26. Kaia
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kaia
Iwake slowly. Warm, surrounded, and safe. It takes me a second to realize why. Then I feel it—Lachlan's arm steady at my waist, and Jonas pressed lightly at my back, his breathing slow and even, grounding. And instead of panic, instead of that immediate need to pull away, I just stay.
My eyes open softly. The room is quiet. Sunlight filters in through the windows, casting everything in a soft, golden haze.
Lachlan is already awake. "Hey, beautiful," he murmurs.
My lips curve into an automatic smile. "Hi." I shift slightly, pushing myself up just a little.
Jonas groans behind me. "No…"
I laughed, gentle and quiet. "Sorry."
He tightens his arm, pulling me back against him.
"No getting up," he grumbles against my neck.
I smile and let myself sink back into the bed, just for a second. "Wait." My eyes fly open. "The boat…Oh my gosh, did I sleep too long?" I push up again, more urgent this time, panic sneaking back in.
Lachlan's hand comes up and rests lightly against my arm. "Relax, baby." The words settle over me, calming the panic. "You slept the perfect amount," he continues, "The beach and the boat in the same day was an ambitious plan."
Jonas huffs behind me, still half-asleep. "Very ambitious."
I frown slightly. "But Finn was so excited…"
"Baby, Finn is excited to do anything with you," Jonas cuts in, voice still rough with sleep. "We all are."
Emotion lodges in my throat.
Lachlan nods. "Plus, we have tomorrow." He squeezes my arm and adds, "I was thinking we could grill, maybe hit the hot tub, and have a movie night."
I exhale slowly. "Mm, that sounds nice."
Jonas shifts slightly, his hand brushing against my arm. "You are so fucking cute," he mutters.
I laugh again, blushing.
We stay like this for a few more minutes, not rushing, because there's no need to.
But my body doesn't know that. My muscles tense instinctively, cataloging what needs to be done—the dishes from last night, the laundry, the way the kitchen counter needs wiping.
My mind spins through a mental checklist, and panic starts to creep in at the edges.
Stillness feels dangerous. Wasteful. Lazy.
My father's voice echoes somewhere deep: Efficiency is discipline. Discipline is respect.
I was never allowed to sleep in. Sleeping past 5 AM was indulgence, a sign of weakness.
Slowing down meant you weren't working hard enough, weren't trying hard enough, weren't enough.
The guilt is automatic, embedded so deep I can't separate it from my own thoughts anymore. Resting feels like failure.
I start to push up, my body moving before my mind catches up. But Lachlan's hand tightens gently on my arm, and Jonas shifts closer behind me, his warmth pressing against my back. Their presence is solid—real. Safe in a way nothing in my old life ever was.
I sink back down slowly, deliberately, fighting every instinct that screams at me to get up, to move, to do. The anxiety is still there, still churning beneath the surface, but their arms around me are heavier. More real. We just exist together, then eventually get up.
While I'm walking downstairs, I barely make it to the living room before, "Kaia!!!" I smile instantly. Finn is sprawled across the couch with Adrian beside him.
"Come join us!" Finn says, already making space.
I take a step forward, then stop, just slightly. My eyes flick to Adrian, and he looks at me.
Then he says, "I was just about to start grilling." Oh. The words hit harder than they should have. I nod quickly. That is fine—of course that is fine. I shouldn't have assumed.
"Oh my freaking gosh," Finn groans. "You're such an emotionless asshole."
I blink.
"Kaia," Finn says, sitting up. "I swear he wants you to come sit with us. I can feel it in the bond."
Lachlan nods at me. "I can, too."
Jonas crosses his arms. "Yeah, he does. He's just a weird dude that doesn't do well with emotions."
Adrian shoots him a look.
Jonas adds, "Don't let him make you feel bad."
I shake my head quickly. "It's okay."
Then, Adrian speaks suddenly, his words washing over me like the tide coming in. "I'm sorry."
I still.
"I'm not good at this," he continues, "I almost ruined it when we were courting Finn, too."
Courting. My stomach flips. Wait, is that what this is? My thoughts barely have time to catch up before, "Please, come sit with us."
Finn elbows him hard. "Good gods, Adrian."
"What?" Adrian mutters. "What was wrong with that?"
"Say 'me'," Finn hisses.
"But you're with me too."
Finn just stares at him until Adrian sighs. He looks at me again. "Please come sit with me."
My chest softens, just a little. I walk over and sit beside him.
Lachlan settles on my other side.
"Did you sleep well?" Adrian asks.
"So well," I say honestly.
"Good."
"Okay," Finn says suddenly, clapping his hands once. "We need names."
I blink. "What?"
"The people who hurt you, so we can kill them."
My breath catches. Sharp. Sudden. The words hit me like a physical blow, and for a moment, I can't process them at all.
Terror spikes through my chest, ice-cold and immediate. My body goes rigid. My mind spins with the reality of what he's saying—that these men would actually hurt people. Would take lives. For me.
The old fear would have consumed me entirely. The fear from before—the fear of being controlled, of being powerless, of being at someone's mercy. That fear would have swallowed me whole and left nothing behind but panic.
But this is different. This fear is tangled up with something else entirely. Something that makes my chest tight in a way that isn't entirely terror.
They would do this for me. They would kill for me. I matter that much to them.
That realization is somehow more frightening than the violence itself.
My hands tremble slightly. Not from pure fear anymore, but from the weight of being loved like this—fiercely, dangerously, completely. It's foreign. It's shocking. It's everything I never knew I needed and everything that terrifies me about needing it.
Because if they would do this for me, then I'm not just safe with them. I'm theirs. Completely. And they're mine in a way that means they would burn the world down if it meant protecting me.
That's not something I can take back. That's not something I can undo.
And despite the terror still coiling in my stomach, despite the way my mind is screaming that this is dangerous and wrong and too much—there's something underneath it all. Something grounding. Something that feels like being held even though no one is touching me.
I'm not afraid of them. I'm afraid of what their love means. I'm afraid of how much I need it now that I have it.
I'm afraid of how safe I feel.
"Finn!" Adrian snaps.
"What?" Finn shoots back. "Why are we not talking about the elephant in the room?"
Adrian stands abruptly. "Finn, out. Jonas, Lachlan—actually, never mind." He stops and turns to me instead, holding out his hand. "Come with me."
I stare at the offer for a second, then take it.
The backyard opens up to the ocean. That's the first thing I notice as Adrian leads me outside—the way the property seems to spill directly into the beach, with only a stretch of sand and sea grass between the house and the shoreline.
The sun is beginning its descent, painting everything in shades of gold and amber.
The hammock is strung between two massive oak trees that frame the view perfectly.
It's positioned at an angle that captures the full expanse of the ocean—the waves, the horizon, the endless blue.
The trees are old and gnarled, their branches creating a natural canopy that filters the late afternoon light into dappled patterns.
It's private here, secluded from the house by the curve of the landscape, but close enough that we're not truly alone.
Adrian settles into the hammock first, the fabric dipping slightly under his weight. He glances up at me, his expression open in a way I'm still getting used to.
"Trust me?" he asks.
I nod. "Of course."
"Come on, then," he says. I try to climb in gracefully, but fail.
Adrian huffs a quiet laugh, but doesn't comment.
Instead, he shifts his weight to steady the hammock, making space for me.
I settle beside him, adjusting until I don't feel like I'm about to fall out.
The fabric cradles us both, and from here, I can see nothing but sky and ocean and the gentle sway of the trees.
"So," he says, his tone shifting, more focused. "Finn is right about one thing."
My stomach tightens and I swallow.
"We do need names…We're not going to kill them. But I need to know what I'm working with." His hand comes up and rests lightly against my arm, his fingers moving slowly, grounding me. "I can get security," he continues, "We can file as your pack. There are options."
I shake my head. "You shouldn't have to fix my mess."
Adrian's hand stills, then tightens just slightly. "It's not just your mess anymore, Kaia." My breath catches. "It's ours." The word settles deep.
"You're our scent match," he continues, "Our pack. I know you have a long way to go before you trust us, and I respect that." A beat, then, "But you have to let me help."
My throat closes slightly and it’s harder to swallow.
"You don't have to tell me everything," he adds. "But tell me what happened."
I stare up at him. His eyes aren’t soft, like Lachlan's, or Jonas's, or Finn's. They are focused, certain, unmovable. And for some reason, that makes me feel safe.
"I don't know where to start," I whisper.
"From the beginning," he says simply.
So I do. I tell him everything. About being raised as an Alpha.
About knowing exactly what my life was supposed to be.
About designating late, and how everything shifted overnight.
How I became something to manage, something to control, something to sell.
My voice breaks, more than once. But Adrian never interrupts or rushes me or tries to fix anything while I’m speaking.
He just stays, letting his fingers rove slowly up and down my arm, grounding me in a way that is calming.
I tell him about running, about throwing my phone out the window, the car breaking down, and having nothing. No money, no control, no choice.
"I just want to be me," I say softly. The words hang between us. Then I add, quieter but firmer, "And I don't want to go back. Not to them. Not ever. I don't want anything to do with my family anymore."
Adrian is quiet for a long moment, then, "Thank you for telling me."
I blink. That's it? I laugh, weakly. "I'll pack my bags now."
Adrian's hand comes up immediately, firm against my jaw, turning me to look at him. "Never say that again." His voice is low, sharp—not angry, but absolute. "That is not a joke."
The sea breeze catches in Adrian's hair, tossing it across his forehead. But the intensity in his gaze doesn't falter.
"You are not too much," he continues, "Your past is not too much. Your situation is not too much." His grip softens slightly. "I will handle this." The certainty in his voice makes something inside me settle. "All you need to do," he adds, quieter now, "is keep being you."
My throat burns.
"Smiling," he says before brushing a thumb lightly against my cheek. "Laughing."
I sit up slowly. "I don't have anything to offer you," I say. "I have like...six hundred dollars."
Adrian stares at me and shakes his head. "You don't need to offer anything."
My heartbeat stutters.
"You make Finn calmer. You make Lachlan smile more. You make Jonas…" He stops, and my eyes narrow slightly.
"I make Jonas what?"
Adrian exhales, but doesn’t answer.
I tilt my head slightly, but drop it. "And you?" I pause. "You're just happy I'm making your pack happy?"
Adrian's eyes darken, slow and deliberate. "Oh," he says quietly. "I cannot wait until you're comfortable with me."
The entire backyard goes quiet now.
"Because when you are," he continues, leaning in slightly. "I'm going to have to do something about that mouth of yours."
Heat floods my cheeks instantly.
Oh.
Oh, that’s new. And what surprises me most is that I don’t hate it. Not even a little.