Silas #4
Not the man who walks past her office every night just to make sure she actually went home instead of working herself sick.
Not the man who’s spent months resisting the instinct to scent every fucking thing she owns.
She knows nothing about me, and the only one I have to blame is myself.
I stay silent because I don’t have an argument. That’s the entire point.
Until Harlan can move forward with her, I’m off the table.
I won’t jeopardise my relationship with him for an omega again.
I refuse.
Even if every instinct I possess is screaming that she’s already mine.
Evander leans back slowly in his chair, dark eyes fixed on me. “I’m in. I’d do anything for her.”
“Perfect. As long as you do as you’re told, it’ll be easy,” I say.
He frowns. “I can—”
“Follow instructions so you don’t make things worse? I’m glad to hear it,” I continue, and he rolls his eyes but nods.
“You’re asking for a hell of a lot from people who haven’t even figured themselves out yet,” Isaac says carefully.
“No,” I correct calmly. “I’m asking for basic control.”
“Easy for you to say,” Harlan mutters. “You’re not the one scenting her every fucking morning.”
That’s a lie.
I scent her constantly.
The faint trace of strawberry cream that lingers in the hallway long after she’s gone. The soft vanilla she accidentally perfumes into reports she’s held against her chest for too long. The exhausted sharpness that’s become more common these past few weeks.
I know her scent better than I know myself.
But unlike the rest of them, I’ve learned how to survive wanting something I can’t let myself touch.
“That’s exactly my point,” I say. “None of us get to make this harder for her because we’re struggling to adjust. She’s struggling—that comes first.”
Isaac exhales slowly, shoulders loosening slightly. “So, what exactly are we agreeing to here?”
“A ceasefire,” I answer immediately. “At minimum.”
Evander grimaces. “You make us sound like we’re at war.”
“You are,” Harlan says flatly. “You’re just losing.”
Evander flips him off without even looking.
Childish.
But notably, neither alpha scents aggressively afterwards.
“We stop cornering her,” I continue before either of them can start again. “No forcing conversations. No overwhelming her. No pushing for answers she’s not ready to give.”
Evander opens his mouth. I level a look at him.
He closes it again.
Another improvement.
“She’s already drowning,” Isaac says quietly. “If we all start pulling at her because of the bond…”
“She’ll disappear into herself,” I finish.
Because that’s what Cassie does.
She goes quiet. Smaller. Trying her best to disappear entirely.
Harlan drags a hand through his hair. “So what? We just sit around and do nothing while she works herself into an early grave?”
“No,” I say. “We help her.”
“And how exactly are we meant to do that without her thinking we pity her?” Evander asks.
That, unfortunately, is the real fucking question.
Because Cassie hears concern and translates it into disappointment.
She hears help and assumes she’s failed. She sees care and waits for it to be turned back around on her.
“We start proving she’s safe with us,” Isaac says eventually.
The room stills, and the three of us exchange a look.
“You’re all trying to solve things too quickly,” he continues carefully. “Cassie doesn’t trust easily, and every time one of you pushes too hard, she panics.”
Harlan looks away first. Evander swears quietly under his breath.
Neither denial is particularly convincing.
“She needs consistency,” Isaac says. “Not intensity. She needs something steady enough that she stops waiting to be used.”
Well, fuck.
Maybe I should be making him mentor the rest of us instead.
Evander rubs at his jaw before sighing heavily. “Fine. I can… slow down my courting efforts.”
The words sound painful for him to admit.
Harlan snorts softly. “That’ll last all of five minutes.”
“Better than your strategy of pretending she’s nothing more than the dirt on the bottom of your shoe.”
The growl that leaves Harlan is immediate.
I bare my teeth before either idiot can start again.
“She is not the battleground for your fucking war.”
Our omega deserves better than this. Better than all of us right now.
“She comes first,” I say quietly. “Fuck our pride and our egos. She is all that matters.”
Isaac nods first. Then, reluctantly, Evander.
Harlan takes the longest, jaw tight enough to crack, but eventually, he gives one sharp nod, too.
Relief settles low and dangerous in my chest.
Not because we’ve solved anything. We haven’t.
Cassie still has no idea that four idiots are rearranging their lives around her.
The bonds between all of us are tangled and so fucking messy.
And somehow, while we were all too busy fighting the bond and each other, things got even worse for her.
And none of us know how to love someone like Cassidy Hargrove without accidentally hurting her in the process.
But for the first time since this entire disaster started, we’re finally all trying to protect the same person.
Her.
And this place should be terrified of what happens if we fail.