41. Sam

Chapter forty-one

Sam

I climb into the back of the car with Kieran and Lucien as the other pulls smoothly away, taking my mates with it. Kieran sighs when I scowl at him.

Lucien's on the other side of him, and we're all wedged in a bit. It's clear Kieran has something important to say; I just can't work out what. Why did Deacon need to talk to him, anyway?

Kieran waits until we're moving, too, eyeing the back of the driver's head before he speaks. "Look, what Alpha Deacon had to talk to me about, it's…" He shakes his head. "I should've asked Drew to come with us too, maybe, but it's most important for you two—"

"Kieran," Lucien says and takes Kieran's hand. "Just tell us what happened."

Kieran looks between the two of us again. That light in his eyes… It's excitement.

"He told me to form a pack."

I meet Lucien's shocked expression with one of my own. Whatever we expected, it wasn't… this.

"But you—" I shake my head. "Why?"

"He said I'm already doing it," Kieran says with a shrug. I think about Ophelia and Dante tagging along with us, the way Ophelia has seemed to understand something none of the rest of us did. I narrow my eyes.

She already knows, doesn't she?

"Wait, so why am I here? You're right. Drew should've been with you."

Kieran puts a hand on my arm. "Deacon said to me—he said I wanted to get back to all of you instead of listening to him, which was true, but he said I wanted to do that despite knowing full well what my mate and my second are capable of." He flashes a smile at Lucien before he looks at me again. "I already know who my mate is. You're my second, Sam."

"That's not possible. I'm not a wolf."

"Yeah, neither am I."

Our eyes meet, and then we're both laughing. There's a hysterical edge to it, but we're laughing all the same. Lucien shakes his head at us, a smile twitching his own lips.

It takes us a few minutes to sober up. Kieran leans back in his seat, and I shift slightly, leaning against his shoulder. Fuck, this is all really happening, isn't it? Drew's my mate. Adam, too.

Kieran's my—alpha?

"So what are you going to do?" Lucien asks.

Kieran sighs. "Deacon's right. I should do it. I mean, he wants me to do it because clearly it'll solve a bunch of problems for him, but that doesn't mean all the reasons are bad ones."

"It means you can keep Drew safe too, right?" I ask.

"If he accepts me as his alpha, sure. He might not."

I open my mouth—is he joking?—but Lucien speaks before I can. "He will. Your coven as well, no?"

"Yeah," I say. I hold Lucien's gaze. "What about you?"

Kieran tenses, but I don't look away from Lucien. A shadow crosses his face, and I have to give him credit for truly seeming to think about it before he answers.

"I follow where my mate leads."

" Lucien. "

"I will speak with our crai," Lucien says, conceding just a little. "But Elle is more than capable of running the district, should it come to that. As for Adam's wishes… I believe they will be similar to my own."

"You can't just give everything up! You worked hard to be a chieftain, to—"

Lucien squeezes Kieran's hand tightly. "Moving on is not giving up, my love. Besides, you think you will have no need for me in your pack? I suspect it will take more than just the three of us to keep your unruly pups in line."

Kieran huffs, but he smiles, just a little. I laugh myself before I lean back against the window, looking at him more seriously.

"Let me tell Drew."

Surprise flits across Kieran's face. He doesn't want me to, I know that, if only because he should do it.

Maybe it's selfish of me to take this from him. But I have some understanding of what this means. I want to reassure Drew he'll be safe.

I want to know if he's proud I'll be standing by Kieran's side.

Lucien kisses Kieran's jaw. "You would not wish for anyone else to give me this news."

Kieran glares at him, but there's no real heat in it. "Yeah, fine. We'll go back to your flat?" When Lucien nods, Kieran does, too. "But if you need me, you call, understand?"

"Yeah," I say. "Got it."

We pull up to the building a few minutes later. The others are all waiting on the pavement, car idling like the driver is waiting for more orders.

Ophelia hugs me tightly when I climb out, and I squeeze Dante's arm.

"Talk to you in the morning?" she asks.

"Afternoon, maybe," I say and ignore Dante's knowing grin.

They say goodbye to Kieran and Lucien before they leave and the first car pulls away, both of them safely inside. The other car remains, and Drew frowns at it before he looks at Kieran.

"You're not staying here?" he asks.

Kieran bites the inside of his cheek. "No. I can, if you want, but Lucien and I, we—"

I laugh. I can't help it; it's rare I see Kieran so flustered and I'm still slightly giddy from what he's just told me.

"We'll be here with you, little wolf," I say, linking my arm through Drew's. He goes red but doesn't pull away. "They need some alone time."

Drew nods. Kieran moves in and catches him by the back of the neck, resting their foreheads together. "I'll be back tomorrow," he promises. "You're safe here."

The tension leaves Drew, as magical as every time I see it, and Kieran nudges me as he walks back over to Lucien, hands firmly in his pockets. I know he wants to tell Drew, and I appreciate that he hasn't. He's happy to let me do it.

Lucien's the one to move towards the car, to drag Kieran inside with him, and then it's driving away and the three of us are standing on the pavement, staring into the darkness.

"Come on," I say.

Drew's shoulders are low, head down, but I tug him through the wards and into the building—knowing, the whole time, that he's allowing me to do it.

Adam follows along, eyes sparkling with mirth. He keeps close to us and I'm grateful for it. For him.

None of us speak until we're inside the flat and I've closed and locked the door behind us. I kick off my shoes before I turn back to the two of them.

"Go sit down," I say.

My head's still spinning. It's one thing to come to terms with all that Kieran is—wolf but not wolf, and an alpha regardless, one about to create his own ragtag pack—but to know he's chosen me as his second, consciously or not—

I rub a hand over my face as the backs of my eyes begin to sting.

There was a time I thought I'd never have family again. And I'd never thought, not until recently, that Kieran and I would be such close friends, not with all the secrets between us.

"Are you all right?" Adam asks. He's leaning against Drew on the sofa, and Drew's shoulders tense when I look at the pair of them. Their expressions are equally concerned.

I take a deep breath in and let it out again. "Fine," I say before I cross the room and straddle Drew's lap. He squeaks, hands falling automatically to my hips, and Adam huffs a laugh, resting his head against Drew's shoulder.

"What are you—"

When I take Drew's face in my hands, he falls silent. He blinks up at me, his wariness fading away as he takes me in. He tilts his head back, exposing his throat, and my breath catches in my throat at his easy submission.

There's so much we have to talk about.

Some of it can wait.

"I need to tell you something, and I need you to listen and to seriously consider it, okay?"

Drew frowns. His voice comes out breathy when he replies, "Okay."

Adam rubs a hand up and down my thigh. "What is it?"

"Alpha Deacon asked Kieran to make his own pack."

They both freeze.

Adam breaks first. "He what?"

"Kieran's an alpha. He hasn't told Deacon he'll do it, but he already knows he will."

Drew's eyes go wide. "You're his second."

Pride shudders down the bond between us and Adam's sharp inhale tells me he feels it too.

"Yes."

"And he—I—"

"He'll be your alpha, if you let him. You won't answer to anyone else. I mean, I guess Deacon's in charge of all of us, technically, but—"

Adam's fingers dig into my thigh, and I snap my mouth shut. Drew's looking past me, and he swallows hard before he looks over at Adam.

"What are you gonna do?"

I debate climbing off Drew's lap. I don't want to pressure either of them, and maybe what they need is space. As much as I know we're all meant to be together, I know that my place, too, is by Kieran's side.

Adam snorts and reaches over, tracing Drew's lower lip with his thumb. He looks absolutely besotted, and the affection that floods the bond threatens to drown me.

"Wherever you two are, I'm there."

Drew closes his eyes briefly. "What about Lucien?"

"If you think for a second he won't be following Kieran around just like I'm going to follow the pair of you, I'm gonna start wondering if you don't have vision problems, little wolf," Adam says. The grin that overtakes his face is joyous and real. "We're going to be a weird-looking pack."

Drew shakes his head. I can't get a read on his emotions through the bond. There's a mix of so much in there, but eventually fear—and sadness—win out.

"I'll have to leave my own pack, won't I? Dad's pack. To do this."

I don't say he'd have to do that anyway. We all know it. I don't say, either, that this is the easiest way to keep the three of us together.

He has to do what's best for himself.

"I guess so," I say. "But look, Kieran said the only person above him is Deacon, and I don't think he really gets involved in individual pack business all that much, and it's not like Kieran will just tell you what to do, you know that—"

Drew cuts me off with a kiss. It's soft and sweet, and I taste salt on my tongue. When I pull back, I brush a tear from Drew's cheek.

"You don't have to decide what to do right now. I'm sure there's time."

Drew shakes his head. More tears fall, but he's smiling, then laughing, and if it has the same hysterical edge as Kieran's and my laughter in the car, I'm not about to say anything about it.

"I'll do it," he says. "Of course I will. I just… I want us to be together. I'm sorry for what I said before. I want to be here for you both, be stronger, and—"

It's Adam's turn to cut him off. My blood runs hot as I watch them, the way Adam cups Drew's jaw, taking possession instantly.

He keeps his eyes closed when the kiss ends, resting his forehead against Drew's. Drew breathes him in, and desire and affection and fondness fill me up in a way I never could have anticipated before this moment.

"If we're doing this," Adam says, "then we need to make a decision about the bond. About what we want . If one of us doesn't want this, I don't—"

Drew whimpers. I lean against him, and Adam does too, one hand sliding over my back.

"I don't want to break the bond," I whisper against the skin of Drew's throat. "But if one of us does…"

"I don't," Drew says hurriedly.

"Yeah, me neither," Adam replies.

I kiss Drew's neck before I lift my head, looking at Adam. "What do you want, then?"

He smiles faintly. "I want us. No matter what it takes. You two are…"

He trails off, and I think Drew is holding his breath. I can't help myself. I kiss his jaw, then look at Adam expectantly.

"We're what?"

"Everything."

Oh. I have no answer for that, only the sense that something has just fallen into place inside me. Drew swallows hard, his heart thumping against his chest so heavily that I can feel it where we're pressed up together.

Fuck it. We should talk more tonight. I need to tell them about my family. I want to hear the story of Adam meeting Lucien, being turned. I want Drew to open up to us about his past and hold him when he cries.

But I want them more. I grab the front of Adam's T-shirt and yank him towards me, and he laughs in the second before our mouths meet. He fights me, kiss for kiss, but when I bite his lower lip, he groans and finally surrenders.

My vampire. My wolf.

Drew kisses down my throat as I lick into Adam's mouth, and when his teeth dig in, I make a broken sound.

I want his bite. That's a thing, right? Wolves bite each other when they mate.

I tear myself away from Adam. His cheeks are flushed, eyes bright, lips swollen where I've bitten them. Fuck, he's never looked better.

Drew surrenders instantly when I kiss him and Adam worms a hand between us, squeezing and stroking over Drew's chest. His touch must be dulled through Drew's T-shirt, but he whimpers and moans into my mouth all the same, and when I shift on his lap, the press of his hard cock is impossible to ignore.

"Bedroom?" I ask, pulling back.

"Ooh, just give me one second…" Adam says, and he kisses Drew, and I press the heel of my palm firmly down on my cock when it jumps in my tight jeans. Adam cups the side of Drew's throat, holding him still as he devours him, and Drew… Lets him. Lets us.

My mates .

I scrape my teeth down the line of Drew's throat, and he shudders. When Adam pulls back, both of them have dark eyes and a desperation to their expressions that echoes down our bond.

"Bed," I growl, looking between the two of them. "Now."