The wind disappeared.

The flames died.

Two words.

Like dousing water on a fire.

Even as, inside, I was as roiled up as my room, whatever he’d triggered in me had calmed enough for me to choke out, “For what?”

“Talking to her.”

I dipped my chin up. “What else have you done?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“Liar,” I snarled, unsurprised when the doorknob rattled and the door pushed inward.

“What’s going on?”

Sabina.

I didn’t twist around, didn’t say anything, but as usual, Cade did. He was our pacifier. He soothed things over so that our folks never had much to complain about where we were concerned.

“Nothing, Aunty.”

A disbelieving hum sounded from my adoptive mother but she murmured, “Grace, I expect this room to be picked up by bedtime.”

“Of course, Aunty,” Cade rasped. “We were just playing.”

“Looks like a storm hit,” she grumbled, and still, I didn’t turn away.

Neither did Knight.

He kept on looking at me. Our eyes entangled.

Sabina grumbled something else, something that Cade carried on appeasing, and finally, she disappeared. Only then, did Knight’s eyes start to glow. It was to be expected in powerful wolves, and we all knew that Knight was one of the strongest of not just our generation, but of the last few generations. It was why he struggled against his fathers’ wills.

As the glow began to dance, throb, he snarled, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Another female might have backed down at that, especially when I knew his wolf was engaged, but I wasn’t another female.

I was his.

He was mine.

And having lost too many people in my short life, I knew what it was to keep someone. Because though my family was gone, my mates were my lifeline.

His words were angry, like a kid who’d been cornered, and I stormed forward, not stopping until I was doing what I never had—cupping his dick.

It was hard.

Hard enough that I almost let go because I hadn’t expected that. But I knew what it meant. He was turned on.

By thinking about Ashley?

Or about our standoff?

I didn’t let go even though it was instinctive to do so and snarled, “This. Is. Mine.”

“Yeah? Well, fucking take it,” he snapped.

Cade sucked in a sharp breath. “Knight! We’re still kids in the eyes of the pack.”

“We’re not kids,” Knight growled, his gaze breaking from mine to drill into Cade. “Our wolves know what they want. Dancing around each other with every fucking pack run—”

I tipped my chin up. “You want that? You want us to fuck like beasts for our first time…” My words waned off. “Unless, you’ve already given that first time away?”

At the thought, hurt did more than just whisper through me, and once again, the room began to throb. It felt as though my vision was fading in and out, like reality could be deleted.

“Fuck!” Cade cried out, and the heavy thunk told me why he swore when he rarely ever swore.

I’d somehow lifted the bed off the floor.

If these weren’t physical manifestations, I’d think I was going insane. But as it stood, the bed, the mess, I’d done this. I’d somehow created this mayhem.

“No,” Knight snapped, but he batted my hand off of him and twisted away from me. “I haven’t.”

I wasn’t about to let this go, not when he was keeping something from me, so I reached for him, my fingers grappling around his bicep and I dragged him to a halt. When he tried to break free, I maintained my hold, and then he let out a sharp curse.

The scent of burning flesh and melting polyester told me why.

My intent had never been to hurt him, so I let go and as I did, strands of plastic joined him to me as the remnants of his shirt stayed glued to my hand.

Eyes wide with horror, I looked at his chest.

I’d melted through the fabric.

My hand was glowing.

Cade was there all of a sudden, his hand on my wrist, tilting it his way, and as he did, calm washed over me. It was so intense, so strong that I staggered back, almost crashing to the floor. When I did, Knight reached out and caught me. Pain had tension furrowing his brow, but he still caught me and carefully, the two of them, helped draw me down to the bed.

As I slumped there, that calm invading me so forcefully it was like a narcotic, I knew I was close to passing out with its strength.

Where the hell was it coming from?

“Stop it, Cade, whatever you’re doing, it’s doping her up.”

“She needs it,” was my younger mate’s calm response.

Only when I toppled over, slumping into his lap almost, did he let go, and immediately, the sensation of being sedated drifted away, but I was still sleepy, still tired. His hand started to stroke my hair, gently, calmly, soothingly, even as he asked a question that was Mother-bound to rile me up. “What did you do, Knight? Why are you talking to Ashley?”

Knight sighed. “It’s only talking.”

“With someone who makes Grace’s life hell? What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t. Not really.”

“Evidently. You know she’s only messing with you to mess with Grace. She knows you’re mated. She knows Grace is too young to claim.” Cade tutted under his breath. “You’re a douche.”

“I know I am,” Knight rasped. “Don’t you ever feel like it’s too much, Cade? Like… this whole shit is just too much?”

Pain slashed at my insides at his question, but Cade instantly soothed it by murmuring, “Whatever shit she brings, she’s the only happiness we’ll ever have. Not because it’s destined, but because she’s the light at the end of the tunnel. You must have lost your way if you haven’t figured that out, Knight. Maybe you should take some space, for both of you, because you’ve betrayed Grace, whether or not—”

“I didn’t do anything, dammit,” Knight ground out, repeating himself, but every time he did, I believed him less and less.

“I think we both know that Grace wouldn’t have responded that way if she felt you’d been sincere.” His hand stopped drifting through my hair and he cupped my skull as he murmured, “She only ever does this when—”

That was the last I heard before I passed out.

Hours, days, moments later, I woke up to an empty bed.

Groggy as all hell, I pried my eyes open only because my mouth tasted like funk. With a capital F.

Groaning under my breath, I managed to roll over onto my side and, reaching for my glass, I dragged it over the nightstand rather than lift it off because my arm was shaky.

In fact, everything about me was shaky.

What had happened?

My brow puckered as I tried to think about what had happened before I’d fallen asleep because something had. I wouldn’t have a major migraine otherwise. Usually they came from allergies, but I didn’t remember sneezing all day yesterday and I wasn’t stuffed up now.

Groaning as the water collided with my tongue, I sighed after I drank it all because it wasn’t enough. I needed more.

Letting my fingers blindly seek out the switch, I turned on my lamp and blinked as it made my eyes ache even more. My room, as usual, was neat freak clean. I liked it that way. Liked knowing where everything was, liked seeing all my things in the proper place. It made me feel calmer, because very little in my world was.