Page 67 of Legacy Found

Soft goes to not-soft so fast the room spins. My fingers fist in his shirt, dragging him down until I'm straddling his lap on the mattress, heat flooding every inch of my veins after months of agonizing restraint. It's desperate, starving, but under the friction, there's that absolute certainty. It's Torres. Even now he makes me huff a ragged laugh against his mouth when I knock our noses together.

I don't want to stop. I arch closer, pressing my hips down against him, needing him to feel how completely unhinged I am for this.

Then the second thread pulls.

The one I've been ignoring all night. It flares — scalding hot, a heavy, commanding weight against my ribs — and I gasp, breaking the kiss. Torres pulls back at the exact same instant, his chest heaving, his eyes flashing dangerous gold in the dim light.

We look at each other. I know before I say it. "Luke."

A dark, razor-sharp look crosses Torres’s face. Not anger. I don’t know what it is.

"I don't know what the hell is happening," I pant, resting my forehead against his shoulder.

"That's reassuring."

"I'm serious, Torres."

"So am I." His hand slides down my spine, burning hot through my shirt. "And so is he."

I look down at the two dark arcs branded into my skin. Then back at him, and I make myself say the whole, terrifying truth. "I want you." His eyes hold mine, fierce and unblinking. "And I want him too."

Silence. I brace for the world to blow apart.

It doesn't. Torres looks at my wrist, then back up to my face, a slow, wicked smirk touching the corner of his lips. "Yeah," he says, simply.

"...Yeah?"

"I've seen the way you look at him." He shrugs, entirely unapologetic. "I've been sparring right next to the way you look at him, wondering how long before one of us snapped."

I bury my face in his neck with a groan. "Fantastic."

"And I've been watching the way he looks at you like he wants to tear apart anyone who breathes too close." Torres's hand tightens on my hip, anchoring me. "Go let him in, sweetheart. Before he breaks your door down."

The knock is quiet.

I already know — the thread's been climbing toward my door, a relentless pressure against my mind. When I pull it open, Luke is standing there in the shadows, his shoulders tense, whether the bond dragged him here or he simply couldn't stand another second of not seeing me before tomorrow.

He sees Torres sitting on my bed, looking thoroughly wrecked and thoroughly mine. Torres sees him. Neither says a single word, but the air in the room goes as tight as a drawn bowstring, humming with a possessive energy that makes my knees weak.

"Are you okay?" Luke asks me, his voice a low, rough rasp.

"No. I'm terrified. Of walking in there tomorrow and — I still haven't shifted, Luke."

He doesn't do what Torres did. Torres reminded me who I am. Luke does something entirely different. He steps across the threshold, closing the space until I'm pressed up against the heavy heat of him.

"I've trained you every day for months," he says, his voice dropping an octave, heavy and certain. "I've watched you stop flinching. Watched you get knocked down and get back up before I even finished the sentence. Watched you face down a feral wolf with nothing but your bare hands." His eyes burn into mine, stripping away every ounce of my doubt. "You don't need a wolf to prove you belong here. You already did. I saw the whole thing, and I've been obsessed with it ever since."

It lands straight in the core of my chest, knocking the breath clean out of my lungs.

And now they're both here. Torres behind me on the bed, a furnace of familiar heat and absolute claim. Luke in front of me, all that icy restraint finally fraying into ash. My pulse is wild, the arcs on my wrist are scorching hot against my skin, and I'm so damn tired of pretending I can live without either of them.

I look at Torres. Then at Luke.

"I want both of you," I say, my voice steady even as my hands shake. "Tonight."

Luke goes completely, terrifyingly still. Torres, behind me, lets out a low, approving sound that vibrates right through my spine.

"Are you sure?" Luke asks, his hand coming up to cup my jaw, his thumb brushing my cheek with a desperate, trembling reverence. Giving me the final door.