Thalia's POV
A raw, keening scream tore from my lips, a sound I barely recognized as my own. The phone slipped from my numbed hand, dropping onto the floor.
The betrayal shocked me with a ferocity that overwhelmed even the fear of the Lunar Surge.
At that moment I forgot everything.
My broken world crumbled, breaking into a million jagged pieces. Tears flooded, scalding and bitter, streaming down my face in a torrent that could not be contained.
My shoulders shook, and I covered my face with my hands and sobbed, raw, heart-wrenching noises that echoed in the spacious room.
After hours of crying my eyes out, I decided to go out.
I simply needed to breathe, so I stood up from the bed. Of course I needed to be somewhere, anywhere but where I was because, it was as though this room held another torture.
I stumbled out, blindly moving through the vacant corridors, seeking only the most distant, most desolate corner of this oppressive building.
My feet led me down a lesser-used hallway, between cobwebbed tapestries and shut, abandoned doors, until I stumbled upon it: a dark, small alcove, tucked away at the end of the hall, cold and isolative.
I fell onto the hard stone floor, curling my knees into my chest, burying my face in my arms, and let the storm rage on. I cried, shaking, my body wracked with dry, suffering sobs, the hurt of my shattered life a physical ache.
I was lost. Totally, irretrievably lost.
"Hey. What are you doing here?"
The low, gentle voice made me start. I hadn't noticed him approaching. I certainly hadn't caught a whiff of him.
I looked up through a fresh blur of tears.
Jax stood in the little doorway of the alcove, his features unmoving as always, but his golden eyes sharp and assessing.
"I've been searching for you," he continued, his voice a rough whisper.
"You didn't come to dinner, did you?" He paused, his expression softening, then becoming intent on my wet face. "You're crying."
I didn't have time to answer before I could even prepare a lie, he moved.
He dropped to his knees in front of me, wonderfully swiftly, and wrapped me in his arms.
His arms, surprisingly strong and warm, closed tightly around me.
I pressed into his chest, hanging on to his shirt, the sobs tearing from my throat in renewed emotional damage.
"He. he left me," I stuttered out, the words muffled in his chest.
"Ryan. Left me for Chloe. My. My best friend. She. ..." My voice crumbled away into jerky, agonized sounds, interspersed by shuddering gasps of breath.
"Shhhh," Jax whispered, his huge hand rising to stroke my hair gently, his fingers stroking over my scalp. "That's all right, Thalia. Just get it out. Let it go."
But as he wrapped his arms around me, as his hard, rock-like body gave a surprising sense of stability, I felt it.
The same old rush, the thick thrum that had charged me up in the kitchen with Rhys. Except this time, it was different. It wasn't desecrating. It was calm. Deeply, overwhelmingly calm.
It seeped through my core, a healing warmth that quiets the frantic beating of my heart. Flash images of Jax grabbing his dick and moaning my name flashed through my mind, vivid and spinning, dissolving into the calm.
What started out as shocking sympathy, a burst of profound comfort in that dark area of the building, intensified.
Jax's hands, which had been running through my hair, now began to move. Slowly, deliberately, they mapped down my back, hot and hard along my spine.
I gasped as they wrapped around my waist, then fell lower, following the soft curve of my hips.
Slowly. Up the outside of my thigh, tracing the sensitive skin of my inner thigh. I could feel the warmth seeping in, an increasing pressure, a lush tension.
His thumbs raked the tip of my legs, only just avoiding the delicate fabric of my nightwear, sending a shiver directly through me.
Then his fingers began to stroke the juncture of my inner thighs, creeping higher, inch by excruciating inch. My hips shifted against him, a wordless, desperate plea.
A soft moan escaped my lips.
"Stop," I gasped, the word fragile, almost smothered against his chest. "This is wrong. You're my. my broth—aah, hell. You're my brother."
My voice cracked on the last syllable, but even as I grumbled, my body relaxed a little into his caress, hungry for the loose tranquility he provided, the primal, undiluted peace.
This was different. It was nothing at all like the intruder who had snuck into my room. This touch was peaceful. This touch was calm.
His fingers brushed against my clit, a feather-light touch, then a gentle flick.
My breath hitched.
“Fuck..”
Another soft groan. He leaned in, his mouth on my nipple through the thin fabric of my top. He sucked softly, a low, guttural growl vibrating in his chest, quiet as to be near whispered, lost behind the sound of dripping stone walls.
It wasn't anger that made him growl, but deep, fierce concentration, as if I were a stubborn code he had to decipher, a puzzle he had to solve. And with every suck, every flick, every peaceful, numbing caress, the calmness increased, pulled me in.
My brain screamed wrong
But something in me wanted it all.
Blaze’s POVThe silence amongst us after we left the room was heavy. Hours had passed and we all waited for her.We didn't know how long it would take, but something inside us just insisted that we waited.I sat on the couch, staring at the floor, replaying the last time this happened. The horror that came with it and the decisions I had to make.Jax was at the other end of the couch, sitting still like a stone.Milo and Rhys too.Then all of a sudden, Milo somehow shouted, pulling me from the deep thoughts."Shit," he whispered, his eyes wide, and his voice full of pure terror. "She's awake."I was on my feet in a second. We all were. Jax, Milo, Rhys. We stood like soldiers, who were tense and ready.Thalia stood there.She wasn't screaming. She wasn't holding her head or even crying. She just looked at us, with her eyes calm and a little confused. Her robe hung loosely around her. She looked… normal. Too normal for the kind of chaos I was expecting.Or should I say we all were expec
Thalia's POVI was in a wide and empty space. I was curled up on the ground. The despair was so real, and even now in this place, I felt my pain, sadness, and regrets. But all these emotions quickly changed into a hot, flaring anger.I didn't want this from the beginning.I didn't want to be a werewolf.I don't want to stay with men who were troubled and loved their life struggling with unknown humans when they could just mind their business.I didn't want to dwell in the midst of men with fucking lunar surges determining their actions.I certainly didn't want to be attracted to my fucking stepbrothers or even stepsister—if that even makes sense.I wanted my old life back.I wanted to just leave this damn place and face breakups and betrayals and rejections.Then, a person appeared in front of me. They weren't a stranger. Their face was kind, but also serious. And a little bit filled with sadness. Their voice was calm and gentle. It wasn't loud, but it filled the whole space."Stop yo
Milo’s POVMy heart was pounding. I had just watched Rhys wake up. He looked at Thalia on the floor and—he knew. He looked at me, and he also knew I gave her the absolver. And he knew what that meant.A heavy silence filled the room. No one yelled. Not anymore, and no one moved. Jax was no longer red-faced and angry. He just stared at Thalia. His eyes looked empty. Blaze was still standing over her, grim and quiet. Rhys leaned against the doorframe. He looked tired. And scared. But his eyes were sharp, as they took everything in.The silence in the room was worse than the yelling. It was the kind of quietness when there’s a shared nightmare. The same thing had happened before. With another human. And it ended badly. Like—really badly.My stomach twisted when I realized what I had done. Blaze had asked for anything. Plus, she was screaming. Her power was going crazy. I didn't know what to do, and I certainly didn't know how to go about it with the “anything to calm her down” instructio
Rhys's POVMy head hurt and my body ached all over. It felt like I'd just fought a big battle. But I was back to being me, Rhys. And not Reena. That was the first thing I checked. That wild, hungry feeling that came with her was gone.I was lying on a couch in the living room. I blinked thrice as I tried to clear my head.Reena. She was always dramatic. Every time she showed up, she always made a mess. But I always had to let her out to balance the equation. She was a trail of trouble. Just hope she hadn't done much this time.Then, a cold shiver ran down my back. A memory hit me, it was sharp and clear. Before I took over the seat from Reena in the dark room, she had whispered to me: “I had Thalia and she was everything.” with a wink.My eyes snapped open instantly.Thalia? No.My heart pounded. A sick and sinking feeling hit me. Reena "having" someone was never good. It always meant she'd taken too much. Left disaster behind.Then I heard it. Voices. Not just voices but loud voices.
Jax's POVAs I stared at Thalia, my jaw felt locked. My eyes were glued to her. She was on the floor. Naked. Shaking. Her face was soaked with tears. A strange growl had ripped from her throat. It wasn't human. And I knew—no, we all knew what it was. Then her arm shot out. It moved so fast and so strong. It hit Milo hard in the chest. Milo, who was bigger than her, stumbled back. He almost fell.That was it for us.A proof. Right there. In front of us, telling us that she wasn't the Thalia we had known a few hours ago. And confirming our fears. She wasn't just exposed to the surge. She had taken it in. Deep inside her.Blaze moved first. He was always the calm one when things went crazy like this.He stepped past Milo. His eyes were focused on Thalia. His voice was low and calm. Although he had intended for it to be steady. But I could hear the tight edge in it. The worry that was fully clothing the sound of his voice."Easy, Thalia," Blaze said, as he raised his hands. Like he was tal
Thalia’s povI flinched. I tried to curl myself into a ball. I wanted to be smaller. I wanted to disappear. I didn’t want them to see me like this—not in my naked form or in this broken-down state. None of that mattered. It was the change. I didn’t want them to see this change.Milo walked toward me quickly. His eyes were wide. He wasn’t angry at me, but he was angry and scared about the whole situation. He knelt down in front of me, his big hand reaching out—but it didn’t touch me. It just hovered there.“Thalia, what did you do? Fuck… Look at this mess.” His voice was low and strained. He wasn’t just talking about Rhys. He was talking about me—how messed up I looked, how wrong this moment was.The feeling of him being so close was too much. I could feel his worry. And his scent—it hit my new, hypersensitive senses like a punch. The burning under my skin flared up.“No!” The word burst from my throat, raw and broken. I lifted my head. My eyes were blurry with tears. I met Milo’s gaze