Bryce had built his life around Matt because no one else measured up. And then Jesse had come along. And that was that.
He’d stepped back, like he was supposed to. And yeah, that had hurt. But the strangest thing was that, once he’d stepped back, once he’d really looked at Matt and Jesse together, he hadn’t felt the mortal wound he expected. Just a kind of quiet resignation. And after a while, even that faded.
Maybe his love for Matt had become habit, somewhere over the years, and he hadn’t noticed when it changed.
And now Tom Barrington was right within reach, smart and kind and frustratingly hot. Realizing he’d moved on from Matt should have freed him. But everything he knew had changed. Everything he’d clung to since he was sixteen—every signpost, every certainty—was gone. And he didn’t know how to navigate without them.
Karl gave a soft chuff of acknowledgment up ahead as they met up with Matt and Jesse, and Bryce yanked his attention back to the trail. They were nearly done.
He shifted to human form back at the house, the cold air biting at his skin. As he dressed, the unease still simmered in his chest. What he’d felt last night, and again this morning—it hadn’t been just sex. It had been something more. Something he couldn’t explain, didn’t have a framework for.
And for the first time in forever, there was no wall between him and the possibility of wanting something real. He had no more excuses, and that scared the hell out of him. But then he thought of Tom’s smile and the weight of his hand resting easy on Bryce’s hip like it belonged there, and somehow, fear wasn’t the only thing he felt.
Bryce yanked his t-shirt over his head and looked out across the yard.
“Who do you want out there with you tonight?” Matt asked Karl, who was crouching to lace his boots. “Jesse has to be at the meeting, and I need Bryce there too.”
The reminder that Matt needed him went some way to soothing the churning inside him.
“Colby,” Karl said, as he stood.
Matt’s eyebrows rose. “You sure?”
“Of course I’m fucking sure.” Karl’s voice was vicious, though as he glared at Matt he seemed to realize the disrespect he’d just shown his alpha. With a palpable effort he explained further, his words bitten off and abrupt.
“Colby’s got the training and, more importantly, good instincts. So long as nothing triggers him, he’ll do the job well. And if it comes to a fight, he’s the best of what’s left now you’ve sent Christian away.”
“And if something does trigger him?” Matt’s voice was calm and measured, in contrast to Karl’s choppiness.
“Then I’ll deal with it. If it happens, he won’t fight, not yet. He’ll just run. No one’s going to end up dead by mistake.”
“I’ll tell Colby,” Matt said neutrally. He looked hard at Karl a moment longer, then turned to go into the house.
Bryce knew just how much that calmness had cost Matt in the face of Karl’s attitude. But he also knew how uncharacteristic Karl’s behavior was.
The first few months Karl had been with the pack, he hadn’t exactly been sweetness and light, and there was a dominant streak in him that he’d had to work to overcome in order to accept Matt’s leadership. For the past couple of years, though, he’d been probably the most rock solid of the whole pack—quietly doing his job and doing it well, and seeming to know when to defuse difficult situations with a smartass remark. Bynot putting him down now, Matt was giving him the respect of recognizing that, but such indulgence would only be extended once.
He caught Jesse staring after Karl, who was stalking in the direction of his bunkhouse. When Jesse turned to look at him, his eyebrows raised questioningly, Bryce shook his head. He had no more idea than Jesse what was going on there.
They ate earlier than usual and in near silence. Karl didn’t come in for his meal. Colby skipped his too, ignoring Tristan’s protests in his eagerness to get out there and, Bryce thought, prove himself. It would do Colby a world of good to know he’d been chosen and was needed. There might be a future role for him in the pack as Karl’s second.
So everyone else’s lives seemed to be getting sorted out. Bryce should be happy about that, except for the part where he couldn’t use worrying about them as a distraction from his own life, just when he needed it. He’d been doingfine, thank you very much, before Tom fucking Barrington showed up.
“Bryce?” Tristan’s voice was cautious, and Bryce realized he was glaring at his empty plate, fist clenched on his fork.
He put the silverware down with a clatter. “Just thinking about tonight,” he said, and Tristan bought it.
Matt didn’t, though, and Bryce was relieved his alpha had too much on his mind right now to corner him after the meal and demand to be told. They knew each other too well. There could be no lies and no pretense between them. On everything except one thing, and Bryce had been lying to Matt for so long about that, it had become second nature.
They’d barely finished clearing away after the meal when a fleet of black SUVs had Tristan wriggling in excitement from his vantage point at the hallway window. Bryce looked over his shoulder to watch the cars disgorge four councilors and five security guards. All of the guards were dressed in fatiguesand combat boots and had a sidearm strapped to their thigh. Firearms were unusual in shifter circles, though it made sense if their primary role was to guard against attacks by anti-shifter bigots, for whom a gun would likely be a weapon of choice.
Bryce’s eyes narrowed, and he thought again about the bootprints Karl had found at the camp where Cale’s pack had been killed, and the way guns as well as wolves had been responsible for the deaths.
And then all other thoughts fled as he watched Tom climb out of one of the cars. He was wearing a gray suit that looked like it had been made for him, and the watchfulness in his brown eyes as he glanced around, the alertness and intelligence, made him all the more attractive. It wasn’t fair, looking like that.
Bryce turned sharply away from the window, the pull toward Tom rising like a tide, too strong and too fast to brace against. He’d meant to get his head straight before seeing Tom. But one look had undone him all over again.
This time, as acknowledgment of their visitors’ status, it was Matt who greeted them at the door. He showed them along the hallway and through the kitchen, out onto the back porch. There were so many of them, Bryce didn’t have a chance to exchange more than a nod with Tom, who was at the side of one of the councilors.
