Page 125 of Power Shift

When his lips part on a silent question, she smiles softly before answering, “I grew up in a pack. My mom has three bites on her neck.”

It’s both a reminder that we still have so much to learn about her and a reassurance I didn’t know I needed from her.

“Yes, you all but share a soul. Even after they kicked her out of the pack, she still wore those bites, and the pain that followed tore them apart piece by piece. My childhood home heard more fights than it did anything else, and it wasn’t long after the divorce was finished that the pack broke apart. They lost half of everything to her when she left, and my father spent every spare minute he had at the arena. I always say I grew up in a pack, but the truth is that I didn’t. Not even close.”

“I forgot about some of that,” Ronan says.

Landon winces. “I wish I did too.”

“How did she manage to pull off that good of a performance? Pretending to be someone’s scent match? That’s—well, that’s insane,” Briar whispers.

I nod, understanding where she’s coming from. “Scent masking was only just becoming a more known thing back then, but it was also a lot easier to pull it off before more and more scent matches started finding one another. There’s been a twenty percent jump in successful pairings over the last ten years alone.”

“Okay, Mr. History,” Dash teases.

It’s the lighthearted comment that slices through the heavy energy around us. Briar giggles and in turn brings some light back to Landon’s expression. Ronan kisses both of her knees, unabashedly obsessed with her. I watch them all in awe.

“It’s true. My mom waltzed into my father’s life with a dream and came out on the other end successful. The rest of the pack and me? We were just casualties on her stride for a big payout.”

“Have you seen her since?” Briar asks.

“No. And some days, I forget I knew her at all. I don’t miss her, even if I should.”

Emotion wets Briar’s eyes. Landon’s thumb is sweeping beneath them to dry each tear before it can get beyond her lower lashes.

“Are you trying to say that you want to move past what happened with your mother? To accept Briar?” Dash asks.

Landon keeps his thumb on her skin but soon adds the entirety of his hand to cup her cheek softly. For a man who’s been so afraid of the complications that come with intimacy for so long . . . these soft touches say more than words could. I hope Briar knows exactly that.

“It’s not that simple. We still need to court her properly. Spoil her and finish the nest that’s been sitting incomplete for years. We haven’t earned her as our omega yet,” he declares.

Ronan makes a deep sound in his chest. “Some of us have been courting her for a while now.”

“So keep going.” Landon speaks to Briar now. “We have more to show you than we have so far. Our pack has been balancing one-legged on a tightrope for a while, but if you’ll give us a shot—a real one—we’ll do right by you.I’lldo right by you. Even if I’m not perfect.”

Briar’s lips quirk at the corner as she looks at each of us. “I’ve never needed perfect. Just contentment and happiness. Support from those who I’m meant to spend forever with. Being courted is the norm, but I just want to see that you can give me all of those things. Gifts have never been all that important to me.”

“You’ll get gifts,” Ronan states bluntly. “A fuck ton of them.”

Her cheeks warm. “I won’t say no to that.”

Landon releases her face and straightens, speaking to every member of our pack. “So? What do you say? Are we doing this?”

“We’ve been waiting for you to catch on,” I say with a bump of our shoulders.

Ronan agrees, and Dash . . . he simply nods.

I eye him a bit longer than I do everyone else, but soon enough, he’s grinning and joining the new conversation. It’s all very lighthearted for a change, all of us finally on the same page.

Landon clears his throat after a few minutes, suddenly serious. I tense up, a bad feeling?—

“Now, who wants to tell me why Briar’s apartment was broken into and why everyone seems to know who’s responsible for it but me?”

40

BRIAR

“What doyou mean your apartment was broken into?” Ronan snaps, an angry shade of red slowly creeping up his throat.

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