(Third-person’s POV)

Theodore pushed the inclothes enforcer away and got up from the ground. He was shrouded in gloom, his dark eyes swirling with a bloodthirsty chill.

“Come on, you try it, Alpha King.” His voice was low and menacing. “I won’t let you seed!”

Matthew paid him no mind and walked toward the exit. Theodore chased after him but was blocked by the enforcer.

He roared at Matthew’s back, “The mate bond severance documents could only have been leaked by someone close to you.”

“Hacker Zero has been causing trouble, but his ultimate target isn’t Cipher, it’s you.”

“The person Den Shaw wants to deal with is also you.”

“Matthew Kane, all you bring her is danger.” Theodore’s voice cracked with desperation.

I stretch on the couch, surprised at how well I’d slept on it.

“Watching people sleep is kind of creepy, you know?” I tease as I open my eyes to look at him.

He smiles at me and shrugs. “If admiring my mate is creepy, then fine, call me creepy.”

I sit up, rubbing a hand over my face and attempting to straighten my hair, which probably resembles a bird’s nest. Callen picks up a mug from the coffee table and hands it to me.

“Fine, you can be creepy as long as you keep bringing me caffeine,” I say before taking a sip of the freshly brewed coffee. “ What time is it?”

“Almost seven. Jax is still sleeping.”

I nod. “Where is everyone?”

“Ryder went to grab a few hours of sleep. Parker is out on patrol, and Remy is… I don’t know where he is,” he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I assume it didn’t go well with himst night then?”

“Not really, no,” he shakes his head and moves to sit beside me. “He’s just so pigheaded. It’s like he hates himself and thinks he doesn’t deserve a chance at happiness. He’s always been this way, but I thought he was getting better, that he had started to believe he was worthy of being loved.”

“Tell me about him,” I say quietly, not just because I want to understand Remy better, but because I feel like Callen needs to talk this through with someone willing to listen.

Callen leans forward, elbows resting on his knees, eyes locked on the floor like the answers might be hiding in the grain of the wooden floorboards. “He’s the kind of person who’ll bleed out before asking for help. Always has been. Even when he was a kid, Parker said he’d take the fall for things others did, just so no one else got punished. The other kids took advantage of him for it, even turned cruel. He’de home bruised and bloody, and say he’d fallen, but Parker knew it was a lie. They joke about it now, but I still see the pain there. He’s still so guarded around most people.”

I sip the coffee slowly, letting his words sink in. It’s hard to picture that version of Remy, but it fits with how he is now. My heart aches for the younger version of him, at the thought of his childhood without his parents to protect him. I can’t stop my imagination from conjuring up images of something like that happening to Jaxon, and that almost breaks me.

“Why didn’t anyone put a stop to it?” I ask.

“There wasn’t really anyone who could. You have to remember that Ronnie was basically raising a pack of kids alone. He thought the older kids were looking after the younger ones, but they were all just damaged kids that didn’t know what they were doing. Ronnie patrolled alone to keep them safe from outside danger and made sure they were clothed and fed, but he didn’t know what happened when he wasn’t around. He was one man ying alpha, beta, enforcer, and father.”

“It had to be so hard for everyone to move on like that, with so much loss. Ronnie did well to raise all those kids alone.”

“Remy is a good guy, Paige,” Callen continues, softer now. “He’s just terrified of feeling too much. Of letting someone in and then losing them. He hides behind sarcasm and anger, but underneath it all? He feels everything way too deeply, and I think the bond between me and you, and now you and him, scares the hell out of him.”

I nce over at Callen, my chest tightening further. I swallow hard, guilt creeping in even though I’ve done nothing wrong. He looks at me like he can’t stand me sometimes.”

((

Callen shakes his head. “No, he looks at you like he can’t afford to want you. He’s trying to protect himself, and probably you too, in his own messed-up way. He doesn’t hate you, Paige. He hates that he wants something he doesn’t believe he’s allowed to have.”

I stare into my coffee, unsure what to say to that, but suddenly, I don’t feel quite so frustrated at Remy anymore. Just… sad for him, and maybe a little curious about the man he keeps buried beneath the walls he’s built.

“So what am I supposed to do?” I ask. “Because I can’t tiptoe around him for the rest of my life. If this is going to work with any of us, Remy needs to be on board too.”

“For now, nothing. Let him work through his own sh*t. When he’s ready, he’lle home, and then we’ll show him. We let him see you’re here to stay and that you’re not here to take anything from him, or hurt anyone.”

“Okay.” I sigh. “I can’t say I’m entirely happy with this n, because I don’t think I should have to prove myself to anyone, but if this is how we move forward, then I’ll try it your way.”

Callen shifts beside me, suddenly looking ufortable. When he speaks, he seems hesitant, nervous even. “There was something else I wanted to talk to you about, because we never really rified any boundaries.