Part of me already thinks of that house as safe, and instead of fighting the realization, I let myself sit with it for the first time.
Tonight was supposed to be simple. A movie. A controlled environment to help manage symptoms and make this whole situation feel less overwhelming than it had in my head when Elias first told me the others wanted to spend time with me. It was supposed to stay manageable.
Instead, I fell asleep against Bash’s shoulder. I held Adrian’s hand through half the movie without wanting to let go. I watched Elias fit naturally beside the others and felt something inside me shift at the sight.
Outside the window, the city gradually gives way to the familiar turns leading into my neighborhood. The lights here are farther apart. My hands stay folded in my lap.
I think about the way Bash barely moved while I slept, the way Elias somehow made an unfamiliar situation feel safe every time he checked in on me, and the way Adrian offered me his hand instead of assuming he could take mine.
I spent the entire night waiting for one of them to push too hard, for their attention to become overwhelming, for something inside me to tense and pull away.
But it never happened.
And somehow, that frightens me more than anything else.
Not the omega instincts, not the approaching heat, not even the fact that I want them. I stopped fighting that somewhere between falling asleep against Bash’s shoulder and reaching for Adrian’s hand without hesitation. What unsettles me now is how natural it all felt. How quickly they became part of my routine. How easily I relaxed into their presence. How much I already miss them, and how little I want to go back to pretending none of this matters.
Whatever is growing between the four of us no longer feels like something temporary or solely biological. It feels like something real enough to change me if I let it.
Maybe it already has.
Chapter 22
Maya
The first thing I notice is the absence of the pressure that’s been living under my skin for days. My body feels like it belongs to me again, at least temporarily. My thoughts aren’t immediately tangled. Even the light coming through the gap in the curtains seems less aggressive than usual.
I lie there for a long time, just breathing, trying to understand what’s different.
Then it hits me.
I slept.
Not the fitful, interrupted sleep I’ve been managing since this started, where every sound jerks me awake and every shift in temperature sends me searching for blankets or throwing them off. Real sleep. The kind that leaves you rested instead of exhausted, the kind where your muscles feel loose instead of wound tight.
The kind that only happened after spending an entire evening surrounded by three specific alphas.
My stomach drops.
I push myself upright against the headboard, suddenly wide awake. My sheets are cool beneath my palms. The room holds that particular stillness of early morning, the kind where the restof the world hasn’t quite caught up yet. Everything should feel peaceful. Calm. Settled.
Instead, I feel the first curl of unease working its way through my chest.
Because this isn’t just about physical relief anymore. This isn’t just my omega responding to compatible scents or the chemical compatibility Nadia explained. This is my body responding to them specifically. To Bash’s bergamot-and-spice. To Adrian’s warm amber and cedar. To Elias’s cool stone and musk.
This is my body deciding it belongs with them.
And I don’t know what to do with that.
My thoughts turn to last night, replaying fragments in vivid detail. Bash's arm around my shoulders, the reassuring weight of it making my omega practically melt. Adrian’s hand in mine, his thumb brushing slow circles across my knuckles while we watched a movie I barely remember. The way I’d reached for both of them without thinking, without hesitation, without any of the distance I’ve been clinging to since this started.
Falling asleep against Bash’s chest like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Like I trusted him.
Like I trusted all of them.
That’s the part that frightens me. Not the closeness by itself. The ease of it. How completely my body surrendered the tension it’s been holding for weeks.
