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When it isn’t forthcoming, he quickly yanks the clothes on and wedges himself between the seats.

“You’re not okay, because you always tell me it’s my ass that’s the money maker. So what’s up, handsome?”

Spinning lightning fast, Grayson presses his warm nose into Leo’s throat.

“I’m okay.”

As usual, Leo knows all he has to do is wait Grayson out. Patience has always served him well when it comes to Grayson, even with that single time he’d had to push a few buttons about that soulmate thing.

Where Luca needs searching out and riling up sometimes when he’s down or worried, Grayson typically wants to makehimfeel better, so if he waits, his fae princeling will spill it all. Usually.

“I hate this.”

Grayson’s voice is barely audible, with the way he’s pressed against Leo’s neck, but he manages to parse out the words.

“This?” he presses, asking for clarification on what could have offended Grayson so deeply.

Them being on the run? The possibility of violence? The vulnerability of their pack in rut on the fucking highway hundreds of miles from home? The cost of gluten-free food?

The list is arguably long.

Grayson sighs, nodding.

“Finn isn’t in the nest at home, and you know how he hates exposing his underbelly to the world when he’s like this. How could we not notice last night that he was hurting?”

Leo feels the same way; he’d cried about it not even two hours ago, actually, but he can at least offer comfort.

“Look, Gray, you know biology waits for no one. Stress triggers all kinds of shit. Look at Jay’s rut last fall; Nix’s heat, too, come to think of it.”

“And my rebound, and Rowan’s being triggered by a chase. Am I alone in thinking it’s weird? What’s happening with us?”

Jay had asked the same thing earlier in the lobby, too.

Though it might seem strange, Leo prefers to think of it as just somethingnew.

“I believe it’s Nix,” he murmurs, glancing over his shoulder to check if Finn and Nix are still out and recovering from their last round.

Jay had joined them thirty minutes ago, putting Nix on his side between Finn and Leo before fucking Leo within an inch of his life.

Leo’s body is still humming with satisfaction.

The pheromones inside the van had been overwhelming; how Gideon managed to keep the truck on the road was nothing short of miraculous, a true testament to his iron will.

“You’re not blaming him, are you?” Grayson growls, his alpha’s proverbial ruff standing straight on end.

“Whoa. Dial back the alpha defense mode. I am on your side, onhisside. What I am saying is that maybe he’s a catalyst. We’re all resetting our cycles for his cycle. Finn said that the other alphas in other packs had changes in their cycles once they bonded. Maybe this is us just living through it. You know?”

Grayson hesitates before tilting his head to the side. “A reset? Like, will this schedule be our new normal? Huh.”

He shakes his head, long hair flying around his face. Leo pulls up his mate’s slim wrist and removes the elastic hair tie Grayson keeps there for just this reason. Going to his knees, Leo gathers the soft hair back and binds it in an elegant top knot as loose pieces fall around his face.

“How are you so beautiful, Gray?” he sighs, and Grayson blushes prettily. “Inside and out.”

“Still, I don’t like that Finn’s vulnerable in the back of a truck.”

“No, me neither. But I do like it better than in that hotel. Too damn exposed there, but we’re headed somewhere better. To regroup.”

“I hate to interrupt, but I need a navigator. These directions are shit,” Gideon says.