Dane sets my suitcase by the bed, then steps back, his hands clasped behind his back like a soldier at ease. “Security panel by the door,” he says, nodding to a small touchscreen I hadn’t noticed. “Controls the room temperature, lights, privacy settings for the windows.”
“Privacy settings?”
“They can go opaque,” Tristan explains. “For when you don’t want the neighbors watching you dance around in your underwear.”
Diego elbows him, and Tristan winces. “What?”
I ignore the underwear comment. “The nearest building looks about half a mile away,” I point out, gesturing to the view.
“Telescopes exist,” Dane says matter-of-factly.
Great. Now I have to worry about pervy astronomers, too?
“You must be hungry,” Diego says, changing the subject. “I can make something if you’d like. Or we can order in.”
The mention of food makes my stomach growl embarrassingly loud. I realize I haven’t eaten since lunch, and it’s now well past midnight. “I could eat,” I admit.
“Perfect!” Diego’s face brightens. “I’ll put something together. Come out when you’re ready.”
The four of them stand there for a moment, watching me. I wait for them to leave, but they seem frozen in place, like they’re waiting for something from me.
“Um, I’d like to get settled,” I say finally, gesturing vaguely to my suitcase. “Maybe freshen up?”
“Right,” Rett says, snapping out of whatever collective trance they were in. “Of course. We’ll be in the kitchen.”
They file out one by one, Tristan giving me a mock salute as he passes, Diego a warm smile, and Dane a solemn nod. Rett is the last to leave, his hand lingering on the doorknob.
“The lock works,” he says, his voice oddly gentle. “Test it if you want.”
Then he pulls the door closed behind him, leaving me alone in this ridiculously luxurious room.
The moment the door clicks shut, I release a breath. My legs feel shaky, and I sink onto the edge of the bed, the mattress giving just the right amount under my weight.
“What am I doing?” I whisper to the empty room.
The claiming marks on my neck throb in response, a warm pulse that sends a shiver down my spine. I press my fingers against them, tracing the outlines that have become so familiar in such a short time. They’re still there. Still warm. Still real. Still bonding me to four alphas I barely know.
With a groan, I flop back onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Get it together, Zoe,” I mutter. “This is temporary. Just until they catch whoever broke into the gallery.”
But even as I say it, a small voice in the back of my mind whispers: And what if they don’t?
I push the thought away and force myself to stand. I need to unpack, to carve out some semblance of normalcy in this bizarre situation.
My suitcase looks pathetically small against the opulence of the room. I unzip it and begin pulling out clothes, hanging them in the walk-in closet that’s bigger than my bedroom at home. My t-shirts and jeans look like orphans among the empty hangers, designed for a wardrobe ten times the size of mine.
In the bathroom, I line up my drugstore toiletries on a counter that’s clearly used to hosting much fancier products. Theshower has so many jets and nozzles it looks like it could launch into space.
“Don’t get used to this,” I tell my reflection in the massive mirror. “This isn’t your life.”
But my reflection looks unconvinced, her eyes too wide, her cheeks too flushed. A low, persistent heat throbs at the base of my throat, like a pulse that isn’t entirely my own.
I splash cold water on my face, trying to shock some sense back into my system. It doesn’t help. I still feel unmoored, adrift in a sea of luxury and alpha pheromones.
With a deep breath, I change into clean jeans and a simple t-shirt. Nothing fancy, nothing that suggests I’m trying to impress anyone. Just regular clothes for a regular person who happens to be temporarily living with four abnormally attractive, obscenely wealthy alphas who have claimed her in a moment of drunken madness.
Totally normal.
I turn the lock on the door and step out into the hallway. The sound of voices guides me back toward the kitchen, where I find all four of them in various states of…domestic activity.
