Chapter 21 #2
“I’ll get the car,” Elias says, and then he slips out of the room toward the direction of the garage.
The space he leaves behind is immediately noticeable.
I stand from the couch and pull the blanket from my lap before folding it and setting it back against the cushions just to keep my hands busy.
Adrian steps closer while I gather myself.
Close enough that I catch the clean cedar-and-cotton scent of him, and my whole body immediately turns toward him.
He leans slightly closer. “I’m really glad you came tonight.
” Something tight gathers in my throat at the words.
I can hear how much he means them. He’s looking at me the same way he did before any of this started.
Like I’m interesting to him. Like I’m worth paying attention to regardless of what I’m presenting as.
“Thank you,” I say quietly. “For making it feel safe instead of… weird and awkward.”
His expression brightens immediately as he smiles. “Any time,” he says easily. “Although next time, maybe bring a toothbrush. Just in case.”
I huff out a surprised laugh. “Bold of you to assume there’s a next time.”
“I’m not assuming,” he says, his smile widening.
“I’m hoping. There’s a difference.” Heat spreads slowly through my cheeks at the honesty in his voice, and I duck my head slightly to hide it even though I’m pretty sure he catches the reaction anyway because his expression turns smug in a way that makes me want to throw the blanket at him.
“Come on,” he says. “Elias should have the car ready.” He moves toward the entryway ahead of me, and I follow, turning towards the door to find Bash a few steps back.
He’s watching me with that particular stillness of his, arms loose at his sides, close enough that the bergamot-and-dark-spice of him reaches me like a tangible thing.
His jaw works once, like he’s choosing his next words carefully.
“Tonight mattered to me. Having you here. I want you to know that.”
The directness of his words makes me smile. “Me too,” I say. “It was easier than I thought it would be.”
A shift in his expression—not quite a smile, but the ghost of one forming at the edges of his mouth. “You keep surprising me,” he says. “Just so you know.”
Then he offers me his hand, palm open. I reach for him without hesitation.
My fingers thread through his, nothing like the tentative touches from earlier tonight.
Bash's thumb brushes slowly across my knuckles once, and I squeeze his hand without thinking.
Then he pulls me gently with him toward the door where Adrian is waiting.
We make our way through the house and out into the cool air of the garage, where Elias is already waiting beside the car with the engine running and the passenger door open for me.
“Text us when you get home,” Bash says as he lets go of my hand slowly. “So we know you made it.”
“I will,” I say. Adrian wraps me in a brief hug that I never want to leave.
Elias opens my door for me and I slide into the seat.
A moment later he circles around to the driver’s side and pulls smoothly out of the garage.
I glance back toward the house as we head down the driveway towards the road.
For a brief moment, Adrian and Bash stand framed in the warm glow spilling from inside before the garage door slides shut between us, and I turn back toward the windshield as the house disappears from view entirely.
The city passes outside the windows, all lit intersections and empty sidewalks due to the late hour. Elias doesn’t try to fill the silence, and I’m grateful for it. The engine hums beneath us while I hold my jacket across my lap and try to sort through all the emotions in my chest.
My body notices the distance first. The farther we get from the house, the more my omega protests the separation, a low ache settling deep in my stomach that increases with every mile.
Part of me already thinks of that house as safe, and instead of fighting the realization, I let myself sit with it for the first time.
Tonight was supposed to be simple. A movie. A controlled environment to help manage symptoms and make this whole situation feel less overwhelming than it had in my head when Elias first told me the others wanted to spend time with me. It was supposed to stay manageable.
Instead, I fell asleep against Bash’s shoulder. I held Adrian’s hand through half the movie without wanting to let go. I watched Elias fit naturally beside the others and felt something inside me shift at the sight.
Outside the window, the city gradually gives way to the familiar turns leading into my neighborhood. The lights here are farther apart. My hands stay folded in my lap.
I think about the way Bash barely moved while I slept, the way Elias somehow made an unfamiliar situation feel safe every time he checked in on me, and the way Adrian offered me his hand instead of assuming he could take mine.
I spent the entire night waiting for one of them to push too hard, for their attention to become overwhelming, for something inside me to tense and pull away.
But it never happened.
And somehow, that frightens me more than anything else.
Not the omega instincts, not the approaching heat, not even the fact that I want them.
I stopped fighting that somewhere between falling asleep against Bash’s shoulder and reaching for Adrian’s hand without hesitation.
What unsettles me now is how natural it all felt.
How quickly they became part of my routine.
How easily I relaxed into their presence.
How much I already miss them, and how little I want to go back to pretending none of this matters.
Whatever is growing between the four of us no longer feels like something temporary or solely biological. It feels like something real enough to change me if I let it.
Maybe it already has.