Page 52 of Savage Torment

“We’re well aware,” Wylder mutters with a sigh.

“She’s bound to a vampire.”

“You’ve already said that part,” Tatum states, pressing his lips together.

“She’s…” Lincoln’s words trail off and Asher smirks at him knowingly.

“Go on, find something else to say about how she’s not right for us, and we’ll give you a reason why it doesn’t fucking matter.”

Lincoln’s nostrils flare as he turns to me, eyes wide and dark with desperation. “You’re going to ruin us, ruin me.”

“I have to survive this place for that to be true,” I mutter, and silence drenches the room.

It’s my space, but I consider running for the door. The tension is thick. There’s no escaping it. Until…

“Fourth.”

One word from Lincoln’s mouth and I think I’m going to faint. The tension eases, but he doesn’t look at me.

“Nah, the vampire gets fourth,” Wylder declares, and Asher tries to hide a snicker but fails miserably.

“Fuck off,” Lincoln grunts and Tatum cocks a brow at him.

“Go on, say it, and acknowledge the fact that he’s in this too,” he breathes, and my brows crinkle in confusion.

“No,” Lincoln instantly protests, but the three of them stare at him, unified against their alpha, and I want the floor to open up and take me now.

They wait him out and I join them, even though I’m unsure what’s happening.

“Fifth,” he finally breathes, and the tension in the room vanishes between them, but it still wraps tight around my limbs.

Clearing my throat, I blink at them. “What just happened?”

Eight eyes, four wolves, one sentence.

“You just became ours.”

16

ASHER

She blinks between us, the sense that she’s overwhelmed clear in her wide eyes.

“Yours?” she questions, eyebrows furrowed as she looks from Tatum, to Wylder, to me, and then Lincoln. She doesn't linger there long, though, the scowl on his face makes sure of that.

Whereas Wylder rocks back on his heels, pride radiating from him. “Ours,” he repeats, confirming what we’re all thinking, and she shakes her head in disbelief.

“Do I get a say in that?” she asks with eyebrows raised.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to deny her, just as I did before, but the reality is, I want her to want this and forcing it doesn't achieve that.

What I see when I look at her is more than this moment, more than this period of time, more than the blood kin curse. Claiming her without consideration, although it gets my cock hard as fuck, is not how I want this to go.

“Do you need a say in it? Haven’t you been ours for a while?” Tatum asks, cocking a brow as the room hangs suspended in silence.

Her jaw is slack as she stares at my brother, and as innocent as his question is, it cuts deeper than that.

“She always needs a say. If we commit, so should she. We’re nothing but all in, and that meansallof us,” I finally call out, breaking through the tension rippling around the room. Tatum rolls his eyes at me while Polaris’s cheeks gain that usual pink hue.

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