Chapter 28
Kara
"Are two very different things. Yes." I meet his gaze head-on. "Just because biology says we're compatible doesn't mean I want this. Doesn't mean I forgive you. Doesn't mean I'm yours."
Blake makes a choked sound.
Cole's mint scent wavers—sweetens with something like grief.
"We're not asking for forgiveness." Asher's jaw works. "We don't deserve it. We're just asking for a chance to prove we've changed. To show you that we can be better. That we want to be better. For you."
"Why now?" I demand. "Because your Rut is coming and you need me to stabilize it? Because having an unmated Luna would be embarrassing for three newly crowned Alphas?"
"Because you're ours." Blake snarls, and the sound is more wolf than human. "Because the thought of you leaving—of you out there alone, vulnerable, thinking we don't—"
He stops. Breathes hard.
"You were going to run," Cole says softly. "After the party. We know. We could smell the intent on you."
My stomach drops.
They knew. Of course they knew.
"I have that right," I shoot back. "The debt is paid. I'm free to leave."
"You are," Asher agrees. "You're free. We won't stop you. But please—please—let us explain first. Let us show you what we've done to try to make things right. And then, if you still want to go..." His voice cracks. "We'll let you."
Liars. Alphas never let their mates go.
But something in his face—the naked honesty, the pain—makes me hesitate.
"What did you do?"
"Broke up with our girlfriends." Blake says it bluntly. "Bought you gifts. Moved your things out of that damn storage room. Told our parents you're not a servant anymore."
"We calculated your debt." Asher's turn. "You don't owe us a single penny. You've more than paid it back."
"We dream about you." Cole's voice is barely a whisper. "Every night. Finding you in the snow. Watching you almost dead. Hearing you cry in that closet. We dream and we wake up hating ourselves."
The confession lands like a punch to my solar plexus.
They dream about me?
"I—" My voice cracks. "I made a promise when I was ten. That I would never cry in front of you again."
"We know," Cole says, and tears shimmer in his blue eyes. "You've kept it for eight years."
"Yeah." I look down at my hands. At the silver dress that isn't mine. At the life that isn't mine. "Eight years."
And then, because the dam is cracking and I can't hold it anymore:
"You destroyed me. Do you understand? Ten years. Ten years I just wanted to survive. To make it to eighteen. To get out. And now you want me to—what? Fall into your arms because biology says so?"
My breath hitches.
Don't cry. Don't you dare—
"I barely remember what it's like to feel safe." The words pour out, scalding. "To sleep without nightmares. To eat without wondering if someone's going to steal it. To exist without calculating every move, every word, every breath to avoid punishment."
The tears come anyway.
Hot. Furious. Unstoppable.
I press my palms to my face but it's useless. My shoulders shake. My breath sobs.
Eight years of promise, shattered.
---
Cole moves first—dropping to his knees in front of me with a handful of tissues from the nightstand.
"I'm sorry," he chokes out. "I'm so, so sorry, Kara. Please—"
I snatch the tissues and bury my face in them. The crying turns ugly—wet, gasping, the kind that leaves you raw and exhausted.
Blake starts toward me. Asher catches his arm, shaking his head minutely.
Too fast. Don't crowd her.
So instead they watch. Three Alphas helpless in the face of the girl they broke.
Minutes pass. Or hours. Time dissolves into salt and snot and the mortification of falling apart in front of them.
When I finally surface, eyes swollen and throat scraped raw, Cole has moved the desk chair closer—within arm's reach but not touching.
"Better?" His voice is gentle.
"No."
But I take the water bottle he offers. Drink half of it in one go.
Asher hasn't moved from his spot against the bed. Blake hasn't left the door. Both watching me like I'm a bomb that might detonate.
"I know about the mate bond," I say hoarsely. "The biological imperative. Your Rut is coming—all three of you, synchronized. You need my scent to stabilize it."
Blake's eyes flash gold. Just for a second.
"We would never force—"
"But you need it." I cut through his protest. "That's biology too. Without a mate's scent during Rut, Alphas become unstable. Dangerous. So really, what choice do any of us have?"
"There's always a choice." Asher's voice is firm. "We can go through Rut without you. It'll be hell, but we've done it before—"
"Except you didn't know your mate before." I laugh bitterly. "Now that you've scented me, now that the bond is active, trying to Rut without me could actually kill you. Don't insult my intelligence by pretending otherwise."
Silence.
Because I'm right, and we all know it.
"We'll manage," Asher says finally. "We'll lock ourselves in separate rooms. Sedate ourselves if we have to. But we will not force you into anything you don't want."
Blake makes a strangled sound. His gunpowder scent spikes—thick, hot, desperate.
"Blake—" Cole starts.
"She smells so fucking sweet," Blake interrupts, and his voice has gone guttural. Wolf-touched. "Baby, you have no idea what you're doing to us. That scent—white musk and fresh snow—it's like—"
"Blake, control yourself." Asher snaps.
But Blake's eyes are bleeding gold. His hands fist and unfist at his sides.
"Can't—can't stop thinking about marking you. About burying my teeth in your neck and—"
"Blake." Alpha command now, sharp as a blade.
Blake shudders. Forces his eyes closed. When they open again, they're blue—barely.
"Sorry," he rasps. "Sorry, Kara. I just—your scent makes my wolf—"
"Insane," I finish flatly. "I know. That's what compatible mates do to each other."
His jaw clenches. "It's more than that. It's—fuck, it's everything. Every breath I take, every time I look at you, my wolf is screaming mine, claim, protect—"
"Possess," I add. "Don't forget possess."
"Yes." He doesn't even try to deny it. "Possess. Keep. Never let go."
The honesty is almost worse than the lies would be.
Because at least lies I could dismiss.
A laugh bubbles up. Bitter. Broken.
The silence stretches after Blake's confession. His gunpowder scent fills the room—thick, desperate, barely controlled. I can feel his wolf clawing at the surface, see it in the way his hands keep fisting and unfisting at his sides.
Cole reaches toward me with another tissue, movements careful. Like I'm a wild animal that might bolt.
Maybe I am.
"What if I refuse?" I ask quietly. "What if I reject the bond and leave anyway?"
The temperature in the room drops.
All three of them go very, very still. Even their scents freeze—a moment of pure shock before the storm.
Then Blake's eyes flash gold. Full wolf, barely leashed.