Page 304 of Immune

Also mine.

I look at Kaito. “You feel that too?”

“Yup,” he assures.

“You’re itching to drag me somewhere else,” I point out, like he wasn’t already aware of his own feelings and emotions.

“You’re right. I do,” he confirms.

“But you won’t.”

“Nope.”

My throat works around something a little too big to swallow, and I whisper, “Good. That’s good.”

Kaito’s jaw flexes a little. “Only because you’re walking yourself. If you told me to get you far away, I’d do it.”

“Still counts.”

“Eh. Barely,” he mutters, and I almost smile.

Then I open the door.

The hallway is way worse than I thought it would be. Not blood kind of worse, because most of that has already been cleaned or covered by bodies moving too quickly with buckets and cloths and pinched mouths. It’s people kind of worse, too many eyes watching me with differing expressions.

Valeria stands closest, arms crossed and face carved into something calm enough that it could be useful. Mercer is next to her, eyes red-rimmed and face tense. Ellis waits with a med-kit, looking over at Kaito’s side like she just might drag him down the hall by the scruff of his neck.

Hale is there, too. Of course he is. Better late than never, right?

Commander Hale doesn’t look at me like Davis did. That should help, but it doesn’t, because instead he looks at me like I’m an exposed fire he hasn’t quite decided whether to warm hishands over or drown with enough water that I’ll never flicker again.

Behind him, Ewan pushes off the wall. He has one hand pressed against his ribs, his face is pale, his hair is a rumpled mess, and his eyes are locked on me and nothing else.

The moment he sees both bites on my throat, something in his face changes. Not jealousy, but pain. Relief. Something that tells me he understands exactly why it happened and hates that I needed anything after the hallway at all.

Maine is next to him, vibrating with the kind of brotherly rage that I truly believe could power a small city. Fletcher has a hand close to his shoulder, not holding him this time, but ready to intervene if he needs to.

Xeon stands a little farther back, still and quiet and dark eyes trained on me. He doesn’t look at the bites for long, instead choosing to look at my face. That should make me feel better, too, but something in my chest reaches out and finds nothing but empty air. No frost and steel thread and no answering pull.

Only Xeon. Only the man who came when I called him before any bond gave him a map that would lead him straight to me.

The absence of it is so silent that it physically hurts, so I look away first.

Mercer clears his throat. “Kota, I need to examine you.”

Every Alpha in the hallway reacts. Not dramatically, of course. There’s no growling, or cinematic chest-beating, or a fucking cool and terrifying haka that would impress me more than scare me. There’s just a thick wave of tension that spreads through the hallway.

Ewan’s bond flares so hard that my breath catches.

Kaito’s turns sharp and deep.

Fletcher steps closer and Xeon’s hand shifts near the knife at his hip.

It’s Maine that speaks up. “How about you try asking like she’s a fucking person and not some thing?”

Mercer blinks.

I love my brother. I love him a lot.