The word hit like a match to gasoline. Ours. He didn’t mean it lightly, and neither did I. The air seemed to shift, thick and humming. Jay’s usually easy calm hardened, his jaw tight. I could feel the edge of his anger, cool but lethal.
“This isn’t a game anymore,” he said.
“No,” I agreed. My voice came out rough, the alpha in me surfacing, sharp and unrelenting. “It’s not.”
For a second, no one spoke. The storm rolled closer, thunder low and distant. My instincts screamed. Hunt. Protect.Claim.
I turned toward them, mask settling into place, vision tunneling to purpose. “Find her,” I ordered. My tone left no room for doubt or hesitation.
Rhett released a snarl, far more animal than man. Jay’s eyes, barely visible beneath the mask, were cold steel.
“No mercy for him,” I added. I didn’t have to say it twice.
“Didn’t plan on any.” Rhett’s grin was in his voice, a razor now. Jay just nodded, a dark promise flickering behind his eyes.
The storm broke as we stepped off the porch, icy rain starting to hit the earth. It wouldn’t be long before it turned into sheets. Lightning split the sky, and I scowled. The rain would muddy her scent, distort his.
“We’re connected,” I reminded them. “The bond is there, we just have to seal it. Use it.” Before my restraint snapped, Ineeded them to remember because somewhere out there, in that endless stretch of wilderness, Wren was waiting for us.
And Rylan was hunting her. That combination was all I needed to let the alpha take over. We were done waiting. We were going after her.
Now.
Chapter
Forty
WREN
At first, it was freedom.
The kind that tasted like cold air and pine sap, like rain-soaked earth and adrenaline. My boots splashed through puddles, mud streaking my calves, my breath coming out in laughter I didn’t mean to release. My heart was pounding, not from fear, but fromwant.
For once, I didn’t fight it. The heat was coming for me — slow, sure, inevitable — and I let it.
The cabin was behind me, a quiet little ghost, and I’d left my blockers sitting uselessly on the counter. The choice hadn’t felt monumental when I made it, but now it echoed through my body like a drumbeat. I hadn’t gone back on the suppressors. I hadn’t smothered the thing I’d spent months trying to control.
No. I wantedthem.
Roan. Rhett. Jay.
The thought of them out there somewhere — strong, relentless,mine— made every nerve light up. The night air was damp and heavy with ozone, the scent of the storm building on the horizon. My skin prickled, temperature spiking from the inside out. The heat pulsed through me, low and deep and wild.
For the first time, I wasn’t ashamed of it.
I was savoring it.
I’d spent so long pretending that this part of me was an inconvenience — a hazard, a liability, something that needed masking. But right now, out here in the trees, under the weight of the storm, it felt likepower.Every exhale left a trail of my scent — sweet, ripe, undeniable — and I didn’t bother to hide it.
Let them find me.
Let them chase.
Let them claim what was already theirs.
The first drops of rain hit my skin, sharp and icy, shocking against the fever simmering under the surface. The storm rolled closer, thunder crawling over the mountains like a living thing. I tilted my head back, laughed softly at the sky. I wanted to feeleverything.The chill. The burn. The hunger.
But then?—
