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“Please. I don’t want to lose you too.”

I had nothing else to say. I stayed where I was, trying to breathe and waiting for one of them to tell me what happened now.

“The woman you encountered today,” Darius said. “What did she tell you?”

“She knew where I was from. She called it C-17 and said she could send me home.”

Lucien and Darius exchanged a look before Lucien turned back to me.

“Did she explain how she intended to do so?”

“No. She wouldn’t explain.” I wrapped my arms around myself again. “But she knew I wasn’t from this world, and I couldn’t let her leave.”

“You made the correct decision,” Darius said. “You called for your guard, had her detained and returned home. There was nothing further you needed to do without support.”

Alaric remained quiet, and even though he held me, that silence frightened me more than anything else.

“Please say something.”

His gaze stayed on mine.

“Do you truly believe we would send you back to Hart Manor?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know what happens now.” I looked down. “The contract was for her.”

“Yes. The contract was for Lady Elowen Hart, and you did deceive us about your identity. We will need to discuss that, but not while you believe there is any possibility we might return you to the people who harmed you.” His voice remained steady. “Look at me, my heart.”

I lifted my eyes to his.

“You are Elowen Stormforge, our mate. No one will take you from us. No one.”

“Does that mean you believe me?” I looked at every one of them. “Do you?”

“I do not understand how or why this has happened,” Lucien said, “but I believe you, my darling.”

“As do I,” Alaric said.

One by one, all my mates gave me the same answer: they believed me.

“Whoever is responsible for this will regret their involvement in what was done to you,” Alaric said. His voice remained calm, which somehow made the words even more frightening. “And Mireya will answer to us for what she has done.”

Caius’s expression hardened.

“House Vaelor remembers.”

Darius gave a single nod. “Especially those who harm our family.”

Chapter 25

Elowen

It had been a little over fourteen weeks since I told my mates the truth, and Alaric still kissed me goodbye before work, Leon still found reasons to bring me things, and none of them had mentioned sending me away. Not even once.

For almost four weeks afterwards, I watched them much more closely than I wanted to admit. I listened for hesitation before Lucien called me his darling and watched to see whether Caius still reached for me when he passed. I kept worrying they might stop believing me, or decide they resented me for deceiving them, even when Darius joined Eira and me on our morning walks and suggested we stop somewhere for lunch. Sometimes Leon came with us too.

At least two of my mates slept in the nest every night. I wanted all five of them there, but their schedules didn’t usually allow it. They reassured me through the bonds and gave me more love than I knew what to do with, but a little worry still sat in the back of my head that I might somehow lose them.

Sex had changed too. It wasn’t only something my body needed anymore. I craved their knots because being locked together meant they couldn’t physically leave me. I knew the knot would soften eventually, obviously, but until it did, I could relax. Before long, one of them knotting me at night and staying inside me until morning had become completely normal for us.