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The table erupts with genuine excitement. Finn’s face lights up. Beck lets out a loud “Hell yeah!” and even Leith gives an approving nod. Everyone’s pure, unfiltered happiness for Piers moves through the bonds. They all know how much this means to him.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” I ask, squeezing his hand.

Piers looks at me, eyes soft. “It wasn’t the most important thing that happened last night.”

And I’ll be damned if Piers Ashford didn’t devastate me with one sentence. He’s been working on this deal for years. But taking care of me after my nightmare. Responding to my heat spike. Bonding. That was what mattered most to him. I feel a rush of love so strong it makes my eyes sting. Through the new bonds, I sense the same from all of them. Not just for me, but for each other. We’re a pack. All of us.

I squeeze Piers’ hand tighter and smile. “I’m thrilled for you.”

He squeezes my hand back. “Be thrilled for all of us. It’s our place now. I’ll show you pictures of the house so you can start thinking about what you want to do to it. It needs upgrades and decorating. I want it to be a place where you feel comfortable and happy.”

A rush of excitement pulses through my veins. “I love decorating!”

Piers’ eyes crinkle. “I know you do, sunshine.”

Beck laughs. “We’re going to have the wildest house in Nantucket.”

I point at him. “You bet your ass we are, cowboy.”

“Cammie’s got good style,” Leith huffs from my right.

I turn around and kiss him. He tastes like pepperoni pizza and woodsmoke. “You’ve always been my favorite.”

“Hey!” Beck protests, rubbing his chest like I’ve personally wounded him. “I saved your life.”

“Ooh, yeah,” I tease. “Maybe you’re my favorite.”

“I bought you a painting by your favorite artist,” Piers reminds me.

“And I secretly decorated your guest suite with colorful pillows,” Finn says with more enthusiasm than I’m used to hearing from him.

I sit back, looking at my perfect pack of alphas. “Okay, okay. You are all my favorites. Better?”

Beck sits back, a satisfied grin on his face. “It’s not perfect, but I’ll take it.”

Finn’s face does the same thing. “It’s pretty perfect.”

“It is pretty perfect, isn’t it?”

forty-one

Camelia

"Traitor," I mumble into Leith's chest. "You're leaving."

Finn's voice is close above me. "I don’t want to, but I promised Graham I’d meet him early." He's sitting on the edge of the nest in the gray morning light, already dressed, hair still damp. He leans down and kisses me in that soft, unhurried way of his, tasting like the coffee he must have grabbed downstairs. Then he kisses the corner of my mouth like an apology.

Beck and Piers are already gone. Beck slipped out before dawn for his shift, and Piers had a Zoom call with someone in Greece at an hour that should be illegal. I felt each of them go. You don't sleep through losing that much heat in stages. But I burrowed back down every time, because there was always someone left, and now, the only someone remaining is Leith, big and silent and warm as a furnace.

Finn leans past me to kiss Leith too, slow and familiar. I feel Leith's chest rumble under my cheek where I'm using him as a pillow.

"I'm not getting up," I announce.

Leith's arm comes across my back and pulls me in tighter. "Then don't," he says. "It’s still early."

Finn stands, tugging his shirt straight. He looks down at the two of us tangled together and something crosses his face, fond and a little wistful. "Take care of her," he tells Leith.

Leith looks up at him. "I take care of all the things in my life that I love."