Rafe rested his forehead against hers, his breath warm against her skin.“Riley,” he said softly, and there was a weight to her name now, a care that made her chest ache.“There’s something we need to tell you.”
Her pulse was still racing when she met his eyes.She could feel Dorian just behind her, close enough that his presence pressed like a steady hand between her shoulders.“Okay,” she said, because it was all she had.
“You’re our mate,” Rafe said.
The words didn’t strike her all at once.They settled, slowly, like snow.Quiet.Transformative.
“Really?”
Dorian shifted then, not away, but closer, his voice low and certain when he spoke.“Not ownership.Not fate without choice.It isn’t something taken or claimed without it being reciprocated.”His hand brushed her arm, light and grounding.“It’s recognition.It’s connection.It’s something that only exists if it’s wanted.By all of us.”
Rafe nodded, his thumb tracing a slow, reassuring arc against her wrist.“You don’t owe us anything.Not answers.Not promises.We’re only telling you now because this feels like a very big moment in our relationship and you deserve the truth.”
Riley looked between them, heart pounding so hard she was sure they could hear it.Two men who had faced down monsters without flinching were standing in front of her now, open and still, waiting.
Mate.Her mates.
The word echoed through her, not sharp with fear, but warm with possibility.With the memory of how they’d held her without caging her, how they’d waited, how they’d let her see them before ever asking to be seen.
Her life felt suddenly balanced on the edge of something vast and unfamiliar—something that would change its direction forever if she stepped forward.
She didn’t answer them yet.
But as she stood there, wrapped in their warmth and their patience, one truth settled quietly in her chest.
Whatever choice she made, there would be no going back.
Chapter Seven
“Show me,” Riley saidsoftly.“Please?”
Dorian had been standing with Rafe on either side of her in the quiet of their floor, the city lights muted beyond the glass.The day had been long, heavy with decisions that would echo.Her voice was not uncertain.It was deliberate.
“Show you what, sweetness?”Dorian noticed the timber of his own voice had dropped.
“What it means,” she continued, meeting his eyes first, then Rafe’s.“To be your mate.I heard what you said, Dorian, about regrets if something were to happen.I would have regrets, too.I want to know what it would be like.”