it closed before handing it to Bardhyl. Our hands graze, and I soften at how warm he feels.
“You all right?” he asks, but I can’t stop looking over at Lucien, about ten feet away, his back to us. It’s clear he needs time alone with his thoughts.
“Is he okay?” I whisper behind the snapping sounds of the blaze.
Bardhyl nods. “Losing his parents so long ago to a rival pack still affects him. Just give him a bit of time. He always bounces back.”
“I lost my dad when I was really young, and then my mama, so I know the feeling.” Leaning over the blanket, I use my hand to dust away the crumbs from our meal. “But I don’t want him to hurt over what we can’t change.” The words spill from my lips, and I feel hypocritical, seeing as how I can’t even get over the loss of my mama.
Zipping up the bag and pushing it aside, Bardhyl comes and sits next to me, his arms draped over his bent knees. “You care for him a lot, don’t you?”
I nudge him with my shoulder, but he doesn’t budge because he’s a rock. “If you haven’t noticed, I care about all three of you… a heck of a lot more than I ever thought I would. I mean, I accepted long ago that I wasn’t intended to find my fated mate. But look how that’s turned out.”
The look he cuts me, those sexy eyes narrowing, makes me smile and forget everything else. This is one of his magic tricks I notice, and one of the many reasons I’ve fallen so deep for him.
He takes my hand and kisses each fingertip. “Once in a lifetime, everyone should meet someone special, maybe even three of them at once. Someone who ignites their world, who changes everything.”
His words are the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard, earnest and passionate. Since meeting him, it took me a while to understand Bardhyl was so much more than a powerful Viking warrior with a berserker wolf. Beneath the layers is a man who suffers, who carries darkness from his past. But most of all, he is an Alpha who wants to be loved. I see it in the attention he gives me, the tenderness in how he holds me, the words he shares. Everything from when his hypnotic gaze meets mine to when he fucks me like a man driven mad by emotions he can’t control.
“Do you think Lucien still misses his first mate?” I whisper, almost regretting at once that I asked such an intimate question.
His hand slides across my back and curls around my waist, drawing me against him, chasing away any space between us.
“Soulmates exist,” Bardhyl assures me. “There is no such thing as an accidental meeting of souls. It was all meant to be.” He glances over to Lucien, who stands at the mouth of the cave, staring into the downpour outside through the gaps, the sound of rain hitting the mountain hypnotic. “Just like you’ve given your heart to the three of us, Lucien will always hold on to a piece for Cataline. It doesn’t mean he loves you any less.”
“I know,” I say, and part of me wonders if the ache I feel in my chest has more to do with feeling his sorrow of losing his first partner, rather than jealousy. “You know, I never used to believe in soulmates—well, until I met you three. Heck, after watching the undead kill my mother when I was fourteen, I stopped believing in anything but survival, including my own happiness.”
He leans in close and kisses the side of my head. “Which is why I will hug you tightly every chance I get so all your pieces can fit back together. Until you remember how incredible you are and find that happiness you lost so long ago.”
I tilt my head up and look him in the eyes. He has green eyes like the forest, and I fall deep into them, offering myself to this Ash Wolf. “You three are the part of me I always needed and never knew until you found me.”
“No matter what happens, I want you to know that to me, what we will face, whatever the outcome, it is worth it. Being with you is everything, loving you, claiming you. Everything is worth it.”
My heart flutters at his devotion, his words imprint on my mind so I never forget them. He shifts toward me, and I twist around