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Dane didn’t want to think it, didn’t want to even compare, but he couldn’t help the last stirrings of doubt—were they wrong, to take something just because they wanted it so badly? Were they really owed a happy ending? Was anybody?

“Dane.”

Colin’s voice brought Dane back to the present. Fox had finished his ministrations, and Colin was leaning back against a mountain of pillows on the bed, paler than usual and a little glassy-eyed, no doubt from the pain in his arm.

He smiled softly at Dane once he had his attention. “You’re worrying awfully loudly over there.”

The truth poured out of Dane as if compelled from him. “We were going to wait,” he admitted. “We— I wanted you to come to the decision yourself.”

“You mean you didn’t plan on dropping to your knees and begging me?” Colin grabbed Dane’s hand, squeezing tightly. “I was going to ask you, after this mess was done. I was going to beg, to ask for more. I want to stay. I want—I want you to keep me.”

Some of the tightness in Dane’s chest eased. They weren’t pushing Colin or rushing him into giving up his humanity. Just as they wanted to keep him, he wanted to be kept. He’d been going to ask. Dane had just jumped the gun a little.

Fox rubbed a tendril of Colin’s hair between his fingers. “So brave, our lamb. We’ll give you more. We’ll give you everything.”

Colin’s brow furrowed as he stared up at Fox. “And if we aren’t mates after all?”

“We are.” The conviction in Fox’s voice was unmistakable. Dane was grateful for it, that Fox could speak for them both without any hint of doubt. It was what Colin deserved, that certainty.

“But have you ever heard of three mates before?”

“I’d never heard of vampires until I was one,” Fox answered, tugging that lock of hair gently. “Lack of precedence doesn’t mean much to me.”

“What if my mate turns out to be someone else?”

Fox’s grin was vicious. “Then we turn them to get you tethered and chain them up in our basement for eternity. I don’t care who they are—they won’t fucking touch you.”

Colin scoffed. “One: this house doesn’t have a basement. And two: you are so not doing that.” But he leaned back against the pillows again, clearly reassured by Fox’s words.

And Dane finally— finally— let go of the last of his doubts.

He didn’t give a shit what fate had to say, in the end.

This was going to work. They just… fit .

Colin, for all he claimed to have been uncertain, lost in his own life, had a self-assuredness, an easy acceptance of them that soothed Dane’s insecurities.

And where Colin might falter, Fox was there, strong enough to steady them both.

He always had been, but for years—for far too many years—Dane had been too stubborn to let him.

God, he fucking loved him. A wave of it washed over Dane, and Fox clearly felt it, turning to him, for once without a smirk or scowl on his face. He was open, unguarded, letting Dane see every bit of his love returned in full force.

Dane’s brother. His soul.

Colin waved at them, apparently impatient with their sentimental moment. “Okay, get to it. My arm hurts like a bitch, and I’d like to be unconscious now.”

“You know how it works?” Dane asked him, stepping closer.

“Jay told me once.”

Right. Colin’s vampire bestie. It was almost funny to think of their jealousy toward him now, the strange little guy so clearly smitten with his own mate. And then Dane remembered that Jay had gotten to taste Colin’s blood first, and the jealousy made perfect fucking sense.

But now wasn’t exactly the time.

“You know it—that it… hurts?” he asked.

Colin met his gaze squarely. “I know.”

Dane caught Fox’s eye, and he knew Fox got the message. I don’t want to be the one to hurt him. Colin had already endured enough pain that day—Dane couldn’t bear to be the one to give him more.

Fox tugged Colin’s hair again. “Dane will drain you. I’ll give you my blood.”

Colin nodded, just once. “Cool.”

Cool. As if it was that easy. Giving away his humanity, agreeing to be theirs forever.

Cool.

Dane climbed onto the bed, lifting Colin and sliding in under him, holding him firmly against his chest. “You ready?”

In answer, Colin melted against him, his trust in Dane not even a question.

So Dane bit in, hit mouth filling with hot, fresh blood, tasting earthy and spicy and divine.

For once, he didn’t have to hold his devil back.

He drank. And drank. He swallowed warm mouthfuls until he could hear Colin’s heartbeat falter, turning thready and faint.

Until he could tell their human was just barely hanging on to consciousness.

He lifted his head, his voice hoarse. “Fox.”

Fox bit into his own wrist and brought the bleeding appendage to Colin’s mouth, urging the dazed Colin to drink, to swallow. It didn’t have to be much, just a few drops to trigger the transformation.

And then every muscle in Colin’s body tensed in Dane’s arms. He screamed, high and sharp and fucking horrible .

It sounded like he was being torn apart from the inside.

Dane wanted to cover his ears, to keep himself from ever having to hear his mate in such pain, but even stronger than that urge was the drive to hold Colin through this, to remind him they had him, even through the pain.

Dane wasn’t going to let him down.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute before Colin lost consciousness completely, but it was the worst minute of Dane’s life. To see and hear and feel their mate in so much pain. To be the cause of it, no matter that it was Fox’s blood that had started the change.

When Colin’s body was fully limp, Dane slid out from under him, his legs almost too shaky to hold him.

Colin looked dead. He sounded dead, his breaths and heartbeat stopped by the transformation. Fuck, what if they’d killed him? It had been so long since they’d turned themselves—what if they’d gotten it wrong ?

“ Hey . It’s all right,” Fox told him, his voice firm and certain, cutting through Dane’s panic.

“He’s going to be all right.” He draped an arm over Dane’s shoulder, tugging him close.

Offering the same comfort he’d been trying to offer all these years, comfort Dane had been too ashamed to accept.

Comfort his devil had positively ached to receive.

He knew he’d unsettled something in their bond, fighting against physical affection. He’d felt the twinges of pain from Fox every time he’d pulled away, twinges that had echoed his own devil’s unhappiness.

So much time wasted, letting the stupidity of others hold him back from happiness.

Dane leaned his head against his brother’s shoulder and let himself have faith. “I know,” he said quietly. “I believe you.”

Something deep in him relaxed with the touch, and his devil let out a small sigh of contentment.

He breathed in his brother’s scent, the scent of home.

They waited for their mate to wake.