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“I still can’t get over Nash healing so fast,” Andy says with a bit of wonder. She glances at her tablet. “The pictures we took right after the incident look pretty bad. But now…you really are okay?” she asks him skeptically.

“Totally fine.” He lifts his shirt to prove it, and sure enough, the spot where his insides were practically hanging out earlier is nothing more than a welt.

“That’s a freaking miracle,” Dutch says. “The only other wolf I’ve seen heal like that is Lexi.”

Grey frowns, his forehead creasing in thought. “Actually, now that you mention it, that’s probably what it is.”

“Lexi healed him?” Razor asks.

“No, idiot,” Crow says, smacking his brother on the head. “Nash has a drop of super alpha in him.”

“Seriously?” Razor asks, eyes wide.

Even Nash looks sufficiently surprised at that. “You think I took something from you the other day?” he asks Grey.

“You certainly went deep enough into the alpha power,” Grey says. “It’s possible.”

“Is that why you were able to break the compulsion?” Andy asks.

Nash hesitates.

I tense, gripping my armrest way too tight.

“The healing might have been Grey,” he says at last, his gaze finding mine. “Breaking the compulsion wasn’t. Or not entirely, anyway.”

He doesn’t elaborate. And everyone looks ready to grill him.

“It was me.” I don’t know when I decided to say the words. Or why. But they shove out of me anyway. Maybe it’s my wolf. Satisfied little bitch. She got what she wanted.

“What do you mean, it was you?” Dutch asks.

But Lexi’s soft smile suggests she already knows. And Grey looks smug too. Assholes. I look at Nash, shutting the rest of them out.

“Nash is my mate,” I say. “I used our mate bond to reach him. And it worked.”

The strangest part is that saying it doesn’t feel like surrender. The bond didn’t take his choice away. It gave it back. For us both.

Nash’s eyes glitter at the truth I just spilled, and through the bond, something warm and reverent brushes against me before he pulls it back. My wolf is practically howling for joy.

No one says anything for at least three seconds.

Which, for this group, is basically a religious experience.

Dutch, of course, is the one to break the silence.

“Your mate?” Dutch repeats, his voice three octaves higher than usual. “Mia, the fuck! When were you going to tell me?”

“We only just realized it today,” Nash says before I can snap back at Dutch for making this about him.

“Wait.” Dutch sniffs. “You haven’t claimed each other, though.”

“Stop smelling me, asshole.” I glare, and Andy covers her mouth, hiding a smile. “We just figured it out, like, three hours ago. I’m not going to claim a mate under the same roof as you.”

“Why not?” Dutch shrugs. “I would. If Andy would let me, I’d take her right here in this room in front of all⁠—”

“Whoa, okay.” Andy holds up her tablet. “Back to work then. Does anyone want to help me write a statement for the public about what happened? We’ve already had numerous calls from reporters about a disturbance and a large chase that led around the edge of the city earlier today, so I think we need to address it.”

No one volunteers.