I slumped in relief.
As predicted, Sin slammed into the room. “What the hell is going on here?”
Crescent immediately lifted the sketches, struggling to hold all three in her hands to show them off, but I didn’t dare try and help.
They were all keys.
Not just any, but ones from her nest. Ones she’d had to give up—and her favourite ones of all, that still lived on her large keyring.
I’d memorized the curves and notches, drawing them out to be near-perfect representations. The library keys. The contraband room key. And the rut cage keys, both to the cage where Sin had claimed her, and the one she’d saved us from.
My racing heart calmed as I watched Sin scan the art, his annoyed expression softening. I don’t think he wanted to be hostile—he wouldn’t admit it, but we all knew his hormones were wrecking him right now.
“They’re pretty,” he admitted quietly. Sin crawled into the nest, leaning in to run his fingers down one of the pencil lines.
Of course, he didn’t get growled at for doing it.
God,Iwanted sigma privileges.
I curled closer to Crescent, emotions feeling a little raw, tucking her head to my chest. Sin kissed her nose, then looked up at me assessingly.
“I’m not bringing you hash browns,” he stated. “But you can stay.”
Yes!
And by Sin’s grace, I absolutely did.
For a time, it was perfect. I don’t know how long passed, but all of a sudden he let out a snarl, and dragged Crescent away from me.
I froze, glancing between them. But there were hormones in the air.
A lot of them.
But this definitely explained a hell of a lot of the last week, because this was desert eclipse like it had never been.
The heat that had just hit their nest was definitely Sin’s.
56
SIN
I was supposed to share.
I knew that.
That’s what we’d talked about. A deeper, more natural part of my instincts evenwantedthat. I could feel my whole pack in the bond, but something more raw, more recent was strangling that part of me to death.
I hadn’t relaxed until there were no alphas in the nest, their scents fading beside her, their presence no longer a threat to my claim.
She was here. My mate.
She was all I needed… I thought.
And I hadn’t felt this connected to her since…
I flinched.
The vision of Holden pinning her to the wall flashed in my mind. It was hard to get rid of it. It was like I was tied together by those moments in which my aura was out. First it was Edward trying to bite me—the dweller pack who thought they could lay claim to a sigma.
