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I’ve never once doubted that the quadruplets want me. But if they could reject me and the bond… why haven’t they? I’m full of problems. I’m human, Ryan—their cousin—is the father to my daughter, and according to them, I’ve got a custody battle on my hands. Why would they force themselves to be with me when they could reject me?
My eyes fill with tears as I look over at Phoebe, and my bottom lip trembles. “Is it… did you?—”
“No!” All three Wolfe brothers snarl at once, and Ben launches himself off his chair and storms towards me.
He kneels in front of me and places his hand on my knee. “Do you feel those sparks where we touch?” I give one jerky nod and try to sniffle the tears away. “This connection is given to us by fate. She deemed you our perfect match. Why would we settle for some second chance when you exist in the world?”
“But you could.”
Ben rolls his eyes. “I didn’t remain a virgin to settle for some inferior woman. You were made to?—”
“What Ben means,” Topher says, cutting his brother off with an eye roll, “is that you’re it for us, princess. You and Phoebe are everything we could have wanted.”
“Because she’s a wolf?”
“Because she is half of you,” Topher says. “Sure, female wolves are so fucking rare, so important, and I’m thrilled that she is one. But I’m also scared.”
“We are scared for her,” Alex adds, his eyes flickering between hazel and silver. “Our world is dangerous right now, and for good reason. Phoebe is a miracle, Maia, but you are the ultimate blessing. You are ours.”
“And we’re so, so lucky to have you,” Topher adds, and Ben nods from his place at my feet. “You can’t feel the bond, but even the little aspects you can feel are immense, right?”
I nod slowly. Warmth spreads through me, and I can’t deny the truth in their words. Something, all this time, has been guiding us together. It’s hard to believe in the idea of soulmates when there’s no evidence.
I work in numbers and data. Tangible figures.
I’m banking my future—my daughter’s future—on a whisper of a promise.
“Now why would anyone ever give that up and settle for being less than whole?” Ben asks with a grin.
“Which is why you lied,” I say quietly. It adjusts the tone once more, and all three men deflate as one. Ben gets up from the ground and trudges over to the sofa, tripping on the wire slightly, before throwing himself down on the sofa next to Alex.
Phoebe begins to whine softly, and Topher gets up to fix her projector. He crouches down and presses a soft kiss to her head, but she’s lost to the floating colours and animals again.
“Which is why we lied,” Alex confirms. “Or at least, a big part of it.”
I nod. “So, your uncle denied his mate and moved on happily?”
“Sort of. For a wolf to deny their mate, it’s extremely painful for them,” Alex says quietly. “Our wolves want the other part of their soul, and they ache without it. There’s no way this was an easy decision for him, but it’s one he made out of selfishness anyway.”
“So, your mum was in pain?” I think about the ache without Seb here, and that’s so minimal. I’m not a wolf, there’s no bond, and he is coming back.
“She wasn’t a wolf at the time,” Topher says. “So, she didn’t feel the pain the way my uncle must have. From what I’ve been told, he was in agony for a very long time. Even after rejecting her, the ache apparently never goes away, and the emptiness of his soul will hurt him even with the bond he now has with Aurora. You’ll know more than us about how my mum felt, but I know she didn’t have it easy on her side, either.”
“Like you’re missing something, but you don’t know what,” I say softly. Seb not being here is not comparable, not even a little, but I can imagine she felt at least a little similar. “Like you’re complete but incomplete at the same time. Like part of you is gone, but it’s just so far out of reach.”
Like part of my soul has gone.
Because they’re my soulmates.
The three of them exchange excited looks, but it’s Topher who continues. “My aunt and uncle mated, which severed the connection completely for my uncle and mum, at least on her side. My uncle became the sole alpha for the Grey pack with my aunt Aurora, and my parents ran ours.”
“Where is their pack?” I ask.
“They’re not too far from here, only a town over.”
I flinch and look over at my little girl, who is still watching the lights move around the room, and I hate that this move has put her in danger.
We moved here at random. It was nearly two hours away from where Ryan and I lived, but it has good schools and such a low crime rate, and with the house we now live in being in such a good central location, it just felt right. I felt safe moving here as a single mother to a little girl.
