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I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think past the thundering of my heart and the lingering taste of him on my lips. His hand was still under my shirt, possessive against my skin, the heat of it branding me.

“Now,” he continued, thumb brushing over my lower lip where his teeth had been moments before, “are you going to behave, or do I need to restrain you for the rest of the drive?”

The question should have outraged me. Instead, it sent a jolt of heat straight to my core. I hated my reaction, hated how my body betrayed me, hated how much I wanted him to kiss me again.

But I also hated the thought that this was just biology to them—an inconvenient mate bond they felt obligated to fulfill. I couldn’t bear to be just a responsibility, just a duty, just the fox they were stuck with because fate had a twisted sense of humor.

“I’ll behave,” I whispered, the fight temporarily drained from me.

“Good boy,” he murmured, the praise settling warm in my chest despite my best efforts to resist it.

He shifted me in his arms, arranging me so I was sitting across his lap, my head tucked under his chin. It was a position that should have felt childish or demeaning but instead felt disturbingly right. His heartbeat thudded strong and steady against my ear, his arms secure around me.

Logan’s eyes met mine in the mirror again, dark with the same hunger I’d seen in Cade’s. “That’s more like it.”

“Don’t get used to it,” I muttered, but there was no real heat in my words. I was too shaken by what had just happened, by my own reaction.

Cade’s chuckle rumbled through his chest. “We’ll see.”

As the city fell away behind us, replaced by the evergreen forests that lined the highway to the coast, I tried to gather my scattered thoughts. That kiss had changed everything and nothing. It confirmed what I’d been running from—the undeniable pull between us.

Chapter 2

Four Years Ago

Istared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, fingers gripping the marble countertop so hard my knuckles turned white. The face looking back at me seemed like a stranger’s—too pale, eyes too wide, lips pressed into a thin line.

“This has to be some cosmic joke,” I whispered to my reflection.

The bathroom lights cast an unflattering glow over my features—honey-brown hair that never quite behaved, amber-gold eyes that looked more fox than human in certain lights, delicate bone structure that made me look younger than my nineteen years. I wasn’t ugly, I knew that much, but I wasn’t… them.

I wasn’t tall and powerfully built like Cade, with his commanding presence and deep blue eyes that could freeze you in place with one look. I wasn’t ruggedly handsome like Logan, all hard edges and barely contained strength. I wasn’teffortlessly charming like Keir, with his golden good looks and easy smile that made everyone fall at his feet.

I was just… Finn. Five foot six on a good day, slim-built, with artist’s hands and exactly zero ability to shift properly despite apparently being some kind of rare fox shifter. The kind of guy the Sinclair brothers protected and tolerated, not the kind they desired.

And certainly not the kind fate would choose as their mate.

Their mate. Plural. All three of them.

“Fuck,” I breathed, splashing cold water on my face. It did nothing to wash away the memory of this morning’s ceremony.

The Mate Augury was supposed to be a formality—just another supernatural tradition I had to endure as the defective fox shifter in a family of powerful alphas. No one expected anything to actually happen. I certainly hadn’t.

But then the elder’s eyes had widened as she stared into the ceremonial bowl, her weathered hand trembling as she gripped my wrist.

“Impossible,” she’d whispered, looking from me to where my brothers stood at the edge of the sacred circle. “Three alphas. One mate.”

The silence that followed had been deafening. I’d looked up to see Cade, Logan, and Keir exchanging glances, their expressions grim. Not surprised—just grim. Resigned.

“You’ve felt it?” Elder Miriam had asked them, her voice shaking.

Cade had nodded once, jaw tight. “For some time now.”

Some time. How long had they known? How long had they been carrying this burden, pretending everything was normal while fate played this cruel joke on them?

I remembered the flash of pain that had crossed Logan’s face, the way Keir had looked away. They hadn’t wanted this. Hadn’t wanted me.

And why would they? The Sinclair alphas could have anyone. I’d seen the women they brought home—tall, beautiful wolf shifters with perfect bodies and confident smiles. Women who fit seamlessly into their world of power and privilege. Women who could shift at will, who understood pack dynamics, who could stand beside them as equals.