Page 80 of Colin

Colin met his gaze squarely. “I know.”

Dane caught Fox’s eye, and he knew Fox got the message.I don’t want to be the one to hurt him.Colin had already endured enough pain that day—Dane couldn’t bear to be the one to give him more.

Fox tugged Colin’s hair again. “Dane will drain you. I’ll give you my blood.”

Colin nodded, just once. “Cool.”

Cool. As if it was that easy. Giving away his humanity, agreeing to be theirs forever.

Cool.

Dane climbed onto the bed, lifting Colin and sliding in under him, holding him firmly against his chest. “You ready?”

In answer, Colin melted against him, his trust in Dane not even a question.

So Dane bit in, hit mouth filling with hot, fresh blood, tasting earthy and spicy and divine. For once, he didn’t have to hold his devil back. He drank. And drank. He swallowed warm mouthfuls until he could hear Colin’s heartbeat falter, turning thready and faint. Until he could tell their human was just barely hanging on to consciousness.

He lifted his head, his voice hoarse. “Fox.”

Fox bit into his own wrist and brought the bleeding appendage to Colin’s mouth, urging the dazed Colin to drink, to swallow. It didn’t have to be much, just a few drops to trigger the transformation.

And then every muscle in Colin’s body tensed in Dane’s arms. He screamed, high and sharp and fuckinghorrible.

It sounded like he was being torn apart from the inside.

Dane wanted to cover his ears, to keep himself from ever having to hear his mate in such pain, but even stronger than that urge was the drive to hold Colin through this, to remind him they had him, even through the pain.

Dane wasn’t going to let him down.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute before Colin lost consciousness completely, but it was the worst minute of Dane’s life. To see and hear and feel their mate in so much pain. To be the cause of it, no matter that it was Fox’s blood that had started the change.

When Colin’s body was fully limp, Dane slid out from under him, his legs almost too shaky to hold him.

Colin looked dead. Hesoundeddead, his breaths and heartbeat stopped by the transformation. Fuck, what if they’d killed him? It had been so long since they’d turned themselves—what if they’d gotten itwrong?

“Hey. It’s all right,” Fox told him, his voice firm and certain, cutting through Dane’s panic. “He’s going to be all right.” He draped an arm over Dane’s shoulder, tugging him close. Offering the same comfort he’d been trying to offer all these years, comfort Dane had been too ashamed to accept. Comfort his devil had positively ached to receive.

He knew he’d unsettled something in their bond, fighting against physical affection. He’d felt the twinges of pain from Fox every time he’d pulled away, twinges that had echoed his own devil’s unhappiness.

So much time wasted, letting the stupidity of others hold him back from happiness.

Dane leaned his head against his brother’s shoulder and let himself have faith. “I know,” he said quietly. “I believe you.”

Something deep in him relaxed with the touch, and his devil let out a small sigh of contentment.

He breathed in his brother’s scent, the scent of home.

They waited for their mate to wake.

twenty-three

Colin

“Itold you, we don’t need you here.”

Everything was dark.

“I’m staying until he wakes up.”

---