Todos os capítulos de CRAVING THE WRONG BLACKTHORNE BROTHER: Capítulo 121 - Capítulo 130

The house was quiet for exactly four seconds before something crashed in the kitchen.I was already moving, bare feet hitting cold hardwood, when Levi's voice carried down the hallway. "We're fine. Everything's fine. Nobody look."I stopped at the top of the stairs. Pinched the bridge of my nose.Ella shifted behind me in bed, mumbling something into the pillow that sounded like a threat. I pulled the door shut quietly and headed downstairs, because "nobody look" coming from my brother meant somebody absolutely needed to look.The kitchen was a crime scene. Flour on the ceiling. Egg yolk dripping down the cabinet. My three-year-old daughter Mira sat on the counter, legs swinging, licking batter off a wooden spoon like she'd earned it. My son Jonah was standing on a chair, both hands in a mixing bowl, with the same focused expression I apparently make during council meetings. Levi had told me that once, laughing so hard he choked."What," I said, "is happening."Levi turned around. He

I knew they were up to something. I'd known for at least a week, probably longer. Nate had been checking his phone with a specific expression, the one he wore when he was managing logistics, and Levi had been disappearing in the afternoons without explanation, which was normal for Levi except he'd been coming back with dirt on his boots and no tacos, which was very abnormal for Levi.But I played along, because I loved them, and because watching them try to be sneaky was one of my favorite things in the world.Nate's morning had been exactly what I needed. After the pancakes and the chaos and the syrup-sticky children, he'd taken me to the sunroom at the back of the house. My favorite room. Floor-to-ceiling windows, the woods pressing close, light pouring in even on grey days. He'd set up my reading chair with a new blanket, thick and soft, and there was a fire going in the small iron stove, and he'd made tea, the good tea, the loose-leaf jasmine I only bought for myself once a year b

Seven texts from Levi in two hours. Three photos of Ella laughing. One of the clearing with the lights. One that was just a string of emojis I refused to decode.I smiled at every single one, alone in my office, like a man who had completely lost control of his dignity. I didn't care.The afternoon was mine. While Levi had the clearing and the grand gesture, I had the quieter work. The kind that happened in the margins.I picked the twins up from Sera's at three. They were painted head to toe. Sera apologized. I told her it was fine. It was fine. Jonah had painted a wolf that looked like a potato and I was going to frame it."Daddy," Mira said in the car. "Is today the love day?""It is.""Do you love Mama?""More than anything.""Do you love Papa Levi?""He's my brother. Of course I love him."She considered this with the gravity of a three-year-old philosopher. "I love chicken nuggets.""That's also valid."I bathed them, which was a contact sport. Jonah tried to drink the bathwater

Our bedroom was the one room in the house that was truly ours. No toys on the floor. No cereal-box crowns. Just the big bed we'd bought together, wide enough for three, with sheets I'd picked and pillows Nate had arranged and a quilt Levi's mother had made us that he refused to be sentimental about but also refused to let anyone wash incorrectly.Nate closed the door behind us and the click of the lock was the sound of the world being shut out. I stood between them in the blue dress, candlelight from the hallway gone, just the low glow of the bedside lamp, and I felt the shift. The same one I always felt when it was the three of us, alone, behind a closed door. The atmosphere thickened. The air changed weight.Levi stepped up behind me. His chest against my back. His hands on my hips. Nate stepped in front of me. Close. His eyes on mine, dark and steady."You're still wearing the dress," Nate said."You asked me to wear it.""I did." His hand came up, traced the neckline, his fingers

I woke in bed with no memory of walking back from the kitchen. Nate must have carried me. He did that sometimes, lifted me when I fell asleep somewhere inconvenient, transferred me to the bed without waking me. Alpha strength put to its most domestic use.Levi was curled against me. Face in my hair. Arm heavy across my ribs. He ran hot, even by wolf standards, and sleeping next to him was like sleeping next to a furnace. I should have minded. I didn't. On my other side, Nate lay on his back, one arm above his head, his face slack and young in sleep.I lay between them and thought about the day.The peony. One white peony in a glass vase, because Nate knew I didn't like excess. He knew. He watched me with those careful eyes and catalogued every preference, every flinch, every quiet want I never voiced. And then he delivered, without fanfare, without expectation. Just the thing I needed, exactly when I needed it.The clearing. The lights in the trees and the Neruda on Levi's tongue and