He also looks… content? Is that possible?
Brutus huffs, tosses his head, and turns away like we’re boring him.
“Oh, things are going to be so much crazier, aren’t they?” I ask.
They laugh and pull me in like everything I’ve ever wanted is wrapped up in three impossible men and one psychotic bull.
“I love you so much, June.” Kai’s voice is rough with emotion, stripped of his usual humor. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I adore you.”
“You’re everything,” Carter says, quiet but sure, his arms tight around me.
Seth doesn’t speak right away. He just holds me, face tucked into my hair, breath warm against my neck. “I’m going to love you forever, darlin’.”
“I love you all,” I tell them, and the words feel too small for what I mean, but they’re the truest thing I have. “So much it scares me.”
“Good scare or bad scare?” Kai asks.
“The best kind,” I manage, laughing a little.
We stay there, the four of us tangled together in the yard at the start of a life I never let myself picture too clearly.
“This house is perfect,” I whisper, and I mean it. Right now I have everything.
Even if a small, scared part of me is still waiting for my body to catch up.
EPILOGUE
JUNE
Two Months Later
Iwake slowly, drifting up through layers of warmth and comfort like swimming toward the surface of a deep, still pool. The afternoon light filters through the curtains.
The bedroom is enormous. When we first moved in, the guys insisted on custom-ordering the biggest bed I’ve ever seen, large enough for all four of us to sleep side by side without anyone getting relegated to the foot of the mattress. It dominates the room, draped in soft sheets and weighted blankets and more pillows than any reasonable person needs.
I’m tangled in those sheets now, my body twisted around them like I’ve been fighting in my sleep. Which, knowing the past few days, I probably have been.
Something has been wrong with me lately. Not wrong, exactly, but off. Different. I’ve been exhausted constantly. For the past three days, I’ve been sleeping more than I’ve been awake, dragging myself out of bed only when absolutely necessary before crawling back under the covers.
The only thing that seems to help is being in our bed surrounded by the scent of my Alphas, cuddling into every pillow and blanket and inch of fabric. Their scents settle something restless inside me.
I shift slightly, and my arm tightens around Kai’s body pillow pressed against my side. There are two others now, one with Carter’s image and one with Seth’s, all of them arranged around me in a configuration that probably looks ridiculous from the outside.
A nest, I realize suddenly.I’ve built myself a nest.
The thought should surprise me, but it doesn’t. It feels right and natural. When the guys come to bed at night, they toss the body pillows aside to make room for themselves. All except Kai, whom I once caught snuggling his own pillow with a completely unashamed grin on his face.
I smile at the memory, even through the fog of exhaustion still clinging to my brain. I stretch carefully.
I’m burning up, my skin radiating heat as though I’ve been lying in direct sunlight for hours. Even the light cotton of my sleep shirt feels unbearably heavy against my skin.
I kick off the blankets and immediately miss their weight. Then I pull them back up because I’m cold. Then I kick them off again because I’m too hot. The contradiction is maddening.
“What the hell?” I mutter, pushing myself up to sit. The room tilts slightly before stabilizing, and I reach for the water bottle on the nightstand. Someone has been keeping it filled for me, along with an array of snacks. Chocolate. Cookies. Crackers and cheese. Little things I can graze on when getting up feels like too much effort.
I drink deeply, but the water doesn’t help. If anything, it makes the inferno inside me worse, like I’m trying to cool a bonfire with a teaspoon.
Maybe we need another fan in here. Or to turn the air-conditioning down to arctic levels. Or to move to Alaska entirely.
