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Home / Werewolf / My Step-Brothers’ Forbidden Addiction / Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

All Chapters of My Step-Brothers’ Forbidden Addiction: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

157 Chapters

CHAPTER 140

Delilah's POV The alarm I'd set in my head went off at dawn and I opened my eyes to unfamiliar walls and the faint smell of dried sage from the bundle on the windowsill.For three full seconds I didn't know where I was. Then the weight behind my sternum settled into place, two dull pulls in opposite directions, and the night came flooding back. Mateo on my porch with his shaking hands. Dante on my steps with his burning eyes. Both of them sent away empty and the mantra I'd whispered into the dark until exhaustion dragged me under.I sat up and swung my legs off the bed and my boots hit the floor because I'd never taken them off.The healing center was a five-minute walk through the covered path that connected my cabin to the east wing of the compound. I washed my face in cold water, changed into clean clothes, braided my hair back tight, and left before the sun cleared the tree line.Margaret was already inside when I pushed through the door. She had her back to me, reorganizing the

CHAPTER 141

Delilah's POV He stepped inside and set the crate down. As he straightened, his arm grazed mine, bare skin against bare skin for less than a second. The heat that tore through me buckled my focus so hard that Storm slammed against my ribs and I had to lock my jaw to keep my expression flat.His hand stopped on the edge of the crate. His nostrils flared. For one unguarded moment his gray eyes dropped to my mouth before he caught himself and pulled them back up."Anything else you need?" His voice came out rough."No."The room had gone quiet. Margaret was suddenly very interested in a stack of bandages. Stella had vanished behind the curtain entirely."Then you should go," I said. "We're busy."He held my gaze for two more seconds. Then he left, the door closing behind him, and I turned back to the basin and gripped the edges until my knuckles went white. My hands were trembling and my pulse hammered in my throat, so I stood there breathing through it until both settled back to a plac

CHAPTER 142

Delilah's POVOne week in and the brothers had turned proximity into an art form.Dante showed up at the healing center every other day with a new excuse. Supply deliveries that didn't need delivering. Messages from Ryker that could have been sent with any patrol wolf. Once he brought a warrior with a sprained wrist that the warrior himself said was fine, and Dante stood in the doorway watching me wrap it with his arms crossed and his jaw set like he was memorizing how my hands moved.Margaret stopped commenting after the third visit. She'd catch my eye when the door opened and his scent came through, then go back to her work with a tight mouth and a shake of her head that said everything her words didn't.Mateo was quieter about it. He never came inside the center. Instead he'd pass the building on the path between the training grounds and the main house at the same time every afternoon, slowing his stride just enough for me to feel his wolf brush against Storm's edges through the bo

CHAPTER 143

Delilah's POV The morning patients started arriving and I pushed everything else to the back of my mind. A border wolf with three cracked ribs from a sparring match gone wrong. A pregnant female whose baby was positioned badly and needed gentle coaxing to turn. A child with a fever that turned out to be the early stage of lunar flu, treatable with the yarrow tincture I'd brought from Helena's cabin.I was cleaning instruments at the end of the day when Stella appeared at my elbow, closer than she'd ever stood before, her hands twisting in her apron."Can I ask you a question?" she said."Go ahead.""The way you sensed Tessa's fracture through the skin on your first day, and the way you pulled Odessa's infection out through your hands this morning." She swallowed. "Can that be taught? Or is it only a Silvermoon thing?"I set the instrument down and looked at her properly for the first time. She was young, maybe twenty, with brown hair pulled back in a messy knot and earnest dark eyes

CHAPTER 144

Delilah's POV Helena's pack was already on her back when I came out of the cabin the next morning.She was standing on the porch in the grey pre-dawn light, silver hair tied back, traveling boots laced tight, the worn leather bag that held everything she owned slung across one shoulder. She looked exactly how she had the day I'd woken up in her cabin six months ago. Road-ready and sharp-eyed and built for distances I couldn't follow.My feet stopped on the threshold."You're leaving," I said."Runner came in last night from the northern settlements. The supply chain I set up is failing without someone on the ground to manage it. Two of my contacts near the falls have gone dark and the Thornwood runners are rerouting around a territory dispute that's cutting off medicine deliveries to the eastern camps." She adjusted the strap on her shoulder. "If I don't go now, wolves will start dying within the month."I leaned against the door frame and crossed my arms, easier than letting my hand

CHAPTER 145

Delilah's POV The cabin had been mine for two weeks and I still wasn't used to the silence where Helena's breathing used to be.I was lying in bed with my eyes open, staring at the ceiling while Storm paced inside my chest. She'd been off all day, restless since morning, snapping at me during treatments, growling low in my ribs every time I reached for the Silvermoon sense. By dinner she was so loud I couldn't eat.Tonight was different. The bond felt tighter, the pull sharper, like it was about to snap.My eyes were about to close when fists hit my door, heavy and uneven, hammering the wood so hard the whole frame shook.Storm's head snapped up inside my chest half a second before his voice came through the wood."Delilah." Wrecked and slurred and loud enough to carry across the path. "Delilah, open the door. Please. I can't do this anymore. I can't."My hands gripped the blanket and my heart hammered against my ribs and I stared at the ceiling while his fists hit the door again and

CHAPTER 146

Delilah's POV He froze. His hand hung in the air between us and then dropped back to his side."Please," he said. "I'm not asking you to forgive me tonight. I'm not asking you to take me back or trust me or pretend any of this is okay. I'm asking you to believe that it was real. That what we had was real and that I loved you and that I chose wrong and I know I chose wrong and I would give anything to go back and choose differently."Neither of us spoke. His breathing was ragged, his eyes red and swollen. He was still on his knees on my porch with his hands at his sides and nothing left to hide behind.Helena's words from last week flashed through my head: you're strong enough for this."I believe it was real," I said. My voice came out steady and level while my nails dug into my palms behind my crossed arms hard enough to break skin. "I never doubted that."The relief that hit his face almost made me sick."But you know what else was real?" I stepped forward and he actually leaned ba

CHAPTER 147

Delilah's POV The next morning I swept the broken glass off my porch before the sun came up.The pieces were still scattered across the boards where they'd landed, sharp and jagged in the grey light. I crouched down with a cloth and picked them up one by one, careful not to cut my fingers, and dropped them into the bin by the door with the dried lavender I'd thrown away days ago.When the porch was clean I stood there and looked at the spot where Mateo had knelt. The wood was scuffed from his knees and there was a faint stain where his tears had hit the boards and dried.I went inside, washed my hands, braided my hair, and walked to the healing center.Margaret took one look at my face when I came through the door and set a cup of tea on the counter without a word."I'm fine," I said."I didn't ask." She turned back to the supply shelf. "Stella's running late. Border patrol brought in two overnight cases. The one on bed three needs an infection pull."I picked up the tea and got to w

CHAPTER 148

Delilah's POV I told myself I wasn't going.I told myself that while I brushed my teeth in the dark at four thirty in the morning. Told myself again while I laced up training boots I hadn't worn since Helena's mountain. Told myself a third time while I braided my hair back and pulled on a tank top that left my arms free.Storm watched all of this and said nothing, which was worse than any comment she could have made."I'm going for a run," I said to the empty cabin. "The training grounds happen to be on the way."The compound was dead at this hour. Grey sky, cold air, dew soaking through the grass. My breath came out in small white clouds as I crossed the open ground between my cabin and the eastern field.Dante was already there.He was standing in the center of the field in a black shirt with the sleeves pushed up past his elbows, tattoos dark against his forearms. He'd been warming up and I could see the effort on his skin, but he stopped the second I came into view and stood with

CHAPTER 149

Delilah's POV Dante kept his word.Every morning at dawn he was on the training field. If I showed up he sparred with me without talking about anything except footwork and form. If I didn't show up he trained alone and left before the rest of the compound was awake. He never asked why I'd come or why I hadn't. He never mentioned the bond or the past or anything outside the lines of that field.I showed up five days out of seven that first week.On day four I stayed in bed. Lay there with my alarm going off and my training boots by the door and told myself I wasn't getting up. Storm paced and whined and pressed toward the field so hard my whole body tilted toward the edge of the mattress. I rolled over, pulled the blanket up, and stared at the wall until the alarm stopped.At the healing center that morning my hands were steady and my focus was sharp and I treated six patients before noon without thinking about him once. But when I locked up that evening and walked past the training f

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