Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 21 - Chapitre 30

•Faye•Our room.He’d said it so easily, like the word didn’t weigh anything at all, and I felt it land somewhere low in my chest the second it left his mouth, heavier than it had any right to be for two syllables. I let him lead me down the hall anyway, his hand wrapped around mine, warm and careful, the same way it had been every single time he touched me tonight, like he was still checking, still making sure I hadn’t changed my mind between one step and the next.The door opened onto more space than I expected, wide windows catching the last of the evening light, deep colors that made the whole room feel like standing at the edge of a forest at dusk instead of inside four walls. I gasped before I could stop myself, and I heard him go quiet behind me, felt the warmth of his attention settle over the sound like he was cataloguing it somewhere important.I let go of his hand and wandered further in, needing the movement, needing something to do with my body besides stand still and fee

•Shaun•She was perfect.I sat there in my office, elbows braced on my knees, staring at my own hands like they belonged to a stranger, because I could still feel the exact shape of her against my palms and it was doing something to my head I hadn’t fully recovered from yet. At six foot five, with a frame built for war, hands that had broken bone and held off rogue wolves twice my size, I’d never once in my life felt anything fit against me the way she had, soft where I was hard, warm skin filling my palm completely in a way that felt less like touching someone and more like finally holding something my whole body had been built around holding.I’d never been with a woman so big before, curves that gave my hands somewhere to actually rest instead of gripping bone, and I hadn’t expected how badly that would wreck me, standing there in that bathroom with steam curling around both of us, every rational thought I owned evaporating the second I actually saw her.I was still sitting there r

•Shaun•Breakfast wound down slow, the kind of easy morning I hadn’t let myself imagine having in years, elders trading stories, warriors laughing too loud at something near the end of the table, Faye’s hand still resting warm in mine underneath it all like she’d forgotten to pull it back and I certainly wasn’t going to remind her.Once plates started clearing, I caught Luke’s eye across the table and nodded toward the door, and a minute later he came back trailing a woman who lit up the entire room the second she walked through it.“Faye,” I said, standing and pulling her up gently beside me, “this is Mimi. Luke’s mate.”Mimi didn’t do the careful, measuring look most of the pack had given Faye all morning. She just grinned, wide and immediate, and stuck her hand out like they were already old friends who hadn’t gotten around to meeting yet.“So you’re the one who’s had Shaun walking around like a lovesick puppy all morning.” Mimi shook Faye’s hand with entirely too much enthusiasm.

•Faye•I quickly learned that Mimi did not believe in small shopping trips.“Okay, first stop,” she announced as the car pulled up outside a boutique with a dark green awning and a window display that looked like it belonged in a magazine rather than whatever small town this pack apparently sat outside of. “This place does the best dresses in three counties. The owner’s mate is actually pack, so we get first pick before anything even hits the floor.”“I don’t need dresses,” I said, though I was already being pulled out of the car before I finished the sentence.“Everyone needs dresses. It’s not about need, it’s about joy.” Mimi pushed the door open, and a bell chimed somewhere overhead, and a woman behind the counter lit up the second she spotted Mimi, which told me everything about how often this particular stop happened.I hadn’t shopped like this in years. Honestly, I wasn’t sure I’d ever shopped like this, not really, not with someone pulling things off racks specifically because

•Faye•“You said we were going home, Mimi,” I said, planting my feet outside the storefront while she was already reaching for the door handle.“I said we were heading in that direction. Eventually.” She pulled the door open, and the smell of vanilla and perfume hit me immediately, along with more lace than I’d seen in one place in my entire life. “This isn’t optional, Faye. You need underwear. Actual underwear, not whatever mismatched situation you’ve currently got going on underneath borrowed shirts.”“I don’t have a mismatched situation.”“You’ve been wearing the same two bras for days. I know because I did your laundry request myself this morning.” She raised an eyebrow, daring me to argue. “Get in the store.”I got in the store.An associate descended on us almost immediately, tape measure appearing out of nowhere like she’d been lying in wait behind a mannequin, and within minutes I found myself standing in a fitting room while Mimi loitered right outside the curtain, entirely t