Page 53 of Savage Torment

She likes that. She likes being seen, considered, taken into account. Something so simple and easy makes all the difference to her.

Lincoln clears his throat, scrubbing the back of his neck with his eyes set on our girl before us. “Say no, Midnight,” he murmurs, and she scoffs. Yet there's no surprise from her at another one of Lincoln's outbursts.

“You would like that, wouldn't you?” she states, and he shrugs.

“I agreed, didn't I?”

She bands her arms around her middle, adding an invisible divide between us as she tilts her head at him. “That doesn't mean anything from you,” she retorts, and I sense the hurt in her eyes, but the pain is just as clear in Lincoln’s gaze too.

It’s a rare sight to see, one Polaris probably doesn’t even realize, but I don't interject because she's not wrong. If he's going to be better, he needs to see that his actions have consequences. This is one of them. The only person who can heal the damage he’s done is him.

Worried our Alpha is leading us off track, I clear my throat. “Do you want to be ours, Silver?”

She gapes at me with wide eyes. “I-I don't know.”

Fuck.

“What don't you know?” I push as gently as I can, trying to understand the situation from her perspective.

She sighs, but the tension that coils around her doesn’t ease with the motion. “Anything… everything,” she admits, and Isense something in her tone. The way her breath hitches and her pulse quickens just a tick has understanding settling in my chest.

“Does this have something to do with Blaze?”

She shrugs, but I sense the tension that lingers in her muscles, keeping her coiled tight.

I don't like vampires. None of us do. As wolves, we were raised to see the world as factions and the thought of sharing her with anyone outside of the four of us, let alone a vampire, feels absurd. Never mind that she's bound, that's not an obstacle we can remove. That's set in stone, just as it would be if one or more of us were to mate with her. If I have to concede to still be a part of this, whateverthisis, then I'm willing to consider it all.

Fuck, we literally just made Lincoln call fifth to acknowledge we know the vampire is caught up in whatever dynamic this is, but it seems that’s not registering strong enough to our witch.

“What do we need to know about that?” Wylder asks, seemingly on the same page as me as he interrupts my thoughts, and she shrugs again.

“Honestly, I’m still trying to put all the pieces together,” she admits, shuffling nervously from foot to foot.

The five of us stand stoic in her room. Our defenses are high, but I feel like if I ask her to take a seat or give any form of direction right now it will break the moment, and there might just be a chance for us to figure some things out here.

“How about you explain it to us so we can figure this out together?” I offer.

She rubs her lips together nervously until Tatum steps forward, his little finger extended as he breathes. “Pinkies.”

The two of them interlink their little fingers, the action saying more than words can, and the tension eases slightly from her bunched muscles as she exhales, eyes set on Tatum.

“He has a coin.”

Fuck.

Understanding stretches between the four of us, each wolf glancing from one to another as Tatum remains connected with Polaris. “That changes everything,” he states, and Lincoln huffs.

“That changes nothing.”

Tatum pays him no mind as he keeps his focus fixed on Polaris. Just like Wylder and me.

“Is it the same as ours?” Tatum asks and she nods.

“Yes. He showed it to me a while back. It's one of the memories he hid from me with compulsion,” she offers, and although the knowledge of it kicks my heart rate into overdrive, the fact that she’s sharing is everything.

With his free hand, Tatum gently runs the back of his fingers down her cheek, proving to her that he's here for her no matter what, easing even more of the tension around her, and she melts into him.

I want it to be me that she falls into, but I get the feeling that if I take a step toward them, it could tip the balance we seem to have established, so I plant my feet shoulder-width apart and lock in.

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