“So it’s over,” Fowler says under his breath. “I should’ve fought those fucks that day on Castle Island.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know if it would have changed anything, but they’ll stay away now.”
Connor takes my hand in his and inspects my knuckles. “You punch like a hockey player. That’s a good thing.”
His compliment makes me smile. “My father would be happy to hear that. I think, at least. Maybe not so much that I had to punch someone.”
Zev raises his eyebrows. “Any chance we get to meet the man that taught you how to do that?”
A mental wall comes up quick:alert, too soon.But I quickly push it away. Maybe itistoo soon in our relationship for my alphas to meet my parents. But it’s only a matter of time. These alphas are mine.
I belong with this pack.
I smile up at Zev. “Soon, yes. Maybe after Reverie’s over.”
The three of them relax in increments, like someone slowly letting air out of a tire. Connor’s head falls to my lap. Zev shifts his weight and tugs me against his chest. Fowler slides onto the floor and hooks his chin over my knee. It’s quiet except for the hum of my refrigerator.
After a while a question begins to weigh on my chest. Partially from worrying so much about them last night, but also because my completed nest sits empty in the next room over. “Will you, um, stay with me? Like, here tonight?”
“Of course,” Zev says, matter-of-fact. “Where do you want us?”
I glance at the clock—5:55 A.M.—and then down the hall. “I was thinking my nest. Connor and I have rehearsal soon, but?—”
Zev lifts me from the couch and carries me down the hallway. Connor and Fowler follow behind him while I laugh in Zev’s arms. He lays me down in the middle of my bedroom nest. String lights hang high on the walls and an array of potted plants sit on shelves all around the room. And that teddy bear I bought with them at HomeStuff? He sits in a corner keeping guard.
“This is…” Fowler starts, then trails off, like he doesn’t have the word.
“Cozy?” I offer, sliding onto the nest.
“Safe,” Zev says. He’s right.
All three crawl onto the nest with me. Zev takes the far wall, curling on his side so his bulk forms a barrier between me and the door. Fowler slides in at my back, spooning so close I can feelevery breath. Connor wedges in last, one arm draped across my stomach, face buried in my shoulder.
I relax. Fully. I don’t realize until then how much tension I’ve been carrying, how desperately I wanted this.
It’s quiet for a while. The kind of quiet where you can hear the city waking up: garbage trucks rumbling, distant honking, and the neighbor’s kid playing something loud and synthy. My eyes flutter closed.
This is how it should be.
Well, nearly how it should be.
I sit up and take off my shirt to reveal a bralette underneath. Their eyes snap open and they watch me.
“Grace?” Connor asks.
I lean my neck to the side. “Make me yours.”
Fowler’s pupils dilate. “Yours?”
Nodding, I point to my shoulder. “Give me your alpha marks. We already have this bond between us. It’s been here for months. Fate has already decided. So yes, make me yours.”
Zev looks to Connor and Fowler. “If you’re sure, Grace?”
I hold each of their gazes for a long moment as the surety solidifies within me. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. Please, if you’ll have me.”
This is it. There’s no turning back after this. But they don’t say no. Not this time.
Zev leans in first. His teeth break skin at my shoulder. I pull a sharp breath through my teeth, fingers curling into the nest beneath me. He pulls back, and I feel the wound already beginning to knit closed.
