The words landed like blows, each one driving the breath from my lungs.
"My friends—" I started, my voice cracking.
"What friends?" Leo cut me off, not cruelly, but with a certainty that hurt worse than cruelty would have. He stood, unfolding his tall frame from the chair with predatory grace, and crossed to the edge of the bed, the edge of the nest, stopping there. Waiting. "You haven't made a real connection in three years. You kept everyone at arm's length because you knew, deep down, that letting anyone close was dangerous."
He crouched down, bringing himself to eye level with me, and for a moment the playful mask slipped completely. Underneath was something raw. Something hungry. Something that had been waiting a very long time.
"We watched you, Ava," he said softly, and there was no laughter in his voice now. "Every day for three years. We watched you eat alone and sleep alone and cry alone. We watched you build little nests out of blankets and pillows and pretend you didn't know why. We watched you check your locks seven times before bed and jump at every shadow and live in constant, grinding terror of the life you were trying to build."
"That life was mine," I whispered, my voice cracking. I hated it. "It wasn't much, but it was mine. And you took it."
"We gave you a better one," he told me simply, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I didn't ask for?—"
"You didn't have to." He reached out, and for a moment I thought he was going to touch my face. His hand hovered in the air between us, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. Then he dropped it, curling his fingers into a fist at his side.
"You've been ours since you were ten years old, Ava," he said, his gray eyes boring into mine. "Since the day you walked into Harper Manor with your mother and looked at us like we were the most terrifying, fascinating things you'd ever seen. We've just been waiting for you to remember."
I wanted to tell him he was wrong. That I'd never wanted them, never thought about them, never dreamed about four faces I couldn't escape no matter how far I ran. The words wouldn't come. They would have been lies. And he could smell lies.
"Eat something," Leo said, standing abruptly. The mask slid back into place, that easy smile returning like it had never left. But I'd seen what was underneath now. I couldn't unsee it. "Or don't. The hunger is only going to make the heat worse, and trust me, sweetheart—" He shot me a wink as he headed for the door. "You want to be as strong as possible for what's coming."
He left, closing the door softly behind him. I stared at the food for a long time, a beautifully arranged plate of eggs and toast and fruit, steam still rising from the coffee beside it. My stomach cramped with hunger. My hands trembled with the need to reach for it.
Then I ate it, hating myself with every bite.
The afternoon passed in a haze of misery. My body was getting worse. The cramping had intensified, spreading from my lower belly into my back, my thighs, every muscle I possessed. I was sweating and shivering at the same time, my skin too hot and too cold, my nerve endings screaming for something I refused to name.
And the slick. God, the slick.
It had soaked through my underwear hours ago. I'd changed twice already, digging through the drawers of clothes they'd provided, finding everything in my size, my style, my preferred fabrics. They knew me so well. They'd been studying me for so long. Now it was soaking through my third pair of underwear, and I'd given up trying to stay dry. I just lay in my nest, surrounded by softness, and tried not to think about what was coming.
Caleb appeared in the doorway sometime around sunset.
He didn't speak. Didn't enter. Just stood there, filling the doorframe with his massive shoulders, watching me with those ice-blue eyes that had haunted my nightmares for three years.
He was the biggest of the four brothers—six-foot-four and built like a wall of solid muscle. Where Mason was athletic and Leo was lean, Caleb was just... big. Broad shoulders that strained the seams of his black henley. Arms thick with muscle that could crush bone without effort. A chest that could block out the light. His dark hair was cropped shorter than I remembered, almost military in its precision, and there was stubble shadowing his jaw that made him look even more dangerous.
His face was hard, all harsh lines and brutal angles, a square jaw and a nose that had been broken at least once. He would never be called handsome the way Leo was handsome. He was too severe for that, too intense. There was something compelling about his features, something that made it impossible to look away.
Maybe it was the eyes. Those ice-blue eyes, so pale they were almost silver, set beneath heavy dark brows in a face that could have been carved from stone. They burned with an intensity that made my breath catch, a hunger that was barely leashed.
Of all of them, Caleb scared me the most.
Mason was dangerous in a subtle way, all patience and gentleness hiding something terrifying underneath. Ethan was dangerous in a clinical way—cold and calculating, always three steps ahead. Leo was dangerous in an unpredictable way, laughter and cruelty mixing until you couldn't tell them apart. Caleb was dangerous in a simple, primal way. He looked at me like he wanted to devour me whole. Like the only thing keeping him from crossing the room and taking what he wanted was the thinnest thread of control.
Pine and woodsmoke and bitter winter cold. His scent rolled over me even from across the room, making my body clench with need I couldn't hide.
"What do you want?" I asked, my voice rough from disuse. He didn't answer. Just kept watching, those pale eyes tracking every micro-movement I made. His hands hung at his sides, fingers flexing slightly, like he was restraining himself from reaching for something.
"If you're trying to intimidate me, it's working," I said, pulling the blankets tighter around myself as if they could protect me. "Congratulations. Now go away."
Nothing. Not a word. Not a sound. Just that unwavering stare.
"Caleb." I let annoyance sharpen my voice, covering the fear underneath. "I said go away."
Still nothing. Those eyes never blinked. Never wavered. Just stared at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered. Something shifted in my chest. Fear, yes—but underneath it, something else. Something warm and wanting that made my Omega perk up with interest.
