Page 123 of Power Shift

Ronan watches us with a sharp longing in his eyes despite just having her smothering him with love a moment ago. I can’t judge him for that. I’m pretty sure separation anxiety is a struggle in all scent-matched packs.

The only thing that might help is a set of mating bites imprinted on her skin. Alongside her bite on ours, hopefully. If that’s something she’d be interested in. I can’t even think about it without my dick throbbing. The possibility of that kind of connection threatens to unravel me thread by thread.

Before my scent can betray where my thoughts have gone, I kiss the top of Briar’s head and inch her back enough for our eyes to meet. I’ve never loved the colour blue as much as I do the pale shade of hers.

“It seems you have plenty to talk to us about,” I murmur.

“Are you upset?”

Ronan’s the one who speaks, but I’m sure my confused expression says enough.

“Why would we be upset?”

She rolls her lip between her teeth. “I’m assuming Landon did leave practice early, even though he said he didn’t. I don’t want anyone to get in trouble because of me or anything like that. It was just instinct to call him.”

“No, love, we’re not upset. I don’t know what happened yet, but if you called him, I’m glad he left. Landon’s priorities were right.”

“So he did leave early,” she says, latching onto that tiny tidbit of information.

“Yes and no. He was cleared to leave so he could go see the team’s physio. That’s where we thought he was before we realized he was gone,” I explain.

“For his knee? He told me he couldn’t feel it earlier.”

Ronan clears his throat and swoops in to drop an arm around her shoulders. His mouth moves to her temple before he says, “He was lying, Petal.”

She lurches forward, knocking his arm off before Ronan moves with her, leaving me to catch up behind them.

“I’m going to go ask him about that. If he’s injured, he needs to be taking his recovery seriously and not being so careless.”

“I’ve been trying to get that into his head since he hurt himself. Maybe he’ll listen to you,” I say.

“He won’t have a choice.”

Amusement sparks in Ronan’s eyes when he glances at me. His smirk is dangerous, betraying how much he loves our omega’s fire.

The flames lie dormant behind the veil of sweetness and thoughtful instincts, but they’re constantly on the prowl, waiting to be stoked. Landon seems to be the one who lights them up faster than anything else we’ve seen.

“By the way, Ronan, your mother is amazing,” she pipes up before slipping fully out from beneath his arm and speeding out of the room.

Ronan’s steps stutter. “What?”

She’s already disappeared, leaving his question unanswered. My packmate turns to me dumbstruck and blinks.

“Don’t look at me. I have no idea what went on today,” I defend myself.

“Are we about to be completely fucking railroaded here?”

I debate the question. “I’m going to assume yes.”

“Great,” he huffs.

When we enter the living room, everyone else has already taken their preferred spots. The sectional that eats up most of the space in here is huge. It’s a full U with cushions big enough to fit two grown men on each one, yet as I stare at it today, it feels even bigger. On the rare occasion that we’re all home and together long enough to sit and watch a game, there’s always so much space between us, both physically and emotionally.

Today, Dash, Briar, and Landon have squished themselves on a cushion and a half, and by the look on Landon’s face as he ignores our entry and watches Briar with a desperation that I recognize immediately, I feel the dwindling hope in my chest take flight.

We could leave this room today as a healing pack.

“We haven’t missed the discussion, have we?” I ask.

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