Page 14

Vince

Vince’s heart raced in his chest as he walked away from their precious mate.

She still looked exhausted, but in a much better condition than they’d left her in a few days ago.

The single thing that had melted his heart, however, was her learning their names.

It was a big step for her, even though most wouldn’t see it as such.

She’d offered hers in initiation and even accepted Ezra’s gift. Ezra seemed much calmer too, content even. He’d struggled with his feelings for Scarlett and the mate bond for a long time, but it was easier for him now that she was slowly accepting them too.

“It was very sweet of you to gift her that pendant.”

Ezra glared at Mateo in the rearview mirror. “Normally I’d skin someone alive for calling me sweet.”

Mateo laughed, unfazed. “Why? Afraid people will know you’re not a total psychopath?”

Ezra stared him down, debating if he should stab, burn or drag him bound by chains over the asphalt of the highway.

“Oh, come on, don’t be so serious,” Mateo sighed. “You know I love your psychotic ass.”

“Fucking golden retriever,” Ezra muttered.

“Woof Woof.”

Vince chuckled, unable to hold it back. He drove, speeding down the highway toward their home.

“She even has our reserved badass in a good mood. I wonder how we’ll change once she moves in.”

“Hopefully she’ll be fucking our brains out,” Ezra mumbled from the back, but they could both sense that his libido wasn’t his top priority at all.

“She’ll need to learn what it means to be free. She can come and go whenever she pleases,” Vince added, earning himself a curious gaze from Mateo.

Mateo crooked his brow. “Do you think she’ll have trouble understanding that?”

“Not mentally, but it’ll be an adjustment for her, that’s for sure.”

“We can offer to take her on small outings first. Just groceries, or walks maybe,” Mateo suggested further. “She seemed to love being out on her pack’s land, I’m sure she’ll love our lake too.”

“So many possibilities,” Ezra hummed, letting his necklace slip between his fingers.

“What did you have in mind?” Mateo asked. When Ezra stayed silent, he answered his own question. “I want to take her to the market. I could cook for her.”

“Ah, parading her around, what fun we’ll have.”

And though Vince didn’t agree with Ezra often, this time he had to.

“I wonder what it will feel like to feel the full potential of the bond. Do you think we’ll hear her thoughts?”

Ezra’s eyes sparkled. “She’ll hate how well we’ll know her.”

“You’ll definitely have to tone it down. You’ll overwhelm her. I remember our first year together, it was hell living through your mood swings.”

A dark chuckle bubbled up from Ezra’s chest. “Try being me.”

“You think she’ll calm you down?” Mateo was often the one to keep the conversations going, Vince content with just listening to the two of them.

With his fingers pinching the pendant of his necklace, Ezra turned his head and stared out of the window. “Maybe.” The conversation stilled but they were surprised when Ezra took a deep breath. “She’ll hate me. She already does, why would that change once she’ll be able to see who I really am?”

Vince looked over at Mateo, who seemed just as clueless as he felt.

Ezra wasn’t the type of man to dwell or be insecure.

Typically, he never cared about what people thought of him.

At first, Vince hadn’t believed it but once their blood vow had manifested, he’d seen how little fucks Ezra gave about the world around him.

He wanted to reassure Ezra, but how could he? Ezra knew exactly how mentally taxing it was to be bonded to him. He and Mateo had never hidden that from Ezra, had begged him for the first year of the bond to quiet down.

“I want to hurt her family for treating her like this. Even knowing how much she loves them, I want to rip them apart. They deserve to be punished, and I want to give them a taste of it even if she disapproves.” When he saw the worried glances they shared, he rolled his eyes. “I won’t . I just want to.”

They didn’t say a word until they got home, where Mateo started dinner and Vince sat down at the table to read through the vampire’s diaries. They still hadn’t found any evidence as to where the lycans may have been hiding.

Ezra had disappeared into his room, his raging emotions coursing through Vince’s mind. It had become a white noise over time, but he’d wanted to behead him the first time he’d felt their minds melt together.

“Do you want salad with your food?”

Vince looked to where Mateo was setting the island.

Ezra wasn’t wrong—Mateo was the gentlest of them all, somewhat the glue between the three of them.

He’d been the one insisting that they live together and had been the one to find this place.

Unable to deal with Ezra, Vince had left them for months at a time, but Mateo had been the one checking on him and bringing them back together every time.

Remembering that he’d been asked a question, he shook his head in response.

“No salad today then. Ezra won’t touch it anyway.”

He pushed himself off the table and sat at the island, keeping the food as far from the papers as they could.

“Did you find anything?” Mateo asked him.

Vince stuffed his mouth, shaking his head again.

“Maybe we should have taken more of his scripts.” Mateo sighed. “It’s too late to go back now.”

Eventually, Ezra joined them. He used to exclusively take his meals in his room, but Mateo put a stop to that by refusing to feed him.

Mateo hadn’t grown up in a dysfunctional family like they had, so he insisted on the values he’d known before his life with them.

Content, Vince let his mind drift to Scarlett.

It was easy to picture her slotting into their lives.

Eating her meals at the same table, spending her day in the same house.

He wondered if she would ever sit on the couch and sketch.

Or if her canvases would clutter the space.

She hadn’t said what kind of art she enjoyed, so there were so many possibilities—and they all made Vince smile.

There were times where it was hard to wait for her, to see their future together come to life, but he knew it was necessary.

Being with them had to be her own choice, it had to be what she wanted.

The bond was already forcing all of them to fall in love, so leaving her family had to come from her and her alone.

And Vince would wait… years if he had to.