Icouldn’t think. My head spun, the world shifting beneath my feet, but I heard them. I felt them, and that, more than anything, was what made my hand move.
My fingers twitched against the cool handle of the door. I pressed my palm against it, steadying myself, even as the world seemed to tilt.No.
No. No.
They couldn’t be here. Couldn’t be.
I turned the knob. My vision swam—blurred. My pulse felt like it was thundering in my throat, thick and heavy, as I pulled the door open just a crack.
The shadows outside looked like them—likethem—but they were ghosts, vague shapes.
It was too much.
Rhett’s warmth washed over me, a low simmering storm, thick and spicy. I didn’t know whether tofightorcollapseinto it, because every inch of my skinachedfor it. And Jay—God, Jay was cold, so cold, like ice and earth, sharp enough to freeze the air around him, while Roan—Roan was steady, pulling gravity in on itself until all I could feel was the space between us and how much I craved it.
Everything wastoo much.
I couldn’t breathe.
“Wren,” Jay said, his voice strained, but it was like the words were coming from miles away.
I wanted toleaninto him. I wanted to feel his quiet strength wrap around me.
But I couldn’t.
“Are you real?” I whispered, my throat raw, even though it was the stupidest question I could have asked.
A low chuckle from Rhett, and his voice rumbled in that damn way that made my insides twist.
“Yeah, baby. We’re real.” He took a step forward, but Roan was faster, his arm snapping out to shove Rhett back before his fingers could even graze my skin.
Rhett’s growl was low, but Roan didn’t even flinch. He just locked eyes with him, something like a warning flashing between them.
“No,” Roan said, voice low and steady. “Not yet. Not without her permission.”
Rhett sneered, but I saw the tension between them, the way Roan’s wordslandedon Rhett. It made my stomach turn in knots, a whole mess of hunger and need.
I wanted them. I wanted to feel them.All of them.
But I couldn’t even focus. The fog in my mind was too thick.
Roan’s gaze moved to me. And as if the world had shifted, he came into sharper focus, his shoulders, the set of his jaw, the dark intensity of his eyes. He didn’t move closer, though. Not yet. Just stood there, towering, calm, in a way I didn’t understand.
I was burning from the inside out. And ithurt.
“Wren.”
His voice broke through the haze, steady and controlled, everything about him likeicein the fire.
The scent of them—ofall three—was everywhere, seeping into my lungs, flooding me. It didn’t feelreal, it felt like too much, toofast.
I reached for the doorframe. My fingers ached, my legs weak beneath me.
“I don’t… I don’t know…” I was whispering, barely able to even form words.
But Roan was there in an instant, his body filling the space between us, blocking out the rest of the world. He wasn’t touching me, but he was close enough to make my whole body pulse with that illusion of contact.
“You don’t need to know yet,” he murmured, low and reassuring, like he was trying to anchor me. “You’re okay.”
