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I wish that invisible elastic band were real. And visible. Then we’d have a reason to stop backing away from each other. We would see it, and so would everyone else.
My eyes latch on Cian’s. “You’re sure I just smell okay?”
A smile ghosts across his lips. “Terrible, actually.”
Tears fill my eyes as I laugh. “Same.”
I don’t want them to go. I don’t want toletthem go.
“Everleigh?” Mom calls from inside.
And I remember why I need to.
“Rune, I—” My voice breaks.
My eyes water so badly, I can’t read his expression as he crosses over to me and draws me into a hug I wish would last forever. His voice is husky as he whispers, “I know, cher. Right now, you need your mom, and she needs you. But we’re right here. We’ll always be right here.”
When he frames my face with his large hands and presses a soft kiss on the top of my nose, I nearly fall apart.
But I force myself to let him go.
I don’t know when these three alphas became such an integral part of me. Losing them feels like cutting a piece of me off, and I don’t know how—or even if—I can function without it.
Cian pulls me into a hug next. “We had Hali and Nancy leave something for you in the blue room,” he says into my ear.
Kylian draws me into his arms and squeezes. “Don’t forget us, beautiful.”
As if I could do a thing like that.
“Say thanks to Hali and Nancy for me. I didn’t…”Think I would be leaving today. I thought I would be telling you I was going to stay. Forever.
Rune reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a cell phone he hands to me. Not his. This one is so brand-new it still has the plastic film over the screen. “Tell them yourself.”
I look at the cell phone and make no move to take it. “A cell phone?”
“Yourcell phone.” He corrects me and tucks it into my hand. “Speed dial number one in case you have an emergency. We loaded all the important numbers into it. Ours, Nancy, Hali, and Devin, our driver. There’s another important one that I’ll leave you to find for yourself. You’ll find the charger and everything else is in your house, the office, I think.
“If you need to go somewhere, Devin here can take you anywhere you want until you have driving lessons if you want them. If you don’t, then Devin is your driver. And you can trust him. He’s as much our family as Hali and Nancy are.”
I step into him, wrap my arms around him, and squeeze him hard. Rune squeezes back and lifts me a little off the ground, pressing a kiss to my throat. “Thank you, Rune.”
“No thanks necessary, cher. Just giving you everything you should’ve had all along.”
His kiss reminds me we were going to talk about a claiming bite. He mentioned it during my heat, but I guess now we never will.
And then the limo pulls away, Devin waving at me as he leaves.
Cian, Rune, and Kylian climb into the Mercedes and I turn away from three alphas, who gave me everything I could have needed and demanded nothing in return.
I walk to the front door of the house the alphas bought for me. Mom doesn’t wait for me to reach it.
She darts onto the top step of the porch, grabs my wrist, and pulls me inside, her hazel-green eyes desperate. “Everleigh, you have to stay away from alphas. It’s not safe. They arenotsafe.”
“But, Mom, they—”
“Promise me, Everleigh,” she pleads. “Promise me you’ll stay away from them. They may seem like they want the best for you. They don’t. Theywillhurt you.”
My shoulders slump and my heart hurts. I want to crawl into a hole and cry forever because I know, no matter what I say, she will never believe me.
