Page 58 of Bound By Alphas 1: Bound

I looked away, suddenly uncomfortable with the intensity in his eyes. The bed was familiar beneath me—the same impossibly soft sheets, the same mountain of pillows. It brought back memories I’d tried hard to suppress.

“I used to sleep here all the time,” I said quietly, running my hand over the comforter. “Back when…”

“Back when you didn’t run from us,” Keir finished, sitting beside me. The bed dipped under his weight, causing me to slide slightly toward him. “Before you decided we were the enemy.”

“I don’t think you’re the enemy,” I protested weakly. “I just…”

“Just what, Finn?” His hand found mine, fingers intertwining with a familiarity that made my chest ache. “What changed?”

Everything, I wanted to say. My body. My feelings. The way my heart raced when any of you walked into a room. The way I couldn’t look at you without imagining things I shouldn’t.

Instead, I shrugged. “Grew up, I guess. Needed my own space.”

He studied me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “You used to rotate between our rooms. One night with Cade, one with Logan, one with me, one with Drew. You said you couldn’t sleep alone.”

The memory sent a pang through me. After my parents died—after whatever happened that night that I still couldn’t fully remember—I’d been plagued by nightmares. The only thing that kept them at bay was sleeping next to one of my brothers, feeling their steady heartbeats, knowing I wasn’t alone.

“I was a kid,” I said, trying to sound dismissive. “I grew out of it.”

“Did you?” Keir asked softly. “Or did you just start forcing yourself to face the nightmares alone?”

I looked away, uncomfortable with how easily he could still read me. “It was after that Blood Moon thing. When your—our—parents died. I couldn’t remember much, but the nightmares…”

“I remember,” he said, his thumb tracing circles on my palm. “You’d wake up screaming. The only way to calm you down was for one of us to hold you until you fell back asleep.”

I swallowed hard, the memory still raw despite the years. “I got better.”

“You got older,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly keep crawling into my brothers’ beds at fifteen,” I said with a forced laugh. “That would have been weird.”

“Why?” he asked, his gaze suddenly intense. “Why would it have been weird, Finn?”

Because by then, I’d realized my feelings for you weren’t brotherly at all. Because I’d started waking up from different kinds of dreams—dreams that left me hot and aching and ashamed. Because I couldn’t trust myself not to do something stupid like kiss you.

“Because normal teenagers don’t need their big brothers to chase away the monsters,” I said instead, pulling my hand from his. “It was time to grow up.”

Keir was quiet for a long moment, his eyes never leaving my face. Finally, he sighed. “Well, tonight you’re back where you started. Sleeping in my bed, whether you like it or not.”

“Because of a bet,” I reminded him.

“Because of a bet,” he agreed, though something in his tone suggested there was more to it than that. “Now, which side do you want?”

I glanced at the massive bed, remembering how we used to sleep—me curled against his chest, his arm draped protectively over my waist. “I’ll take the window side.”

“Still like watching the stars?” he asked, a small smile playing at his lips.

“Still like having an escape route,” I countered, though we both knew it was a lie. The windows in this room were at least thirty feet off the ground, and despite what the brothers seemed to think, I didn’t actually have a death wish.

Keir laughed, the sound warming something cold inside me. “Some things never change.”

As he disappeared into the bathroom, I settled under the covers, trying to ignore how right it felt to be back in this bed. Mochi immediately curled up at my feet, while Pixel claimed a pillow near my head. From his plush bed in the corner, Boba watched with what looked suspiciously like canine amusement.

“Traitors,” I whispered to them. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Pixel’s purr suggested she was firmly on the side of luxury, regardless of who provided it.

I was just starting to drift off when I felt the bed dip again as Keir returned. The scent of mint and cedar enveloped me as he slid under the covers, his body radiating heat like a furnace.

---