Because I wasn’t running from this anymore and like hell I’d let her run either.
Chapter
Seventeen
WREN
Isurfaced slowly—like rising from deep water, every movement heavy, every thought too slow to catch.
The air was warm. Too warm. My skin prickled with sweat under the blanket wrapped around me, the weight of it a barrier between me and the fire still burning low in my belly.
I was still in my room. I could tell by the ceiling, by the scent of clean linen, by the faint hum of a ventilation unit that probably hadn’t worked properly in years. But that wasn’t what held me still.
It was him.
Roan.
He was beneath me—or rather,behindme, the solid wall of his chest pressed lightly to my back, arms looped around me on the outside of the blanket, cradling me without touching me. Protective. Steady. Impossibly careful.
His head rested back against the wall, tilted slightly to one side in such a manner that could not possibly be comfortable. His eyes were closed, his breathing deep and even.
Asleep.
The realization hit me like a strange, unearned gift. Roan was here.Stillhere. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t left, hadn’t run—noteven when my body had been all scent and heat and confusion. He’d stayed.
I let my eyes linger on him, drinking him in without shame.
Gods, he was beautiful.
Tall and broad even in rest, his frame always took up more space than he seemed to realize. The pale blonde of his hair—cropped short, always neat—stood out against the darker shadows of the room. His features were sharply defined, aristocratic almost, if not for the quiet strength they held.
Roan had always been handsome, but neversoft. He wore calm like armor. Carried himself with the kind of precision you didn’t teach—youtrainedit into bone. And still, now, in sleep, his expression was peaceful. Guard down.
Steel-gray eyes hidden behind thick lashes. Brows relaxed. The tension I’d seen in him for days—maybeyears—finally smoothed away.
He always looked like this in moments of stillness. Like the world could fall apart around him and he’d pick up the pieces with those capable, unshakable hands.
A tactician. A protector. A leader.
An alpha who never once threw his weight around. If anything, he overcorrected—stepping back, pulling inward, avoiding dominance like it might hurt someone. Likehemight hurt someone.
It made me ache in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
Worse—it reminded me brutally that my heat was still here. Still alive and simmering in every part of me. What had been dulled by exhaustion and shock was now brightening again, fueled by proximity, by scent, by the slow realization thatRoanwas the source of so much of the need clawing through me.
It surged the longer I stared at him. My skin flushed hot, my throat tightening. A little sigh slipped from me before I couldstop it. I closed my eyes and turned my head, trying to will the desire back down. Trying to focus on anythingelse.
That’s when I saw him.
Jay.
Sitting just across the room, quiet and watchful in a chair I hadn’t even heard move. Elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped, his expression unreadable—but not unkind.
He didn’t flinch when I met his gaze. Didn’t pretend to look away like he hadn’t seen every second of that private, hungry moment I’d just had with Roan’s sleeping form.
He was just...there. Patient. Steady.
Waiting for me to notice him.
