Page 155 of Piece You Saved

“He admitted he was wrong about Harley,” Aden adds just as quietly.

“Is he finally growing up?” I ask.

Mid-conversation with the contractor, Kade lifts his right hand and flashes us a one-finger salute.

Aden laughs. “Guess not.”

CHAPTER 41

SAIGE

Warm fingers brush the hair back from my face and I sigh, burrowing into the sheets, thinking it’s Aden.

“You’re beautiful even when you sleep, Jane,” a voice that is distinctlynotAden says.

My eyes snap open, clashing with Harley’s green-blue orbs. He’s stretched out on my bed, lying on his side as a soft smile plays on his lips.

I notice he’s not wearing scrubs but a white t-shirt and black jeans before he’s leaning toward me.

He’s going to kiss me.

Panic sets in.

I shove myself up and scramble out of bed as I yank the hem of my sleep shirt down, whispering frantically. “You can’t be here. Did you climb in through my window? No, don’t tell me. You have to go out that way. Kade will—”

“No need to shove the guy out of the window, angel,” Kade drawls as he steps into my room. “I invited him.”

“You invited…” I stare at Kade. No, I gape at him for a solid five to ten seconds, and then I shake my head as my brain wakes up. “Aden. Aden told you—”

“I didn’t need to tell him anything, Saige,” Aden interrupts, stepping in through my doorway. “Kade isn’t stupid. He can be a little slow at times, but—”

Aden laughs and dodges Kade’s head slap by inches.

“You have something with him. It’s time you explored what that was.” Dariel steps into my room next. Unlike Kade and Aden, he’s not smiling. He’s as serious as he always is, but I’m learning this is Dariel. Somber. Serious. In control… apart from when he’s not.

I must be the last one up because everyone has showered and dressed for the day. Dariel is in his usual tailored shirt and pants. Kade and Aden are in jeans and t-shirts. Me? I’m in one of Kade’s black t-shirts that hits me to mid-thigh. And my hair… I don’t even want to think about the bird’s nest I have going on from an endlessly long night of tossing and turning.

Ever since I told Harley to leave, sleep always feels like it’s out of reach. I’m dance-on-his-grave happy that Rylan is dead, and there’s nowhere else I would want to be than with Kade, Aden, and even Dariel, but it’s like a piece of me is missing.

I meet Dariel’s gaze steadily as I run a hand through my hair, wincing when my fingers snag on a tangle. “It will break things between us, and I don’t want to do that.”

Even if I do like Harley, and he likes me, too.

“This is going to be new for all of us,” Dariel says, eyeing me closely before he glances over my shoulder at Harley, who’s rising from my bed to stand beside me. “Him, too, if the only pack he had was a human doctor. But not all new things are bad things.”

I blink in surprise at the positive—and optimistic—note in Dariel’s voice. I’d expect it from Aden, but Dariel?

I peer up at Harley. “Is that what you want? A pack of your own?”

He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, and his eyes briefly dart to my lips. “I want you.”

I probe his expression, trying to read him. “But you need a pack as well.” I pause. “Don’t you?”

Wolves are social. It can’t be good for him to be on his own.

Harley’s lips quirk in a sad half-smile. “I don’t know how to be in a pack, Jane. My life started in a foster home until I left it.”

We’re all a little bit broken. Maybe, together, we can help each other feel a little more whole.

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