Lila sleeps peacefully on her side with her back to me and a hand tucked beneath her cheek. Her breathing is slow andquiet, and more than anything, she looks at ease. Unbothered by disdain for me or the reality of our situation.
My chest tightens just from looking at her, and in a way, she looks like the girl I knew before. Of course, that time hadn’t been easy for her either, and I was partly to blame.
Even acknowledging that fact tears something up inside me, but I don’t deserve to ignore it. By now, I can’t.
Inhaling again, I let her scent from across the room anchor me despite the anger I hold for myself and how I treated her in the past. I remind myself why I have to earn every scrap of trust she might one day have for me, and why I can’t rush anything, despite how badly I want to.
As the room slowly brightens, Lila shifts and turns over, eyes fluttering briefly before they finally open. For a moment, she looks disoriented and soft. Almost warm, in some innocent way.
Then she sees me, and a small crease forms between her brows. She stiffens slightly. “Were you watching me?”
Stretching my arms behind my head, I mask the fact that I have been caught, and I give her a subtle teasing grin. “Only for the last hour.”
Her eyes narrow, but she avoids the territory altogether. “Whatever…”
“Good morning to you, too.”
She sits up with a forced breath, as if resigned to all of this, and rubs at her eyes. The moment forces her scent to waft in my direction, and at once, my inner wolf surges so violently that I have to clench my jaw and grip the couch cushion to keep it down.
“Don’t even think about it,” Lila mumbles, eyeing me like she can feel my restraint from there.
“I didn’t do anything.”
Technically, it is true. It’s not like I’ve even left the couch yet.
She gives me a warning look, as if to say she doesn’t buy it. “You’re thinking too loud.”
Forcing a breath through my nose, my grin lingers. “Consider it payback for your mental noise yesterday.”
Despite herself, her cheeks fill with color. If I were a worse man, that would’ve been enough to send me barreling towards her.
“I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“But it still counts.”
Lila’s glare sharpens, but it’s not as sharp around the edges as it was before. Whether she knows it or not, cracks are forming in her resolve, and I’m not blind to them.
Sitting up now, I stretch the aches and stiffness in my neck, hoping to distract myself from the lingering thoughts that don’t at all help my situation.
“I’ll make breakfast, then we can—”
A knock at the door cuts through the quiet, and my brows furrow at once. Lila stiffens, surely making the same connection that I do.
Nobody is meant to disturb us. Nobody is even supposed to check in until we decide we’re finished with the cabin, but someone is obviously here.
Instinctively, I get up, putting myself between her and the door. Bristling, I pull in what I can from the nearby scents, but my guard lowers at how familiar they are.
Wordlessly, I go to the door and pull it open to find Dominic, Luke, and my childhood friend Jack on the other side. The former grins, looking far too amused.
“If it isn’t the new Alpha in hislove nest,” he teases, not at all afraid to needle despite knowing the volatile state a new bond can put you in. “Already working on the offspring?”
I grimace at his words, feeling the visceral way Lila reacts to them through the bond. I clench my jaw and mutter through clenched teeth, “Why are you here? You’re not supposed to be.”
Luke sighs with his arms crossed, visibly unimpressed by Dominic’s entrance. “We’re not exactly here for fun.”
Glancing between them, I catch the grave expression on Jack’s face, and I already know something’s up. He has always kept an eye on things for me, even when we were younger, and I know he doesn’t bother me with things unless he feels they’re important.
With that in mind, I look back at Lila to see her already out of bed with a sweater pulled around herself. “Can you give us a minute?”
