“Grayson,” I breathe, my voice embarrassingly shaky. “Jesus, you scared me.”
He doesn’t apologize, just watches me with those intense gray eyes. After spending days of my heat with him, I’m now able to recognize the hint of amusement in his gaze. I notice his truck parked beside my sedan, engine still running, exhaust creating ghostly shapes in the cold air.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, moving closer, my fear replaced by curiosity.
Before Grayson can answer, assuming he’d even bother, the passenger door of his truck swings open, and Kai jumps out, his usual energy undimmed by the late hour or freezing temperature.
“Finally!” Kai bounds over, rubbing his gloved hands together. “We’ve been waiting for like an hour. Do you always work this late?”
“I had charts to catch up on,” I explain, glancing between them. “Is everything okay? Is Noah?—“
“Noah’s fine,” Kai assures me quickly. “Still at the house, probably reorganizing my kitchen cabinets again. Man’s got a thing about alphabetizing spices.”
The casual mention of Noah sends a flutter through my chest, the bond responding to his name like a tuning fork. I push the sensation aside, focusing on the matter at hand.
Just like I try to ignore the fact that he is definitely avoiding me.
“So why are you here?” I ask again.
Grayson and Kai exchange a look that I can’t quite interpret. Then Kai slings an arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward Grayson’s truck.
“We’re your chauffeurs for the evening,” Kai explains cheerfully. “When Ghost here drove your car back this morning, he nearly got stuck in a drift the size of Texas. Road to the cabins isn’t passable in that little tin can you drive. You’d slide right back down the hill whenever you let off the gas. Plus, the power is out. Mrs. Whitesong is still staying in town with her daughter.”
I dig in my heels, stopping our progress toward the truck. “Wait, what? You’re chauffeuring me where, exactly?”
“To your cabin to pick up your stuff with Grayson’s truck and then back to my house,” Kai says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Unless you’ve got a better idea of where to sleep tonight? ‘Cause your cabin’s basically an igloo right now.”
I blink, processing this information. My cabin is still uninhabitable. I hadn’t even considered that possibility when I left Kai’s house this morning. I feel uneasy at the thought of returning there, but where else am I supposed to go?
“It’s a little early to be suggesting I move in with you, isn’t it?” I quip, trying to lighten the sudden awkwardness I feel.
Grayson, who has been silent until now, makes a sound that is just barely made up of words. “Is it?”
Kai elbows him sharply. “Dude, not helpful.”
Heat rushes to my face as the implication sinks in. They know. Of course they know. About the bond bite. About what happened between Noah and me. How could they not? They all live together, and the bond mark isn’t exactly subtle.
God, what must they think of me?
“Look,” Kai says, his voice gentler now, “we’ll take you wherever you want to go. There’s a room for rent above the diner that you can probably have, if that’s what you’d prefer. But you’re also more than welcome to stay with us. No pressure, no expectations.”
I weigh my options, the practical part of my brain warring with the more reckless part that’s been grabbing for the wheel ever since I got here. The sensible choice would be to maintain some distance, to find neutral territory while I figure out what this bond with Noah means for my future.
But the thought of spending another night alone, in a strange room above a diner, makes something in me ache. I’ve been alone for so long, hiding who I am, keeping everyone at arm’s length. And it was so lonely up on that mountain, in that tiny cabin with only my secrets for company.
Maybe it’s time to stop running.
“Okay,” I say finally, the word feeling like a surrender and a beginning all at once. “I’ll stay at your house. Just until the roads are cleared.”
Kai’s face breaks into a wide grin, and even Grayson’s eyes seem to soften slightly behind his mask. Without another word, Grayson takes my medical bag from my shoulder, his fingers brushing mine in a gesture that feels oddly intimate.
As I climb into the back seat of Grayson’s truck, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m crossing a threshold I won’t be able to uncross. But for the first time in a long time, that doesn’t terrify me as much as it should.
After I pick up more of my clothes and belongings, the drive to Kai’s house—which I now realize is actually effectively Kai and Grayson’s house, possibly Noah’s too—is mostly silent. Grayson focuses on navigating the treacherous roads, his hands steady on the wheel as we climb higher into the mountains. Kai fiddles with the radio, eventually settling on a classic rock station that plays softly in the background.
I watch the snow-covered landscape pass by outside my window, trying to prepare myself for what comes next. Living under the same roof as three alphas, one of whom I’m now bonded to. It’s like the setup for a trashy alpha-omega romance novel, the kind Josie would leave lying around the apartment that I never admit to her I’d read in secret.
Except this is my life now. Not fiction.
