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I card my fingers through Paige’s hair. I stare at the back of her head, longing to press a single kiss to it.

I attempt to will away my hard-on. But it’s no fucking good.

I crave to wrap my legs over hers. My skin prickles. My teeth throb with my desire to bite her throat.

I take a deep breath of her blackberry scent.

“Get some sleep, beautiful,” I murmur.

Suddenly, Paige twists, turning out of Rhett’s hold.

She is facing me.

Paige’s expression is soft.

Then she kisses me, quick and tender. “Night, Halo.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Acorn Inn, Oak Hollow

Paige

Slowly, my eyes flutter open, as the morning light dances across my cheeks.

I yawn, happily. I snuggle into the warm blankets.

I am refreshed from my deep sleep. It’s not a feeling that I’m used to.

“Morning, boys,” I murmur, still half-asleep. I give an easy smile. “Acorn, is it your turn to make coffee?”

Then my nose scrunches up.

Why can’t I smell their scents of wildflower, black coffee, and tattoo ink?

Why does the nest smell wrong?

Then the devastating truth — the memory that I had blissfully but traitorously allowed myself to forget — hits me like being punched in the gut.

The air is knocked out of me.

I curl my arms around my stomach. My smile dies.

I want to hurl.

Beau and Evan are gone.

Just for a single moment, however, in my half-awake state, they had been alive again.

Blinking away my tears, I pat around the bed to find the Cole pack.

Shocked, I twist to look around.

My new Alphas are also gone.

Luca swore that he wouldn’t abandon me, but after a single night, he has.

I snarl, dragging off the blankets. I toss them onto the floor, followed by the Alphas’ clothes and pillows.