Chapter 308: Old Habits

Vivian’s POV

Looking at him from the corner of my eye, I caught something I had not noticed before: an intense focus in Joshua’s stare that did not match the relaxed posture of the rest of his body. His stance was completely easy, relaxed even, but those eyes... they held something dangerously sharp. Cold and calculating.

"I don’t think so," he said softly, his voice sounding like a thin thread pulled far too tight. The heavy air in the kitchen shifted as he took a slow step toward me.

Then a broad hand landed firmly on my shoulder.

Relief hit my chest so fast that I almost broke down right in the middle of the dark hallway. I did not even have to turn around to know who was standing behind me. I felt his powerful presence long before his warm skin touched mine.

Zahliver.

"It seems I was not invited to this little midnight gathering," his deep voice lilted with a false sense of humor, carrying the exaggerated tone of a wounded guest playing coy in front of others. But beneath those spoken words, through our shared mate bond, I felt the absolute truth. I felt his overwhelming wrath. A cold, blistering, primal anger. There was a flicker of panic mixed in there too residual from finding me alone with his brother, but utterly raw. He was holding himself together by sheer force of will, and barely managing that much.

A shaky breath left my lungs. I let out a soft laugh to try and lighten the heavy moment.

"Don’t be silly, my love. You are always invited to the parties I throw, even the ones I don’t realize I’m throwing." I reached back with my free hand and squeezed his fingers on my shoulder, short but firm. A silent warning. Not just for him, but for me, for both of us. I desperately needed him grounded right now, not snapping in half with violent rage.

Why is it that I cannot even come downstairs for a simple cup of green tea in my own house without triggering some testosterone-laced brother standoff?

Before things could escalate into something violent that I could not smooth over, I stood up quickly from the counter and tugged gently on Zahliver’s hand, trying my best to redirect the brewing storm.

"How about we all just go back to bed? The sun is going to rise soon, and trust me, no one in this house wants to deal with a sleep-deprived Vivian. I know what she is like firsthand, and it is definitely not pretty." I tried to keep my tone light and teasing, but underneath the surface, I was desperate to get out of that room. I could feel a dark chill starting to coil in my gut, spreading like cold frost through my veins.

Joshua finally pulled his sharp gaze away from Zahliver and shifted his eyes back to me. That simple, deliberate movement sent a massive wave of pure tension snapping right through Zahliver. His whole body went dead rigid beside me, and I caught a dangerous flicker in his narrowed eyes just before a dark smile curved his lips.

It was certainly not a smile meant for warmth.

Before I could stop the motion, Zahliver was the one tugging me now, leading us firmly away from the counter and toward our master bedroom upstairs. I knew how hard it was for an Alpha like him to turn his back on Joshua like that, to physically walk away from what had clearly felt like a silent challenge to his authority. It went against every single biological instinct he possessed. But we both knew deep down that this was not the right time for a fight.

Not yet.

"Vivian?"

We both froze dead in our tracks right at the kitchen doorway. His quiet voice stopped us like a sharp command, tightening around my spine like an iron thread.

I turned my head slightly, just enough to see Joshua standing under the moonlight holding my steaming mug of tea. My cup.

"I think you forgot something," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

His mismatched green and blue eyes gleamed in the low light. Something inside me, deep and ancient, snarled in fierce warning. My internal beast stirred, low and dangerous, and it took immense conscious effort on my part to hold her back from attacking.

"I’m good," I replied, forcing the short words through tight lips. I tried to offer a small smile, but my face felt brittle and completely unnatural.

Beside me, Zahliver’s large hand began to tremble inside mine, not with a shred of fear, but with the kind of crushing fury that threatened to crack the hard floorboards open beneath his feet. I tightened my grip on his fingers, anchoring him with everything I had.

Joshua smirked at us. Without breaking direct eye contact with my face, he brought my mug up to his lips and took a slow sip of the green tea. The deliberate drag of his tongue across his lower lip afterward made my skin crawl with absolute revulsion.

I turned away quickly, hiding the involuntary flinch that jerked through my shoulders.

But I had one more pressing question that needed an answer.

"Hey, Joshua?" My voice sounded almost casual as I called back over my shoulder, but my thumb stroked continuously over the back of Zahliver’s hand, doing everything possible to ground both of us in the moment.

He hummed softly in response, sounding a touch too amused by our reaction.

"If you were just coming back into the house... why did you use the back door instead of the front? That hallway leads directly from the back of the property. The main front entrance is way closer to the driveway."

There was a long beat of total silence in the dark kitchen before he finally answered my question.

"Old habits die hard, don’t they, brother?"

Zahliver’s tight jaw ticked visibly. He made a low, forced sound in his throat that could have passed for a casual chuckle if you did not know him intimately. But I knew him. It was the terrifying sound of a dangerous man pretending he was not on the absolute verge of tearing someone apart limb from limb.

Without another word spoken, he yanked me firmly up the grand staircase. I did not even bother to protest his haste. I simply bent down fast enough on the step to scoop up Frank there was no way in hell I was leaving my poor, spiky little hedgehog alone on the stairs with Joshua still lingering downstairs in the dark.

Once we were safely inside our master bedroom, Zahliver closed the heavy wooden door with a quiet softness that directly belied the lethal fury radiating off his frame. It was the absolute calm before a massive storm.

He turned toward me slowly, his entire muscular body thrumming with intense, kinetic tension as he walked across the room toward me. He towered above me, crossing his massive arms over his chest and bracing his long legs. His strong jaw was tightly clenched, his eyes practically glowing a brilliant electric blue with pure rage, his pupils dilating and contracting rapidly as if he were fighting his inner wolf back with every single breath he drew.

And then I heard his deep voice ring out not out loud into the quiet bedroom, but echoing directly through our mental bond.

Are you hurt, my love?