Page 169 of Beasts of Mine

And on my first night sleeping in their actual home, I had surrounded myself with pieces of all three of them without consciously deciding to do it.

“I’ll come back.” I told Luca, meeting his eyes so he knew I meant it. The tension in his shoulders eased.

“Okay.” Luca answered quietly, accepting the promise without asking when or trying to turn it into something bigger. I stepped close enough to slide one hand around the side of his neck and kissed him. Luca’s palm settled briefly at my waist, his sandalwood-and-herb scent surrounding me for a few seconds before I pulled away, reluctant enough about doing it that I noticed.

“Now I really do have somewhere to be.” I told Luca as I stepped backward toward the trail and glanced at my watch.

“Before ten.” Luca reminded me, a small smile appearing as he nodded toward the radio at my belt.

“Look at you remembering things.” I teased Luca as I shifted the camera strap higher on my shoulder.

“I told you I learn.” Luca answered, his smile lingering as he stayed beside the old wall rather than trying to follow me toward the station.

“See you later.” I told Luca as I turned toward the trail, looking back once before the vegetation began closing the distance between us.

“See you later, Evie.” Luca answered softly, remaining where he was while I started into the trees. The station still expected me before ten, and I still had photographs to back up, equipment to clean, notes to update, and an assignment that existed outside the three men hidden in the rainforest. None of that had changed simply because the temple had started feeling different.

But as I followed the familiar trail back through the trees, I couldn’t stop thinking about the sleeping platform I had left behind, the blankets I had moved without realizing why, and the three different scents I had gathered around myself before falling asleep.

I had made a nest in their home, and for once, realizing I had started making a place for myself somewhere didn’t make me want to undo it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

LUCA

I watched Evie until the forest took her from sight. She looked back once before the first bend in the trail, lifting one hand briefly in my direction while the camera bag bounced against her hip, then the vegetation closed behind her. I could hear her boots for another few seconds, steady over damp earth and fallen leaves, before birds, insects, and running water swallowed the sound completely.

I stayed beside the old wall longer than I needed to. Evie knew the route. She had a radio clipped at her belt, a locator inside her pack, supplies for problems Mara hopefully never had to deal with, and nearly nine years of experience moving through places far less familiar to her than this forest had become. None of that stopped the persistent urge to follow. I wanted to know exactly when she reached the station, check the trail ahead of her myself, and see her walk onto station grounds unharmed, even though doing exactly that would probably irritate her.

Wanting something wasn't the same as needing to act on it, though, and being an Alpha didn't excuse forgetting the difference. I rested one hand against the weathered stone and listened until even my hearing couldn't separate Evie's movement from everything else around me. Leaves shifted high above the courtyard, insects droned beneath the canopy, and something small moved through the undergrowth near the stream. Her honey-and-jasmine scent still marked the path where she'd gone, faint enough that another human would never notice it but easy for me to follow if I allowed myself.

She had gone because she had work waiting for her and a return time Mara expected her to keep, but she'd also looked me in the eyes before leaving and told me she would come back. For now, I could live with that.

When I returned to the living section, her scent seemed to follow me inside. Honey, jasmine, and warm vanilla lingered through every room she'd used, muted by her blockers but still easy for me to separate from the temple's familiar smells of old stone, dried herbs, wood, and damp greenery. It remained on the chair where she'd eaten breakfast, along the edge of the worktable where she'd leaned while checking batteries, and strongest of all in the sleeping room.

I stopped in the doorway and breathed in. To anyone else, the room probably looked like someone had slept badly and forgotten to straighten the blankets afterward. Evie had packed her clothes before leaving, Malek's shirt was gone with her, and Tavian's green seed and little shell had returned to her camera bag, so there wasn't much left that would have told a human what had happened there.

My nose told a very different story.

Cedar remained where Malek's shirt had rested against the bedding. The faintest trace of Tavian's citrus and spice lingered where she'd kept the things he'd given her, while my own sandalwood and herbs covered the blanket still twisted across the mattress. Evie's scent ran through all of it, settling into the fabric and mixing with ours instead of remaining separate, and my purr started before I consciously decided whether I wanted it to.

Evie had already been intimate with Malek and Tavian before last night. I'd smelled both men on her when she arrived, layered with her own scent in ways another shifter couldn't possibly miss, and nothing about it had made me want either one removed. Then she'd chosen me for the night, and waking with my own scent worked thoroughly into hers hadn't changed that. Finding traces of all three of us mixed through the place where she'd slept felt better than finding only me would have, and what surprised me most was how strongly that settled something inside me.

We had been a three-Alpha pack for years. If Evie eventually chose us, none of us expected her to choose one man and tolerate the others around the edges. There had never been a question of competing for separate places with her, but knowing that in theory was different from standing in a room that smelled like the beginning of it.

My gaze settled on the pillow she'd pushed toward the wall. Its edge had folded awkwardly against the smaller blanket during the night, and I stepped forward automatically, reaching to straighten it before my hand stopped halfway there.

Evie had put it there, which meant the awkward angle was none of my concern.

I lowered my arm and looked around the room again. Providing was easy. Food could be made, water filtered, and a roof repaired before rain reached anything important. If something could make the person I cared about safer or more comfortable, my first instinct was usually to handle it before they ever had to ask. Even now, I could think of several things that might make her next stay easier—another blanket, somewhere dry for her boots, water close enough to reach from the bed, and better storage for whatever she didn't want exposed to the humidity.

None of that required me to move the pillow she'd chosen herself.

I backed away from the sleeping platform and left everything exactly as Evie had arranged it. The nest wasn't mine to finish, but that didn't mean I couldn't make sure there were things available if she wanted them later.

Movement sounded from the northern passage while I was finishing the breakfast dishes. Paws struck stone first, followed by the quieter scrape of claws retracting as Tavian entered the courtyard in leopard form, his belly and legs darkened by wet vegetation. His amber eyes found me almost immediately, but instead of continuing toward the living rooms, he stopped and lifted his nose twice, scenting the air more carefully the second time.

I knew the exact moment he identified Evie's scent on me because his ears came forward and his tail gave one quick movement behind him. The amusement in his eyes appeared before he shifted, and I already regretted being where he could find me.