"Sit," Garrett repeated, more firmly. "Let us take care of you for once." So I sat. And they took care of me.
Oliver brought tea. Garrett brought a blanket. Levi sat next to me, close enough that our shoulders touched, his warmth bleeding into my cold skin. Micah settled on my other side, not quite touching, but present. A silent wall of support.
"We were going to tell you," Oliver said, settling into the armchair across from me. "About Trinity. About her asking around town, gathering information. Morrison called us days ago."
I stiffened. "You knew she was planning something?"
"We knew she was escalating. We didn't know when or how." His jaw tightened. "I made the call to wait. To not worry you unless something concrete happened. That was my decision, and I'll understand if you're angry about it."
Was I angry? I searched for the emotion and found only exhaustion. "I don't know how I feel right now. About anything."
"That's fair," Garrett said. "You don't have to figure it out tonight."
"But for what it's worth," Levi added, "Oliver was trying to protect you. We all were. We didn't want you to spend days worrying about something that might not happen."
"And now it has happened," Micah said quietly. "So we deal with it. Together."
Together. That word again. The one that kept coming up, kept being offered like a lifeline.
"The dinner," I said suddenly. "We were supposed to have dinner tonight"
"We still can," Oliver said. "If you want. Or we can postpone. Whatever you need." I thought about it. Thought about going home to my empty cabin, replaying the confrontation over and over in my head. Thought about staying here, surrounded by warmth and care and people who wanted me.
"I want to stay," I said, and the words felt like a choice. Like a step forward instead of a retreat. "I don't want to be alone tonight."
Levi's arm tightened around me. "You won't be," he promised. "Not tonight. Not ever, if we have anything to say about it." Sitting there, wrapped in a blanket with four alphas surrounding me like a protective wall, I let myself believe it. Just for tonight. Just for now. Tomorrow, I’d deal with the aftermath.
Tomorrow, I’d process, plan, and probably cry some more. But tonight, I would let myself be held. Let myself be wanted. Let myself be park of a pack. All four of them… and me. Not because I was greedy or desperate or broken… because this was how we fit. How we belonged.
And that, I was beginning to realize, was its own kind of beautiful.
Chapter Forty-Two
Daphne
Dinner was quiet and warm, the five of us gathered around the kitchen table eating pasta that Garrett had made. They didn't push me to talk, didn't ask questions about what had happened. They were just... there. Passing bread, refilling water glasses, existing in the same space as me like it was the most natural thing in the world. I barely tasted the food, but I ate anyway because Levi kept shooting me worried glances every time I paused, and Garrett had clearly put effort into the meal. The least I could do was try.
By the time my plate was mostly empty, exhaustion had settled into my bones like lead. Every blink felt longer than the last, my body desperate for rest even as my mind refused to quiet.
"You're falling asleep in your chair," Oliver said gently, and when I looked up, I found all four of them watching me with varying degrees of concern.
"I'm fine," I said automatically, even as my eyelids drooped.
"You're exhausted," Micah corrected. "Your body has been running on adrenaline for hours. Now that the perceived threat has passed, you're crashing."
"What he said, but with less science," Levi added. "Come on. Let's get you to bed."
I blinked at him. "I should go home..."
"You said you didn't want to be alone tonight," Garrett reminded me, his voice soft. "Did that change?" Had it? I thought about my cabin, dark and empty. Thought about lying awake in my own bed, Trinity's words echoing through the silence. Thought about the cold hollow feeling that had taken up residence in my chest.
"No," I admitted quietly. "It didn't change."
Oliver stood, moving around the table to offer me his hand. "Then stay. We have a room for you."
"A room?" I took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet. My legs felt unsteady, like they weren't quite sure how to hold me up anymore.
"We've been working on it," Levi said, bouncing on his heels with barely contained energy despite the late hour. "For you. I mean, we hoped... eventually..." He trailed off, glancing at Oliver like he wasn't sure how much to say.
