Chapter 11
Bree
I can’t sleep.
I’ve tried everything. Counting Jace’s snores—he’s up to forty-seven. Mentally listing all the ways Gray’s leg is cutting off circulation to my foot. Wondering if Wes knows he’s drooling on my shoulder or if it’s an unconscious talent he’s perfected over time.
None of it works.
My brain keeps circling back to tomorrow. The house. The attic. The door with the swirling mark that started everything.
I give up around 3 AM.
Getting out of bed is its own challenge.
Wes has basically fused himself to my left side.
Gray’s arm tightens when I try to slip free, some wolf instinct even in sleep that doesn’t want to let me go.
Rhett grumbles something that might be my name or might be a complaint about the temperature. Hard to tell.
It takes me five full minutes to extract myself without waking anyone. A new personal record.
I grab Rhett’s hoodie from the chair—the sanctuary learned months ago to keep a rotation available—and slip into the hall.
The garden. I don’t plan to go there. My feet just… do.
My daisies chime as I pass, catching moonlight. The trees are shadows against the sky. The air smells like jasmine and old magic and something that tugs at my chest.
The wall.
I stop walking.
Same stone. Same spot where Thane pressed me back and kissed me like I was worth something. Where I wrapped my legs around him and chose him and felt, for the first time in my life, like wanting didn’t have to hurt.
My hand drifts to my throat before I can stop it. The bite mark healed months ago, but sometimes I swear I still feel it.
“Your thoughts are loud tonight.”
I don’t jump. My body knows him too well for that now.
Thane steps out from the shadow of the oak, pale in the moonlight. His shirt is half-buttoned, his hair loose around his shoulders. He looks like he dressed in a hurry to follow me.
He probably did.
“Couldn’t sleep,” I say.
“I noticed.” He taps his chest once. “The bond.”
Right. No secrets between us. Not the important ones.
“Sorry for waking you.”
“You didn’t.” He moves closer, stops a few feet away. “I wasn’t sleeping either.”
We stand there, looking at each other. Looking at the wall.
“Last time we were here—” I start.
“You were terrified of me.”
“I was terrified of everything.” I cross my arms, the hoodie too big and smelling like Rhett’s warmth. “You were just the scariest option available.”
His mouth twitches. “And now?”
“Now you’re maybe fourth. Fifth on a good day.”
“I’m wounded.”
“You’ll recover.”
Silence. But it’s comfortable. The kind that happens when two people don’t need to fill space with words.
“She won’t bite, you know.” A new voice, smooth and unhurried. “Though I suspect she’d let you if you asked nicely.”
Stellan steps out from beneath the jasmine arch like he’s been there all along. Probably has been. The bastard moves like smoke.
He’s barefoot, wearing loose pants and nothing else. Moonlight catches the planes of his chest.
“How long have you been lurking?” I ask.
“Long enough to watch you two stare meaningfully at a wall.” He stops beside Thane, hands sliding into his pockets. “Riveting stuff.”
“We were having a moment.”
“Were you? It looked more like mutual paralysis.”
Thane makes a sound that might be a laugh. “Your timing is impeccable as always.”
“I aim to displease.” Stellan’s gray eyes find mine. “The bond woke me too. You’re practically vibrating with anxiety. And anticipation.” He tilts his head, studying me. “Among other things.”
Heat floods my face. “I’m not—”
“Your pulse says otherwise, darling.”
“My pulse is none of your business.”
“I’m an incubus. Your pulse is absolutely my business.”
Thane pinches the bridge of his nose. “Must you?”
“Must I what? Be observant? Honest?”
“Insufferable. The word you’re looking for is insufferable.”
“That too.”
I watch them—centuries of familiarity packed into every jab—and something loosens in my chest. This is what I needed. Not quiet contemplation. Not staring at walls. Just… this. Them. The easy rhythm of two people who’ve known each other long enough to skip the bullshit.
“So,” I say, cutting through their verbal sparring. “Two ancient Feeders in a moonlit garden at 3 AM. What a coincidence.”
They both go still. Predator-still.
Good.
“We weren’t waiting,” Thane says carefully.
“No?”
“We were… assessing.”
“Discussing options,” Stellan adds.
“Strategizing.”
“About what?”
They exchange a glance. The kind of silent communication that drives me insane and they know it.
“You,” Stellan says simply.
My whole body flushes. Not embarrassment—something lower, sharper.
“Oh,” I manage.
Stellan’s mouth curves. He definitely noticed.
“The night before you return home,” he continues, moving closer. “The night before you face whatever’s waiting there. We thought you might need distraction.”
“Distraction.”
“Support,” Thane corrects.
“Comfort,” Stellan counters.
“Very thorough comfort,” Thane adds, and there’s something in his voice that makes my knees unreliable.
“You two planned this.”
“We discussed possibilities.” Stellan stops close enough that I feel the warmth radiating off his skin. “Whether you take us up on any of them is entirely your choice.”
Choice.
A year ago, I would have frozen. Would have doubted. Would have wondered what they really wanted.
That girl is gone.
Thank fuck.
I look at the wall behind me. At the stone where Thane first pressed me back and showed me what wanting could feel like.
Then I look at them. Two ancient, ridiculous creatures who’ve apparently been discussing me like I’m a project they’re collaborating on.
“Full circle,” I say quietly.
“Meaning?” Stellan asks.
“I was here two years ago. Scared and broken and convinced wanting too much would ruin everything.” I take a breath. “And now I’m here again. And I know exactly what I want.”
“Which is?”
I grab Stellan by the front of his pants and yank him forward.
The kiss isn’t gentle. His mouth opens under mine immediately—no hesitation, no surprise—and he kisses me back with the kind of skill that comes from centuries of practice. His tongue slides against mine, tasting, taking, and I feel myself go liquid against him.
When I pull back, his eyes have gone dark.
“Well,” he breathes. “That answers that.”
Thane is watching with an expression I can’t quite read. Hungry, yes. But something else. Something like satisfaction.
“Jealous?” I ask him.
“Hardly.” He moves closer, crowding me between them. “I’ve been waiting for you to claim him for months.”
“Claim him?”
“He’s been yours since the night he climbed into your bed and let you sleep.” Thane’s voice drops lower. “You just hadn’t decided to take him yet.”
Stellan makes a sound—not quite a laugh. “He’s not wrong.”
“You two have definitely talked about this.”
“At length,” Stellan confirms. “In considerable detail.”
“About me?”
“About how long it would take you to realize you could have whatever you wanted,” Thane says. “And whether you’d ever actually ask for it.”
The words hit somewhere deep. Because they’re right. I’ve spent so long being afraid to want things. Afraid that needing too much would make everyone leave.
But they’re still here. Both of them. Waiting for me to decide what happens next.
“The wall,” I say.
Thane’s eyes flash silver. “What about it?”
“That’s where you first—” I stop, suddenly self-conscious.
“I remember.” His voice drops into something rougher. “Every detail. The stone against your back. The sounds you made. The way you said my name when you came.”
My breath catches.
“I’ve thought about it every night since,” he continues, stepping closer until his chest brushes mine. “Wondered what it would feel like to take you there again. Properly. Without fear. Without rushing.”
“And me?” Stellan’s voice comes from behind me, close enough that I feel his breath on my neck. “Where do I fit in this?”
“Wherever she wants you.”
The answer is instant. No jealousy. No competition. Just acknowledgment.
I turn to look at Stellan. “Is that true? You’d just let him have me?”
His smile is slow. “Darling, I’d watch him have you. And then I’d take my turn. And then, if you’re very good, we might both have you at once.” He pauses. “Unless that’s too much?”
My thighs clench. Actually clench. Like my body is answering before my brain catches up.
“No,” I say. “It’s not too much.”
“Then tell us what you want.”
I look between them. Ancient. Dangerous. Mine.
“I want to stop thinking,” I say. “Just for tonight. I want to feel something that isn’t dread about tomorrow. I want both of you. However that works. Whatever that looks like.”
The silence stretches.
Then Thane moves.
He’s on me before I finish my next breath, hands gripping my hips, mouth claiming mine. The kiss is deep and filthy and exactly what I needed—his tongue stroking against mine, his teeth catching my bottom lip, his hands already sliding under the hoodie to find bare skin.
Stellan’s hands find my waist from behind. His thumbs trace circles on my hip bones while Thane devours my mouth.
“May I?” he murmurs against my ear.
“Yes. You don’t have to keep asking.”
“I’ll always ask.” His fingers slip higher under the hoodie, skating across my ribs. “The first time, at least.”
Thane’s hands tighten on my hips. Stellan reads the shift instantly—steps aside like they’ve done this before, fluid and practiced—and then Thane is walking me backward until my shoulders hit the wall.
Same wall. Same stone. Everything different.
He breaks the kiss long enough to yank the hoodie over my head.
I’m not wearing a bra underneath—didn’t see the point for a 3 AM existential crisis—and the night air raises goosebumps across my skin. Thane goes still, just for a heartbeat, looking at me.
“Still beautiful,” he murmurs.
“Still weird when you stare.”
“Get used to it.” His hand comes up to cup my breast, thumb brushing over my nipple, and I gasp. “I plan to stare at you for the rest of my considerably long life.”