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“Hey, I didn’t say I was going in there. I just mean... the biological sabotage is real.” He frowns. “But - do youreallythink she’ll last another few days in this state? What if she doesn’t?”

Theo answers before I can. “She will.”

Ash steps slightly closer to the door. “And if she doesn’t want to do this alone?”

“She made her position clear,” I say. “Right now, she wants space.”

“Yeah, well, instincts don’t give a shit what she says she wants,” Kai mutters.

“She needs control,” Theo says. “So we let her have it.”

Kai blows out a breath. “You bastards are no fun.”

“She doesn’t want us,” Theo reiterates, quiet but firm. “Not right now. And until she says otherwise, we give her that.”

“And what if she calls for one of us?” Kai asks, too casual. “If shebegs?”

“Then we talk.Together,” Theo emphasizes. “We don’t act alone.”

Ash narrows his eyes. “You want to run a committee on rut?”

“No,” Theo rolls his eyes. “But I’d rather be sure we don’t rip each other’s throats out if she moans the wrong name. We have to hold the line. We don’t touch her, we don’t mark her, and we don’t so much asbreatheon her unless she gives us a direct fucking invite.”

Kai mutters something aboutrules killing the mood,and Ash glares hard enough to ignite bone.

“She’s not a mood,” Theo says. “She’s a person. A person in crisis. And we don’t get to be monsters.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kai says lightly, but his grin is forced.

“Let’s be very fucking clear,” I say, voice like ice. “If one of you goes in that room, I will put you through a wall.”

That quiets the room, and Theo nods once. “Agreed.”

Ash grunts. “Fine.”

Kai sighs, loud and dramatic. “Alright, alright. Keep your leashes on. I’ll be good.”

He pauses.

“For now.”

None of us laugh. Because even with all the banter, the truth is sharp beneath it:

We’re already fraying.

She’s pulling us all like a current we can’t escape, and if she so much as whimpers one of our names -

We’re going toburn.

Chapter Sixteen

Rhea

The shower is hotter than it needs to be.

Like, first-layer-of-skin-peeling hot.

But I don’t turn it down.

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