Page 47 of Into the Fire: Before

He’d been my first real friend—beyond playground pals, beyond casual school buddies. The first person who’d made me feel safe, and seen, and accepted for all the good, bad, and ugly. He’d been my first kiss, two awkward teenagers who didn’t know what the hell we were doing.

Then Caine had presented as alpha just after he turned fifteen, a year before I did. He’d always been halfway in darkness. But something about the awakening of his alpha—the rush of hormones, the sudden clash of instincts and desires and impulses—pushed him beyond where I could reach him. He’d stopped coming to school. Stopped coming by for dinner. When he aged out of the system at eighteen, I saw him even less.

Then, one day, he was gone. I didn’t see him again for eight years. When we finally found each other again, that trust, that connection between us hadn’t dimmed in the slightest. Even Brooks felt it when I introduced them. We knew we were pack.

Still, Caine kept himself separate from Brooks and me. He loved us both, I knew. Brooks knew. But the pain of those eight years, those battles, had shattered him. And rebuilding had hardened him.

So moments like these, his careful fingers tending to my wounds, held an intimacy that I craved from him.

As though sensing my feelings, Caine swallowed, his face changing from angry to shameful. “I should’ve been out there.”

I shook my head. “No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Just fucking standing up here, calling the cops. I could’ve—”

“It wouldn’t have been safe with you down there,” I whispered. I grasped his face with one hand and forced him to meet my eye. “It’s not just an adrenaline surge with you, and you know that.”

Shame burned through our bond, and Caine squeezed his eyes shut. He’d immediately told us about his first session with Brea, and the second. I was surprised, honestly. Brooks and I had had a hell of a time even convincing him to try therapy. Vulnerability was an effort from him at the best of times, and vulnerability with a person he knew? Triple that effort. At least.

Whatever had happened that first day, though… hewantedto try now. For that alone, I thought the world of Brea.

“You think they’re okay?” he murmured.

I sighed, swallowing down my previous statement. “Shaken up, but as far as I could tell, yeah. They’re finishing up with the police.”

A scowl marred Caine’s face, and he grunted again. Caine had a strong distrust of the police. But they were the ones in charge of keeping the peace. They weren’t perfect, but who else would see to it that that fucker was punished?

Wish that was up to me.

Alphadrenaline threatened to spike again, and I rested my forehead against Caine's shoulder, both of us standing stock still as we reined in our respective emotions.

This visceral instinct startled me. I couldn’t even entirely blame my alpha, either. The words he’d thrown at her—the names he’d called her—had angeredme, the man, just as much as me the alpha.

Because Brea and Taryn felt more likeminethan they should’ve.

A moment passed, and I stood up. Caine finished patching me up. He stepped back. After a moment, he huffed a breath and passed through the door. I didn’t need to ask where he was going. I simply followed him out to the roof. The night was breezy but warm. We’d left the door downstairs open, just an inch, so the women would know we were up here. Hopefully, they’d come.

Half an hour passed, and Caine’s impatience grew by the minute. A muscle twitched in his cheek when ten more minutes went by without anyone joining us. “We could just go downstairs and demand some answers,” he muttered.

“It should be their choice to share,” I replied. “Strictly speaking, it’s none of our business.”

Caine scoffed. “None of our business,” he repeated below his breath. Louder, he said, “You need to be careful with that omega.”

“Because some jackass attacked her in broad daylight?” I snapped.

He cut a sharp look at me. “Sounds like our sweet resident omega has a history of spurning lovers. Best not to add yourself to the list, don’t you think?”

I couldn’t lie. The thought had crossed my mind. Still, we didn’t know the whole story, and even if she had cheated or left him, he clearly wasn’t someone who could be trusted to protect or care for anyone. I wanted to hear from Taryn what all this meant.

I opened my mouth to shut down his bullshit when the rooftop door squeaked open. Caine and I both stood immediately, watching as Brea guided Taryn onto the roof, her arm around her shoulders. The omega was still pale, stress evident in the uncharacteristic hunch of her shoulders and stone-cold expression.

“Hey,” I said as they approached, wrapping my arms around them both. Taryn embraced me immediately, Brea after a few seconds. I pulled back, looking into Taryn’s face. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, eyes shifting between me and Caine. He stood back at the sofas, not having moved any closer. I felt his energy through the pack bond, though. He was scrutinizing every bit of her he could see.

Brea and Taryn shared a quick glance before Taryn met my eyes. “I guess you’ll be curious what all that was about?”

Neither Caine nor I answered, which I supposed was answer enough. Taryn gave a single nod and walked past me to sit on the sofa. She cast a look around, brows furrowing. I anticipated her question. “Brooks is at the hospital. He’s not off till six tomorrow morning.”

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