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My legs are unsteady as I push away from the nest, shaking off the cocoon of warmth. The room is dim, the twinkling lights above casting flickering shadows along the walls. I’m alone in here but I know they’re close. I can hear them moving about the house, feel the weight of their presence pressing against my fraying control.

A deep inhale and I catch them – that creamy, toasty, spicy scent of Xar’s, sharp fruit and leather from Blaise, Dane’s dark wood and musk. My body shudders, my fingers curling into theblankets as my traitorous instincts urge me to sink back into their scents, to drown in them.

No!

I stagger to my feet, but my balance wavers, dizziness threatening to pull me down. The heat may be gone, but my body still remembers. Still craves.

The door opens before I can reach it.

Blaise fills the frame, his expression unreadable, but his scent – thick with control and something darker – crashes into me like a wave. My knees weaken, and I brace myself against the wall, cursing under my breath.

He doesn’t speak, just watches me. Assessing.

“Move,” I manage, my voice hoarse.

He doesn’t. Of course he doesn’t.

“You need to rest.” His voice is smooth, but there’s an edge to it, a quiet authority that stirs something low in my belly.

“I need air.” I clench my jaw. “Away from?—”

I don’t finish. I don’t need to. His eyes darken, flicking over me, taking in the way I sway slightly where I stand.

“You’re not okay.”

I hate that he’s right. Hate that my body is betraying me like this.

Movement behind him, and then Xar is there, his calming pheromones cutting through the tension like a blade. His gaze flicks between us before settling on me.

“She’s fighting it, Xar.” There’s something almost amused in Blaise’s tone. “That’s cute.”

I glare at him. “Fuck off.”

Xar exhales through his nose, not quite a sigh, not quite a laugh. “Come back to the nest.”

I shake my head. “I can’t.”

“Why?” He doesn’t ask it cruelly, doesn’t push, but the weight of the question settles in my chest.

Because if I do, I won’t want to leave again. Because my scent is perfuming, my body is producing slick, and I’m in danger of embarrassing myself.

My breath shudders. The truth is a raw, ugly thing, sitting heavy between us. My instincts are a living thing beneath my skin, clawing at me, desperate for something I refuse to give.

Xar steps closer, and I press back against the wall, my body reacting before I can stop it. His expression softens into something almost thoughtful. “You’re exhausted,” he murmurs. “You look like you haven’t slept.”

“Maybe because I haven’t,” I snap, but the fight is weak. The room is tilting again, the exhaustion catching up with me in waves. My body is demanding rest, demanding comfort, and it wants it fromthem.

Blaise watches me for a long moment, then steps forward. I tense, but he doesn’t touch me. He just stands there, close enough that his scent wraps around me, steady and grounding.

“Come back to the nest, Evie,” he says quietly. “Sleep. We’ll stay with you this time. Be here when you wake up. We won’t leave you. We won’t make that mistake again.”

My whole body is aching with the need to listen, to obey, to surrender to what I know will make this easier. But if I do…

If I do, I don’t know how I’ll pull myself back out. How I’ll survive when they’re gone. Because they will leave. Everyone always does. And they’rerockstars.They have a whole public life they live in the limelight…my idea of hell.

It doesn’t matter that they’re my scent matches, my mate…mine…I can’t have them. Not forever. And it’s already going to be agony to let them go with how deeply they’ve burrowed under my skin in such a short space of time.

A long, slow breath. My lashes flutter, my vision swimming for a moment. I sway, and then?—