Page 18

Jay wakes in his bed in the dead of night with a persistent feeling that something is off. Not dire or dangerous, necessarily—just off. His wolf still hasn’t settled one iota with Logan’s Sentinel guards patrolling the grounds. He can’t hear them, as they are well-trained, but Jay’s wolf knows they are in his territory—near his mates—and he is spending extra energy keeping him from tracking them through the compound for no reason.

After Cat and her team handled the removal of Dill Pickle and the pizza boy—Josh, his name is Josh— everyone split up instead of heading to the nest.

Jay had held back his instincts and barely stopped his wolf from dragging them into the nest so he could lie on them like a goddamned fortress—forcing any intruder to go through him first.

The old security system was back in place, but it was a temporary fix. Jay wouldn’t feel better until the new one was up and doing its damn job, because now they all know its flaws too well.

The Sentinel agents promised they’d be back by dawn. Not as covert as working under cover of darkness, but Logan had made the call—waiting until nightfall again would be a mistake. The sun would be up in under four hours—but that still didn’t explain what had woken him.

Jay had followed Gideon up the left-wing stairs, barely managing to steer his mate into his own space. He’d needed the added comfort after Nix offered a small wave instead of the hug Jay had been craving. Clinging to Grayson and Luca, he’d urged them into his own nest—quietly closed the door. After that, Finn followed Leo and a disappointed, growling Rowan into the youngest’s room, and that was that.

As much as Jay needed to lie on his mates like a dragon with his hoard, he also knew they had their own ways of coping with the night’s events.

It had been a revelation watching Nix rip the heart from the intruder’s chest. He’d moved as if he were born to fight—dancing and floating through each attack and defense. If Jay hadn’t known better, he would have said Nix had been doing this his whole life. Saying he’d been terrifyingly beautiful didn’t begin to cover it.

It had gone a long way to reassuring Jay about the upcoming trial and as long as Hayes stuck to brute force instead of a psychological game, it meant Jay could finally breathe. Hayes could hardly be a more adept fighter than the highly trained assassin currently on his way to an unmarked grave as they speak.

Oh, how Jay wishes he could say the same about Hayes.

Jay should have been more upset that Gideon had taken matters into his own hands when it came to Hayes’s treatment in prison—but he wasn’t. He couldn’t be. The bastard deserved every single ounce of pain the universe could deliver and more.

It only took the memory of Nix fresh from surgery—his urine output bag red with blood, his broken face bandaged, and the scent of death lingering in the air—for Jay to be on board with that plan, one hundred percent.

He couldn’t admit it then—not even to himself, especially to himself— but Nix had arrived in the ICU on borrowed time. Seeing how far he’s come—how alive he is now—makes Jay even happier to know that every minute of Hayes’s life since then has been an exercise in pain.

He only wishes Gideon hadn’t felt the need to keep it to himself, even if he understood why he had. Jay learns more and more about his mate every day, and when he thinks about it, he realizes it’ll only be two years in December since Gideon became part of their life. He fits them so well—makes them better as a pack just for being here. It’s easy to forget, sometimes, that they’re still getting to know him.

How Jay loves him—is in love with him.

Secretive. Self-possessed. Passionate. There is no one more loyal. Jay knew from the moment they met that this man was meant to stand at his side and help him lead his pack. His unfaltering confidence is a powerful force in their lives, from the day-to-day to the big things.

But tonight, Gideon had faltered.

Not that Jay held him responsible for the security breach or anything that followed—before or after. No one would believe he could have done anything more than he had already done. Gideon had done everything he could and then some.

No, Gideon had faltered because Gideon believed he was responsible.

Getting up from the bed, Jay follows the sound of running water. Light spills dimly from under the bathroom door. Weird. Gideon had already showered when they’d come in—before Jay had pulled him into bed.

Spooning up behind him had settled Jay enough for them to drift into a fitful sleep.

So why was Gideon in the shower again?

“Gideon?” Jay calls quietly. “You okay?”

There’s no answer, but the scent of thunder and petrichor is so strong that Jay’s nose tingles.

Pushing the door open, he can only hear the shower running—loud enough to drown out every other sound.

But then Jay sees him curled up between the toilet and the shower, soaking wet in his pajama pants. Face pressed to his knees. Shoulders shaking. Crying .

Jay only knows because of the occasional, barely-there hitch of breath.

“Babe. Fuck, are you hurting?”

Jay kneels in the frigid water pooling across the tiles and reaches for the knob, shutting off the shower. “Gideon, please. Are you hurt?”

Gideon shakes his head but doesn’t look up. Only grips his legs tighter and grits out, “Go away.”

“No,” Jay says, scooching in until his legs bracket Gideon’s seated form—one leg pushed up against the toilet, the other pressed against the open shower door. “I’m going to be wherever you are for the rest of eternity, so you better get talking. ”

Gideon huffs. “Drama llama.”

“You know it, baby. So…” Jay murmurs, rubbing a hand over the back of Gideon’s head and down his shoulder.

Sighing, Gideon tilts his head up so his face is visible, chin pressed into his knees. His bruised face is mottled red with tears.

“So beautiful, even with snot on your face.”

“Those are tears, dumbass. I do not have fucking snot on my face.”

Still, he grabs a towel and swipes it under his nose—just in case.

“Dumbass, hmm? I don’t get no respect around here,” Jay drawls in an accent straight out of one of those John Wayne westerns Leo likes so much.

It makes Gideon smile—for the tiniest moment. But it’s not long before another bout of tears rolls down his cheeks.

“Come on. Tell me. Please.” Jay isn’t above begging.

Gideon bangs his forehead against his knees, then waves a hand to shoo Jay out of the tiny space. “Move. My ass is wet and sore—and not in a fun way. Move.”

Jay scoots out before offering Gideon a hand, which he bats away.

“Fuck. What’s wrong with me? I’m sitting in the dark, crying like a baby. I never cry, but this is the second time in the last two weeks. I fucking hate this feeling.” Gideon presses the heels of his palms into his eyes.

“It was a hard day, and no one could have predicted—”

“That’s just it. I should have seen it coming. It’s my fucking job to make sure this family is safe. I thought I had my eyes on the threat, thought I had the tools to protect them—and the bad guys just waltzed in past my best efforts.”

Gideon peels off his wet pajama pants, dropping them onto the floor before stalking into the bedroom. He sits heavily on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees so he can dig his hands into his hair.

Jay follows because he wasn’t kidding before when he said he had plans to be with Gideon until the end of time.

“Gideon. Fuck. Where do I start? You alone aren’t responsible for protecting this pack. If anyone is, it’s me. No, wait. ” Jay holds up a hand before Gideon can interrupt with more self-recrimination. “ You listen. So they circumvented the system. We couldn’t have anticipated that, and we thought Hayes was contained.”

It hits him then—this hasn’t been about Hayes at all. It’s been too slick. Too professional. “But this isn’t about him, is it?”

Gideon just shakes his head. “No.”

Shit. Jay had been afraid of that—because anything Jay knew about Hayes was that he was a hands-on guy. Well, fucking-fuck.

Jay drops his pants before chucking them into the hamper, then sits his damp ass beside his mate. Sighing, he braces to ask a question he’s not entirely sure he wants the answer to.

“Do you have anything you want to share with the class?”

Jay watches him, waiting. Gideon’s jaw flexes. His fingers twitch, restless against his knee, but he says nothing.

Jay wants to press. Every instinct has him wanting to demand answers because, as he’d said, it is his job to protect his pack, but he also trusts Gideon. Trusts him to tell him when he’s done unraveling this mess.

“Okay. But you’ll let me know when you do?”

“Yeah, but you shouldn’t trust me not to screw this up. This whole day could have been fucked all to hell.”

“Yeah, it could have—but none of it lies solely with you, and we are all still here. We’re tucked up safely in our beds for another night. You have to let this go, Gideon.”

“Do you think that boy’s family is going to let it go? Or that Nix isn’t avoiding you and Leo because he’s ashamed of killing someone—because I got distracted for one second? Do you think Nix is letting it go?”

Jay’s fingers flex where they rest on his knee, itching to touch—but Gideon looks like he might shatter if he does.

He replays the night in his memory—how Nix avoided his comfort and Leo’s, too. But why? “Shit, did I do something?”

But no, Leo had done nothing except hold a cuddly Luca most of the night.

Gideon chuckles darkly, crawling up the bed to climb under the covers. “It’s guilt and shame because he thinks he did a terrible thing—and he did it like a fucking badass. There’s no one more morally upright than the two of you.”

Jay joins him under the covers but doesn’t lie down. “But I wouldn’t—fuck I couldn’t be angry at him for doing what he had to do. I would have done the same fucking thing—”

“Go to bed, Alpha. I’m tired, and we have to be up in a few hours.” Gideon exhales slowly. “I’ll get over myself, just…it’s not worth losing sleep over,” Gideon says flatly before rolling away his back to Jay.

Jay isn’t going to let that slide . Gideon thinks his feelings aren’t worth losing sleep over, and all Jay can hear is that Gideon thinks he’s not worthy. Well, fuck that—and the horse it rode in on ( Damn Leo and his cowboy fetish).

Quickly, so as not to give Gideon a chance to slide out of bed, Jay grabs his shoulder and pushes him flat on his back.

Gideon grunts as Jay throws a leg over and sits on his mate’s belly.

There’s an exaggerated oof, and Gideon bucks to unseat him. “Get off, you buffoon.”

Buffoon ? It wasn’t the first time Gideon had called him that, and Goddess willing, it won’t be the last.

“Are you saying no, Gideon?” Jay asks with a raised eyebrow, asking for explicit consent—because Jay is about to show Gideon Carnell just how much his feelings do matter.

Gideon goes still, then bucks his hips up again. “Are you kidding? Now ?”

“Look, you think your feelings don’t matter—they do. You’re not listening to a word I say, and, well, maybe I’m speaking a language you don’t understand. So, I’ll ask you again—yes?”

Jay just sits, most of his weight carried by his thighs.

Gideon flushes, as Jay scoots back until he can feel his mate’s dick hardening under his ass.

“I need the word, babe.”

“Piss off,” Gideon says through gritted teeth. His mate rarely asks for what he needs when it’s just for him, but tonight has been rough, and Jay doesn’t play without explicit consent.

“I can sit here all night. Perfect spot.” Jay wiggles his butt just to hear Gideon catch his breath .

“Words, please.”

It’s a battle of wills which, if Jay is honest, he’s not sure he can win.

His mate’s yes is breathy, and Jay doesn’t wait for a gilded invitation. He slides back, yanking the bed covers down so he can see Gideon’s beautiful body. Smooth skin glows under the bathroom light, illuminating his gorgeous cock lying hard against his belly.

Jay takes hold of his ankles, lifting them so he can kiss each one, biting at the skin before soothing each mark with his tongue.

Eyes glittering, Gideon bites his lip but refuses to give Jay the satisfaction of hearing him.

That’s okay. Jay is patient—and he has plans to get more than a sigh from Gideon.

Jay yanks him toward the end of the bed, grinning as Gideon gasps at his show of strength. He follows the abrupt movement with a soft kiss to the inside of each calf before laying Gideon’s left leg down so he can suck a mark into the scent gland behind his knee.

“Fuck,” Gideon groans.

Jay just smiles into his skin and continues until the area is mottled purple and black.

“You smell so good here, kitten.”

Gideon lets out a heavy breath and covers his eyes with his arm. He likes to call Nix his kitten, but Jay has one, too. He never gets away with it for long, but Gideon likes it—so Jay keeps trying.

Kicking his leg, Gideon dislodges him with a muffled, “Fuck you.”

“If you like,” Jay says before sinking his teeth into Gideon’s thigh above his knee—deep enough that Gideon moans.

“But you’ll have to wait for me to finish here.”

“Get on with it, then,” Gideon grumps.

Jay has to laugh because Gideon looks like that cat from the internet—with his frowny forehead and down-turned mouth. Jay isn’t fooled—that mouth is red, and he’s flushed down his chest.

Gideon is trying to tip Jay’s wolf over into feeling challenged so he’ll get what he wants: a good, hard fuck with a bit of pain to distract from all that emotion.

But as much as Jay likes that, too, he needs Gideon to feel something.

So, Jay leashes his wolf and lifts Gideon’s other leg, nipping at his ankle and laying biting kisses on his calf and thigh until the skin is mottled with bruises.

“You are so beautiful, Gideon,” Jay whispers. “Love to see my marks on your skin. Remind everyone that I loved you, made you feel good.”

He lays the leg down, then nudges them apart so he can crawl between them and press a kiss to that old scar on Gideon’s belly.

Gideon’s stomach tenses and his cock jerks at the romantic words, but it’s snark that rolls off his tongue. Jay wouldn’t have expected anything less.

“Haven’t made me feel good yet,” he grumbles.

“Lies, but I forgive you,” Jay says because it’s true. Jay would forgive this man for anything.

“Such soft skin. You always smell like summer rain to me.”

Turning his attention to the place where Gideon’s thigh meets his torso, he murmurs, “And here, too. Makes me crazy.”

The skin bears the marks of each of his mates on both sides—except for Luca, and now Nix. Nosing at each bite, he follows with a long lick.

“I don’t think you know how much they love you, kitten. Sharp claws keep everyone at arm’s length. Don’t you think I see you? That they see you for who you are? That they love you because of it, not despite it?”

He sucks on Finn’s mark, which sits close to Gideon’s hip bone. That must have hurt—but knowing them, it’s perfectly placed and entirely on purpose.

“I am sure they see me just fine.”

It sounds mean, but it’s also a plea—for understanding, for the love Gideon doesn’t think he deserves.

“They do. But do you?”

Jay licks the other side, where Leo and Grayson’s marks overlap and form something that looks like a beautiful heart made of teeth.

Jay holds Gideon’s cock straight up so he can admire it—such a pretty dick, always the instrument of someone else’s pleasure. Time to show his mate that he can have something for himself, too. Jay grinds his neglected cock into the mattress for a sliver of relief, reminding himself: Gideon comes first.

Taking the tip of Gideon’s cock in his mouth, he sucks hard at the head while sliding his other hand down and under, pressing his finger firmly against Gideon’s perineum. Pulling off, Jay blows on the wet head until he gives a full-body shiver.

“Alpha,” Gideon moans, hands clutched in the bottom sheet so hard he’s pulled one corner off.

“I asked you a question, kitten. Do you see yourself as they see you? Tell me, and I’ll let you fuck me.”

Jay rubs his thumb through the precome on the head of Gideon’s cock—so silky and slick. It smells and tastes like rain.

Gideon tries to roll over, but Jay doesn’t let go of that very nice dick, and Gideon’s move is aborted with an “ow!”

Jay laughs and lets go so he can swing a leg over Gideon’s hips, this time down far enough that when Gideon bucks up, his slippery cock slides between Jay’s ass cheeks, catching on his dry hole.

“You changed your mind, kitten?”

Gideon answers with another sharp thrust. “Fuck, no. We could be asleep already if you weren’t so annoying.”

“I have nowhere else I need to be. Do I need to repeat the question?”

Jay catches Gideon’s gaze, and he should have known his mate would not be the first to look away. Instead, Gideon sits up and sinks his fangs into Jay’s pec. It’s brutal—not new in their sex play—but again, it’s an attempt to provoke Jay to get what he wants.

“That hurt, kitten,” Jay says blandly.

Gideon flops backward onto the bed. “Agh! What do you want from me!? No, I don’t know what they see in me—not even Luca. But I am blessed to have them— you . Only the Goddess knows why, and They never said.”

His voice softens. “Because I don’t deserve you. I work all the time to do good things so I can earn this life. And today— tonight ? I fucked up and that boy died. He died because they wanted Nix. ”

He’s speaking so quietly that Jay can barely hear him over the beating of his own heart.

“And I think this is all happening because of me.”

“What?” Jay slides back onto the bed, genuinely flummoxed. “What are you fucking talking about?”

Gideon sits up and grabs a shirt off the floor, wiping the blood off Jay’s chest with a muttered, “Sorry.”

When he’s done, he looks directly into Jay’s eyes. “It’s Carnell. Dill Pickle said he wasn’t supposed to kill me…and he was supposed to take Nix.”

Every interaction Jay has had with Patrick Carnell slams into him at once—this time, with this new knowledge laid over the top. Things he knew about Gideon’s upbringing before he was out from under Carnell’s thumb. Things that have been happening since Nix has been with them.

“Hayes?” Jay asks, hoping the answer will be a firm no.

Gideon just shrugs. “I don’t know how or even why. But we have to assume he’s been playing the long game—with a big picture I can’t figure out. He’s the only one who’s that well connected.”

Holy fuck.

Jay climbs off the bed and makes for the door. He needs to see his mates, to know they’re safe.

Can he even trust the Sentinel guards? Fuck, what about Logan?

His mind is racing, spiraling, a rising tide of panic climbing up his throat. He presses his back against the wall and slides onto his ass hands gripping his hair.

“What the fuck is going on?” Jay chokes out. The magnitude of what this might mean for them is overwhelming. How far could a man like Patrick Carnell reach? Jay knows it’s farther than they have planned for, that’s for damned sure.

“Jay.” Calm now where he hadn’t been just minutes before, Gideon’s voice is steady. When Jay doesn’t move, Gideon crosses the room and kneels in front of him, prying Jay’s hands from his hair.

“You were right,” Gideon says, voice low, rough with exhaustion. “We can’t do this tonight. We’re safe for now. You have to believe that. ”

Jay exhales sharply, dropping his forehead to Gideon’s shoulder. He feels Gideon sigh, and then a warm hand drifts up to his neck, fingers threading into his hair.

I trust you, Jay says to himself. And Gideon should know that hasn’t changed, “I trust you.”

A rueful small flickers across Gideon’s full mouth before he smiles. “Then we’ll worry about Hayes, Patrick Carnell, and anything else tomorrow.”

Gideon throws the blankets back on the bed before climbing in, and Jay can only follow—like he always has. The thought makes him smile because it’s accurate. Jay leads their pack, but more often than not, Gideon leads Jay.

And boy, is he grateful for it.

It might seem strange at first that the tables have turned and Gideon is now comforting him, but it’s always been Gideon’s way.

“Sleep, Alpha.”

Fatigue wars with his wolf’s desire to check on his mates, so Jay focuses on the gentle hand in his hair.

The soft scent of summer rain soothes away most of Jay’s fearful smoky pine. His partner’s deep breathing under his cheek showed Jay that whatever guilt had driven him into the bathroom earlier was quiet—for the moment.

Maybe he’s feeling relief at having shared his worries about Carnell’s potential plans. Maybe he’s doing what he always does when Jay or his other mates need him—showing them that he will stand in the way of anyone who comes for their family. It all goes a long way to settling Jay toward sleep.

Gideon thinks he has to do good things to be good, but Jay believes it’s the other way around: Gideon does good things because he is good. Even if it takes a lifetime, Jay vows he’ll make sure his mate knows the difference.

***

It feels like only twenty minutes have passed instead of four hours. The door slams open so hard it rattles the wall. After the previous night’s revelations, it’s no surprise that the abrupt noise sends his wolf into high alert. In seconds, Jay is crouched on the bed, fangs down and claws out, ready to defend his sleeping mate. His natural-born weapons retreat only when he sees Luca, who, for once, is wearing pants.

Well, fuck. That bodes ill.

“Sugar! Jaybird! Lauren and Frankie are here. Hurry, you gotta see!”

And just like that, he’s gone, leaving the door wide open.

Jay hears his mothers-in-law speaking in the living room, their voices carrying through the open doorway. No call came through from security? Picking up his phone, he sees it’s well past dawn. Fuck. How had he slept through that?

“Gid.” Jay nudges Gideon, who is surely faking it. “I’m not going down by myself.”

Frankie has always loved Jay.

But Lauren? Whew. She’s intimidating, effortlessly superior, and makes Jay feel like he’s not at all deserving of her son, Leo.

“I’m sick. No, wait…I’m hurt. Yeah, my shoulder is hurting. Must stay in bed until they go.” Gideon fake coughs for good measure.

Standing at the foot of the bed, Jay pulls the covers off in much the same way he had last night.

“Please?” he whines with an exaggerated pout.

Gideon’s grimace is comical as he groans. “Ew. Okay. I will get up and beard that lion in our den if you promise never to do that again.”

Gideon pokes Jay in the chest as he passes, then takes his stunning ass to the closet and returns with the most offensive T-shirt Jay owns—a mustard yellow monstrosity with “Fuck You” printed in ten different languages—and a pair of boxers so small they can only be Luca’s.

“No. Gideon—come on. Why do you make this worse for yourself?” For me , Jay whines to himself.

“Better hurry up, Alpha. Can’t leave your mothers-in-law waiting,” Gideon says as he disappears out the door.

“He could have put on fucking pants. Goddess, give me strength.”

Jay grabs his sweats off the floor and a T-shirt off the chair, hoping they will forgive him for not standing on ceremony. Catching up to the dawdling Gideon isn’t difficult—especially when he stops at the top of the stairs and tilts his head.

“Wha—?” Jay asks, but it’s too late.

Gideon doesn’t answer—he just takes off, flying down the stairs and into the living room.

There, on the floor—with her gorgeous face swollen, red-puffy eyes weeping tears, and laughing with Jay’s beloved—is Lauren Arnell Costas holding an all-white kitten.

Luca hands a black one to Gideon like it’s made of glass.

“They brought the kittens!” Luca announces, as if it’s breaking news.

Gideon plops down onto the couch beside Grayson as Leo arrives from the kitchen with a box of antihistamines. He doles them out to Grayson, Finn, and then to himself.

“This is our life now,” he sighs, lifting the box as if toasting someone with it.

Gideon lifts the kitten to his cheek—and Jay swears he sees a tear. Whoa.

“Did they just show up?” Unannounced is not either of his mother-in-law’s modus operandi.

Nix laughs and places a hand on Lauren’s arm, which she covers with her own, a smile on her face before running a single elegant finger over the kitten’s soft white head.

“Is she allergic? Like you?” Jay whispers.

“Fuck, yes. Worse than me, even. For all that is holy, do not comment on it.

Leo sneezes, and then Grayson follows suit. With a put-upon sigh, Finn stands up and points over his shoulder to the yard where two black-clad Sentinel agents are digging in the yard. “I am out of here before these two get going. Gentlemen?”

Grayson kisses Jay’s cheek while whispering, “Good luck, alpha,” before following Finn and Leo outside, where Tsuki and Rowan are stopping by each hole Sentinel has dug into the yard.

Only one of them is sniffing for intruders—no need to guess who.

“Cowards,” Frankie chuckles, waving at her son as he leaves the rest of them to their fate .

“Morning, Jay. I’m sorry to just pop in on you like this. The cats were getting too big to be in the pool house any longer, and we tried bringing them into the house, but as you can see…”

She doesn’t mention her wife’s uncomfortable reaction to the cats. The same cats Lauren is still petting.

“She’s allergic, but promised Nix she’d keep them. So…here we are.”

“Jamie!” Nix says. “Can we keep them? Tsuki doesn’t care one bit, and Moms brought all the stuff. Please?”

“Stuff” is an eight-foot cat tree and five boxes of what Jay assumes are cat toys and paraphernalia.

Jay should probably hesitate—because three-eighths of their family is allergic—but he quickly caves.

What? Jay can’t be blamed. Not when it’s disconcerting to have Lauren’s formidable look of disapproval pointed in his direction when she looks like that.

Jay would never deny him or Gideon this, anyway.

“Of course. What are you naming them?”

Because as much as Gideon has that little black kitten under his chin, both of them purring, these cats are a gift for Nix.

Nix hums, then looks at Gideon. Jay catches a nod from the alpha out of the corner of his eye.

Go ahead.

“Okay. Um. This one has spots on his belly! Eight, see?”

He flips the short-haired white kitten over gently and rubs noses with it, and sure enough, there are eight dots evenly spaced on his belly.

“I think his name should be Domino.”

The cat couldn’t care less, but stoic Lauren claps like a little girl.

“Good choice, Nix. What about your beautiful princess?”

Her voice is nasal, and Gideon snorts behind him.

Jay lands a small kick to his foot—a desperate reminder not to start something.

“She’s pretty—with those swirls on her legs and tail. I think her name is Doodle. What do you think, Mom? ”

He asks without a single ounce of fear—just confidence that Lauren will be kind.

“Another perfect name,” Lauren says, genuine pride in her voice.

“Oh, I came bearing other gifts as well. Antonio said you might need this, and I knew no one here would remember.”

She casts a disparaging look right past Jay to Gideon, who locks his jaw and pointedly ignores her attempts at riling him up.

Instead, he just runs his middle finger over the vaffanculo printed on the front of his shirt.

Italian is one of the ten languages Lauren speaks fluently.

Frankie and Jay sigh simultaneously—then laugh, faced, as they are, with identical dilemmas.

Lauren comes back into the room, bearing a garment bag embossed in silver with Eminence Tailor on the white silk.

Eminence Tailor makes bespoke suits of the highest quality. Jay has one in his closet—the one he wore to the Academy Awards—and it cost over five thousand dollars. Worth every penny, too.

Jay is proud to say Long Road Home supports local businesses on the red carpet, and the proprietor was both part of the LGBTQIA+ community and a Were.

But Nix hadn’t been in for a single fitting, let alone the five it had taken Jay, so, like everyone familiar with the exacting tailor’s work, he was confused.

The suit is a deep navy blue with subtle gold stitching along the lapels. Lauren has chosen a pale yellow shirt and an understated tie with blue-on-blue stripes.

Jay spares a moment to be sad that Nix will only wear the suit once—because after tomorrow’s court case, no one will bear seeing it again.

Nix runs a finger reverently down the sleeve.

“For me?”

“Of course. Who else could wear such a beautiful garment? It was made just for you. See?”

She opens the front of the suit, and inside, Nix must see his name.

“Oh, it’s so pretty. Thank you. I love it. May I try the jacket on?” Nix asks.

Lauren helps him into it, and of course, it’s a perfect fit.

Finn huffs in surprise. “How did she know it would fit?”

Frankie shrugs, pride clear in her voice. “She’s amazing. She can take one look and size a person up. She’s never wrong…” She pauses, then coughs. “Well, with suits, anyway. ”

Gideon snorts again, Doodle perched on his head while Domino lies on his back, tiny paws batting at his fingers as he plays pat-a-cake.

“Andre has sent new suits for all of you—for you too, Gideon. I even made sure she hasn’t had the sleeves sewn shut,” Frankie says in all seriousness.

“Suits for everyone?” Luca asks, a whine creeping into his voice—of all the pants, Luca hates suit pants most of all.

Frankie smiles and fetches another bag, a discreet tag hanging around the neck of the hanger. She unzips it, revealing a pale gray short jacket with a knee-length skirt. It’s classy and very Luca .

“It’s perfect! Did Lauren pick them all out?” Luca asks, running his fingers over the skirt, revealing the pure purple silk lining.

Frankie nods.

It’s a level of thoughtfulness Jay rarely gives Lauren credit for—exactly the kind of thing Gideon would do to show his love and care.

“Thank you, Lauren,” Luca says respectfully.

“Well, I couldn’t have our Nix facing his nemesis in jeans and a T-shirt. This way, you can show that slimy git how special you are,” Lauren says sincerely, without a grain of sarcasm that usually accompanies her veiled compliments.

Her voice softens. “You are very special, Phoenix Rena, and you are ours. Never forget it. We will be with you—tomorrow and forever.”

Nix throws himself into her arms. Lauren squeezes him tightly, pressing her nose into his hair.

And then it clicks.

He turns to Frankie and asks, “You know, don’t you?”

She nods. “We do. Since that day at the house. Lauren’s brother was an omega, though they never told anyone. Born, not turned, obviously. But he lived a life of seclusion. His family kept him hidden—so much so that he never found his mates.”

Frankie exhales, her gaze softening as she watches Nix.

“I think it’s only part of why she loves you so much, of course. You shine, Nix. Your soul is a gift from the Goddess.”

Jay couldn’t agree more.