Page 124 of Stream Heat
"Establishing boundaries," he corrected. "Showing the world, and ourselves, exactly what we are to each other."
I considered this perspective. "You think it was necessary?"
"I think it was inevitable." His eyes met mine, steady and certain. "Pack bonds demand acknowledgment eventually. The public nature was perhaps... accelerated by circumstances, but the outcome was always going to be this."
"This being...?"
"Us," he said simply. "All of us, together. Not just for content or convenience or even health necessity. But because it's what we all want."
The certainty in his voice, so rare from cautious, thoughtful Jace, made something shift inside me. "Even you?"
"Especially me." His admission came quietly but without hesitation. "I've watched you since the day you arrived, fighting your designation, fighting your withdrawal, fighting the connections forming between us. I’ve just been waiting for the moment you'd finally stop fighting."
"Is that what I'm doing? Have I stopped fighting?"
He considered this, head tilting slightly in that way he had when analyzing a particularly complex problem. "Not stopped. Redirected. There are better battles than the ones against yourself."
The insight hit with unexpected force, piercing straight to the heart of what I'd been doing these past months. Fighting myself. Fighting my designation. Fighting connections that felt threatening only because they exposed vulnerabilities I'd spent years denying.
"When did you get so wise?" I asked, a smile tugging at my lips despite everything.
"I observe," he said simply. "It's what I do."
Another comfortable silence fell between us, but this one felt different, charged with something unspoken yet increasingly difficult to ignore. The bond marks on my shoulders seemed to pulse in time with my heartbeat, a physical reminder of connections already formed and those still waiting to be acknowledged.
Jace's scent shifted subtly, ink and snow deepening with notes I hadn't detected before, something richer, more primal beneath his usual calm exterior.
"You're thinking about it," he observed quietly. "The bonds."
There was no point denying it. "Yes." After all, he might even be able to tell through our brand new bond, though it was all still a bit overwhelming for me.
"Are you afraid?"
The question caught me off guard with its directness. Jace rarely asked such pointed questions, preferring to let people reveal themselves in their own time.
"Not afraid exactly," I said, searching for the right words. "More... uncertain. About what it means. About whether I'm making choices or just responding to biology."
"Does it have to be one or the other?" he asked. "Can't biology inform choice rather than override it?"
I considered this perspective. "Maybe. But everything's happening so fast. Reid's claim, then Theo's, now..." I gestured vaguely between us.
"Nothing has to happen now," he assured me, his voice steady despite the Alpha notes deepening in his scent. "Or ever, if that's not what you want. We are bonded, but that just means we’re pack. It doesn’t have to be anything romantic if that’s not what you want."
The space he offered, the complete lack of pressure despite his obvious desire, made my decision clearer rather than more confused.
"What if it is what I want?" I asked, meeting his eyes directly. "What if I want all of you, just... differently? At different times, in different ways?"
His pupils dilated slightly, the only visible sign of his reaction. "Then you'd be describing exactly what a true pack bond should be. Not identical connections, but complementary ones."
I shifted closer, drawn to his calm certainty like a moth to flame. "And what would our connection be, Jace? What do you offer that's different from Reid's protection or Theo's chaos?"
"Understanding," he said without hesitation. "The comfort of being known without having to explain yourself. The quiet between storms."
The description resonated so perfectly that it took my breath away. That was exactly what Jace had always provided, silent understanding when words failed, space to process without judgment, a calm center when everything else became too much.
"I need that," I admitted, the vulnerability easier with him than it would have been with the others. "Especially now, with everything so... intense."
"I know." Two simple words that somehow contained multitudes.
