“My darling.”
“Junes.”
“Kit-kat.”
“Princess.”
I weep, curled up in a ball in the front seat, holding Marcus’ free hand all the while. Between hiccupping sobs, I tell them about how Rad touched me, how I’ve been plagued by nightmares. But each sobbed word rips through the darkness wrapped around my heart, purges it shred by shred. Every gasping breath I draw in brings with it the sweetest, sharpest relief, the feeling so poignant it pricks inside me like thorns. It scours me clean until I’m raw and tender. A new omega.
“I can’t wait to see all of you,” I finally say, my voice watery. “This summer was hell and I need… I need…”
Another round of tears pours from me, and I shake, squeezing Marcus’ hand.
All four of them talk at once, but it’s Luca’s voice that cuts above them all. “Whatever you need, princess, it’s yours. Cry, scream, or rage, we’ll be here for all of it. You’re almost home.”
Home.
Saints, that’s what finally lets me find the stillness within myself. That’s what stops my tears.
Home.
Because that’s what these men are to me: my home.
* * *
Cassian and Simonmeet us in the parking lot just across the creek from the omega residences and Simon tugs the town car’s door open the moment Marcus parks, then pulls me out and into his arms, burying his freckled face in my hair.
He lets out a muffled sob and holds me so tightly it’s like he’s trying to hold us both together, like we might fly apart in millions of pieces if he dares let go. And I need it. I need his strong arms to keep me from breaking again.
Cassian engulfs me from the other side until I’m pressed between them, surrounded by their warmth, by Cassian’s sweet summer scent, sharp in his relief. He noses my throat and then Simon’s fingertips trail down my neck, his eyes following the touch until he sees the splotchy bruises beneath my skin.
“That son of a fucking bitch,” he swears, pressing kisses to every bruise.
Cassian stiffens behind me, a low growl rumbling in his chest. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Someone should,” Simon says. There’s a sharpness to his voice I’ve never heard before.
I finally look up into his hazel eyes. Dark bags streak beneath them, slashing across his freckled cheeks. My heart squeezes in my chest because, for as much as Rad has hurt me,he’sthe reason the sparkle in Simon’s eyes has dulled.
“I’m okay,” he promises, but his voice breaks.
“You’ll bothbeokay,” Cassian promises. “Whatever it takes, you’ll be okay. Come on, let’s go back to the house. Ian and Luca are picking up food. They’ll be back soon enough, and I need you in their arms, Junes. Please, for my sanity.”
I laugh a little. “Foryoursanity?”
“You need them, and I need you to be okay.”
I turn in his arms and nod against him, sighing as I relax against him. This thing between us, affection and uncertainty, is both old and new, but I know in the deepest parts of my heart that Cassian would do anything to see me and Simon safe and happy.
A low, creaky purr rumbles in his chest and I can’t help the tears that spring to the corners of my eyes. Saints above, Cassian Leclerc is purring for me. I’m in the arms of the first alpha I ever loved, and his purr is vibrating through the two of us, healing parts of me I didn’t even know were broken. We’ve come so far since we met at Fairhaven’s front gate just a year ago. The day he scorned me, the day he took a hex and fell to the scorched quad. All for me.
Simon drops down to the asphalt and waves his scribe beneath the town car, letting out a curse. “You were right, Cass. There’s a tracker. Good call.”
Cassian reluctantly releases me, his fingertips trailing down my bare arms, drawing out goose bumps wherever he touches me. I shiver in the cool evening until Simon pulls me back into his arms.
Cassian holds up a set of keys and nods to the black SUV behind us. “Haley, it’s yours as long as Juniper’s at Fairhaven.”
“Cass,” I protest. “It’s too much.”
