“I could have kept going,” I muttered, because some habits were hard to kill.
“Of course you could have,” Elias responded. “That doesn’t mean you should.”
“Such a stubborn little thing,” Nox said cheerfully.
“Hypocrites, all of you,” I replied, but it didn’t have any real bite.
Griff’s fingers dug in a little harder in response. Not enough to hurt me. Just enough to remind me that they were my mates right now and that meant I wasn’t the alpha.
“You did good,” he said quietly, close to my ear. “Out there. In there. Wherever they shoved you today.”
“They shoved me into too many chairs in rooms with not enough air,” I complained.
“You didn’t let them shove you into any corners, though,” Bishop said. “That matters more.”
Eamon finished with bathing my feet, having massaged the soreness from them as he went, and set the cloth aside. He smoothed his thumbs over my knuckles. “I’m very proud you didn’t punch anyone,” he said.
“I thought about it,” I admitted.
“I know,” he grinned. “That’s why I’m proud.”
Nox shifted on the bed, leaning forward, bracing his elbows on his knees so his face was level with mine. “You realize you did it, right?” he asked. “Not just with Ashcroft. The rest of it. You broke the story they built around us.”
“I had help,” I said. “All of you. Zara. Sera. Their wolves. Mirae. The people in Ireland and on the Isle of Man. It tookallof us, working together to make this happen.”
“Yes,” he answered. “We know. But you were the one with the knife in your hand leading the charge.”
Heat crawled up my neck.
Elias’s hand came up to my cheek again, turning my face toward him. His eyes were warm and comforting and so full of adoration it was almost hard to look at.
“I love you,” he said.
Something in me went very still.
“I know you’ve been hearing a lot of people tell you what you are this week,” he went on. “Hero. Monster. Problem. Solution. I just want to make sure you hear this too. I love you, Tamsin Drake. For the way you fight. For the way you care. For the way you don’t break even when you think you might.”
My throat tightened.
“Elias…” I started.
He leaned in and kissed me. There was nothing hard or demanding about it. Just a slow, deep press of his mouth to mine, tasting of tea and warmth and the kind of patience that made my bones loose.
When he pulled back, Griff’s hands moved from my shoulders down to my upper arms. He squeezed once.
“Me too,” Griff said. “I love you.”
He sounded almost surprised at himself. I twisted to look back at him.
“I’ve loved you since Skye,” he went on, eyes serious. “Since you decided that you were going to fix the world with that knife and sheer willpower and dragged me along with you. I’d follow you through worse than this and I’d still think it was worth it.”
“You idiot,” I replied, voice cracking just a little.
He smiled, eyes soft. “Your idiot.” And he kissed me so gently for such a big man. My constant protector.
Eamon’s fingers tightened around mine briefly.
“I love you too,” he said, voice quieter than the others, but no less sure. “You pulled me out of a life where I was patchingup a broken system and pretending that was enough. You gave me a better life than hiding records and lying to parents. You made me believe in fixing the source of the problem, and not just the symptoms.”
