But maybe they would be.
Ranier bonded with a commoner omega, and Emery has made his life and the life of their whole pack so much better since.
Why can’t the same be true for Zane, Lucas, and Cole?
I rest my chin on my knees and watch as the sunlight starts to break over the water, a slow gold creeping across the surface. It’s so beautiful, it stirs stress coiled tight within my chest and unravels it strain by strain.
Something heavy lands near my feet. I jump, reflexively tensing for a sneak attack, but it’s just a seagull. A big, scruffyone, missing half its tail feathers. It cocks its head and eyes me like I’m the most interesting rock on the beach.
I wait for it to go for my granola bar, but it just stands there, one orange foot in the air, looking like it’s contemplating the meaning of life. Then, after a minute, it sits. Right next to me. Like we’re both in on some secret.
I laugh. The sound is weirdly loud in the hush of early morning.
“Sorry, friend. I don’t have any chips.”
The gull blinks, unimpressed, and tucks its head under a wing.
I take it as a sign. If even the world’s most persistent scavenger can chill out for a minute, maybe I can, too.
And if the seagulls are done shitting on me and instead want to hang out, maybe I’ve been accepted in Seamuse Village, after all.
For a long time, I just sit there, the wind leeching heat from my ears and nose, the sea rolling and unrolling itself in the distance. Eventually, the gull wakes up and stalks away. I brush the sand off my hands and wander down to the shoreline. The tide is farther out now, the rocks exposed and slippery with seaweed. I look for tide pools, for a sign, for something.
What I find is a bit of blue sea glass, worn smooth and nearly perfect. I roll it between my fingers, thinking of Zane’s eyes, and then Lucas’s, and how they all look at me as if I were the only thing in the world.
When I finally trudge back up the dunes, I can see the lights on in the flat. Zane is waiting in the doorway, arms folded, silhouette sharp against the warmth of the kitchen.
I walk toward him. “Morning.”
“You’re beautiful.” The tone in his voice—soft and with a little awe—sends a knowing shiver through my body.
I’m where I’m meant to be.
I step into his arms. He kisses the sand off my cheek, slow and sweet, like we have all the time in the world.
I hope we do.
Cole’s bakery is thick with the scent of fresh bread. The display case is stacked with enough Cornish pasties to feed a small army. Cole stands behind the counter, forearms dusted with flour, hair sticking up at odd angles, like he’d just woken up from a nap in a flour sack. He’s running the place solo today, it seems, with Esmé and Gage nowhere in sight.
Lucas is already there too, perched at the corner table before his morning lifeguarding shift. His sun-bleached hair is barely contained by a battered ballcap. He’s working through a mountain of scrambled eggs while keeping one eye on the front door and the other on his phone. He looks up when Zane and I come in and grins so wide, his entire face crinkles up.
“Morning!” he calls as he waves us over.
Zane orders coffee for both of us, black for him and the sickeningly sweet stuff I love for me.
Cole pulls a tray of sausage rolls out of the oven and brings them over, hands trembling only a little from the heat. He slides into the booth next to me and offers a lopsided, shy smile. “Morning, little devil.”
Zane’s eyebrow raises, but he doesn’t comment.
I sheepishly grin at all three of them. “Those smell divine. May I?”
Cole hands a sausage roll over. “Of course.”
I take a bite, and it’ssogood. “Ohmygod.”
Cole beams, visibly relieved. Zane, meanwhile, sips his coffee and scans the bakery in that careful, methodical way he doeseverywhere we go. Even on what is effectively a summer off with how safe Seamuse is, he’s on high alert. The only hint of his softer side is the gentle press of his knee against mine under the table.
We talk about nothing and everything until, mid-laugh, Zane’s phone starts vibrating on the table. Not just a single buzz, but a sustained, rapid-fire barrage that’s very unlike anything I’ve seen on Zane’s phone. He glances at the screen and his whole face tightens.
