Chapter 21
Sera
The first thing I noticed when I woke was the heat. Not the sweltering, choking kind that came from a fire burning too long in a closed space, but a steady, radiating warmth pressed along both my sides.
The second thing I noticed was that I wasn’t alone.
At some point during the night, I’d ended up wedged between Aidan and Declan.
I remembered lying down a clear couple of feet from Aidan and Declan across the fire from me when we’d settled in.
Now Declan’s arm was draped loosely over my waist, and Aidan’s leg was hooked lazily over mine.
Both of them were still asleep, breathing slow, deep, steady.
Aidan’s hand rested against my hip, loose but protective, like even in sleep he was ready to shield me.
Declan’s chest rose and fell behind me, the deep rumble of his breathing sending faint vibrations through my back.
I was wrapped in their warmth, cocooned in it, and for a dangerous second, I let myself relax into it.
This was… nice. Comforting in a way I hadn’t let myself feel in years, maybe ever. Which was exactly the problem.
My instincts screamed at me to pull away, put the space back between us before either of them woke and read too much into this, but my body didn’t seem to care about any of that.
The smell of them, earth and leather and sweat, along with traces of blood and smoke, was grounding, chasing away the cold edge that had settled into my bones down here in the tunnels.
I told myself I was only staying still because moving would wake them.
Yeah. That was the story I was going with.
Aidan stirred first, his hand tightening briefly before he blinked down at me. His lips twitched into the ghost of a smile, his voice still rough from sleep. “Morning, lass. Sleep well?”
I gave him a flat look. “Apparently I slept closer to the two of you than I remember.”
Declan made a quiet, amused sound behind me, clearly awake now. “Could be worse. Could’ve been Jamie.”
“Oi, I heard that,” Jamie muttered from somewhere near the fire, not even looking up from the knife he was cleaning.
I rolled my eyes, finally shifting to sit up. “Don’t get used to it,” I warned them, brushing dust from my jacket. “I’m not a pack pillow.”
Declan stretched, utterly unbothered. “Sure you’re not,” he said with a grin that made my pulse kick despite myself.
Aidan just smirked, propping himself up on an elbow. “We’ll see what happens next time.”
I shot him a glare that didn’t have as much heat as I wanted it to. The truth was that waking up between them hadn’t been the worst way to start the day.
Not that I was about to admit that out loud.
Declan pushed himself upright, stretching with a low groan, then glanced down at his forearm. The skin where the Elder Lycan had bitten him—raw, red, and angry last night—looked… different.
He twisted his arm to get a better look, frowning. “Huh.”
I caught the change in his tone and turned. The swelling had gone down almost completely, the jagged punctures knitting together into thin, pale lines.
“That was… fast,” I said carefully.
Declan ran his thumb over the marks, his grin widening. “Guess your bite worked, Aidan.”
Aidan chuckled, still flexing his bad leg to test its strength. “Guess so.” He stood up, putting weight on it experimentally, and for the first time since I’d met him, he didn’t flinch. “Bloody hell, feels almost normal.”
“You’ll never be normal, mate,” Jamie called from by the fire, smirking as he packed his gear.
Aidan’s smile was crooked, but there was a swell of pride behind it. “Give me another day and I’ll be running circles around you.”
Declan flexed his fingers, testing his grip before picking up his weapon. “Good to know I’m not going to turn into a frothing rabid monster anytime soon.”
Edward, who had been leaning against the door frame watching us, nodded once. “The pure wolf bite countered it exactly like Sera said it would, but you two still need to be careful. Healing fast doesn’t make you invincible.”
Aidan smirked. “Don’t worry, mate. We’ll try to stay out of trouble.”
Declan shot him a look. “You? Stay out of trouble?”
That earned a laugh from both of them, the sound echoing faintly in the cold concrete room. The barrel fire had settled into a low orange glow, licking at blackened metal and painting everyone in soft, forgiving light.
Edward kept his post by the door. Logan sat on a crate with a faded map spread across his knee, tracing routes with a fingertip like he could will a safer path into existence. Jamie cleaned a blade that probably didn’t need cleaning, humming some tuneless thing to keep his hands busy.
Aidan strolled slowly around the room, flexing and stretching. Declan rolled his shoulder, the puckered bite on his forearm just a pale scar now. Both of them looked too alive for men who should be dead, and the relief that rose in me was… incredibly inconvenient.
“Leg holding up okay?” I asked Aidan, because small talk was better than admitting I’d woken tucked between them and hadn’t hated it.
He gave me that lopsided smile. “Feels good. Almost like someone didn’t bear trap me on purpose.”
I snorted despite myself.
Declan caught my look lingering on his arms. He turned both of them, letting me see where he was bitten by Aidan and the Elder Lycan. “You were right,” he said simply. “Thank you.”
The words snagged on something inside me. I didn’t want them to, but they did.
He tossed me a canteen. Aidan dug around and produced one of those ancient ration biscuits, split it with his thumb, and handed me the bigger piece without comment, then sat down beside me.
It was stupidly domestic, the kind of easy rhythm you only earn by fighting and bleeding together.
I wasn’t used to that rhythm. It felt dangerously good.
“You’re quiet,” Aidan said, reading me the way he was beginning to do far too easily.
“I’m thinking.” I took a bite to stall. Dry, salty, forgettable. “About exit routes. Weapons. The part where the Elder Lycan sets this whole place on fire.”
Aidan shifted closer, just enough to share heat. His voice stayed low, careful. “And what are you thinking when you’re not pretending it’s only about logistics?”
I should have pushed back. Instead, I watched my thumb worry at a seam in my sleeve and told the truth. “That I don’t know what to do with… this.” I flicked my gaze between them. “The bond. You. All of you. It’s—” I forced a breath. “Not what I planned.”
Declan’s smile was small and real. “We’re not asking for a plan. Just you.”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
Declan shifted to sit in front of me, forearms on his knees. “Tell me something true,” he said. “Not tactical. Just something true of you.”
I almost said no automatically. Then I worried my lip and told them a truth that I hadn’t told anyone ever before. I don’t know why. In that moment, it just felt right.
“I don’t like needing anyone. It makes me sloppy.”
Aidan made a soft sound. “That made you honest.”
My mouth tilted. “Says the wolf who bit his best friend to keep him breathing.”
“Exactly,” he said, unbothered. “That’s what needing each other looks like with us.”
Declan reached out, slow enough that I could stop him if I wanted to, and brushed dust from my cheek with his knuckles. Heat flared under my skin like I’d stepped too close to the fire. “We’ll take your pace,” he said. “All of us. You set it, we follow.”
I caught his wrist before he pulled away. Not hard, just enough to keep the moment from ending. “You’re infuriating. Besides, your pack mates already blew that. They couldn’t have cared less about my pace because I’d injured the two of you.”
He grinned. “I’ve been called worse. And we’ll give the three of them a thrashing as soon as we’re out of this mess.”
Aidan shifted closer still, his knee bumping mine. “May I…?” He nodded toward a loose strand of hair falling in my eyes.
I surprised myself by nodding. His fingers were warm as he tucked it back behind my ear, callused pads careful against my temple. The mate bond thrummed under my skin, low and insistent, like a wire drawn tight.
I both loved and hated how good it felt.
“You two always this charming,” I muttered, “or is it just when you’re trying to make me forget I should be running for the hills?”
“Both,” Declan said unapologetically.
“You don’t have to run right now,” Aidan said quietly. “Just… sit with us. Breathe with us.”
My protest came, tired and brittle. “I’m a member of the Watch. I’m always on guard.”
“Be what you need to be,” Declan said. “And be ours, too.” He lifted my hand, turned it palm down, and pressed his mouth to the backs of my knuckles. “You don’t have to pick a side in this exact second.”
My chest felt like it loosened. I hated that they could do this, walk me right up to the edge and make the fall look like flying.
Across the room, Logan folded the map. “Thirty minutes,” he said. “Then we move.”
“Copy,” Edward answered without turning.
Jamie flicked his knife closed and winked at me like he hadn’t been listening to us the whole time. “If you three are done making eyes, I’ll go scrounge for more supplies.”
“Go,” I said, deadpan. “Before I stab you myself.”
He laughed and sauntered off.
I looked back at Aidan and Declan. They didn’t crowd me. They didn’t press. They just… stayed by me. A constant presence at my shoulders. Patience in their eyes. That steady, aggravating kind of safety I’d spent years pretending I didn’t need.
“Fine,” I said, and it felt like stepping onto thin ice that had somehow held my weight. “One moment.”
Aidan’s smile was soft, but his eyes shone with victory. Declan’s hand tightened around mine and then eased, like he remembered I was skittish and chose not to spook me.
I leaned in, just barely, until my shoulder brushed Aidan’s. Declan shifted so our knees touched. The fire crackled. The world didn’t end.
Maybe I could be Watch and still let this in. Maybe I could be blade and bond both.