Brielle’s chest tightened.“Don’t say that.”
Ursula met her gaze, the pain there sharp and raw.“I gave everything once—heart, power, soul.The Goddess gave me back survival, nothing more.When I look at these men, at all this ...posturing, and I wonder if she’s laughing again.”
Brielle wanted to argue, to remind her that Ursula’s strength had saved them all more than once, but the sound of raised voices pulled her attention back.
“Landon,” Hunter barked, “enough.You’ve said your piece.”
Landon turned toward her, eyes gleaming with a strange mix of anger and longing.“No, I haven’t.”He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.“You don’t get it, Brielle.It can’t just be me.My brothers will feel it, too.There’s this pull—this ...heat that won’t stop until we find you.”
Brielle froze.“What are you doing?”
“I’m calling them,” Landon said, fingers flying across the screen.“They’re outside waiting on me.They need to come in here.They need to meet you, scent you.”
“Don’t,” she said, her voice low but firm.“You don’t understand what you’re playing with.”
He ignored her.“They’ve been restless since the shift.They didn’t know why, but I do now.It’s you.You’re the reason we can’t settle.You’re our mate.”
Lennox’s growl rolled through the air.“You’re out of your damn mind.”
“Am I?”Landon shot back, eyes flashing gold.“Because whatever bond you two think you’ve got with her, I can’t scent it.There’s no mark.No claim.Just instinct screaming that she belongs to me—and to them and it is getting stronger.”
Hunter’s control snapped.He moved forward, but Nolan and Isaac caught him, holding him back.“Hey!Easy!Not in the damn tattoo shop!”Isaac grunted, straining to keep him in check.
“Let me go,” Hunter growled, but Brielle’s voice cut through the chaos like a blade.
“Stop!”she shouted, her power surging out in a shimmer of heat that made the glass counters rattle.Everyone froze.Even the faint hum of the city outside seemed to quiet.
Brielle glared at Landon.“You need to breathe.You’re confusing instinct with obsession.Whatever this is, it’s not fate—it’s fear.You’ve changed, and your body’s looking for something to ground you.That’s not me.”
Landon’s breathing came fast, the gold still flickering in his eyes.“You can say that all you want.It doesn’t make it less real.”
Ursula rose then, her presence suddenly vast and ancient.“Boy,” she said softly, but the weight of her voice made the lights flicker, “you’re playing at forces older than you can imagine.Sit down before you break something you can’t mend.”
Landon hesitated, trembling with restraint.His phone buzzed in his hand, and Brielle saw the screen light up with two names—Braydon and Colt.
He raised it to his ear.“Come in,” he said hoarsely.“I found her.”
Brielle’s stomach dropped.“Landon—”
But it was too late.He ended the call and looked at her, eyes burning gold.“They’re coming.And when they get here, you’ll understand.”
Hunter and Lennox stepped closer, flanking her instinctively, while Nolan muttered a curse under his breath.
Brielle stood tall, her voice steady even as her pulse raced.“Then I guess we’ll see what the Goddess has to say about that.”
“Back off,” Hunter snapped.“You don’t get to walk in here and claim her.”
Landon’s jaw flexed.“I’m not claiming anything.I’m stating a truth.There’s a pull between us, I know it.”
Lennox’s frustration boiled over.“You’re delusional!Brielle is ours—bond or not, she’s ours.She belongs to us.”
Brielle froze, the word hitting her like a slap.“Excuse me?”Her voice was low, dangerous.“Yours?Belongsto you?”
Lennox’s eyes widened, realization dawning too late.“Bri—”
“How dare you?”she cut in, fury burning through her calm.“I am not your property.Not yours, not Hunter’s, and sure as hell not his.”She pointed at Landon, her power shimmered around her, her hair lifting in the faint static of magic.“You sound just like Caleb.”
The silence that followed was deafening.Hunter swore under his breath, Lennox’s shoulders slumped, and Landon looked stricken.