Page 79 of Into the Fire: Before

I leaned against the wall opposite the door, arms crossed, legs crossed at the ankles. Every so often, a well-dressed patron would pass by on their way to the bar or the bathroom. I stared them all down until they hurried onward.

Some time later, the door to our balcony opened again, and Lin eased his way out. He approached, mirroring my stance just to my right. We stood in silence for a moment, before Lin said simply, “We could keep them, you know.”

I stiffened at his words, looking down the hallway away from him.

“Brooks and I,” he continued softly, “we both want to.”

I’d known as much. You couldn’t share a pack bond with two dopes in love without noticing. But the confirmation stung still, like an unexpected smack to the face.

“What do you think about that?” he asked.

I huffed, giving a small shake of my head. “Well, the apartment’s big enough for five.”

“Space isn’t the issue, Caine.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. No, space wasn’t the problem. I was. My aloofness, my moodiness, my inability to just let go and feel. Where Brooks and Lin were perfectly happy to take a running leap of faith off a damned cliff, I stayed rooted to the spot, feet nailed to the ground, arms wrapped around a treefor good measure. Because I couldn’t see the bottom where we’d land, if there would be cool water, or spikes and rocks and pain.

Brea’s soothing guidance that gave me the space to want totrydidn’t matter. Taryn’s hands clutching my shirt and my wrist to keep me close in her most vulnerable state didn’t matter. The heat invitation with my name on it didn’t matter. The searingwantin my chest didn’t matter.

None of it amounted to a goddamn thing. It couldn’t.

I shoved off the wall. “Do whatever you want,” I muttered. I couldn’t storm off; whatever my issues were, I wouldn’t leave any of their safety to chance by leaving them an alpha down. Instead, I pulled open the door again, sharper than I meant, and resumed my seat. Lin returned as well, moving up front with the other three for the final minutes of the show.

The four of them, a happy, shining unit. And me, lurking in their shadow.

I closed my eyes, rested my head on the back of the chair, and waited for the curtain to fall.

Six

Brea

TarynandBrookswereidentical drunks. Both red-faced, both giggling, and both with the tolerance of teenagers stealing their first bottles.

Luckily, Lin was the one pouring more wine, as if either of the other two did, they’d have ended up with red sheets. We sat on the bed, still half done up in our ballet finery. Shoes and ties had been shucked, bobby pins removed from hair, as the four of us sat curled up on Brooks and Lin’s shared bed.

Caine, upon returning home, had made a beeline for his bedroom across the hall, giving it a sharp close without a single word.

I pushed thoughts of Caine from my head and pulled my miniature wine glass toward me, waiting for the others’ to get filled.

“All right,” Brooks said through a grin, words slurring. “This is the one, I can feel it.”

He and Taryn had talked a big game on the ride home about drinking the rest of us under the table. A night at the ballet was enough of a risk for one evening, so we’d decided against going out for food. Taryn didn’t care, though. She’d been glowing from the moment she realized where we were going. Caine’s clearfuck, no,in the form of his immediate retreat to his bedroom hadn’t dampened their spirits, so I wouldn’t let it dampen mine.

Now we sat, four glasses in. And where Taryn and Brooks were both verging on sloppy drunk territory, Lin and I remained cool and collected. I doubt either of them considered the fact that they’d pitted themselves—an omega and a beta—against two alphas.

“Last glass,” I said as Lin topped off the last one and put the bottle on the floor.

Taryn rolled her eyes. “Okay,Mom.”

“Please, for the love of everything good and sweet in the universe,” Brooks said with a grimace, “never refer to either of you as family members again.”

“So does that mean I can’t call youdaddy?” Taryn asked, leaning in toward Brooks, eyes moving between both the men.

“Nope!” Brooks said, practically falling off the bed as he rolled backward and away, hands up. “No, no, not happening. Nuh-uh.”

Lin and I laughed. “Careful, Omega,” I said, sipping on my wine, “or you’ll scare li’l Brooks away.”

Taryn gave a delighted giggle, dragging her smiling bottom lip with her teeth before saying, “I very seriously doubt either of you are working with anythingli’l.”

---