LINC - The road stretched ahead, cutting through familiar territory and leading us toward the human city. My eyes darted to the rearview mirror more often than I wanted to admit. Cast and Kat sat in the backseat, wrapped up in their own little bubble.Cast had her pulled against him, whispering something that made her shoulders shake with quiet laughter. Their heads tilted together, foreheads brushing occasionally, like they couldn't bear the thought of any distance.I told myself to be happy for them. They deserved it, after everything. But no matter how hard I tried, the sight made something twist inside me.Lila sat beside me, her hand resting lightly in mine, but it might as well have been someone else's hand for all the connection I felt. Her grip barely registered, her fingers slack against mine. She wasn't even pretending to care about the passing scenery. Her eyes stayed fixed on the window, distant and unfocused.I could feel the anxiety radiating from her, though she tried
CAST -The night stretched endlessly, each tick of the clock reminding me I wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. Tessa had adjusted my meds earlier in the week, upping the dosage just enough to screw with me. It wasn't the first night I'd spent like this, wide awake while the rest of the pack slept. It was starting to wear me thin.Kat, on the other hand, was out cold. Her body rested against mine, curled into my chest like she couldn't get close enough. The warmth of her breath skimmed my skin, steady and soft, the kind of rhythm that should've been calming. I trailed my hand over her back, tracing idle patterns out of habit more than intent.The room we were in wasn't really ours. It belonged to Lila, and she had Declan here, then briefly to me when I didn't have anywhere else to go. Now it was just "the extra," a placeholder no one had claimed outright. Yet, it was starting to feel like ours. Our stuff was scattered across the dresser and floor, the bed smelled like her shampoo, an
LILA - The knock startled me. My body stiffened as I clung to the remnants of composure, the ache in my chest almost unbearable. Cast turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a towel. I watched him wrap it around himself and head for the door. He seemed far too calm for this. "I've got it," he said, glancing back briefly.I didn't respond. The nausea still twisted in my stomach, and the bond with Linc burned at the edges of my mind, an unwelcome intrusion that wouldn't stop.Cast opened the door, sticking his head out just enough to block whoever it was from seeing inside. "I just finished showering, and Lila's getting cleaned up now. She threw up all over both of us," he explained, his voice casual like it wasn't a blatant lie. "I'll be out in a minute."I froze, heat flushing through me. Not from embarrassment but from pure fury.Before I could think twice, I grabbed a towel and stepped out of the shower, forcing down the bile rising in my throat. The lie was too much, and
LINC - Her skin was soft and smooth beneath my hands as I traced the curves of her body. I felt the goosebumps rise on her skin as I kissed her neck. The way she responded to my touch left no doubt. She wanted me as much as I wanted her. We fit together perfectly. My fingers slid over her back, savoring the warmth radiating from her. She leaned into me, her breath feathering against my neck as I pulled her closer. Her hands roamed, exploring me in ways that made everything else dissolve into nothingness. The sound of her heartbeat thrummed against my chest, grounding me in the moment, in her. My mouth moved over her skin, tasting every inch. She arched under me, her body soft and eager. I pulled back just enough to look at her, but the shadows covered her face. "I need you," I murmured, letting my lips find hers again. The kiss built into something that made us feel endless. Like our bodies could melt together and become one. My body moved against hers as I growled against her
Declan’s breathing finally evened out, his tiny body curling against me in complete trust. I placed him back in his crib, smoothing the blanket over him as gently as I could. The nursery quieted again, leaving just the soft hum of the baby monitor in the corner.I turned to CeCe, still sitting on the floor near the crib. Her hands rested in her lap, and her focus stayed on Declan. “He’s fine now. You should go back to your room and get some sleep.”She hesitated, biting her lip. “Helena’s in there… busy.”I raised a brow. “Busy?”She shifted awkwardly. “With her boyfriend. I don’t really want to walk in on that.”I crossed my arms, leaning back against the edge of the crib. “Are they being safe?”“As best they can,” she admitted, looking at her hands. “The healers won’t exactly help with that kind of thing. It’s… hard to get what we need.”“That’s just the old traditions still lingering,” I explained. “The healers were scared of the old alpha and stuck to whatever rules kept them out
CAST -I wasn't sure why it happened. Why Linc let it happen. Why any of us did. It was like the moment had taken on a life of its own, and we were just caught in its current. She had crumbled onto the floor, overwhelmed by how we were acting. I couldn't leave her there. I bent down and scooped her up, her body slack against me, and something in the way she folded into my arms shattered the last of my restraint.Her lips were right there, and I didn't think before kissing her. It wasn't soft or cautious. It was the kind of kiss that demanded more. Her lips pressed back against mine, but then she broke away, looking toward Linc. He was already behind her, his hands resting on her sides, his fingers dragging in slow, deliberate patterns on her growing belly. She looked caught between us, her breaths uneven as her eyes darted back to me. She was about to panic."You need us both, don't you? Just… just let it happen." My lips brushed hers again, desperate to pull her back to me.Her att
LINC - I didn't remember him doing it. Cast didn't remember either. Even Lila, shaking and pale, said she had no recollection of the bite. Yet, as we sat there on the bed in the pool house, trying to piece it all together, his mark stood out darker than mine. It wasn't subtle. It wasn't something we could brush off. We all sat there, unable to articulate the emotions bouncing heavily between us. Between the three of us. She was caught in the middle, her entire body shaking. One hand was pressed to the mark on her neck, the other resting over her stomach. I sat on one side of her, Cast on the other, and we both touched her in the same way. A hand on her knee, the other on her back, trying to steady her, or maybe ourselves. She shifted between us restlessly, leaning against me for a moment, then to him. Her breathing was uneven, and I couldn't stop running my fingers lightly over her skin, trying to calm her. Cast and I didn't look at each other. We couldn't. We didn't need to.
I woke up to an empty bed. The absence was immediate, the warmth gone. Stretching out, I let my hand graze the sheets, confirming they were cool. They hadn't been in bed for a while. The faint hum of water and voices carried through the room, pulling me from the remaining haze. I followed the sound to the bathroom door. It was cracked open, steam curling out. Their voices grew clearer as I leaned in to look. Lila sat on the built-in bench, with the water spraying down her back. Cast knelt in front of her, his hands resting gently on her stomach. He spoke softly, leaning closer, and even though the words weren't meant for me, they hit me hard. "I'll be there for them, for you," he murmured. "No matter what. Even if I have to handcuff myself to you to make sure I don't screw this up again." She laughed out loud as he started feathering kisses across her growing stomach to try to tickle her. She leaned forward and pulled him up. Their lips met, and I stayed frozen at the door
SUKI POV -I had known Declan was mine for almost two years. Mine. No one else's. Mine in a way that made my blood hum, made my instincts lock onto him like nothing else ever had. I had known, deep in my bones, that I would kill for him, die for him, claim him in a way no one else ever could. He belonged to me as much as I belonged to him, even if he hadn't realized it yet.The realization hadn't come all at once. It wasn't like lightning striking or some earth-shattering moment of clarity. It settled in quietly, creeping in the way instincts always did. Slow, steady, undeniable once it was there. One day, Declan was my best friend, the person I fought beside, the one I trusted above all others. And then I looked at him, really looked at him, and I knew.He was mine.It happened on a night that should have been unremarkable. We were training late, running drills under the dimming lights, both of us pushing ourselves long past exhaustion. He had yanked off his shirt, sweat dripping dow
My brain would not shut up. I told myself to stop thinking about her body, but it was useless. I was standing there, naked, grieving, trying to process everything, and yet, all I could focus on was the way the water ran over her skin. The way her muscles flexed with every slight movement. The shape of her waist, the way her hips curved in a way that made something in me lock up. Fuck. Everything in my lock up. I gritted my teeth, staring at the tile, trying to drown out the thoughts. She was my best friend. My mate. And I felt like an asshole for noticing her like this, especially right now. But my body did not care. My instincts did not care. They did what they wanted, dragging my focus back to her over and over. She sighed and turned with the loofah in her hand. She looked down, then back up, her grin turning downright smug. "Damn, Dec. You're really going through it, huh? Looks like all the blood in your body decided it had more important places to be." I groaned. "Can you j
"She did not even care." The pain ripped out of me, raw and shaking, breaking apart between sharp breaths. "I tried. I did everything I was supposed to. And she just walked away. Like I meant nothing."Suki did not flinch. Mom did not look away. They sat beside me, letting me fall apart without stopping me. Letting me feel it."She was not even my mate," I choked, pressing the heels of my hands against my eyes like I could stop everything from spilling out. Like that would somehow make the tears stop. "I knew that. I knew it the second I saw her. But I still tried. I still did the right thing. I still honored the bond she forced on me. And she just... dropped me. Like it was easy. Like I was disposable."I tried to sit up, but my body refused. "I told myself I could make it work. That I could be what she needed. That I could be enough. And she did not even hesitate. She let me love her, let me stand by her, let me put my whole life on the line for her. And the second she was done with
Cold tile pressed against my cheek, biting against overheated skin. A dull pounding slammed through my skull, relentless, shoving me back into awareness. The room spun in slow, nauseating turns. My limbs refused to cooperate, heavy, disconnected, caught somewhere between exhaustion and the aftermath of last night. For a second, I didn't know where I was.The bath mat was back hanging neatly over the side of the tub like it had never been on the floor with me. My boots sat beside me, lined up perfectly. My shirt was gone. The stale stench of sweat clung to my skin, but a fresh t-shirt and jeans sat folded on the counter, waiting. Someone had been here. Someone had seen me like this.I was covered by an actual blanket. The air felt cooler than before, the AC humming softly in the background. Someone had turned it on while I was passed out.I forced myself up, muscles stiff, movements slow. Light spilled through the half-open door, too bright. The person who undressed and cleaned up afte
A sudden wave of nausea hit. The burn turned brutal, curling deep, coiling like something alive inside me. My breath hitched, and in that split second, I knew. This was coming back up. All of it. The relief vanished, replaced by the horrifying realization that my body was done pretending to handle this. My limbs tensed, instincts kicking in too late, the floor tilting as I scrambled toward the bathroom. "Oh, fuck..."I crashed into the bathroom, barely making it before hitting the tile. The second my knees hit the floor, my stomach turned so hard it felt like something inside had torn open. Everything inside revolted, rejecting every drop of liquor I had forced down. My throat burned as bile seared its way up, tearing through me in brutal waves, each worse than the last. The liquor clawed its way back out, scorching and violent, stripping everything raw on its way up.My arms locked against the toilet, gripping hard as my body convulsed again, heaving until there was nothing left. My
I didn't even remember deciding to come here. One second, I was running. The next, I was shoving the back window open and climbing through. The glass rattled in the frame as I slipped inside, boots hitting the floor of the empty house. The Riverwalk house. I didn't live here. My parents barely used it. But I knew the alarm code, knew every creaky board, every stuck window. Knew the way it smelled like the river outside, the scent settling deep into the old walls no matter how many times it had been aired out. I didn't know why I was here. I didn't know what I wanted. I just knew I couldn't go back. Not yet. My whole body shook, too wired to sit, too wrecked to move. Everything clawed at me from the inside, my mind stuck in a loop I couldn't break. I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be bitten. I didn't ask to be tied to someone before I even understood what it meant. I hadn't wanted that bond, but I had honored it. I had tried. I had done everything I could to be a man about i
I ran the words through my head again and again, muttering them under my breath as I walked. Nothing sounded right. Nothing sounded like enough.Gaia, I...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to...Nothing fit. Nothing could fix this.The pack house loomed ahead, but I didn't speed up. Each step felt heavier than the last, like my body already knew what was coming and wanted to slow it down. I didn't know how bad it would be, how much of her disappointment I'd have to face before I even opened my mouth.Then I saw her.Gaia sat on the porch, wrapped in a blanket, small against the massive wooden steps. Her hair was a mess from sleep, but I knew she hadn't gotten any. I didn't need to ask. I could feel it. JI stepped closer, forcing my breathing to stay even. I signed, "Did you sleep?"She didn't answer. Didn't move.I stopped in front of her, waiting, stomach twisting so tight it hurt. I reached for the blanket, wanting to pull it away so I could wrap my arms around her, to close the distance
The second I woke up, everything hit at once. Last night, I hadn't felt it. I had let myself get caught up in Suki, in the way she reacted to me, in the way it felt to touch her finally. But now, in the quiet of the morning, my whole body locked up with something I hadn't been ready for.Gaia.It wasn't just guilt. It was worse than that. The sharp, suffocating ache of knowing I had done something I couldn't take back. Last night, the mate bond had been quiet. I hadn't felt anything but Suki. But now, now that the rush had faded, I swore I could feel Gaia's sadness sinking into me. They always said mate bonds worked differently when they weren't fully formed when only one side had marked the other. I hadn't marked Gaia. She had marked me. And last night, I had convinced myself that meant she wouldn't feel what I was feeling. That she wouldn't know.I had been wrong. Completely, unforgivably wrong. Last night, I hadn't even thought about it the way I should have. I should have question
I wanted to keep going, wanted to lose myself in her, but the thought of Gaia snapped through the haze. If Jaed hadn't interrupted us, we would have slept together. There wouldn't have been a way to stop it. And now, here, with Suki pressing against me, that same fire was taking over. Except there wouldn't be any interruptions this time. No one to stop me before I crossed a line I wasn't ready for. And Gaia would know. I barely managed a nod, my voice rough and unsteady. "Yeah, I hope so." She kissed me. Nothing careful, nothing slow. She met me with the same intensity I felt, no hesitation, no second-guessing. My whole body locked up as raw need took over my senses. I gripped her thighs, dragging her into me, grinding against her, chasing that friction before I could stop myself. My head screamed to slow down, to think, but my body was already gone, already locked onto the way she felt against me.I had never let myself have this before, never let myself give in, and now I was seco