Page 135 of Without a Trace
Something final.
“What?” I snapped.
Zeke’s fingers tapped once on the counter, then stopped.
Kane blew out a breath. “Shit.”
Still, no one answered.
And that silence?
Said everything.
Zeke
Ineeded air.
The second she walked in, wearing his damn shirt and carrying that smug, post-wreckage glow, I set my mug down hard enough to crack the silence.
Pushing off the island, I stepped outside—out onto the porch, into the weight of the morning, trying to breathe through the shitstorm brewing behind my ribs.
Alden followed a second later, pausing just inside the door like maybe he was thinking better of this. But then he came anyway—always did. Trace followed.
They stood behind me, silent. I didn’t offer a greeting.
Trace shifted first. “Just say it.”
I didn’t move. Just stared out over the line of trees edging the horizon.
“I told you both the rules.”
Silence.
“Didn’t think it was real,” Trace muttered, voice low. “Not like this.”
I turned. Finally.
“You didn’t think it was real?” I repeated, stepping forward. “You’ve had the tattoos for years. Felt them burn. You knew what it meant.”
Alden stood taller behind him, his voice calmer. “No one did. We thought bonds were ancient. Dying out. And never between three.”
I stared at them both. “And yet.”
Neither one could meet my eyes.
Trace’s tattoo had been glowing faintly when he walked in, and Alden’s hadn’t faded yet either. I’d seen that look on both of them—glassy, spent, wrecked in a way that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with permanence.
“When did it start burning?” I asked.
Trace answered first. “Years ago.”
Alden nodded. “I always thought it was adrenaline. Battle tension. When she was near. But this…” His voice drifted off. “This was different.”
“Yeah,” I said, my hands gripping the porch rail. “Because it’s not a crush. Not a fling. It’s real. It’s sealed.”
Trace’s brow creased. “We didn’t think it would actually—”
“But it did,” I cut in, stepping closer. “You felt it snap into place, didn’t you? The second she let you in.”
