Kai couldn’t stop staring. Micah looked a little better now—some color had returned to his cheeks, and he was still wearing that same thin shirt he’d worn in the picture he’d sent. But relief and joy lit Micah’s eyes, and Kai’s heart thumped. Micah wanted him.
“You feel better?” Kai croaked, his voice stuck in his throat.
For the past months, he’d been looking at Micah’s face on his phone, in video calls and pictures. But those pixelated images were nothing like Micah in the flesh, the warmth of his body radiating between them as he stepped forward. Kai wanted to yank him close, touch him, breathe Micah’s scent off his skin.
Micah felt like a star, and Kai, the planet revolving around him. Kai hauled him close, pressing their bodies together. Micah’s belly bumped into Kai’s hips.
Gods, his belly was so big now.
“Yeah,” Micah whispered, his lips pulling into a tremulous smile. “Better now that you’re here.”
Kai swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” he said. He remembered Micah’s latest picture, and reached out, groaning when Micah cradled Kai’s face in his small, warm hands.
Micah pulled him in for a kiss. Kai let him. Just followed his omega wherever Micah wanted him to go, breathing in that honey and gardenia scent. Mine.
Micah’s lips were damp, his tongue flicking against the seam of Kai’s lips, sliding into his mouth—the exact opposite of how their very first kiss had been. Kai growled, kissing him back, tasting tea on his tongue.
To think he’d put this off for so long... Kai grasped Micah’s arms, stroking down his sides, briefly touching his belly. He wanted to mark all of Micah, add his own scent to the juniper on Micah’s skin. Protect this omega. Let Micah do as he wished with Kai’s heart.
Now that Kai was back, he wasn’t sure he could leave again.
“I love you,” Kai whispered into his mouth, his heart thudding. He needed to say this. He knew Spike was here, but Micah... Micah was important, too. “I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I tried to break up with you.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Micah whispered. “I love you.”
Relief soaked into Kai’s bones, taking half the weight off his chest. There was still a place for him with his omega. There was somewhere Kai belonged.
“Forgive me?” Kai asked, his voice breaking at the sudden fear that Micah might somehow hold that against him.
Just as suddenly as the kiss began, Micah broke it, stroking Kai’s cheek with his fingertips. “There’s nothing to forgive, Kai. You did as I asked. You should be the one angry with me.”
Kai shook his head. He could never be angry with Micah.
Micah kissed his cheek, pulling away. “But more importantly than that, I think you and Spike need to talk.”
And that same uncertainty slammed back into Kai’s gut, tenfold as strong. Kai tore his gaze away from Micah’s eyes.
On the bed, Spike sat with the covers drawn up to his hips. A dark circle ringed his eye, and his lip was broken. There was a bandage on the back of his head. But Spike—he stared back, his eyes burning, his lips a thin line.
Kai swallowed hard. Stepped forward. Didn’t know how to put into words the terror he’d felt, the horrible moments he’d thought Spike was dead. He wet his lips, his throat too tight.
“You—you still hate me?” Kai managed, his voice cracking.
“Maybe,” Spike answered, his own voice strangled.
And maybe it didn’t matter if Spike still hated him, because Kai couldn’t spend another second away from his brother.
Kai swung himself onto the bed, shoes and all, and threw his leg over Spike’s lap. Curled his fingers into Spike’s hair. Brought their faces close, pressing their foreheads together.
“Hate me all you want,” Kai said, his voice breaking. “I’m sorry.”
Spike sucked in a shuddering breath. Then his eyes glittered with tears, and he pressed his face into Kai’s neck, his shoulders shaking. Wetness trickled onto Kai’s skin.
Kai hugged him the tightest he’d ever hugged. Couldn’t pull Spike closer. He wanted them to fuse together, so Spike would know the horror and fear Kai had felt, the guilt and shame and loneliness.
“I missed you,” Kai rasped into Spike’s ear, pulling hard on Spike’s hair. “You could’ve fucking died, you idiot.”
“You weren’t here, damn you,” Spike growled back, except his arms had gone around Kai’s back, and he was squeezing Kai so hard Kai couldn’t breathe. “They fucking attacked Micah and there was this guy who stepped in and he looked like you, and—and they slammed him into the wall.”
Kai wasn’t sure if he was happy that Spike felt so much for a random guy. Except he had looked like Kai. And the fact remained that Spike cared, that Spike was hugging him instead of shoving him away.
Spike trembled in his arms. “I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you,” Spike said brokenly. “Or Micah.”
Kai’s heart splintered. “I love you,” he said fiercely in Spike’s ear. “I love you both, and nothing will ever make me stop loving you.”
“As my alpha?” Spike sucked in a shuddering breath, hope glimmering in his eyes.
“Yeah. If—” Kai swallowed hard “—If you’ll have me.”
Spike whimpered, nuzzling up Kai’s neck. Then he kissed Kai, fierce and possessive, and Kai kissed him back, relief unfurling in his chest, sweeping away the last of his worries.
“Mine,” Kai growled, dragging his wrist down Spike’s nape, and down his back. He kissed Spike until they were both breathless, and all of Spike smelled like elm—wherever Kai could reach without letting him go.
He’d missed Spike, too. More than Micah, even, because he’d lost Spike ever since the day he’d left Meadowfall. “I never stopped thinking about you,” Kai muttered against his lips, even as Spike shoved his tongue into Kai’s mouth. “I wanted... I wanted the money so I could get you a house.”
Spike sucked in a sharp breath, pulling away, staring at Kai with wide, wet eyes. “A... house?”
Kai nodded,
