bryce on the opposite couch.

Their eyes met briefly, and Bryce looked away almost immediately. But even after he had turned his gaze elsewhere, he could still feel Vincent’s eyes on him.

"How’s the baby?"

Vincent’s cautious question made Bryce look back at him instinctively.

"Fine, I guess. There’s not much I can feel from it now except hearing the heartbeats," Bryce answered simply.

"So the pheromones... am I supposed to be producing them strongly for it, or the ones that come naturally are enough?"

"Ones that come naturally," Bryce answered.

Silence settled between them once more, lasting only a moment before Vincent spoke again.

"Uh... The... reason why you said you’re unable to choose between me and Dave... Is it because you actually have feelings for me too, like you do for him? Or is it because you can’t simply choose him because of the baby we’re having together and everything that ties us together, like the pheromones and what we’re supposed to do in the wolf world?"

Bryce considered the question for only a moment.

"I might deny it as much as I want, but I know deep down that I do feel something genuine toward you, despite everything," he admitted without allowing himself time to reconsider.

Instantly, he felt BJJ jump inside him, as though he were excited by the fact that he had finally been proven right.

Bryce had almost forgotten about him, forgetting that he was inside him and could apparently react to what was happening around him. He had been far too quiet for the past few hours.

Vincent’s face brightened almost instantly, in a way he could not hide.

He leaned back in the chair, seemingly satisfied with that answer alone. He did not press Bryce for anything more, and somehow, that made the moment feel even more significant.

The answer did not resolve anything for Bryce, but it gave him one certainty he had been unable to face. His feelings for Vincent were not simply the consequence of the baby, the bond, or everything their connection demanded of them.

There was something between them that belonged to him alone, something he could not dismiss simply because his feelings for Dave were still there.

Knowing that did not make the decision easier, if anything, it only made it harder.

Dave emerged from the elevator, his eyes immediately fixing on them. Bryce stood first, and Vincent followed a second later.

They walked toward the door, and once they stepped outside, Dave locked it before securing the gate as well.

They then made their way to the car, where Bryce climbed into the back seat. Dave followed him in, while Vincent slipped behind the wheel.

_

"I’m hungry," Bryce muttered after the car had travelled in silence for a long while, the outskirts gradually giving way to the city.

"What do you want to eat?" Dave and Vincent asked at the same time.

"Juicy strawberry fruits, and strawberry ice cream," Bryce answered without giving the question much thought.

The craving for strawberries had surfaced so suddenly that he had barely considered anything else.

"That’s not food."

The words came from both men simultaneously again. At this point, the coincidence was becoming almost alarming.

Bryce looked from Vincent in the front seat to Dave beside him, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and amusement.

"You just asked me what I wanted to eat."

He was not even sure which of them he was defending himself to.

"Only after you eat proper food can you have the strawberries afterward," Vincent said, meeting Bryce’s eyes through the rear-view mirror as he brought the car to a stop in front of Quick Bite Hotel, one of the largest hotels in the city. "So, what do you want to eat as an actual meal?"

"I don’t know. I don’t want food, I..."

"Come on. Let’s see what they have," Vincent cut in, already opening his door.

Bryce stared at him for a moment before asking. "You want us to walk in together? People are still talking about us."

"Let them think whatever they want. Some of the things they’re saying aren’t true, especially the accusations. Unless you don’t want to be seen with me."

Vincent’s response was so straightforward that Bryce could not immediately argue with it. He sighed, opened the door, and stepped out of the car, falling into step beside him.

"Dave?" he called.

"I’ll get you strawberries and join you in there in a minute," Dave answered as he stepped out as well, turning in another direction while Bryce and Vincent headed toward the hotel entrance.