Harlan #2
Even after everything she’s been through, she still wants to look after us.
We’re going to have to help her unlearn that, but we’ve got time.
We’ve got the rest of our lives.
She catches me watching her over the rim of her mug. “What?”
I nod towards the toast in her hand.
“One bite.” She obediently takes it, not blinking as she holds eye contact. I reward her with a smile. “Good girl.”
She raises an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” I confirm. Sure, I’d rather she ate everything on the table and then more.
But she still seems too exhausted for her body to recognise that it needs food.
She chews slowly, her brows pinching together as a pang of unease hits me through the bond.
“You expected a lecture, didn’t you?” I ask.
She giggles and nods. “Yes.”
I grin. “Not today, daisy. You’re recovering the way your body needs. That’s all that I want.”
Cassidy disappears halfway through breakfast. Nobody panics, not when we can sense her contentment through the bond.
Isaac glances towards the doorway, then goes back to his book.
Harlan’s answering emails between bites of his sandwich.
Silas is pretending not to watch all of us while he loads the dishwasher.
It’s quiet, in a good way.
Ten minutes later, I follow the trail of discarded blankets through to the living room to check on her anyway.
I find her exactly where I expected, curled into the corner of the sofa beneath the front window, two blankets wrapped around her and a third bundled beneath her head.
She’s fast asleep with one of Isaac’s T-shirts held against her face.
She’s breathing so deeply I don’t think a marching band would wake her.
I smile, resisting the urge to make space for myself in her space. She’d have asked for me if she needed me.
Poor girl has been running on instinct for nearly a week. Her body’s finally decided enough is enough.
I do pull the falling blanket back over her before I can stop myself.
She stirs and a pang of regret hits me. “Shit, sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” she mumbles thickly, not opening her eyes. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep…”
My chest aches. She isn’t even properly awake, and she’s apologising.
I can’t help laughing. She cracks an eye open, disgruntled and majorly adorable.
“You’re meant to sleep, little daisy,” I say firmly. “You’re resting. You don’t have any other job to do.”
“But you all—”
“Can take care of ourselves,” I interject. “It is not your job, not today.”
Not any fucking day.
She blinks at me, utterly baffled, but before she can speak, a huge yawn overtakes her.
“You need a nap, take one,” I add, settling into the armchair beside the sofa, close enough to reach her without crowding her.
She studies me for a long moment, her cheek still creased from the makeshift cushion and her lashes heavy with sleep.
“I thought…” She swallows. “I thought you’d be disappointed.”
The words hit harder than I expect them to. She thought I’d be disappointed that she’d slept, that she’d actually listened to what her body needed?
Fucking hell.
I let out a small growl and shake my head. “Daisy.”
She looks over at me.
“I’d be more upset if you were forcing yourself to stay up when it goes against what you need,” I say softly.
She searches my face as though she’s waiting for the catch. There isn’t one.
Slowly, almost cautiously, some of the tension leaves her shoulders.
“Okay.”
She lets her eyes drift closed, pulling the blanket a little higher around herself.
I wait until she’s asleep before turning the TV on, content to just be near her.
For the first time since I met Cassidy, I haven’t tried to fix her.
I’m just letting her listen to herself.
ISAAC
The water’s gone cold twice, the bathroom mirror is fogged around the edges, and yet we’re still not ready to get out of the bath.
Cassidy’s curled against my side in the oversized bath, her wet hair slick against her shoulders as she absently draws circles across my forearm beneath the water.
The bubbles disappeared ages ago, leaving the room smelling faintly of lavender beneath strawberry cream and vanilla musk.
Not heat, or sex. Not the pack, or slick.
Just Cassidy in her purest form.
It’s quiet, and being with her like this is the most peaceful thing. She’s always been good at filling quiet with comfort rather than awkwardness.
It’s one of my favourite things about her.
“You’ve been thinking for at least ten minutes,” she murmurs.
I open my eyes, looking down at the top of her damp head where it rests beneath my chin. “I have?”
“Mhm.”
“I thought I was relaxing,” I tease.
She laughs but shakes her head. “You’re a little tense now. That’s not relaxing.”
“I hadn’t realised.”
She hums—a soft, content little omega sound—before resting her cheek against my shoulder again.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks.
I hesitate. I’ve been trying to ignore this bastard thought since the first moment of her heat.
“I hated it,” I say, the words escaping before I can decide whether to keep them to myself.
She stills, her anxiety building in her chest so fast I’m overwhelmed by it.
“What did you hate?” she asks, her voice so small.
So hurt.
“I hated watching you need something I couldn’t give,” I tell her.
She lifts her head slowly, studying my face.
“Isaac…”
“I know it wasn’t rational.” I smile, though it feels a little wonky. “I know nobody expected me to… biologically, I mean.”
“But?”
I laugh quietly. “But being the only one there when your heat kicked in, being unable to do anything but punish you…”
Her fingers stop tracing lazy patterns against my skin as she listens.
“It felt like I was watching everyone else save you while I stood on the sidelines doing nothing,” I say quietly.
Her expression crumples immediately, her green eyes shining as she pushes herself upright. “No.”
“No?” I echo, looking at her in shock.
She shifts, bracing one hand against my chest as she turns properly towards me, water sloshing over the edge of the bath onto the tiled floor.
“Isa, I never needed the others instead of you,” she says softly. “I needed everyone there together.”
I don’t think she even realises she’s echoing the exact fear I’d been carrying.
She reaches up, her delicate wrist brushing my shoulder as her scent settles warmly against mine before she tucks a damp strand of hair behind my ear.
“I’ve never needed you to be anything but who you are. A knot was not what got me through that heat. You saw it yourself, even once Van arrived I was…”
She trails off, flushing under my gaze.
“Insatiable?” I tease, and she nods. “I know I’m being stupid. I really do.”
But sometimes it’s hard to ignore that voice inside.
“You kept me calm.” Her thumb brushes my jaw. “You reminded me to breathe.” Another gentle stroke. “You looked after me, you fucked me… you gave me whatever I needed when I needed it.”
I look down at the ripples spreading across the bath. For the first time all week, the knot I’d been pretending wasn’t there begins to loosen.
Maybe I’d been measuring myself against the wrong thing all along.
By the time we finally climb out of the bath, the water’s done everything it can for our aching muscles.
Cassidy lets me wrap her in one of Silas’s enormous towels before following me through to her bedroom.
She sits on the edge of her bed with the towel pooled around her hips, making no effort to dry herself as I pull the hairdryer from the vanity drawer and plug it in.
I dry myself quickly and pull on a pair of shorts. I don’t bother with boxers tonight, everything too sensitive to be contained.
“I should probably wash this,” she says, looking down at the T-shirt I discarded before getting in the bath.
“You could,” I say. “Or you could admit you want it, and I’ll do without.”
She narrows her eyes. “I can’t keep them all, or they’ll lose their smell.”
I laugh. “Maybe we need a rotation schedule, then.”
She looks down at herself, twisting the edge of the towel between her neatly kept fingers as a shy smile forms. “Maybe we should.”
I wink at her and make quick work of drying my hair while she dries herself. She’s adorable in the oversized T-shirt she’s stolen as she pulls a pair of pink knickers up her thighs.
Fuck, my cock responds anyway.
How, I have no idea.
I thought the fucker was broken after this week.
“Sit, and I’ll dry your hair,” I command once mine is done.
Her green eyes flash with surprise, but she settles into the chair at her vanity. Her damp hair hangs nearly to the middle of her back as I brush through it and carefully blow it dry.
Once we’re done, we move to her bed. The nest is still… well, we’ve not yet had the energy to tackle the clean-up.
Somewhere downstairs, I can hear Evander laughing with Harlan, followed by Silas telling them both to shut up.
I smirk, pulling Cassie’s duvet over us. She’s clutching my T-shirt, rubbing it against her cheek.
“I don’t think I’m ever moving again,” Cassie tells me.
“I’ll let the others know,” I tease.
She’s asleep before I even switch off the bedside lamps, their warm light still falling across her loose hair and the duvet. I just lie there watching her sleep, knowing without a doubt that this here is my life.
She tucks herself against my side with a sleepy little hum, and I rest my cheek lightly against the top of her head.
For days, I’d been measuring myself against what my body couldn’t give her.
Lying here, with her tucked against my side because she’d chosen me even in her sleep… I knew I’d been wrong.
Cassidy loves me. I’m not a second choice for her, not just when nobody else is around.
And fuck, do I need to be chosen.
SILAS
I wake later than I intended, sunlight already warming the empty side of the bed. For the first time in years, nobody needed me before I’d even opened my eyes.
Nothing’s more important than being home with my pack.
I pull on a pair of joggers and wander downstairs, following the smell of whatever Evander’s decided we’re eating today.
Halfway down the stairs, I stop, the current state of the living room surprising me.