They changed for bed and brushed their teeth together in continuing silence. When they came out of the bathroom, Colby sat down heavily on the bed, his eyes far away.
Tristan dropped to sit beside him, his shoulder brushing Colby’s. “You okay?”
“No.” It didn’t sound bitter, just honest. His fingers were clenched in the comforter. “I keep thinking, what if something happens and I’m not there?”
Tristan was quiet for a beat, wondering how to deal with the pain in Colby’s voice. Then he said, very gently, “It’s not your job to protect me.”
Colby turned to look at him. “It is. I’m your mate. And beyond that, even, there’s nothing more important than keeping you safe.”
The look in his eyes—exhausted, scared,hopeless—twisted Tristan’s heart. He’d known Colby was hurting, but this was the first time he’d seen how deep it ran, how much of him had been hollowed out by fear. Even with so little left, he’d been trying to rebuild, with a dogged, quiet courage. And it had all fallen apart once he heard Tristan was going back there, to Cale’s compound. To the place that, for Colby, had been hell on earth.
He slid a hand behind Colby’s neck and pressed their foreheads together. “Nothing’s going to happen.” He knew with everything in him that he’d be safe with his pack. He just had to convince Colby.
“You don’t know that.”
“No. But I know my pack. I know Matt, Bryce, Karl. They’re not going to let anything happen to me.”
Colby exhaled shakily. “I want to believe that.”
“I know.”
They stayed like that for a long moment, forehead to forehead, breath to breath. Then Colby shifted, pulling backjust far enough to slide under the covers. His movements were slow, resigned, like a soldier bracing for another long fight.
Tristan followed him in, switching off the lamp, letting the darkness settle. They curled together in bed, Colby pressed into his side. One of his hands found Tristan’s top and curled there, fisted in the fabric as if it tethered him.
And just when Tristan thought Colby had drifted off, he heard a whisper against his shoulder. “Stay close. Please.”
And Tristan understood. Not just with his heart, but in his wolf, his blood, his bones.
“Always,” he said softly. “I’ll never leave you.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
COLBY
Colby startled awake at the sound of pounding on the door, his body still warm from sleep, his mind slow to remember what day it was. Then it hit. Today.
“Forty minutes.” He couldn’t tell whose voice it was, but it was deep and businesslike.
Tristan was stirring beside him and reality crashed in on Colby. Tristan was going to face Cale and Nico. Without him.
“Morning.” Tristan’s voice was deep with sleep, and he’d propped himself up on one elbow to look at Colby. “Now there’s a sight I could get used to,” he said. Like he’d forgotten what today was.
Or maybe… maybe this was his way of coping with it, in which case, Colby would play along. Anything to get Tristan through this unscarred.
“You and me both,” he said, and trailed a finger down Tristan’s cheek.
Tristan leaned down to kiss him, and Colby held him close, telling himself this wasn’t the last time. That Tristan would be back. That he’d still beTristan,no matter what happened.
Tristan explored Colby’s mouth with increasing intent, and his cock was pushing eagerly against Colby. But however much Colby wanted this, and wanted to give Tristan this, part of his brain couldn’t switch off. He pulled away, reluctantly. “We don’t have time,” he said. “Not if you’re going to shower.”
“Shower or you?” Tristan said, a grin in his eyes. “Not exactly a difficult choice.”
For an instant, Colby let himself drown in those eyes, in Tristan’s optimistic embrace of life, which held no fear about how wrong things could go. But he had to protect Tristan, so he smiled back at him, letting him know this wasn’t rejection, and threw back the covers.
“You can’t go in there with any scent of me on you,” he said. “Nico would smell it, and he’d go straight for you. You need to shower, and then we can’t touch again before you leave.”
Tristan’s brows drew down slightly as he climbed out of bed, as if, for the first time, he understood the gravity of what he was about to do. Tristan had his own history with Nico, brief but scarring. He knew the man’s violence. What he didn’t fully grasp was that Nico wasn’t just brutal. He was cruel. And Colby knew, it was the kind of cruel that didn’t just hurt a person—he made them thank him for it.
