An hour later, despite the energy-sucking evening, sleep failed to take me. I’d
I needed air. Fresh air. The walls closed in on me. The ceiling inched down by the second.
Balconies jutted out from the ends of the hallway with seats and tables. I’d seen some students there studying and eating, but I’d never been there myself.
I threw on a hoodie and leggings and closed the door behind me quietly. Padding down the hallway, I opened the door and sucked in the cool outside air through my nose and instantly felt better. Not good. Not completely devoid of the ramifications of the night but better.
Almost as soon as the calm hit me, footsteps tapped down the hallway in this direction. At first, I thought I might be in trouble but couldn’t remember a rule about going to a balcony at night.
Then the scents hit me.
Apricots. Cinnamon. Oak. More than I could describe, but they all equated the best season of all, and there were three men I knew who were the embodiment of autumn.
“Are you following me?” I asked.
“Not following you, sweetheart. We heard someone in the hallway and when I opened the door, I saw it was you. If you need some alone time…” Neo was the only person in existence who had ever called me sweetheart. The affectionate word shot straight to my heart.
I whirled around to find all three of them were in pajama pants and hoodies much like me. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“No. Of course not,” Artemis said. Out of the three, he was the one I hadn’t had any one-on-one interaction with. My wolf and I desperately craved a connection with them all.
In the time between my talk with Dahlia and the onslaught of insomnia, I had some time to think about what was happening with these guys. Even if they weren’t my mates, and my wolf would disagree with that notion wholeheartedly, I would accept the care and concern they clearly had for me.
“I needed some fresh air. Tonight was tough.”
“Am I the cause of that?” Neo stepped forward and pulled my hair from my hoodie where it was stuck. He took great care in running his fingers through my platinum-blonde strands. The beast inside me purred at the contact.
“No.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Don’t lie to me, Kiki.”
This was the hard part. I didn’t want to lie to them, but I also didn’t want to let them see all my mess before I’d even decided if I wanted mates or deserved mates as good as these men were. “Tonight stirred up things I wasn’t ready to face yet. But they belong to me, Neo. You did nothing wrong. I appreciated your comfort tonight.”
“We’re not made of glass, Kiki. We want to be a part of your joy and your sadness if you would let us.” Artemis had a way of speaking that commanded my attention. The depth of his tone. The bass of his voice. “Let’s sit down.”
They joined me on the balcony. Ian sat next to me on a small outdoor love seat, while Neo and Artemis sat across from me.
I explained everything. Laid it all out on the line.
Because if these three were my mates, then they would have to accept all of me, as Artemis had said before.
We talked through the night, almost until two in the morning. I found out that they had known each other since their first day at the Werewolf Academy two years ago, which put them two years ahead of me. They would graduate before me.
I had bared my soul twice that night. Once to Dahlia and then again to these two.
“We didn’t realize, Kiki,” Ian explained after a moment of quiet.
“There was no way you could’ve. You were being nice to me.”
“I was trying to show you how much I care for you,” Ian argued a bit.
“I should’ve restrained myself as well.” Neo put an arm around my shoulders, and I melted into his hold. It was equally painful and comforting to be embraced by someone. It conjured up ghosts and memories of being rejected, but at the same time, I was so damned hungry for the affection that I couldn’t help but soak it in.
“No. Please don’t,” I asked, hating how desperate my tone was.
But that’s what I was. Hungry and needy and desperate for physical touch. Me and my wolf. It was like not knowing you were starving until the first bite of food touched your tongue.
Then the tsunami of cravings washed in.