“I said I don’t want to stop,” Luke snarled, but Anton shook his head.

“We have to get some rest or else we’re never going to be able to make it back there,” he shot back firmly. “Come on, this place is as safe as we’re going to get right now.”

He was right.

I hated to admit it because every hour that passed brought new fears for Rafe and Cora, but we weren’t cyborgs. We all had our physical limits, and I’d long since passed mine and my legs trembled with fatigue. I could tell by looking at the weariness in the others that they felt it, too. Days of running and lack of sleep and regular meals was wearing on us heavily.

“Yeah, I don’t care about that.” Luke raked his fingers through his hair. He was still naked, where the rest of us had already pulled on our clothes after the long run from the compound and off Kellum land. “Every minute we spend here-”

“Is a minute that we can use to rest up and figure out how we’re going to save Rafe without getting killed in the process,” Ethan cut him off.

He was full dressed now, snow still in his hair, and his body shuddered. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to ward off the cold a moment longer while Luke stood there firmly in the snow.

I knew how he felt; the last thing I wanted, too, was for us to have to take another second away from our quest to get back to Rafe, but my muscles were burning and every bone in my body was aching for a good night’s rest. I could barely think straight, the only thing pulsing around my head with any reliability was the reminder that this was still happening, that my father had turned his back on me.

Again.

“Look at her, man,” Anton muttered, shooting me a glance. I must’ve looked even rougher than I felt, because Luke’s expression shifted and he blew out a sigh.

“Fine,” he muttered, pulling on his clothes haphazardly and striding inside. “But we’re leaving at daybreak tomorrow, first thing.”

“Whatever you say,” Anton replied as we followed him to the inn we’d been congregated in front of.

I had heard of it, but I had never come across it in person before this. There wasn’t a sign outside, clearly the kind of place that was intended only for people who already knew about it, and I couldn’t help but feel relieved as I took a step over the threshold; the place was thick with the scent of shifters, from all over, scents that I didn’t recognize straight off the bat. A place for people without a pack. Drifters, loners, outcasts. People like us.

I wondered how many of our kind had come through here from out of town. I felt a pang of longing as I thought about how far sheltered they were from the drama that was unfolding at opposite ends of the lands. How I wish we were in their shoes. But for now, I’d take this refuge. A safe haven for the night – an old-fashioned inn that would provide a bed and some brandy to help ward off the cold.

The place was all old wood and peeling paint, but it had a nice atmosphere to it – a bar stood in the left corner, surrounded by a throng of people, and there was a low buzz to the place that helped me relax a little. Anton headed straight to the bar and, moments later, returned with a key. He held it out to me.

“Let’s go to the room and put our bags down.” He glanced around our small group, but Luke and Ethan were peering around the place, bristling slightly, as though they weren’t sure about anything around them. Anton rolled his eyes skyward and sighed.

“You guys want to give me your bags so you can stay down here and check the place out?”

“I’m not relaxing anywhere until I know there isn’t one person in here who hasn’t got it out for us,” Luke shot back. “You really think that asshole father of hers didn’t send anyone to follow us out and make sure we didn’t stick around?”

“You do your thing.” Anton gave him a hard stare, and then glanced over at Ethan. “And you, make sure he doesn’t get in any fights. This is the only shifter place between here and the cabin and I don’t want to have to find somewhere else to rent a room for the night.”

“I will,” Ethan promised, and the two of them turned to head back into the bar, which was bustling with activity – I noticed a few people turn and eye them with interest as they got closer, but without any obvious malicious intent. Anton grabbed my hand and we headed for the stairs that led out of the bar, each step creaking dangerously beneath us. I wondered how often people put their feet through these things, and assumed that the answer was “more than the owners of this place would care to admit to”.

“Just one room for the four of us?” I asked, and Anton nodded.

“It was all they had at short notice.”

It was fine by me. In fact, the thought of being without any one of them in the dark of night right now was enough to make my blood run cold. After everything that happened, I wanted nothing more than to keep the people I loved close.

Anton slowed, pausing outside one of the doors and pushing the key into the lock. He had to put his shoulder on the door and shove a couple of times to get it open, making me instantly worry about the state of the room within, but when the door opened it revealed a very serviceable little space. A large double bed occupied most of the space in there, with a small window on the far wall and a table with a mirror. It wasn’t like we had very much in the way of clothes or gear to store and it would do for the night.

“Fuck, I’m glad to be here,” Anton groaned, flopping down on the bed with his arms spread wide, as though he was embracing the old-looking sheets beneath him. I grinned and perched on the edge of the bed with him. He had been the first one of the four of them that I’d connected with and I couldn’t help but let my mind stray to that moment once more. He lifted his head, seeming to read my thoughts as his gaze grew warm.

“Been a tense day, huh?” he remarked softly, hooking his chin over my shoulder and leaning in such a way that I could feel his breath on my neck, warm where the cold air had been only moments before.

I closed my eyes. That felt better than he ever could have known.

He ran his hand over my waist, sliding it beneath my sweater to rest on my bare stomach. He lingered there for a moment, still. I turned my head until our mouths were just millimeters apart.

“Yeah, it really has,” I agreed, and I wasn’t lying. But his touch and the look in his eyes let me forget it for a second or two. He looked at me intently as his fingers slid lower, running over the top of my pants.

“Do you want me right now, Arianna?” he asked. I knew, with the emotional weight we were all bearing, he needed to hear me say it. That this was okay. That this wasn’t some betrayal of Rafe to grab these moments when we could.

I nodded slowly, and with that, he leaned in and pressed his mouth against mine, as his hand finally slipped beneath my pants and found my slick center.

As soon as he touched me, I felt some of the ice wedged in my chest begin to melt as his fingers drew circles around my clit. I lifted my hips and pressed them against him, needing more of him as he pushed his tongue into my mouth and used his other hand to grip the back of my head, holding me steady.

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down onto the bed, on top of me, just like he had been the first time we had done this, back in the cabin I would have been all too happy to call my forever home. His fingers slid down, teasing the outer edge of my slit, before he slowly slid a finger into me, making me gnash my teeth and groan with pleasure. It always felt so raw with him, so real, like I had been whipped out of everything that was going on around me and into this moment, this second, this touch, this heartbeat.

“Fuck, you’re already so wet,” he growled into my ear, running his teeth over the exposed skin of my neck. His hand was in my hair, pulling it back roughly, and the shudder of pain it sent through my system felt something like a relief.

“Take me,” I gasped. I lifted my hips and let him wriggle down my pants as I reached blindly between his legs, feeling for him. I wrapped my fingers around his erection, stroking him a couple of times as our mouths and our tongues met once more. I wrapped my other arm around his neck, hooking my legs behind his back, and guided him towards me, and just like that, at last he was inside me. I groaned loudly against his mouth, not caring if the entire bar downstairs could hear us. This was what I needed right now. All that I needed.

He moved into me hard and fast, hands grabbing for whatever flesh he could find exposed; his fingers traced across my waist and my thighs and my butt, and then up and over my neck and my collarbones and my mouth. I could taste myself on him, on his hands, and all I wanted was more and more and more. I grabbed his ass and pushed him inside me, as far as he would go, then held him there for a moment. He didn’t move, letting me set the pace and take control, and then started to fuck me. He went hard and deep and didn’t hold back, as though stopping for a moment would let the bad thoughts that both of us were trying to avoid leak in once more. He pushed himself up on the bed, the muscles in his arms flexing, and I traced my fingers over them. He looked so good. So in control. So…Anton.

“Jesus,” he groaned desperately, eyes drifting shut as he continued to thrust into me. “Fuck, Arianna, fuck…”

I took what he was saying as a command and lifted my hips, letting him drive himself into me even deeper than before. I craved him like that, as deep as he would go. And before I knew it, I was coming. I closed my eyes and let the sounds bubble up and over me, ricocheting through my body, escaping from my mouth in a mess of pleasure. Moments later, I felt him come, too, buried deep inside me, the sound of his growl of relief breaking through the fuzz that had descended over my brain and bringing me back to the real world.

As he slowly withdrew from me and the two of us did our best to get ourselves looking something close to presentable again, I stole a look at him and found he was doing the same to me.

He smiled, reaching over and touching his finger to my cheek. “I needed that.”

“I did, too,” I confessed. Although, even now, I sometimes felt a little guilty for being so able to jump between the men I loved so much with such ease. That was just years of training telling me that I was doing something amiss. The truth of the matter was that they were happy like this, and I was, too. If only we could get Rafe back, everything would be perfect…

“Oh, shit,” Anton sighed, pulling his hand away from my face. My heart dropped.

“What is it?” I demanded, but soon enough, my ears tuned in to what he was hearing and I shook my head. Shit was right. I could hear their voices downstairs, Luke and Ethan, both raised. I couldn’t make out what they were saying but judging from their tones it was nothing good. We needed to get down there, fast, before they made too much of a scene and attracted attention to who we were and what we might have been doing there.

“I thought I told Ethan to keep him the hell out of trouble,” Anton growled, pulling the rest of his clothes on and briefly checking himself in the mirror. I lingered for a second, watching him, wondering if I could steal one more kiss, one more second before the two of us returned to the real world. But he strode towards the door and I hurried to follow. As alpha, he didn’t get to stand around and wait for someone else to deal with problems like this one when they turned up.

We made our way quickly down the stairs, and followed the sound of their voices. They were still just about hidden by the hubbub, but they were getting louder. I scanned the room and laid eyes on them, over by the bar, arguing with someone animatedly. Luke was waving his arms around and I could tell it wouldn’t be long until he got physical.

“Crap,” I muttered under my breath as I headed over there, grabbing Ethan by the shoulder and tugging him aside so I could see what the problem was. But as soon as I saw who the two of them were arguing with, my heart stuttered and I forgot about everything else for a moment.

“Tristan?” I gasped. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Time seemed to flex as I stared at this sliver of my past standing before me. “What the hell are you doing here?”