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Theo’s thumb moves once across the back of my hand. He is watching me rather than the stone, checking my balance, my breathing, and whatever my scent is telling him.

“I’m overwhelmed,” I admit. “I’m also fascinated, overheated, hungry, and very aware that both of you are beautiful. Those conditions may affect the reliability of all my conclusions.”

Ezra smiles slowly. “I trust your methodology.”

Theo’s purr returns, low and rough around the edges.

The stone’s inner light pulses once against Ezra’s palm.

I reach toward the stone. “May I?”

Theo looks at Ezra.

Ezra nods.

My fingers close around the carved surface. Warmth pulses into my palm, and Ezra gasps. His body sharpens from head to toe, fully solid in a rush. Color floods his face. His shirt settles against his chest with weight and texture.

For one bright second, delight overtakes every other feeling. “It responded to me.”

Before I can get carried away, I take note of the other factors in a quick mental ego-check. The stone answered when my touch, Ezra’s body, Theo’s purr, and the water-facing room overlapped. What does that mean?

Then my body answers with a stronger cramp that makes my mind scatter. The room tilts. Theo catches me before my knees finish giving way. One arm slides behind my back, the other beneath my thighs. I end up against his chest, held securely while his purr becomes a deep, enveloping sound around me.

“Easy,” he says.

I clutch the stone in one hand and his shirt in the other. “I’m fine.”

“No.” The word doesn’t carry judgment. Only certainty.

Ezra is beside us at once, fully solid and no longer smiling. His palm cups my ankle where it hangs over Theo’s arm.

“Your perfume changed,” Ezra says.

Vanilla thickens around us. Peppermint cools my tongue. Rosemary rises sharp beneath the ache. My thoughts are still racing toward the stone, the water, Ezra’s body, the route through the house, but my muscles have made their decision.

Theo carries me toward the daybed beneath the studio windows. “Research break.”

I rest my cheek against his chest and listen to the purr I have been following since the gate. “Temporary.”

Theo gently lowers me onto the mattress and waits until I nod before drawing the blanket over my legs. The stone remains warm in my palm. Before I can make any conclusions about the data, sleep takes me.

Chapter 4

Ezra Heron

An omega I met less than an hour ago is tucked beneath my blanket, her dark curls spread across my pillow, pink glitter shining on the bib of her overalls. She’s got one hand curled around the stone.

Peppermint and vanilla cling to the room, softened by rosemary and the salt of her skin. My studio has never smelled this alive.

Theo sits on the edge of the daybed with two fingers against the inside of her wrist. His purr has dropped into a steady vibration, low enough that the water glass on the table trembles.

“She’s warm,” he says.

“She ran across half the town.”

“She’s starting a heat.”

“She picked an ambitious location for it.”