Housebound with the Blackridge Heirs novel Chapter 102

xChapter 102

Chapter 102

Leo

“I’ll go talk to him,” I said as the door slammed shut.

Maya held onto my hand, anchoring me in place. I met those big, beautiful green eyes of hers, full of concern. and worry for me… For me.

And moon goddess, it almost undid me. Never in a million years did I ever think that Maya would be kissing

She was Caden’s. She had always been Caden’s. From the day she arrived, when he swept her off her feet and stood between her and Tylon, I think we all sort of knew it.

But here she was, and for teh first time in my life I felt… chosen. Though I knew it was short-lived.

I didn’t regret it. At least when this all goes to shit, I would have satisfied the curiosity and ache in my mind, wondering what she tasted like… what her lips felt like. And it was just as I imagined and even more. Just being able to be that close intimately to her sent a surge of energy through my wolf. I’ve never felt more alive.

What I did regret, though, was the pain this would inevitably cause all of us. Me, Caden Tylon and most of all, her.

This will hurt her sooner or later. And that was the part I couldn’t live with.

“He’s angry. And you’re still healing,” she said, dragging me out of my thoughts.

My lips twitched at her cute concern.

“I’m feeling much better, Maya. Are you worried he might fight me?” There was a bit of humor in my tone. Mostly because the thought of me and Tylon fighting seemed odd.

Maya shrugged. “Let him cool off a bit.”

I cupped her cheek, unable to resist the urge, and tucked a bundle of her wavy hair behind her ear.

“I’ll be fine. I promise. I just need to talk to him.”

She eventually let me go, still looking worried, but she didn’t protest.

The cold hit me the moment I stepped outside, sharp and clean and honest in a way the air inside the house hadn’t been in weeks.

It burned my lungs a little as I breathed it in, and for a second I just stood there, letting it settle in my chest like proof that I was really upright,

I found him in the backyard gazebo, leaning against the bar and staring at the white-covered ground like it had personally offended him.

Tylon didn’t turn when he heard me approach.

“This is so messed up, man,” he said, his voice low and rough, the words fogging in front of his face as he exhaled. “How does one person end up mated to three men? How is that supposed to work?”

I moved closer but stopped a few feet away, not wanting to crowd him.

“It won’t,” he continued, shaking his head slightly. “Not cleanly. Not without someone getting torn apart.”

“I don’t expect to be the one she chooses,” I said quietly, surprising myself with how easily the words came out. “But I am sorry if seeing me with her hurt you.”

That finally did it. Tylon turned, his eyes sharp and bright against the darkness, his jaw tight like he’d been holding that expression in place by force alone.

“Why do you sell yourself so short?” he asked. “Do you have any idea that out of all three of us, you’re the one who understands her the most?”

I let out a slow breath, watching it fog the air between us before it disappeared.

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Chapter 102

“Yeah,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m the one she loves the most.”

The words sat between us, heavy and exposed, and saying them out loud made something in my chest ache in a way I hadn’t prepared for. I had known it for a long time, even before everything went sideways, even before bonds and wolves and bloodshed complicated things beyond recognition.

Tylon looked away again, turning back to the bar and leaning over it, his fingers gripping the wood hard enough that I could see the tension in his hands.

“Well, Caden’s pissed,” he muttered.

My stomach tightened. “Did you contact him?”

“I went to see him,” Tylon replied. “I needed to know he was still alive.” He paused, then added, quieter, “And even though I know Maya sleeping next to you helped you heal faster, which I am grateful for, it’s killing him.” I nodded slowly. “It’s just brushing the surface for all of us,” I said. “But he’s fully mated to her. It’s going to be hardest on him.”

Tylon let out a sound somewhere between a breath and a scoff.

“I don’t know what the moon goddess is doing,” he said. “But none of this makes sense.”

We stood there in silence for a moment, the only sound the soft whisper of wind moving across the snow. My wolf stirred uneasily under my skin, not in pain this time, but in thought, as if it was listening just as closely as I was.

“I don’t think it’s the moon goddess,” I said finally.

Tylon glanced back at me. “Then what is it?”

“I think Maya’s wolf wants this,” I replied. “Or at least some version of it.”

He frowned. “Isn’t Astrid the bad one? The one with multiple mates?”

“I think it’s her wolf,” I said carefully. “Astrid is still a mystery.”

Tylon didn’t respond right away. He stared out at the snow again, shoulders rising and falling slowly, as if he was measuring every breath he took.

Then, without looking at me, he asked, “Do you love her?”

The question hit harder than I expected, and for a second I didn’t trust my voice to answer honestly.

I did love her. I loved her in a quiet way, in a steady way, in a way that didn’t demand to be chosen first. But saying it out loud felt like crossing a line I couldn’t uncross.

So instead, I redirected it. “Do you?”

Tylon didn’t answer.

The silence that followed told me more than words ever could.

But something else was weighing on him, something deeper than jealousy or confusion or the mess we were all tangled in.

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