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“She’s stuck,” Ash comments. “She’s not sure if she wants to run or be ruined.”
“I do know,” I rasp. “I wantboth.”
Theo strokes my back. Kai offers his hand like a human grounding wire. I want to kiss him and scream into a pillow at the same time.
And then it happens.
That thought. Thatname.
A curse slithering back through my blood.
Lucian.
Of course it’s him. I can still feel him - the ghost of his rage like teeth against my skin, the way his eyes locked on me in the kitchen, like I’d betrayed him bybreathingnear another alpha.
My body… reacts.
Betrays me.
How? How the hell is it possible that his mood has this much power over me?
We haven’t even touched,and still, the second he walked in and saw me in that kitchen, rage boiling beneath the surface like it wanted to crack the walls -
Ifeltit.
And worse?
I liked it.
Was he… jealous?I can’t tell. Without any real bond formed, I don’tknowwhat he’s feeling - but my body thinks it does.
My body thinks it knows exactly what that growl meant, what that tension in his jaw was for.
Claim. Punish. Take.
I whimper. It’s not dignified.
Ash flinches.
Theo tenses.
Kai whispers, “Fuck.”
“I’ll get him,” Ash says, stepping forward like a man headed to war.
“No,” Theo snaps. “She’s barely holding on.”
“She’s asking for him,” Ash growls. “We all felt it.”
“No,” I whisper.
And it’s like I dropped a bomb in the room. Everyone freezes.
“No Lucian,” I repeat, firmer this time. “Not yet.”
My body wants all of them - that much is obvious. Every nerve is still reaching - tugging invisible strings in every direction. The bonds are half-formed, thrumming low in my bloodstream, and Lucian’s is the sharpest, the most dangerous.
But I’m not ready for him. Not in this state.
