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L ibrary. Now!

I fumbled my laptop as Yelena’s voice rang through my head, scaring the absolute shit out of me. Luckily, it landed on the bed and not the floor, but that was no consolation for my pounding heart.

I set everything aside, yanked on some clothes, and raced out of Yelena’s suite. I nearly tripped over Seth and Haru getting off the elevator on the second floor. “What’s going on?”

“We’re not sure,” replied Seth. “Yelena yelled and we came running.”

Margaret, the librarian, was waiting outside the doors when the three of us rolled up, the hallway full of people. What on earth?

She let us in and closed the door behind us.

“Over here, precious.” Yelena’s voice came from the back of the library.

Caden was sitting on the floor, looking white as a sheet, when we arrived and I dropped down next to him. Yelena was kneeling beside him, his head cradled with one arm against her chest, her other hand pressed above his heart.

“What’s wrong?” I cupped his cheek, my gaze darting over him, searching for some sort of injury.

“She’s alive,” he croaked out.

“What do you mean? Who’s alive?”

“ Rachel .”

Seth crashed to his knees next to us, suddenly looking as pale as his brother. “What?! How ?”

Yelena stroked a soothing hand over Caden’s shirt. “She appeared for a few seconds on a video call. She stayed with us years ago under the name Heather Chambers and reached out about the query we sent to all of the witches who had stayed here before.”

“Can she open the bond again?” Caden asked, one hand desperately clinging to Yelena, and the other to me. “What if she didn’t break it and only silenced it? I felt it break. I thought that meant she died, but…”

“I don’t know, panther. Witch magic is varied and unpredictable. Are you worried it will impact Logan if you bond her?”

Caden let out a shuddering breath. “If Rachel is still connected to me, could she connect to Logan if we bonded?”

Yelena looked briefly to me, one eyebrow raised in question. “I can’t imagine why she would want to, though. Why are you worried about it?”

“Because I don’t know her anymore. I don’t know what she’s capable of.”

“She probably used some sort of magic to either close off her end of the bond or break it entirely,” said Yelena. “I don’t know how that magic works, but it is difficult and painful. She must’ve been rather desperate to go to such lengths to break away from you.”

Caden pulled away from both of us, burying his face in his hands. “I didn’t know. All this time I thought I was the reason she died. I hated myself for decades, thinking if she had just felt safer with me she would’ve told me she wanted to leave.”

Yelena drew him close again and he didn’t shake her off. He hadn’t spoken so much about Rachel in all the time I had known him. Seeing her must’ve spooked all of this out of him.

Yelena tutted. “While I will entertain the possibility that you were a horrific jackass in decades past, that is not the type of man I’ve seen you to be now.

Our long lives mean we can make even more mistakes than the humans and it sounds like your choice for your first mate was a mistake on everyone’s part. ”

My poor love. Rachel was the sorest spot in his past and he always hated when she came up. Now that she had made a reappearance, she wasn’t going anywhere and I didn’t entirely know what that meant for me.

“Do you want to go back to her?” I asked, swallowing down the swell of nerves that came from the question. Things had ended so poorly between them, but that didn’t mean the love wasn’t still there.

“No, but what if?—”

“Then that’s all there is to it,” said Yelena firmly. “It takes a courageous person to trust again after a betrayal like that. Whatever your past was with this woman is simply that, the past. Your present and future belong to Logan. Besides, Rachel very obviously does not want to be found by you.”

Seth’s fingertips brushed my arm and I turned to him. “You never asked, but if she’s back, I can’t hide what happened from you forever.” Caden and Seth made eye contact, tension filling the air. “You can tell her.”

I’d been content to let that secret hang between us. Whatever had happened, I knew Seth.

“I thought we were happy,” Caden began. “I learned that was just a delusion on my part when she and Seth ran away together.”

I stared at my bondmate, and he resolutely looked at the floor, refusing to meet my gaze.

I couldn’t fault Rachel for loving both of them, but it certainly explained why Caden had always been so wary about having Seth around me.

My tongue felt thick in my mouth. “Did you want me because of me or because I was his?”

“Fuck, Lo. I loved you before you were his. The moment you picked me up out of those bushes, it was over for me. I fucked up so hard with Rachel. I thought she loved me, and I never wanted to hurt Caden. I couldn’t fight it when she asked me to take her away from there, no matter how much I knew it would hurt him. ”

Tears slipped over Seth’s cheeks and I absorbed his words.

While some of the fault definitely lay with him, Rachel was the one with the bondmate she’d chosen to abandon.

I tried really hard not to judge the situation.

I didn’t know any of them back then, didn’t know the circumstances they had found themselves in.

I had always felt a pull toward Seth no matter how much I tried to push it down.

I loved Caden so much, but I could also understand being too weak to ignore a pull like that.

Yelena cleared her throat. “I recognize that this is probably going to be difficult for all of you, but I also hope that you know you’re not alone in facing it.”

“Sure fucking feels like I’m alone in it,” Caden scoffed.

“Mighty panther,” Yelena teased. “You need to spend more time among lions and wolves to learn what it means to have a pack to rely on in all things. You are only as alone as you make yourself.”

I reached for both of my men, lacing my fingers with theirs. “I don’t know what Rachel being alive means for any of us in the long run, but I love both of you and that’s not going to change.”

“You don’t hate me?” Seth asked.

“I could never. I don’t know what went through Rachel’s head when she left Caden to go with you, but I feel like I’m in a unique position to understand the compulsion, even if I was never willing to leave Caden to have you too.

Things are a million times more complicated now but I know my heart will always belong with the two of you. ”

“Omegas are uniquely suited for polyamory,” said Yelena.

“There is never a shortage of love or desire with them when they feel safe. I know everything might be terrifying, but at the very least, you won’t have to deal with this woman while we’re in lockdown.

She doesn’t want to speak to us, and she certainly can’t come here.

We made that clear when we reached out to everyone. ”

Caden reached for Seth, taking another slow breath. “Rachel has been a wedge between us for so long. It seems a cruel trick of fate for us to have mended things only for her to appear again.”

“Fate is certainly welcome to kiss my ass,” Seth snapped. “What the fuck does it think it’s doing?”

Forcing you all to be honest , Haru suggested. If Logan didn’t know until now, then maybe she needed to for things to move forward.

“That’s certainly a possibility, darling.” Yelena patted Haru’s head before looking at me. “What do you suggest for handling their stress, precious?”

“Oh, usually I would just have them go into their house cat forms so I can pet them.”

“You heard her, panthers.”

The brothers shared a look but complied. Yelena scooped up Caden and I gathered Seth onto my lap, settling next to her while Haru lay down between us, his wolf head on my thigh.

I kept expecting Caden to protest, but Yelena found a spot beneath his chin that had his eyes closing and his purr erupting. They were so fucking cute together.

Seth cuddled against me. You’re really, really sure you don’t hate me?

I’ve never hated you for a single moment, and I’m not about to start now.

He relaxed fully, letting his purr out and shoving his little head against the underside of my chin.

Every so often Caden tensed again until Yelena swatted his ass. “You’re supposed to be relaxing. If you’re going to stew, it’s going to be very difficult to help you.”

Sorry . Caden’s voice echoed in my head.

“You’re missing a very rare opportunity, panther. Do you think I let just anyone sit on me like this?”

Forgive me if I’m more focused on my mate being alive than the fact that you’re petting me .

Yelena laughed. “You get sassy when you’re a cat. If it would make you feel better, assuming we all survive this, I can put a few resources into finding out what became of your mate.”

You would do that?

“If it will make you stop your brooding, then yes.” Yelena reached out to me as well, tucking my hair behind my ear. “Precious, I know things are quite complicated, but I do hope you know that we’re here to help.”

I leaned into her, breathing in her spicy cinnamon scent, letting my fingers trail down to stroke Haru while still cradling Seth. “I know.”

Velda pushed her way into the library, trotting over to us and kneeling before our group. “Is everyone all right?”

“Getting there,” said Yelena.

“Was it another panic attack over the lockdown?”

“More like the past coming back to haunt us,” I replied.

Velda settled on my other side, planting a kiss against my temple. “The past can certainly be a bitch. You’re drawing quite the crowd outside the library. Should we transfer to the suites?”

“Yes,” said Yelena. “I would imagine everyone could do with some rest.”

My thoughts drifted to Rachel while we collected ourselves to go upstairs.

Seth and Caden spoke so little about her and I was morbidly curious about the woman who had ensnared them both.

Who was she? Was Rachel even her real name?

Why had she stayed hidden for so long? The questions turned over in my head, but no answers were forthcoming.

Yelena and I carried Seth and Caden, Haru walking at our side, and Velda lacing her fingers with mine. We waded through the crowd and disappeared upstairs, away from the multitude of curious eyes.

“You did well dealing with your first panic, little witch.” Velda offered me a soft smile. “It’s good practice. I can only imagine they will become more frequent.”

“I’m only good at it if they shift and let me cuddle them.”

“A great many people here crave a gentle touch. If you’re offering them that without judgment or reservation, I’m sure you’ll find plenty willing to do that.”

When we reached the door to Yelena’s suite, Velda drew me into a kiss. “I’ll go make sure all is as well as it can be.”

“Do you need help?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Stay with your panthers. I promise I’ll call you if you’re needed.” Velda kissed me again and waved as she departed down the hall.

Whatever this was—pack, pride, or something else—I wanted to keep it. I may not have understood all the intricacies, but fate brought us together for a reason. My job was to love them, and luckily for me, they were making it easy.