Page 90 of Knot Their Safe Haven

"Morality is subjective when you're building empires," Alessandro says quietly. "We've all done things that wouldn't survive scrutiny. The twins are just more honest about it."

I process this while stealing bites from the plate. The omelet is perfection—creamy inside, herbs I can't identify making each bite a revelation.

"You're all criminals?"

"We're all successful," Alexis corrects, joining us with her own plate. "In this economy, the distinction is academic."

"That's not reassuring."

"It's not meant to be. It's honest." She meets my eyes directly. "We're not good people, Velvet. We're effective people who've decided you're worth protecting. The methods are negotiable. The goal isn't."

"And if I object to the methods?"

"Then we adjust," Alessandro says simply. "Your comfort matters more than our convenience."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

Alessandro laughs, the sound rumbling through me, and I realize I'm smiling. Actually smiling, not the practiced expression I wear for public consumption but something real and unguarded.

"I could get used to this."

"That's the plan," Alessandro murmurs, pressing lips to my temple.

"Cunning."

"Strategic. We're very good at long-term planning."

"Seventeen years of it," Alexis adds with a smirk.

"Are you ever going to let that go?"

"Never. It's too perfect. The boy who fell for his tutor and spent nearly two decades orchestrating the perfect reunion. Romance novelists would weep."

"Stop making it sound creepy."

"Stop making it be creepy."

They bicker like siblings, comfortable and familiar, while I finish breakfast still perched on Alessandro's lap. His hand never stops moving, tracing patterns that might be possession or might be poetry.

Outside, the world continues its rotation—my Haven needs attention, three rejected Alphas are probably plotting, the media is spinning stories about who claimed the Rebel Queen.

But inside this glass house, surrounded by mountains and morning light, being fed by an Alpha female while an Alpha male holds me like I might evaporate, I forget to care about any of it.

"More coffee?" Alexis offers.

"Please."

She pours, the stream of liquid catching light, and I think: this is what peace feels like.

Dangerous thought for a dangerous woman surrounded by dangerous people.

But maybe that's exactly what makes it perfect.

MORNING TEMPTATIONS

~ALESSANDRO~