Chapter 22 #2
Knox stops dead in the hallway, refusing to come closer. His face has gone pale, all the usual cockiness stripped away. “We pushed too hard,” he says hoarsely, and he sounds wrecked. “Fuck. We hurt her.”
Rhys’s jaw clenches, his whole body going rigid like he’s physically restraining himself from moving. “We shouldn’t have touched her. Not all of us. It was too much.”
Declan looks physically ill, his face gray, his moss-green eyes dark with pain. “We’re sorry, love. We’re so sorry.”
“No.” The word rips out of me, louder than I mean it to be. “No, stop. It’s not you. I don’t regret you.”
Knox’s eyes snap to mine, wide and disbelieving. “Then why are you trying to run away on legs that can’t hold you?”
I swallow hard, my throat working against the lump there. The truth scrapes its way up. “Because I don’t know if I just used you,” I whisper, and my voice is so small it barely carries. “I begged. I pulled you into this mess because I couldn’t handle it alone and—”
“Stop.” Rhys moves before I can blink.
He crosses the distance between us, his bare feet silent on the hardwood, and drops to his knees in front of me so hard I hear the impact.
His hands come up to frame my face, big and warm, forcing me to look at him. Forcing me to see the fierce, burning intensity in his dark eyes.
“We cleaned your trash cans,” he says, echoing Eli’s words, his voice rough and unsteady.
“We hacked the HOA camera feed just to make sure Carol wasn’t bothering you.
We learned your schedule, when you woke up, when you worked, when you went to bed so we’d know when to turn down the music.
We rearranged our entire lives around you, Mia.
That wasn’t heat. That was us being obsessed with you. ”
“We don’t share,” Declan adds quietly, and when I look at him, he’s moved closer too, just a few feet away now. His arms are crossed over his chest like he’s trying to hold himself together. “Not like this. Not unless we intend to keep.”
My breath stutters in my chest.
“We want everything,” Eli says, and his hand slides down to cup the back of my neck, his thumb stroking over the pulse point there in a touch that’s somehow both gentle and possessive. “We know this is backward. We know you’re overwhelmed and crashing and probably terrified.”
Knox shifts his weight, his jaw tight, his hands flexing at his sides like he doesn’t know what to do with them.
“But if you want to go home, we’ll carry you.
We’ll guard your door from the inside or the outside, whatever you need.
And if you decide this was a mistake—” His voice roughens, goes hoarse.
“We’ll never cross the property line again.
We’ll be the neighbors you wanted. We’ll pretend we don’t know what you taste like. ”
I look at them.
Really look at them.
At Eli, steady and fierce, his hand still cradling my neck.
At Rhys, on his knees in front of me, his eyes burning with an intensity that should terrify me but somehow doesn’t.
At Declan, who looks like he’s bracing for a blow, his whole body tense with the effort of giving me space when I can see in his eyes that he wants to crowd close.
At Knox, who’s holding himself back with visible effort, every line of his body screaming that he wants to touch me but won’t until I say he can.
I’ve been so busy trying to keep up boundaries that I didn’t see it. They’ve been courting me this whole time.
They were waiting for me to see them.
And I was so determined to want the wrong thing, that I almost missed it.
I don’t want boring.
I want this.
I want the noise and the chaos and the way they look at me like I hung the moon.
I want the nest that smells like all of us tangled together.
I want the way they watched me drink water like my hydration was the most important thing on earth and the way they took turns watching me sleep like I might disappear if they look away.
I want the way Rhys growls when he’s inside me. The way Eli’s voice goes commanding and rough when he tells me I’m doing well. The way Knox’s cocky grin disappears into something reverent when his mouth is on me. The way Declan holds me like I’m the most important thing he’s ever touched.
I want them.
All of them.
I release my death grip on the wall.
And I lean fully into Eli, letting him take all my weight.
“I can’t go home,” I whisper against his chest, my voice breaking on the words. “My bed is too empty.”
The sound Rhys makes is somewhere between a laugh and a sob, choked and raw. Knox says something that might be “thank fuck” but comes out more like a wheeze. Declan’s whole body sags with relief, his eyes squeezing shut.
Eli’s arms come around me immediately, one hand spanning my back, the other cupping the back of my head, and he holds me like he’s never letting go.
“Okay,” he murmurs into my hair, his voice thick with relief. “Okay, sunshine.”
He scoops me up like I weigh nothing, one arm under my knees, the other around my back. The sheet falls away, pooling on the floor, but I don’t care. I’m too busy burying my face in his neck, breathing in his clean oats and warmth.
They take me back to the nest.
Eli sets me down gently in the center, arranging me on the pillows like I’m made of glass, and immediately the others are there.
Rhys crawls in on my right side, his big body curving around mine, one arm sliding under my head to cradle it. Knox claims my left, pressing close, his hand finding mine and threading our fingers together. Declan wedges himself at the bottom, his arm coming around my legs.
And they just hold me.
“Rest,” Eli murmurs, settling near my feet, his hand warm and heavy on my ankle. His thumb strokes over the bone there in slow, soothing circles. “We’ll still be here when you wake up.”
“Promise?” The word slips out before I can stop it, small and vulnerable and pathetic.
“Promise,” Knox says immediately, his lips brushing my temple. “You’re not getting rid of us that easy, sunshine.”
“We’re yours now,” Declan adds softly, his breath warm against my neck. “Whether you like it or not.”
“I like it,” I whisper, and it’s the truest thing I’ve said in years.
Rhys’s arm tightens around me, pulling me closer. “Good,” he rumbles against my hair. “Because we’re not going anywhere.”
I close my eyes, letting their warmth surround me, letting their scents wrap around me like a blanket.