Then Landon stepped forward again, voice rough.“You can hate me for saying it, but I know what I felt the second I walked in here.No woman’s ever come close to you.It’s like gravity—I can’t fight it.And my brothers will feel it, too.”
Before anyone could stop him, the door burst open.Two men—tall, broad, familiar in the way siblings always are—stepped inside.Braydon and Colt.Their presence filled the space instantly, the air thick with dominance and curiosity.The moment they scented the room, everything changed.
They inhaled, and confusion crossed their faces, then as one they turned toward Ursula, eyes flaring gold.
Braydon murmured.“It’s ...her.”
All eyes swung to Ursula.
Landon dropped to his knees.“Fuck, Ursula, baby, I’m so sorry.”
Her spine straightened, fury lighting her expression.“You have got to be kidding me.”
Colt’s grin was slow, reverent.“The Goddess doesn’t make mistakes.”
Ursula glared at him.“Then she’s got a cruel sense of humor.”She turned to laser a glare at Landon.“You think I’d want a mate who thought someone else was his five minutes ago?Fuck off, all of you.”
Brielle’s magic pulsed again, sharp and wounded.She turned on Hunter and Lennox, her voice shaking with anger.“Get out.All of you.I am no one’s anything.If this is what mating looks like, I’d rather stay single forever.”
Hunter’s expression crumpled.“Brielle—”
“Out,” she snapped.The windows trembled, the sound of her fury rolling through the shop.
Hunter and Lennox exchanged a look, guilt etched in every line of their faces.They turned and left.Outside, the night swallowed them up.
The lions lingered for a heartbeat, Braydon’s hand reaching toward Ursula before she lifted one brow and sent a spark of magic zipping past his head.The three brothers walked out in silence.
****
When the door finallyshut behind them, the street outside was filled with five shifters, all pacing the sidewalk in different directions—two bears, three lions—all furious, frustrated, and broken.The tension clung to them like static.
Hunter raked a hand through his hair.“We messed that up.”
Lennox nodded grimly.“Yeah.Big time.”
Braydon folded his arms, glaring at Landon.“You dick.You call us inside because you ‘found our mate,’ and it turns out you didn’t even have the right woman!”
Colt snorted.“Hell of a family reunion.”
Landon winced, his voice low.“I didn’t know, all right?I just—when I saw her, something in me reacted.I thought...”He trailed off, frustration edging into shame.“I thought it was her.”
Hunter crossed his arms, his bear still restless under his skin.“You nearly got us all killed in there.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Lennox muttered.“She compared us to Caleb, man.Caleb.That’s a new low.”
The mention of the name silenced them.Even the lions shifted uneasily.
Colt leaned against a lamppost, shaking his head.“So, what now?Because we’ve got one furious witch, one pissed off coven, and five idiots standing in the street.”
Hunter exhaled, steadying himself.“Now, we stop being idiots.We get our heads outta our asses.”He looked at Landon.“You said you and your brothers shifted at the same time just recently?”
Landon nodded.“Yeah.Out of nowhere.One minute we’re normal, next minute—fur, claws, chaos.Then some glowing woman shows up and tells my brothers to come to New York.Said our mate was here.”
“The Goddess,” Lennox murmured.“She’s been weaving threads between all of us from two hundred years ago.”
Colt jolted, “Two hundred years?”
Hunter sighed, putting his hands on his hips and rolling his shoulders.“Yep, since the very beginning.I feel like we are simply pieces on a chess board, and she is moving us around to where she needs us to be.”