My body reacts instantly.
Too close.
Dom isn’t a threat. He’s one of us. He’d bleed for this club without hesitation. That doesn’t matter. The reaction still hits. Because she’s not supposed to belong to anyone else in any way. Not their attention. Not their space. Not their focus.
I don’t move. Don’t step in. Don’t interrupt. Because interrupting disrupts her integration. And I won’t do that. Not even for this. Not even when it burns.
Blaze drifts closer, drawn in by the same thing that draws everyone else, new energy, new person, something different to poke at. He leans against the back of the couch, grin already forming. “So,” he says, dragging the word out, “you handing those out to everyone, or is Cobra about to make it a restricted activity?”
Olivia blinks. Then laughs.Again. That sound cuts through me sharper than anything else has today.
Blaze grins wider.
I shift. Subtle. But enough.
Blaze sees it immediately. “Relax,” he mutters under his breath as he straightens. “I like breathing.”
Bella steps up beside him then, her shoulder bumping his lightly. “Then maybe stop running your mouth.”
Blaze grins down at her. “You love it.”
“Barely tolerate it,” she shoots back, but there’s no real heat in it.
Bella’s gaze flicks to me for half a second. Assessing. Understanding. Then back to Olivia. She doesn’t push. Doesn’t test.
I don’t respond to Blaze. I don’t need to. But my presence tightens. Shifts. Reclaims the space around Olivia without touching her, without saying a word.
The room adjusts. They always do.
Olivia feels it. I see it in the way her attention flicks to me again. She meets my gaze. That small smile is back. Softer this time. Less uncertain. Still careful. Still figuring things out. But not afraid. Not overwhelmed.
Just…there.
And something locks in fully.
She’s not leaving.
It’s not hope. Not something I want. Not something I need. It’s fact.
Already decided. Already done.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
I don’t look at him right away.
That’s new.
Last night, every time he moved, every time he spoke, every time the air shifted around him, my attention snapped to him like I didn’t have control over it. Like something in me needed to track him, needed to understand him before I could settle. Now, I choose not to look. At least at first.
I sit on the far end of the couch, angled toward Kya while she talks about something that has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the way life keeps moving here no matter what’s happening underneath it. Remy is half climbing over her, half trying to steal something from Knox, and Mason is loudly insisting that whatever he’s holding is the most important object in the room.
I nod in the right places. I smile when it makes sense. But I’m not really listening. I’m watching. Not him. The space. The way the room moves around him. Because he’s still there. I can feel it. Not close. Not touching. But present in a way that doesn’t fade into the background like everyone else eventually does. I glance up finally.
He’s exactly where I expected him to be. Edge of the room. Leaning slightly back against the wall. Arms loose at his sides, not crossed, not rigid. Relaxed. Except he’s not. His eyes are on me. Not drifting. Not checking in and out. Locked. Focused. Like I’m the only thing in the room worth paying attention to.
My stomach flips slightly. I don’t react. I don’t give it away. I just hold his gaze for a second longer than necessary, then turn back to Kya like it didn’t matter. Like I didn’t feel it. Like I didn’t notice. But I did. And more than that. I’m starting to understand it.
That distance?
