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Only one.

Only one.

My heart hiccupped, and I tore away before his lips made contact. “You’re not him!” I barked at him, backing up, chest contorting with pain.

The alpha blinked. “Him?” He wiped the side of his mouth, disappointment all over his face.

Golden wisps flew around me, and I smelled fire and burned flesh. Voices. Someone here, laughing, hidden from me.

“Him,” I muttered, confused as hell. “Where…where is he?”

“Paris?”

I shivered, not wanting to hear the wolf’s voice, but the other one. Beyond the gold, in reality, away from this fakery.

The vampire’s voice.

It hit me then, a tone of bricks right on the ‘Aha!’ button. “Aidan?”

I felt a pop in my ears as the golden wisps vanished, leaving behind another jolt of pain. I stumbled into the table, pain lancing through my head.

“Peekaboo!” Aidan called, sitting on the floor with Hal’s beard smoking, his face horribly burned.

That explained the stink.

Ugh. My head.

“Fire?” Declan said.

No sign of a fire, only the smell. Oh, and a big hole in the floor.

How did that get there?

I sat down at the table, noticing my lack of jumper. Huh? What was this? A thick layer of confusion was smeared over everything, my short-term memory on hold for a moment. I should be angry at the sight of Aidan, but I was just sluggish.

My jumper was draped over the table. I quickly pulled it back over my head. I didn’t go around whipping my clothes off for any old occasion.

Aidan chuckled. “I have to say, I was a little turned on by the almost-kiss.”

The sound of his voice curdled my stomach.

Declan came over to me. “Are you hurt?”

I shook my head, looking up at him. “You?”

“No.” He spun on Aidan. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Aidan bared his teeth in a snarl. “Seeing if this finally solves the problem.”

I eyed the hole in the floor, my memory firing again. “You did something. You made us⁠—”

“Almost kiss,” he interrupted.

Oh, shit. That was right. Our lips had almost touched, my desire had been pointed at Declan mere moments ago. I remembered picturing a house in a forest and a future together when he wasn’t him.

You’re not him!

My chest tightened, every beat of my heart a gong. The pining became a storm inside me. Booming and terrifying, tearing my skies apart.