Because this wasn’t about me. Not yet.
She’d taken risks—unnecessary ones. Dangerous ones. The kind that could have hurt her. The kind that had clearly hurt her already.
I had questions. Too many. But now wasn’t the time.
She was asleep now—fitful, restless, caught in half-dreams, murmuring things I couldn’t quite catch. Her fingers flexed in the blanket. I didn’t loosen my grip. I didn’t let myself respond.
One day, I’d ask her why. Why she chose this path. Why she thought she had to walk it alone. One day, I’d earn the right to those answers.
But not tonight.
Tonight, I would just hold her and burn.
She shifted again in my arms, a soft exhale warming the side of my neck, and I focused on the rhythm of her breathing. Slow. Uneven. But deeper now. Sleep was claiming her, if only in pieces.
Through the thin walls, I could hear Rhett pacing. His footsteps were steady, but erratic in pattern—he was struggling but thinking and worrying. I could hear Jay too, lighter on his feet, his movements purposeful. Cleaning, as he always did when he couldn’t fix something with his hands.
I didn’t blame either of them. This wasn’t something we could fix. Not easily.
My senses had been sharpening for days—maybe longer. Since we started tracking her, something inside me had started pulling tighter, tuning sharper, like a blade honing itself. At first I thought it was stress. Then instinct. Now… I wasn’t sure it wasn’t something else entirely.
I concentrated on my breathing—controlled, even—and felt it ripple outward. A steadying anchor. I let it bleed into the air around me, the way I’d done with the team more times than I could count. When adrenaline threatened to fracture cohesion mid-game, when panic clawed at the edge of someone’s focus—I could pull it down, spread calm like a blanket.
It was working now too. Rhett’s steps slowed. Jay’s cleaning settled into a softer rhythm.
EvenIcould think more clearly.
I looked down at her—atWren. The stubborn, sharp, guarded omega curled up against me, wrapped in a barrier of cloth and walls she’d built around herself for so long, I wasn’t sure she remembered how to step outside them. And still she’d let me do this. Trusted me to hold her. Tonotact on every instinct clawing at the inside of my ribcage.
I’d earned that much. Maybe not more.
But I’dearnthe rest. I had to.
My thoughts drifted, unbidden, to that night—two years back, after the championship. That party had been chaos. The kind that always came with victory: loud music, expensive liquor, and bodies pressed too close under the hot haze of triumph and sweat.
Most of the team dove in headfirst. Celebration in its rawest, wildest form.
I’d lasted maybe ten minutes before I’d peeled away from the crowd. The noise, the press of scents, the heat—it was all too much, too fast. Too hollow.
She’d been there, of course. Wren.
Working.
Wearing a dark suit with her hair twisted up and her sharp mouth set in that firm, unshakable line she wore like armor. Her tablet had been in one hand, her stylus twirling absently in the other as she monitored the event like it was a top-notch spy mission or something.
I could still picture the way her eyes would flick across the room, calculating the danger of every half-drunk millionaire and rising rookie with poor impulse control. It was adorable, in a way. Impressive, too. She was good at it. Always had been.
I sat beside her, nursing a drink I didn’t finish. She glanced at me, brow arched.
“No harem of admirers waiting for your attention?” she asked dryly.
“They can wait,” I said. “You’re the most interesting thing in the room.”
She’d rolled her eyes, but I caught the flicker of amusement she didn’t hide fast enough. That smile, biting and real, had stayed with me longer than I’d admitted at the time.
A woman had flung herself into my lap not ten minutes later—beautiful, eager, everything a man was supposed to want after a win like that. I’d stood, put her gently on her feet, and excused myself with a kind smile and a shake of the head.
Wren had looked at me, slightly bemused. “Youdoknow it’s legal to enjoy yourself after a win?”
