Morning light filters through the windows. The window seat Nate designed. The view of Theo’s garden—roses dormant now, bare branches and brown earth waiting for spring. Nine years ago, they built this room, scent-marked it, and waited.
For someone who might never come back.
And I was in LA writing books about them like some kind of emotionally stunted stalker.
Cool. Very normal. Not pathetic at all.
A cramp rolls through my belly, pulling me out of my spiral. Right. Pre-heat. That’s still happening.
Nate’s arm tightens around me, his purring kicking up a notch. Through the bond, I feel him surface into awareness. Contentment. Warmth. A fierce possessiveness that probably should bother me.
Shockingly, it doesn’t.
“Morning.” His voice is gravel and sleep, his lips brushing against his mark on my neck.
“Morning.”
He doesn’t say anything else. Just presses his nose to my shoulder and breathes me in like I’m oxygen and he’s been drowning.
Very communicative. Classic Nate.
In front of me, Lucas stirs. His eyes open—immediately alert, immediately checking my temperature with the back of his hand. The man can’t turn off doctor mode if his life depends on it.
“How are you feeling?”
“Crampy. Maybe a four out of ten.”
“Temperature’s elevated.” His thumb strokes my wrist. “It’ll get worse before it breaks.”
“Thanks, WebMD.”
His mouth twitches. “I went to medical school.”
“Show-off.”
At the foot of the nest, Theo makes a noise like a dying walrus and rolls over. “Why is everyone talking?”
“Because it’s nine AM,” Lucas says.
“Exactly. The middle of the night.”
“That’s not—” Lucas pinches the bridge of his nose. “Never mind.”
Theo sits up, hair sticking out in seventeen directions. He looks at the three of us—Nate wrapped around me, Lucas still holding my hand—and his expression goes soft in a way that makes my chest hurt.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey yourself.”
“Sleep okay?”
“Best I have in years, actually.”
His smile breaks open like sunrise. God, that smile. Ten years and it still does things to me.
Another cramp hits, harder this time. I wince before I can stop myself.
“Okay.” Theo’s up instantly, the sleepiness gone. “Breakfast. I’ve got it.” He points at Lucas. “You can make coffee. That’s it. Last time you helped, you somehow burned water.”
