Espie stares at it. Her breathing goes shallow, her scent spiking. Sera doesn't move. Doesn't push. Just holds her hand there, open, unhurried, like she's done this before and knows that the only thing that works is waiting.
Seconds stretch. I count my heartbeats again. Twenty. Thirty. My jaw aches. I've locked my hands together behind my back. If I don't give them something to do they'll reach for her and that will end everything.
Espie looks at Sera's hand, then at Aubrey, then back at Sera's hand. Her lips move, whispering something too soft to hear. Aubrey's head turns. He looks at Sera too, really looks, his hazel-green eyes tracking her face with an awareness that still shocks me every time.
Espie's hand settles into Sera's. Small and trembling, but there.
“Good girl,” Sera breathes. “That's it. I've got you.”
She holds out her other hand toward Aubrey. Slow. Patient. The same open palm.
Aubrey looks at the offered hand. His gaze flicks to me, standing behind Sera, and he flinches. I step back. Give him space. Make myself as small as six-four and a head full of alpha pheromones allows.
Espie whispers something to him. Her lips brush his ear, her fingers squeezing his where they're still tangled together. Aubrey's throat bobs.
He puts his hand in Sera's.
Aubrey, reaching for someone. Aubrey, choosing contact. Aubrey, trusting an alpha enough to let her touch him, even if that alpha isn't me. Sera holds both their hands, kneeling on the driveway like she's praying. Her jaw trembles. I look at the fence.
Ezra appears at my shoulder. “She got through to them.” So quiet it barely makes it to me.
“Yeah.” My voice comes out like gravel. “She did.”
“Okay,” she says, her voice rough. “Let's get you inside.”
Espie uncurls from Aubrey slowly, and swings her legs out of the car. Her bare feet hit the driveway. Something in my sternum goes tight and mean. No shoes. I want to carry her. Want to scoop her up and bring her inside where it's warm.
She stands. Sways. Sera steadies her, and Espie grips her hand hard enough to shift Sera's knuckles.
“I've got you, Espie,” Aubrey whispers.
Lex makes a choked sound beside the front door. Ezra covers his mouth with his hand. Four words. Aubrey said four words. After months of nothing. It's not me he said them to. He slides out of the car, one hand still in Sera's, the other finding Espie's. His fingers close around hers like he's done it before, like some part of him already knows the shape of her hand.
That's okay. That has to be okay. He's back, and that's the only thing that matters right now.
They take a step. Then another. Espie's legs shake with each movement, her weight shifting to Aubrey every time her kneethreatens to buckle. Aubrey's not much better, listing slightly to one side, but he keeps her upright and she keeps him moving.
The porch stairs are three steps. Espie stares at them like they're a mountain.
“You can do it,” Sera says softly, still holding Espie's hand. “Take your time.”
Espie doesn't look at her. Doesn't acknowledge any of us. She lifts her foot, places it on the first step, and pulls Aubrey up behind her. Second step. Third. The porch creaks under their combined weight, and they both freeze, scanning for danger that isn't there. Lex stands motionless in the doorway, holding the door open.
Espie looks at the threshold. At the darkness beyond. At the house that smells like strangers and nothing familiar. She steps inside anyway.
Something shifts in my chest, low and animal and dumber than I'd like to admit, the moment her foot crosses into my space.Mine.The word surfaces and I push it back down hard. She's not mine, not yet, not in any way she's chosen. She's an omega walking into a stranger's house with nowhere else to go. I'm aware of the difference. I'm also aware that being aware of it isn't the same as feeling it.
Aubrey follows, their hands still locked together, and I trail behind them barely breathing.
“This way,” I say, guiding them toward the stairs. “We've got a room set up.”
A room. The nest room. The perfect sanctuary we'd designed for Aubrey months ago.
The nest room is on the third floor.
“Why the hell did we put it on the third floor?” Lex whispers beside me, his voice tight. “Should have been the first floor.”
He's right. We never imagined our Omega would be too weak to climb a flight of stairs.
